There is nothing to the installation of these units that is different than any other range. Download the installation manual and you see that it is only a few pages. So that would not be a worry in my book.

I looked at the rangetop and I could easily install it myself.

Service is more of an issue if the thing doesn't work out of box. I would hope thought that warranty repair is available in your area. I would call Bluestar directly to make sure. Once working, I doubt that much will break down in these units....

I was wondering the same thing as I am also picking appliances. I called the number on the Bluestar website that is under Texas - the distributor for Texas will tell you where dealers are. The only one they told me they had in the DFW area was Murray's Appliances. I live in Flower Mound. There are 2 locations - one in Denton and one in Dallas. The Denton store is the only store in the area that has a Blue Star in the store to look at. Their Dallas store did not have one as of yet - this was in March.

I went up there to look at it. I had hoped it was a colored one, but it was stainless steel. It was sitting next to the dual fuel DCS of which I was already leaning toward. I am still getting the DCS for many reasons. Main reason is I still want dual fuel but I was not impressed enough with the looks of the Blue Star to change my mind, even though ordering a colored range would have been really great. Just shows that I care more about the looks that the fact it is a great cooking machine! :)

Get the address from Murray's appliance in Denton and go up there. It is a very nice appliance store, BTW.

If you want more details about what the salesperson told me, let me know. Good luck.

As to the question of service, all Bluestar service is NOW arranged by Bluestar directly not by the dealer you buy it from. So that should not be an issue, There are national service companies and I am sure it is one of these that Bluestar employs. In any case service should not be a problem.

OK - I'll check w/ Murray's next week. I'm excited to hear that there is a local dealer.

I'll also contact BlueStar directly to check for a local national service company.

Thanks for the info - everybody.

From the list (of where to buy ) Bluestar site only shows Houston. I wonder why? Wonder if I using a old Bluestar web site?

tommmy2007, when I spoke to the Blue Star dist. center number for Texas, they said they are just starting to get dealers up in the DFW area.

McCall, can you please say how you know that Bluestar is handling service? I went to the bluestar website and looked at their FAQ. It says that people should contact their dealers regarding service and parts. OTOH, there is a service request page on the website. So perhaps the Bluestar website is out of date or misleading.

The reason I am asking is that I recently visited a store that used to have Bluestar products on display. Now they are nowhere to be seen. The salesman told me that the store still can sell them to me but the store had a lot of trouble getting service for customers who needed it. So they are recommending avoiding Bluestar. Everything he said implied that the way you get service for your Bluestar product was to call the dealer that sold it to you. It is likely that the salesman was out of date. Perhaps the store is not an authorized dealer any more, which would explain why the salesman tried to steer me away from Bluestar. However I would like to make sure I understand the service situation - how to get service when you need it, and if people run into problems when they do request service - before making my purchase (at a different store).

TIA,

Debbie

I asked about this and was told that a local appliance repair company would perform the work. So how I see it as that the person performing the repairs may have never even seen a Bluestar range ( but works on ranges of various manufactures ) . In other words there is no real Bluestar Man . I not trying to belittle their service a lot of appliances companieÂs warranty repair /service works the same way nowadays. You call their 800 number and they find dispatch a service company that services your area.

I believe the Bluestar website is Indeed misleading on this subject. It was fairly recently that they decided to take over the service requests themselves after having trouble with the service some dealers or distributors were providing and so had unhappy customers.

The fact is that ANY competent technician that works on commercial ranges can work on the Bluestar which is one of the simplest ranges out there as far as parts and service are concerned.

This dealer went on and on about having trouble getting service for his customers. If I understood him correctly he would have to call Bluestar and they would arrange for someone to come out. He complained about it taking more than a month, sometimes, before someone showed up to fix a stove. He wondered if Bluestar wasn't paying enough for performing service under warranty so nobody would take the job. One thing he said was that Bluestar did not have a contract with a national service company and that service was being performed by local contractors.

To the extent that the salesguy's claims about service not happening promptly were true, that would be a major headache for Bluestar. Maybe they have enough dealerships in enough places now that they've made a deal with some national service company. Do you know if they did that when they changed over to letting consumers contact them directly for service?

I visited Murray Appliance in Denton a couple weeks ago. I had called the distributor in Houston and they gave me both Murray in Denton and Alamo Appliance in Ft. Worth. Both locations have a small range on the floor. They are not live. They also gave me the name of the Appliance company that C&W in Dallas does all the service calls for Blue Star.

I wouldn't NOT get the Blue Star if you like it best. I spoke with the Distributor in Houston (very helpful) as well as people at both Murray and Alamo who all said the Blue Star is the most durable of the professional ranges and of excellent quality. They mentioned also that because it wasn't full of bells and whistles it was easy to repair.

I'm still leaning (far) toward the Blue Star....

Oh, please don't get me wrong. I really, really want a Bluestar. However after that salesman went on and on about the problems he has had getting service for his customers, I want to be sure that either that was a) just the salesman trying to steer a sale for his own reasons or b) something that may have been true in the past but has been remedied by Bluestar.

I know I want the 36-inch model with 4 burners and a grill configured with the high backsplash that has a shelf. I *think* I want the casters so I can more easily clean underneath...

I see that another dealer in my area has just been added to the list on the Bluestar site. This one has an excellent reputation and has been in business for decades. I would definitely trust them a lot more than the salesguy in the national chainstore. I hope to be able to pay a visit this week.