As many of you, I have been drooling over this grill for over a year. Your postings have confirmed my thoughts and I have already received financial approval. I will be getting this grill within the next 2 weeks. The question I have, and also saw that someone else asked but have not seen a response, has anyone done a "permanent" or "semi-permanent" installation with an LP heated house? My house is only a year old and is heated by LP. We have a 1000 gallon tank buried in the yard. All of the discussions of plumbing type and size encourage me to offer some detail as to our setup. There is a regulator on the side of the house that drops the pressure to 2 PSI. Inside there is a regulator attached to a manafold that provides individual taps for every appliance (2 furnaces, water heater, stove, dryer, and a dedicated run to the deck for a "future grill") All of this is done with a somewhat flexible 1/2" yellow (I guess vinyl) coated copper. That main regulator is supposed to be able to support all of the appliances and maintain the 14" of pressure. Outside is a stub of 1/2" black pipe to which I need to connect. My plan is a temporary connection (soft hose) upon purchase and a permanent one when I can build this unit in. I agree with the concerns of leaks and will obviously put a shut-off valve before any soft hose. I saw mention of a hose kit from HD for $35. This is listed as an NG hose but at roughly 1/2 PSI I assume it will work for LP? Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Thanks, Lee

Mini-review of Expo's Professional grill and a comparision to the Virco. After five or six years of frustration using my Weber (not enough heat) I decided to consider an upgrade. I really wanted the Weber to work, but I just couldn't get the temp over 450F. One day at Home Depot I saw the Straublestone (misspelled, I'm sure) and felt that was an upgrade at a reasonable price. So, before buying that I shopped around to be sure of my choice. One of the trips included a trip to Home Depot's Expo Center. This place is loaded with all the high-end grills, very painful to go in there because I want to buy ALL of them. ;-) But on this trip they had a new grill called the 'Professional'. It was priced at $1000 (actually $999 I think) and upon inspection it looked almost as good as the others that they had and a considerably lower price. I also strongly considered the $900 'Jenn-Air' which is really made by Vermont Castings. I choose the Pro over the Jenn-Air due to construction. It was almost all stainless where as the VC was not. So I coughed up my $1000 and went home a happy kid with his new toy. Well, about three months later I spot the Virco during a trip to Costco. Sheesh, two hundred dollars cheaper and ALL stainless. So I set out to sell the Pro (at a loss, of course) and buy a Virco. But I ended up with the MM Y0660 as explained earlier in this thread. The Pro grill is made by Charbroil for the Expo Center. They have also introduced a smaller, 45K BTU, 3-burner model for $800. Both grills has an unlimited warranty on the SS, a 10 year warranty on the burners and a 2 year warranty on any other part. Both grill come with a heavy-duty rotisserie standard and no side-burner. I don't know if this is an option, but I don't think that it is. The grill does not include a cover. It did come assembled at no additional charge. These grills arrived at the Expo unassembled and they sub-contract the assembly at their store. The Pro grill, while still a good product, seems to be overpriced when compared to the Virco. The Pro grill uses four 15K BTU cast iron burners for a 60K BTU total, same as the Virco. I was able to reach an indicated 550+ and I could tell that it was noticeably hotter than my old POS Weber. The pro's single biggest weak link is its drip tray design. First, it's fabricated out of epoxied or powder-coated steel, not stainless. Second, it is only accessable from the rear which makes it a bit of a pain to clean. and third, the dang thing is so poorly designed that it barely slides in it's slot. The tolerances are so poor that it wants to come out of its track and fall on one side or the other. It's hard to explain, but trust me, it sucks big time. I was so frustrated that I was in process of designing a new drip tray to be fabricated out of SS to replace that sorry design. I was quoted $100 by a local sheet-metal company. The Pro's rear IR burner is set in a black powder-coated steel panel wheras the Virco uses SS for the panel. The Pro's flame-tamers are make of regular steel and are black powder-coated. These will NOT last very long. They were starting to degrade during the three months that I owned my grill. They have a two-year warranty so you can probably get a set or two for free before the warranty expires. The cabinet on the Pro is inferior to the Virco. The cabinet is a single-walled wrap of stainless that has a two to three inch opening all the way around the top. So it does not offer any protection from the weather, it will get wet in there if the grill is uncovered. On the front are two single-wall doors, just folded SS sheetmetal. The Virco's cabinet is far superior. The Pro's lid is folded stainless sheet that is spot-welded on the sides. The Virco's is welded, ground and polished and as a result looks much nicer. The Pro did have a double wall lid but the gap is quite narrow. In spite of this, it did not discolor on the outside during my short ownership. The temperature gauge worked well and seems to be reasonably accurate but I never calibrated it to be sure. The handle on the lid looked like chrome plated steel, not solid SS as on the Virco. The handles on the sides of the cabinet were also chrome-plated, not SS. The Pro grill uses beautiful, cast & machined SS knobs. These really looks impressive, even better than the Vikings and DCSs. So there is absolutely nothing really wrong with the Pro except for it's price point. It served me very well and I was willing to deal with the non-SS parts as needed. But when compared to the Virco, it seems like it should be priced well under the $800 range. The Virco is truly unbeatable under $1000, at least for now. Who knows, maybe next year Virco will have some competition at that price point. -Terry

Wow, that got pretty ugly Dodge. I do agree with you about the hinges/door tho. I wondered why on earth they couldn't seem to get a reliable hinge made. However, it does for the first time appear as tho the new designed hinge is different from the previous ones. Lets hope. foodonastump: I think this will be my last response on this thread as it sunk to new record levels. I just want to clear up that I have never said Trevor's tests were rigged or his experience is not based what so ever on fact or that his posts were not valuable. It is actually that he has a lot of experience on both ranges that I sort of hold him to a higher level than many people. There are a lot of things said on here against BS since the CC came along that are false and Trevor does not come out to correct these inaccuracies they way he would have before the CC or if the inaccuracy was toward the CC. One example I can think of right off the top of my head was when a member of GW posted that the BS burner was 8" in diameter. It was me that had to correct the gross inaccuracy of that. If the same inaccuracy was said of the CC you can be sure he would be there to correct it, or pre CC he would have been there to correct it. And in this case the simmer has been proven to be superior (technically speaking) to the CC. When Stooxie made his post, I think Trevor should have let it be. As to the definition of bias, I simply think of bias to mean impartial judgment. And Trevor does not have that, neither do you or I. Do you think when Trevor performs these tests, that he doesn't give a rats behind which range comes out better like an impartial judge would? Do you think that after the break up of their relationship that he would be an impartial judge? Do you think that he is an impartial judge when he was a very big player in the design and probably the single reason why the CC exists? No way. Because of these facts, and since Trevor has the most to lose or gain, I do believe his bias is probably greater than many, although he certainly does try to keep it under control. And again, I am not trying to bash Trevor. If I have to say it 1000 times I will, I think he is a wonderful guy. The last point I have to reiterate is that there are a LOT of pro's and cons to both ranges that you do not have to have cooked on both to realize. I already realize that the CC has a slight high power advantage. Same as I realize that BS has a low power advantage. I realize CC has an external oven temp advantage same as I realize BS has a oven size advantage. Same thing with buying a car, there are some models you do not have to drive to know that you are not interested. It may be as tiny a detail as the trunk it too small for your needs/wants. I am not 100% certain on this, but I also believe that he was singing the praises of the CC before he himself had cooked on one. So I guess that is it for this thread for me.

Thank you everyone for your help. For the sake of clarity I have had my Bluestar RCS Range since the middle of May 2019. We are now in the middle of September 2019 so I have had the range for 4 months. I have always cleaned the surface with soap and water without issues. It was only when my friend charred peppers and eggplant on the open burners 6 days ago did cleaning become an issue. I tried using gentle methods first to remove burnt on food and grease before I used Easy-Off. I would not categorize myself as an over zealous cleaner. I only used Easy-Off as a last resort. My kitchen is small without much ventilation and I've gotten sick from the fumes given off by Easy-Off in the past. The fumes are hazardous so I only use this cleaner for extreme situations. One of the reasons why I purchased a Bluestar over any other manufacturer was the excellent customer service. I called Bluestar several times before my purchase to ask questions. They were always very helpful and assured me that if I had any issues with my stove to call them and they would immediately fix the issue within the first year warranty period. I trusted them. This was not case when this problem happened. When I first called Bluestar I did have someone explain to me that they had no idea what material the burner heads were made from and what coating was on them. I was told that the burner heads were outsourced and supplied by a third party. This was the first and only time I was able to talk to someone at Bluestar. From then on I repeatedly called, left messages, and no one would call me back. I sent emails with photos and I was blamed immediately for the issue without them hearing me out. This is why I thought it was important to talk to someone on the phone so I could explain myself. Still, no one from Bluestar would return my phone calls. So disappointing, especially considering I thought that I had built a positive rapport with one of the reps. Then I had to get everyone I knew involved, including all of you at houzz. I sent an email to a Bluestar service provider who had helped calibrate my stove after installation. I called the appliance dealer where I bought the stove and talked to the salesman and the front of the office. They were dismayed with this story and were very understanding. They gave me the phone number of the Bluestar rep in the NYC area who supplies the appliance dealership. This is where things turned around for the better. The Bluestar rep called me back and, for the first time, I was able to have a conversation with Bluestar about my issue. I was quite lucky to talk to him because he too has the exact same model of stove in his own apartment. He acknowledged that he had no idea what the burner heads were made from nor what coating was on them. He also said that he never thought about it before because he just never cleans his burner heads. We had a laugh. : ) He then read the Use and Care Manual and agreed with me that any normal consumer would assume that the "burner rings" (because it's a ring shaped burner) in the manual referred to the "burner head" on my range but he said the the burner rings mentioned in the manual referred to the open burner model range not my sealed burner range. He admitted that there is no care instructions for the sealed burner heads in the manual. He then went to bat for me. He talked to the head supervisor at the Bluestar service department and, indeed, they agreed to replace all of my burners and igniters free of charge, labor included. Whew! I am so relieved that I did not have to go the legal route and drag this issue forward. Furthermore, this Bluestar rep who helped me did some investigation about the burners. Well, it turns out that the burners are made from aluminum. Neither he nor the supervisor at the service department can determine what the coating is on the burner heads. It's odd because Easy-Off turned that silver coating to a sludgy, goopy, clogging mess. I have removed galvenized coatings from sheet pans before and it didn't goop up like the burner heads did. This is why I initially thought that that burner heads were painted. I would think that the burner heads on any range are among the most important parts but it seems to me that Bluestar's choice of burner heads for their RCS range was an after thought. Today when the Bluestar rep talked to me about the burner heads he agreed that the burner heads needed overhauled. He had a conversation with the supervisor about manufacturing better burner heads in the future and he had hope that Bluestar would do this. Unfortunately it's not going to help my case now. The Bluestar rep also said that Bluestar is going to immediately update their Use and Care Manual to address the care of the burner heads for their sealed burner ranges. This will be a big help. I also addressed the importance of upgrading their sealed burner head design as soon as possible. There are going to be many consumers of this stove who will blindly do what I did to clean the burner heads. For better and for worse Easy-Off is an intuitive cleaner to use for baked on food and grease on stoves and this could be a nightmare for Bluestar going forward. Again, the Bluestar rep acknowledged my concerns and agreed that the current burner heads need replacing. I suggested solid brass or 303 stainless steel. ( M- please feel free to weigh in here.) "A lot of traditional ranges use aluminum burners. Unlike brass, aluminum has a low melting point (around 1200F), so they tend to warp and deform over time. Aluminum absorbs heat faster because it's less dense than brass, but it doesn't retain the heat for a long time. This means that the temperature drops down much faster with aluminum burners than with brass burners. This fact may be appealing to those with children or those who want faster burner cooling times. Additionally, aluminum burners are less corrosion resistant and have a shorter lifespan as compared to brass burners." At least I have a solution. Would I have bought the Bluestar RCS Sealed Burner Range had I known that the burners were made from aluminum with a yet-to-be-determined coating on them? No. I remember several other manufactures with solid brass and solid stainless steel burner heads that were superior to Bluestar's burner heads but other flaws, like cooling fans, kept me away from those other manufacturers. Maybe going forward I could figure out a way to CNC the burner heads from Bluestar out of solid brass. (It would void my warranty, however.) That would raise the quality of my stove to what I expected it to be in the first place. Also, I planned on writing a review of my Bluestar Range and was going to give it 4 out of 5 stars. Based on my experience with this range and with Bluestar's customer service I just can't recommend the Bluestar RCS Sealed Burner Range to anyone at this point.