Unfortunately, yes. Many have quality issues with Bluestar, including myself. Sorry you've joined this particular club. Do a general search here or for my specific issues, which I don't want to rehash, search "applnut bluestar" ... Which I think should bring it up. Best of luck.

The perspective of our local appliances sales person was that Wolf made the best quality ranges, above both Capital and Blue Star. I'm sure many would beg to differ on this forum, but that was his opinion. Of course a certain number of ranges/range tops from any manufacturer will have problems so in the end you have to jump and cross your fingers (unfortunately for you, you have to jump again).

If I were you, I'd consider Wolf, Miele and Gaggenau range tops. Miele supposedly has the lowest rate of repair per Yale Appliances. I'd see which of these could fit into the space with no/little modification. I think Wolf and Gaggenau have the best customer service, but that's just based on snippets of information I hear and my own experience looking into buying a combi steam oven.

For disclosure, I don't own any of these brands. I am going to buy a steam oven but not sure if it'll be Wolf, Gaggenau or Miele and recently bought a Lacanche range. Lacanche doesn't make range tops.

Good luck!

To answer your question--I have a Blue Star 36" (range) and I love it. Have had no issues other than a noisy convection fan.

missmeghan702, I have the 30 inch RNB and it has been working flawlessly since I got it. When I was looking I was told that BS was not the top of the line in fit and finish, but my main goal was power, and it has that in spades. Not sure what you mean by trim not lining up, on mine, there are screws that you use to adjust the height of the cooking grates - but that only took a few minutes. As for scratches, do you mean on the outer edge of drip tray that pulls out, or the inserts? On mine, there was a thick piece of plastic covering the exposed edge to prevent it from getting scratches. Same for the front edge and top, though to be honest, after using for a few months I put a few scratches on the top of the front ledge, not sure how. My drip pan doesn't roll out very smoothly, but it does go in and out, so that is enough for me.

The stainless steel side trim piece, to the left of the cast iron grates... it doesn't line up properly and there is a gap between it and the front of the rangetop. It's fine on the right side. The drip pan isn't even either, when it's pushed in all the way, it sits flush with the front of the rangetop on one side but is further in on the left. The drip pan also rubs two screws that are right above it, so the handle is already scratched. I will admit this is mostly cosmetic, but in my opinion regardless of whether a unit is top of the line or not... a unit shouldn't be sent with numerous costmetic flaws and missing screws (we had missing screws in both units, specifically this one is missing a screw under the grates that holds the front of the unit on and the drip pan was missing a washer/nut.) Its one thing if I damage or scratch it in use, but to spend over $3k on a brand new stovetop and have it arrive like this just isn't acceptable in my book... and it makes me question the quality of the rest of the unit.

And I haven't even gotten into the issues we had with the first unit, missing letters and entire words rubbing off on the knobs. The front of the unit - where the knobs are- completely bowed out and the top of it bent and unlevel. Missing all the screws underneath the unit and not put together at all properly. The list goes on.

Eek... Just ordered a Bluestar drop in cooktop and now I'm a bit nervous. I hope it arrives ok.

I have a 36" BS range top and have had almost zero issues with it. The one and only issue that I have had was during shipping the drip pan got scraped by the screw heads above it. A simple call to my sales guy and we had a new drip tray and the 3 drip pans sent out to us without any questions.

There is no such thing as a 100% satisfaction rate for any company or for any product in any lineup. While I hate to hear that some people do have issues, I would no say that BS as a whole has a quality issue. There are always going to be more posts about the bad rather than the good, just the nature of humans and how we talk about things.

I am also not knocking AJ Madison, but maybe some of your issues would have been handled differently if you had a local rep that the BS guys have dealt with time and time again, but maybe not.

Phil

unfortunately you have had bluestar problems but the old
adage of " you get what you pay for" by buying major appliances over the internet when you should be supporting
your local dealer.i have been a bluestar dealer for some time now here in the ny metro area and not only do we find bluestar to be the best cooking range out on the market but have them to have exceptional service and they do attend to any problem they might have

Thanks for your feedback Andy47... I can understand where you're coming from but I don't really agree with you. Ive been dealing directly with Bluestar and their local preferred service vendor since the end of January. Other than the initial damage in shipping, every other issue Ive had has been directly related to something flawed in their production. Possibly the local dealer may have been able to intervene and communicate on my behalf, but flaws in production would still be flaws regardless of who ordered the stovetop.

We used a local dealer and we had plenty of problems from day one. A local dealer who no longer carries Bluestar, by the way, because they had issues with their customers (not just me) receiving service and just got tired of taking the blame for it. (At least that's what I was later told.)

I don't, by a long shot, think everyone that has a Bluestar has problems but, at least for me, I've seen enough anecdotal evidence, of people with the exact same issues, to think my problems aren't completely isolated either. And I think blaming the buyer for using one dealer or over another, especially when the salesperson, for the most part, has absolutely nothing to do with an appliance after they sell it, for ongoing customer service issues is, at best, a red herring.

This post was edited by applnut on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 13:24

I've had a Bluestar 36" range for a year with no problems at all, and it is by far the best range I've ever owned.

One thing about the Internet is that if someone has a good experience, people may not ever know about it, but if someone has a bad experience they're much more likely to tell the world.

You can find people who have a bad experience with just about every vendor out there. One difference with Bluestar is that there have been so many people who have posted very positive reviews, that when a negative review comes out it seems a bit out of place.

Im not seeing a rangetop for Gaggenau or Miele? Only from Wolf... Then obviously Capital, Electrolux, Kitchen Aid... Etc... Is Wolf the next go-to? I had my heart set on the open burners and love the bluestar design. I dont love how the bluestar burner "poofs" on when it takes a few seconds to ignite after the gas starts running. It makes me nervous.

Well, it's sort of range top with Gaggenau since the knobs are facing out but more of a cooktop. I actually think that the Miele is a straight cooktop, so either of these would probably require a bit of modification to your existing structure. I do think these companies make high quality products with excellent fit and finish and very good reliability so it might be worth contemplating a retrofit given your experience. I think both also have a dual ring of gas on the burners which some say makes for more even heat. I saw both, cooked on neither, but was impressed with their quality craftsmanship. I was not so impressed with the craftsmanship of the BS, but that's just my opinion. In the end I wanted a range.

Otherwise you are probably looking at a Wolf. You could try Capital though my local dealer also mentioned that had had problems getting ranges shipped damaged from them as well. Ranges are probably more prone to damage than range tops though simply because of the weight. Also given your problems, for this one I'd try a local dealer if that's an option and see how that experience treats you. If there are problems it should be a better experience getting it replaced. If they know of your troubles they also might be more likely to take better care of you. Hang in there and good luck moving forward.

Gaggenau cooktop (I like that the burners are made of brass):
http://www.gaggenau.com/us/product/VG491?sourceCat=cooking

bif you buy from a local dealer you get better service than from the internet .the majority of the prblems arise form the shipper;for those who were told that bluestar was any good from the dealer must realize that bluestar cancelled all their distributors and are direct in all makets to control their product and those dealers who have badmouthed bluestar have lost the line for misbehaving;please heed this advice from somebody who is neutral and has been selling high end appliances for the past 30 yrs

wlf is not really the go to unit ;its all marketing
also look at themador rangetop also

Andy,

I'm trying to understand this...

" bluestar cancelled all their distributors and are direct in all makets"

Does it mean that they ship directly from their manufacturing facility to the dealer (local store) directly and not through a middleman "distributor" ( a company that just provides shipping)? And, how does that work when buying through an internet company like "AJMadison"? It would seem AJ would put order to BS on your behalf. Then, either product gets shipped directly to you from BS, or first shipped to middleman AJ distributor, then to customer. The latter would seem to make more sense, at least as far as BS was concerned.

If buying local, what questions should you ask a local dealer as it pertains to Bluestar?

My thoughts are:

1) How long have you been in business and reselling BS products?
2) How many units (of target product type) do you typically sell compared to other manufacturers?
3) How do you handle customer satisfaction issues?
4) Who do I call if delivery and/or installation is suspect or has problems? Are there certified BS installers in my area?
5) If I have a problem, who should I contact first (during and after warranty periods)?
6) What is the reputation for BS service in my area?
7) Do you offer an extended warranty? If so, can I have a copy, and who do you subcontract out the service to?

I imagine this might be helpful for any product/companies but since I have my reservations about BS I figured I'd post here.

bobelicious, with the initial unit we received, this is how it went. The rep from AJ placed the order, the item was shipped from Bluestar to AJ and then shipped via AJ Madisons's shipping arm to me. The second unit was shipped directly from Bluestar to my home.

Andy- Again... I dont really see the difference between ordering locally or AJ Madison (who despite having a horrible reputation online has so far been a dream to work with) while there was significant damage to the item somewhere in shipping, but there were numerous other issues that had nothing to do with shipping or the dealer. When the manufacturer forgets to bolt the unit together or poorly assembles a unit, that's not a dealer issue. Here's a photo of just one the issues we hadb with our first unit. If you can make this out, it's the underside of the rangetop, above the drip pan. See the piece of metal? Yeah, that's the bottom of the rangetop that supposed to be above that bottom lip and screwed in. It's just hanging there. That's purely a production flaw, of which we had more than I can count. I wish I could post more photos because I have so many, but I described most of the issues here. I didn't even mention the damage to the original unit, which I think if Bluestar did a better job packaging and protecting the units before shipping may have been a non-issue.

Andy:

Nice to see a BS dealer chime in on this forum. Maybe you can take over where Trevor from Eurostoves left off with BS. He used to do a terrific job helping people out with problems they may have been having with their bluestars, even if they didn't buy from him, same as he is doing now for people who may be having issues with their capitals. I know it sounds like an odd concept but it has garnered him many many sales both when he was the "bluestar guy" and now that he is the "capital guy".

As far as comments about wolf "not being the go to unit, its mostly advertising"....Well, I do agree they have a strong marketing department, I also believe they are very far from the ultimate cooking machine, but I truly do believe that their quality control is tops in the professional style range business and very strongly believe their customer service is by far the best in the pro range business. It seems as tho when a customer receives a range with problems, even if they are only perceived problems from the customers stand, Wolf tends to be easy offering either new units or even better (for their reputation) buybacks. Although buying back a $10,000 range may be a bitter pill to swallow for smaller companies like bs and capital, in this day and age with the internet it makes a lot of (economic) sense to get that potentially damaging client off your backs as soon as humanly possible.

PS. My bluestar has been flawless for 6 years now, with only an ignition module that has crapped out about a year ago.

CORRECT-bluestar wisely cancelled all the distributors thru out the country and reorgaized certain dealers to intially support the product;their actually quite few of us who really know our product snd especially bluestar
most appliiance salespeople onyl follow what mgnt tells them to sell or what product line will get them a higher commission ro bonus for selling it which geerally happens with lines like wolf or viking to name a few.when you get lines like bluestar or even capital its for those people who actually enjoy cooking.i have qualify propective clients as to whether tey just do general cooking or enjoy cooking
if they enjoy it then i suggest bluestar and if its general run of the mill cooking then i tell them to go with wolf,viking or thermador[which has made great strides in their product line]
we are a 2nd genration cretailer havign been in the business here in manhattan for over 68 yrs;i myslef have been doing this for approx 40 yrs or so and seen the priducts come and go;my biggest lines of general mainstream lines have been wolf and themador recently and will be also again viking since they have smartly revamped their line as well as having new ownership
we do a very nice job selling bluestar -we take the time explaing their benefits and functions compared to the other mfrs.i am particularlyexcited about their new platinum series which we display,my bluestar rep is one of the most attentive[steve cramer] i found in this business and who knows a great deal about his product
we do our own installs here in nyc only and delivery only in the metro area;we help our clients when they have service issues and do followup with the authorized servicers;i
what area fo the country do you live in
btw-for those lie buiyng on the internet -its great for things like food ,clothing,books and such but when it comes to major appliances you are better off buying locally for product support and service;that's why companies like bluestar,thermador,subzero,wolf prefer you buy locally
its for your benefit

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your insight in this thread and the one regarding the Platinum series. One request - please spell check your posts if possible, it would make them much easier to read :-)

Thanks again, it is wonderful having a Bluestar dealer on this forum and I'm looking forward to my Platinum next year!

>>btw-for those lie buiyng on the internet -its great for things like food ,clothing,books and such but when it comes to major appliances you are better off buying locally for product support and service;that's why companies like bluestar,thermador,subzero,wolf prefer you buy locally
its for your benefit

It would be nice, if there were actually places that sell what you're looking for locally. For what we're looking for the leads were either dead ends that don't actually sell the appliance, or places that want to design and contract an entire kitchen. Unless we wanted to travel to Atlanta or Raleigh we had to go sight unseen.