Ugh, I'm sorry, all... I will make every effort to write a comprehensive review very soon. It's been on my list! For now, by way of a quick update, I'm still very pleased with the AR Performer. Awesome burner power for searing, quickly heating everything. The simmer is comparable to any other range I've used in the category of commercial/semi-commercial gas ranges. (I've used Wolf, Viking, Blue Star, but not Capital). The low simmer remains WAY better than even my mom's Viking cooktop, which is not nearly as powerful as the AR.) I do a lot of sauces and candy-making, and I have no complaints about the low-heat and simmer properties. (I usually use reasonably heavy/good quality cookware, mostly All-Clad, which definitely factors in). There are times, when doing a smaller batch of pasta sauce on a long simmer, for example, that I'll turn it off for a bit, but that's been the case with every gas range I've ever had. For most medium to large batches of soups, sauces, etc, the simmer is just perfect; I can get it quite low. The oven, also, is fantastic. I LOVE the large (full-sheet) capacity, and that's one of the reasons I chose the AR over the others. Heats very evenly, and I've been really pleased with how it handles everything from cakes to macarons, and the roasting and broiling is also superb. As I've mentioned before, none of the other ranges in this category can compare in terms of the quality of the shelves; they are heavy-gauge steel, as are the racks, and they are super solid and slide smoothly. That is actually something that makes a huge difference to me, especially when taking delicate items, like souffles out. I still highly recommend the AR Performer; I love it and have no regrets about my decision to buy it over the BS or CC. I say go for it!

I am going to go ahead and chime in here for the OP although I fear may be flamed by Bluestar enthusiasts for what I'm going to say. Bluestar's flame pattern and BTU power on their high-powered burners are exceptional; that is without question. However, unless you are a frequent stir-fryer or need water to come to boil super-fast, I don't think it's fair to imply that a Wolf won't do an excellent (in fact, exceptional) job cooking and should only be chosen for its build quality/looks. I have owned a Wolf AG range for two years; I prepare 2-3 meals a day for our family of five on my range every day and consider myself to be an excellent cook although I'm not a professional chef. I don't remember thinking at any time, "Gosh, this thing doesn't have enough heat/power" but then I'm not a stir-fryer. I know that it performs much better than anything else I've ever cooked on/ owned, sears meat, etc., very quickly, and performs other high-power feats admirably. I never encounter "hot spots" in my pans so I think its flame pattern (double concentric rings) does a nice job of distributing the heat although I do agree the Bluestar's star pattern is probably superior, especially on low heat. I personally like having all my burners the same power even if they're "only" 16K. There are other considerations besides burner shape/power when selecting a range. Some prefer ranges with closed burners from the likes of DCS, Capital, and American for their ease of cleaning. I have a DCS AG range at our beach place and would prefer my Wolf AG's open burners for any task except maybe simmer where I can't see much difference. The fact that the DCS has 17.5K BTU's is insignificant for me as I find myself using the DCS on low/medium low setting most of the time in order to keep the flame under the pan, not coming up around the sides. I'm willing to do a little extra cleaning for the open burner performance and won't buy a closed-burner range again. Another consideration is which part of the country you live in. I'm in the South. When we built our house, I really wanted to go with the Bluestar. However, we didn't have a local showroom although there was one local company that could/would be willing to order it for us. My husband and our builder both questioned the wisdom of buying a lesser-known company's product sight unseen and were concerned about getting service on it if/when we needed it as Bluestar didn't have much of a presence state-wide. I ended up driving to Asheville (5 hours away) to see one on the floor in a new showroom and was turned off by the build quality. However, I was impressed with the star burners. Anyway, the point of this is that I ended up going with Wolf because the local dealer was well-established and I knew I could get good service through them. The stories I've read on this forum seem to bear out the wisdom of the decision I made for our situation. There are lots of threads on this forum where people are having trouble with their Bluestar ranges. Mostly small issues but issues. If I called a service person in Raleigh to come work on my range, I know that he would have worked on before and be familiar with Wolf ranges. I asked my regular service person (who came out to calibrate my oven temp) if he'd ever worked on/seen a Bluestar. He works on most appliance brands but specializes in the higher-end repairs. He said he'd never seen one. I know they are straight-forward machines but I still believe this should be a consideration for some of us. If you live in California or the Northeast, service for Bluestar should be readily availiable by a person experienced in working with Bluestar. However, for someone like me, it would be a concern. Experiences of others on this forum bear out this theory. I know that with Wolf I have a local dealer who can have a local repairman at my house within 24 hours to work on my range and he will have worked on Wolf many times before. I also know Wolf is consistently easy to work with and accommodating if I have any problems. My only problem has been the oven temp being off - this was fixed within the day. Also, after a year and a half, the rubber feet were falling off my grates (I put them through the DW when they get grubby). I called Wolf and they immediately mailed out a new set of grates (the newer model has metal feet) without charge. My experience with Wolf has been top-notch and I'd choose the same range again today. So do I get flamed now? I hope not ;-)

Ktlri, Thanks for the follow-up as although the build is done, I haven't fully furnished the residence yet and had my professional shots done for our records and the community here. I'll admit - I had to go back over the thread and re-read to give the proper feedback but for the main range I ended up with a Zephyr 48" Monsoon II and a curvaball that I didn't even find out about until after this thread had already run it's course...I went with the Capital Connoisseurian 48" Dual-Fuel w/ 8 (Open) Burner configuration and I must say I absolutely LOVE IT. The fit and finish is as good as if not better than all of the BlueStars I saw in person (I visited about 6 different ones in 3 different stores during the process) and I've been estatic about the oven capacity and having an electric oven instead of gas for our baking purposes, etc. The electric rotisserie, electronic food probe and the kicker was the Wok insert (all of which I've used and very happy with the performance). It does take a while to get used to having this many powerful burners (all 25K minus the simmer burner) but it is a huge time saver for me as my wife and I both "prep" our food for the week on Sunday nights and with 2 cooks in the kitchen we can do multiple large quantities of food at once. Here's a couple cell phone pics and thanks for asking. One of these days once we finish with the interior designers and the furniture finally arrives (We're talking 12-16 week delivery times for most pieces - what the heck?!?) we'll get some legit shots done for everyone. Thanks! PS - Sorry for the dim light on the 2nd pic as the Monsoon II isn't installed/turned on - we're still waiting to pass the final building permit tomorrow before installing the Zephyr as we already have 2 makeup airs installed to run the furnaces and the code was going to require an addition 2 (4 total) so we are working our way around that idiotic code.

I recently bought the 36" RCS. I really wanted the RNB, for the more powerful burners (mainly this honestly), the slightly nicer finish, and the fully extendable oven rack, but the price difference and the fact that we only sear fish on the stove (don't need as high a heat as you would for other meat) led us to go with the RCS. I've only been able to really use it for the last 10 days or so, as we waited for our hood to be installed to put it to the test. So far it's amazing. I've made a couple of stir fry recipes and I thought about turning the heat down a bit it was cooking the veggies so quickly :-) I didn't, but unlike with my old range, I had to actually pay attention the whole time or the food would've burned. Plenty of power! The stir frys turned out great! We've seared fish, both tuna and swordfish, and both were done perfectly and had a wonderful sear. Carmelizing onions is a dream also! Things cook faster and better. I'm very happy with the power the RCS has and believe me, I didn't think it would be this good. Our old range had 12K open burners and I didn't think the 15K would be that much of an upgrade. I was wrong! I was kind of disappointed we didn't go for the RNB, thinking it was a mistake not to get more power, and we were settling. I don't think that now at all. For our needs the RCS is fantastic! My old range didn't have a fully extendable oven rack so I don't miss that. The racks slide easily and the oven works perfectly. I've made lasagna, roasted veggies, cookies and bread, and all have turned out great. I think if you sear a lot of steaks or chicken (though I think chicken would be fine on the RCS) you may want the power of the RNB burners. I'll let others with the RNB or RCS who cook them chime in on that. Other than possibly needing the 22K burners for that, the 15K burners on the RCS have plenty of power imo. And definitely get a powerful hood to go over whichever range you decide to purchase. I ended up buying a 42" Prizer hood with a 1200cfm blower after much deliberation. Hardest appliance to decide on for me. My dh thought it was overkill but not after using it. It works really well. It's loud when it's on high but not ridiculously loud. And low and medium are actually low enough that you can converse in the kitchen and be heard.