Hi, I guess I could have posted this in any of several threads about cleaning stainless steel, but since I do have the BS 36" drop-in, I thought I'd post it here. In retrospect, I might have preferred the rangetop, as castironcook2 purchased, but it was $1K more expensive and would have involved more extensive carpentry to get it into our nonstandard countertop. But I'm very happy with the new BS (just a couple of months old at this point). I am running into the cleanup issues, and I'm paying attention to your recommendations (here and in other threads). Simple detergent and water is not working for the splatters any more, so I will be looking for something stronger. There is an old SS hood above the cooktop (from the 1950s?) that was so grungy nothing would clean it. Then I recalled that I have easily cleaned my metal bicycle parts with kerosene, and since this old hood was due for replacement soon anyway, why not try it on the hood? It worked fantastically. Years of grime disappeared in seconds, and now it has a nice matte shine to it. I would feel safe using it on the cooktop too, but I'd like to try something a bit less heavy-duty first. So your suggestions are welcome.

Funny I had some of the same constraints. I have a 30" Wolf cooktop and like it very much. I am now used to it, but 2 years ago when I did my kitchen, I went from a 30" range to the 30" cooktop, it did at the time feel a bit compacted to me because the range had the controls in the front vs. the top as on the cooktop. I am now used to it and while your "big" my not be my big, I don't have any problems using wide pans simultaneously on my cooktop. To make risotto for instance, I use two wide (9 -10") pans on two burners back to front and don't have any problems with the space. 10" is my widest pan however. Surface wise it hasn't felt tight to me. However, there are 2 cooks in the family and it felt a bit close to me in the beginning going from the 30" range to the 30" cooktop but now it is not an issue. I do love the cooktop, though. Performance-wise it is very good. If the latter consideration is relevant to you, however, you may also want to take a look at the Viking designer series - the cooking surface spans the 30" width, controls in front. Do study its outputs though - for me, the high at 14KBTU may have been fine although I preferred the 15KBTU, but 2 years ago, the low was 1.2KBTU and that was too high for the things I do want to be able to make some times. At 675-700btu simmer settings for the viking now, that is a LOT better. The Wolf has 300 or 400btu lows and I find that I use them quite a bit so I would not have been happy with 1100btu for a low. I have a Bosch oven and like it very much indeed. I have a 30" 700 series but since Bosch came out with new models this year, I don't claim to know anything about them. The 700series is a relatively basic oven even though it was their top offering 2 years ago - bake, convection bake, convect. roast, broil, convect. broil and warm, thaw, dehydrate or some modes like that. It is self-cleaning although I've only ever used it once. Goes down to 100degrees in "warm", 120degrees in "dehydrate", 170degs in the cooking modes. The direction of the heat source distinguishes the modes. It does an excellent job with temperature control (+/- 7 or 9degrees per my experience except for when you open the door in which case the temp can drop sizeably depending on mode; Miele Wolf and Gaggenau are even more precise & hold temperatures to within 5-7degrees), very even whether in bake, broil or roast; I liked its size as it was a smaller oven. I LOVE its interface. I noticed Consumer Reports doesn't like it either but haven't been able to figure the reviews out. I will say that you do have to experiment a bit to get used to how to cook in it - either it is the convection or the Bosch itself but there are things I have had to consciously start to do to ensure good performance; I did have some corkers in the beginning before I cottoned on to that. Placing the rack too close to the front of the oven instead of in the center or towards the back will interrupt its' air circulation (in convection) and the net result can be a asymmetric cooking. Likewise sorting out how to load the racks for multi-rack cooking so that they are evenly spaced out else same story. That sort of stuff. Anyhow, I like my Bosch oven very much but claim no knowledge of even any of their new models. I absolutely love the cooktop, but I think that the oven maybe what I play with even more than the cooktop.

Been reading the board for ages, but first post. We did a lot a research on the board and elsewhere as we are just in the completion stages of our kitchen redo. We wanted a 36" all gas range. We were choosing between what was available here. Wolf, Jenn-air, Thermador, Electrolux and DCS for all gas. Loved the open burner Wolf, but this forum persuaded us to stay clear of the Wolf, Jenn-air and Thermador (do search at bottom of page on any, makes interesting reading for hours ;) ). So, we started looking at the DCS. At first we dismissed it as it had what seemed like lighter grates than the others, the burners looked a bit generic sitting there in a sealed one piece pan and the top was stainless instead of black. All our own taste (or lack there of!) issues. We I did a bit more research on them I could find little in the way of bad reports about them (maybe I just missed them, but I really try to research the best I can). So, went back and looked again, purchased and have been using for about a month now. Here are our findings and personnal taste conclusions. The stainless top has been a real boon for us. We've found we like it better as the range it replaced had the black porcelain type top under the burners. Not that we are not clean, but every little spec showed up on the black including dust and lint if you left it for a while unused. Was a bit of a pain really to keep clean as where the grates that had the same coating. The DCS all we've done is wipe with a moist sponge and dry it off to clean the grease spatters etc. The grates are not shiney, but rather a matte cast iron. Might be luck or the way they are designed, but we've found we tend to slop less on them. Probably luck. I've found also that in cleaning I really like the fact that I don't have to change into my workout gear to lift the grates for cleaning. They are substatial and designed for strength (we've had some really large pots/weight on them with no problem sliding around or anything), but not as heavy as on others we looked at that had full length ones. Knob wise they work nice and have good adjustment range with a large scale to get a good gradient of burner level control. I've not paid attention to push in and turn as we have been automatically doing that as that is how our previous range worked. I just went out and double checked for you and they are a push in and turn type knob. What else can I tell you about it.....the burners are sealed. Did not think I would like that, but as it happens, apart from look difference between sealed and the Wolf open type we were looking at I think I prefer the sealed now. Been easy to deal with when the pasta boiled over a bit. Don't know if it is an advantage or not, but the burners are quite a bit closer to the grates than others we looked at. With the size of the burners themselves we've found that, to stop the flame from going up the side of quite a few of our pans, we tend to end up with the flame adjusted in the medium low to low range. We have four burners that are the 17.5K and two at I think 12.5K. Just something to get used to as with our old range we had the burners up on high to med high for everything. The wideness of the caps bring the flame out more and even at that low level it puts out the heat so we've not had any issues with cooking anything. We've found that it just made us a rethink our old habit of settings from the old range and we don't notice any difference in cook time comparable to what we had. Cooks steaks, boils pots and recovers from dropping in cold items well. On the larger pans we have the medium to medium high on which is plenty!!! Have to get the wok out and play with that soon as the full on burner puts out! I've found it really nice that all the burners have a simmer setting. You have the high to low on all and then a bit further after low is simmer which is a seperate part of each burner. Has worked really well. Left quite a few sauces, onions etc. holding on simmer while I'm getting ready for them in another pot without burning them or drying them out. At least that is the way it has worked for me so far. Nice to not have to suffle stuff around to get to a simmer burner. Just turn it down and move on to the next. Each burner has the top part of the burner that is the main burner. Then below that is a different part that lights and runs when you put it on simmer. As with many ranges we looked at that had some sort of really low simmer feature, you can barely see the flame in the daytime or under bright light. That is why I'm glad that DCS put a little light in the marker for temp on each control knob. Can see at a glance if I left a burner on. At first not thrilled with the purple looking colour of this and the fact that it had the light feature at all compared to others we looked at, but now love it! Oven rollers for the racks work fine. Racks have a channel that slides on two wheels that are on each side of the oven. Not as nice as the roller slides that the Electrolux had that we looked at, but we've found that with pans etc. on them they slide out nice and work really well. Husband says the rollers are like how some cabinet drawers slide out. Also pointed out to me, which I can see now we've used them and have them, that easier to clean probably than roller tracks like the electrolux had, if stuff, in the rare event it would, would get down in them. So, overall a big thumbs up for the DCS from us so far. We are really heavy duty cooks so we've used the range daily since we've had it. Like it so far. Do need to read a bit more on the convection to make sure of rack position and that I'm doing things right. Cooked three half sheets of shortbread in the oven, had two pans on one rack and another below it. Looked to me like the area back by the fan was browning faster than the other areas. Will have to check if it is positioning, a design flaw or a temperature setting issue as I put it on at the regular temp I cook it at. Also, need to thermom the oven so I can see where it actually is cooking temp wise. Do this in all we've had, but just not got to it with the other kitchen stuff we've been doing. Manual says it is factory set and not adjustable if I remember correct, but just want to make sure where it is. Seems like every range we've ever had has needed some adjustment. Quite wordy for my first post ever. Guess I've been saving it up! At least, if you can get through my blatherings, I hope it helps with some info you needed and helps you make a decision. Can't provide any info on the Bluestar. Did not find a dealer here for them and only heard of them on this forum. Didn't want to deal with mail order. Our preference on that as read that some have had no issues. We wanted local so we could get for sure service if needed. Right or wrong, we also purchased an extended warranty on ours. Lot of cash for a range so wanted to make sure we were covered. Your choice on that. Cheers

What is a "local safety officer"? What do you mean "a bunch of back and forth" with your "local safety officer and Wolf"? What prompted you to use your CO meter to test the levels? They are employed by our BC safety Authority who are the regulators for all regulated work, gas and electrical and such. As a licensed gas fitter I hold my ticket through them and they are the final say when it comes to appliance safety. Permits and approvals for equipment go through them. I chatted at length with him about the stove and he did agree we can’t do anything because it meets ANSI standards being below 800ppm, but he did say he wouldn’t have it in his house. His advice to me was if Wolf won’t do anything to then adjust the burner input by under firing the appliance to bring the CO back inline. I went to Wolf with this information and they said ‘based on your requirements I don’t think Wolf products will be right for you, would you consider a buy back’. Checking CO is very common here in Canada especially when commissioning an appliance. I didn’t mention the CO alarm going off because it never went off, however it did show peak levels in the 15-19ppm range after cooking for a short period of time. Enough to make me concerned with a pregnant wife and 2 yr old. This is what will happen if you in a room where the CO levels are 800 ppm. The ANSI standards are referring to the CO levels in the air coming out of the range vent. 800 ppm air coming out of the vent does not translate to a room concentration of 800 ppm. Especially if you have your ventilation on. Now, if you were getting 250-300 ppm where the cook was standing, that indicates a concentration of way more than 800 ppm out of the vent, and thus a violation of ANSI standards. Either way, those readings were way too high and Wolf's response was poor. Yes, I agree, somewhat. The stove should never be operating at the ANSI levels, your house would build up to a dangerous level of CO over time ie. When cooking a turkey for hours. Our utility will actually shut down any gas range over 540ppm during normal operation. Also they shutdown any other appliance if its over 250ppm while operating. I agree we need ANSI standards but as new homes get built tighter and with less makeup air having a cooking appliance pumping 800ppm at the vent/flue is insane. Consider this regulation was put in place in 1926, buildings have changed considerably since then. So, what happened when you tried adjusting it? Was 250-300 ppm the lowest it would go? That would surprise me, I have adjusted several gas ranges and have usually been able to get them down to 30-40 ppm from as high as 500 ppm. I knew this question would pop up, but yes I went through the full range of what is reasonable on a brand new appliance. Below is what I went through, to try and reduce the CO: Tested inlet pressure, adjusted within 1”wc of manifold pressure. ‘Wolf recommends having inlet pressure within 1” for proper operation’ – no change Checked flip top regulator and it was set to natural gas Checked manifold pressure on stove it was at 5”wc Verified orifice was correct as per spec sheet supplied by Wolf Adjusted air shutter, no change was actually higher and this was the lowest I was able to get the stove to run at CO tests were done after 10-15 minutes of operation and the burners were warm Clocked meter to verify burner input is correct Verified no blockage in burner tube Verified all secondary air ports were free and clear House is still very drafty, so not a lack of air within the house The only thing I never did was under fire it, as I didn't want to go down that road on a brand new piece of equipment. Wolf blew me away with their service and willingness to make a customer happy. From a cooking standpoint however, it will be Bluestar for us.