I just purchased a Bluestar 36" range (we have not installed it yet however) and this was a concern for my wife and me. We have an 18 month old. We saw the Bluestar in action at the store we purchased it from and the oven door does indeed get hot. Although we were nervous and considered a different range with an insulated door (such as the Capital range), we finally decided that she is already understanding the concept of "hot" and the Bluestar will work for us. We know as parents we have to be responsible in monitoring and teaching our child regarding many dangers in the home and this will be one of them. I believe that, in the worst case scenario, if she does touch it, it will certainly cause her pain but not give her a serious burn and she will not want to touch it again.

My little one wants to hang off my legs every time I'm at the stove, and yeah, the oven window does get pretty hot as does the drip tray. However, I don't like having him under my feet when I'm cooking so I have DH entertain him while I'm busy. I wouldn't want him hanging around the stove no matter which one I had, but I especially keep him away from the BS if the oven is on.

We have a 3-year-old and have had a Bluestar for almost 2 years. The stove has to meet UL requirements, which are 180F max I believe. In other words, hot enough to burn you if you stay in contact for any length of time, but not hot enough to seriously burn on contact.

The oven doesn't get nearly as much run time as the stovetop, but we've managed to reinforce the point that she needs to keep away when we tell her it's hot. She still occasionally likes to randomly turn on the oven fan and/or light.

Oh dear, I think this might be a deal breaker for me. My son (16 mos) understands when something is hot. But he is determined to figure things out for himself, and he will want to feel that it's hot (and then howl). I do feel strongly that he should be a part of the kitchen if I'm cooking, so I would not want to shoo him away to avoid burns.

And since my DH is an attorney, it's me solo in the kitchen with the tiny man until DH arrives in time to sit down. Of course I have spritzed on some perfume and put on some lipstick awaiting his arrival.

HA.

I digress. I am definitely concerned with the heat issue. Any more owners with young children?

That is why we got the bluestar range top and the electrolux icon wall ovens (the glass stays deceivingly cool). No kids here but safety is still important...

I guess I thought the oven glass in every gas range I had was about the same regardless of standard residential drop/slide in or the last 2 pro-style ranges we have had.

I've got a near 2 year old and a Bluestar. Everything on the front gets very, very hot. While my son loves to look at it and talk about it and help with the baking, he's never touhed it. I'm afraid to touch it, so perhaps he can sense that I'm serious and we spent the first week reinforcing to him over and over that he can't touch it. Ever.

All ranges have areas that get very hot. The oven door on my DCS does not get too hot but the area between the bottom of the door and the toekick gets extremely hot. Regardless of which range you get, you need to watch kids and reinforce the fact that they shouldn't touch. On the other hand, kids learn quickly that if they touch something hot they won't do it again.

havent you people heard of play pens, or keeping a child away from a hot stove?? a little common sense could go a long way it seems.....

This thread keeps repeating and drives me nuts. The range gets hot. Deal with it however you see fit. That's it. Who cares what we all think of each other's parenting styles? It's an appliance forum.

I'm more worried about the heat transfer around a group of peri-menopausal women.

We have a DCS oven it gets hot to the touch but not burning. My youngest was 3 when we got the range - I didn't have any problems with her touching the range, but again she was 3. We had a Kenmore range before that, which got hot but not burning and she never touched that either. One thing I liked about the DCS as opposed to the Kenmore was that the knobs are in the front, not on the back. I was more concerned with one of my older kids cooking and trying to put on the stove or trying to control the heat and reaching over lit burners. So much "stuff" to think about.
Good Luck - Lisa

same subject... redux.. ad nauseum...
This is an inditement of modern parenting theory rather than the what the tempurature of a Bluestar (or any other) oven might get to when operated.

Guess I am getting really old now... I grew up in a farm house with a wood burning cast iron stove... guarrantee that if a young'un touched it once ... it would never happen again (and none of us did that I am aware of). I wonder what ever happened to "learning life's little lessons?" In fact that stove got so hot we didn't even have to think once, much less twice about staying clear of it!!!! Perhaps we would all be much safer if it was hot enough blister on contact like my grandma's wood stove. Kids will never learn anything, if the parents do all the thinking for them. Or worse, make it so they never have to think for themselves.

Does it seem oddly ironic that the less we spank and physically discipline our kids, the meaner and more violent the younger generation becomes?(such as our armed teenagers shooting each other) So much for "time outs").

Personal behavior and consequences is an important lesson for life, becoming more and more overlooked.

Oh, forgive me... I do have a microwave that has an instruction manual warning me not to dry my kitty cat in it after her "shampoo". The day when we make everything absolutely 100% safe and risk-free, we will no longer be able to think and reason for ourselves. Then who will we turn to? The government? Hah!

I totally agree with parenting styles these days. I am not concerned if my son eats things off the floor, or eats a handful of dirt. He falls off furniture and is certainly learning about gravity and depth. I didn't grow up with TV, so I knew a lot of the neighbor kids and rode my bike and read a lot of books. So things were different then (and not a knock on TV, I just didn't personally grow up with it).

However when we were growing up we didn't have a home range that threw off 22,000 BTUs of heat. I am happy for him to learn for himself that the oven is hot. I am not thrilled for him to incur a 2nd degree burn in the process. The degree of heat was what I was inquiring about. I don't want to have to watch him - I want him to be curious and to explore and figure things out. Again, I'm trying to avoid serious bodily harm, which some had claimed was possible.

Also I didn't mean I didn't want to watch my son... I just don't want to hover!

I am not thrilled for him to incur a 2nd degree burn in the process.

kids won't get a second-degree burn (or even a 1st degree) from touching a bluestar oven door even if it's cranked to 500. i have a bluestar and, yes, the front gets hot when the oven is cranking, but not that hot. kids might get a 'boo-boo' but it won't be an actual burn.

as others have said, it might actually be a good thing because it'll scare the kid so that they won't do it again.

it's not a big deal. i have a three year old and another on the way.

Thank you for that extremely reasonable response edlakin!

I purchased a BlueStar electric wall oven this year and the exterior gets so hot that the handles and door cannot be touched without burning after its been on for 30 min at 400 degrees. Water sizzles when sprayed on the door. All of the surrounding cabinets and their handles are almost too hot to touch, and the foods like gummy bears and chocolate in the cabinets melt. this is fore and burn hazard hot.