I own a BlueStar and I can say this....there is not a better broiler in the market. The BlueStar broiler (1,800 degree) will cook a steak (1 1/2" thick) in about 10-12 minutes (medium rare). Besides the burners, this is the second best feature on a BlueStar. If you have ever been to a Ruth Chris steakhouse, they cook their steaks ubder a 1800 degree salamander broiler. This is almost exactly what is in a BlueStar. I'm not going to knock Dacor, but the two are in a different class. We are the Ford Truck with 8 cyl and 400hp, and they are the Ford Ranger at 4 cyl and 275hp.....get it? Good luck!!!

Steve - I've been spinning on the same question over the last few months. The Bluestar grill doesn't look hot enough. My old weber charcoal grill was hot enough, but my new gas (non-IR) grill is not. Is Capital's (the other range brand I'm considering) IR grill hot enough? In researching on google I found a youtube clip of a guy's sure-fire steak grilling method using an IR grill. First he sears it on a very hot IR grill for short time to produce grill lines, then transfers it to a cast iron skillet for the real searing to produce that desired crust, then he puts the skillet in the oven to finish cooking to the desired done-ness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shI5C4GdGwM So now I'm figuring- if I'm only using the IR grill for cosmetic purposes and the best sear/crust comes from the cast iron skillet, why bother with the grill? So I've been doing pan-seared steaks lately and getting great results. And now I'm thinking if I get a range with a grill, it will be for other uses besides steak. Dogs & brats in January? Grilled veggies? Grilled fish & chicken? Those sound nice but they are a distant second on the priority list behind cooking a great steak, so perhaps I'll just go with the all-burner range and get a good 2-burner cast iron griddle. Sorry I can't answer your original question. I get the impression that IR grills (whether on a kitchen range or in an outdoor bbq) are hotter than a mid-range conventional gas grill. Hot enough to put a good crust on a steak while leaving it rare or medium rare inside like charcoal? Don't know.

needinfo1, well, "smoke" is relative. If I broil a steak of course there is some smoke but really very little because I am not actually burning anything. I am caramelizing a lot of protein on the meat and evaporating water. There is some fat splatter and anything that hits the burner is instantly vaporized. So, I guess I am saying that when I boil a steak I just don't find that much smoke being created in general. This is very different from grilling a steak where you have fats and juices falling directly into the grill being burned (mostly incompletely) which does cause a lot of smoke. To your point, absolutely there are by-products and they vent out the top of the oven, but I don't think that much "smoke", as i the definition. Perhaps this is sounding complicated but I don't think it is. I guess I am saying that if you're producing lots of smoke under the broiler you are doing something wrong. Of course there will be some but it shouldn't be anything like a grill where it is bellowing out. Does that help? As for the flavor differences? Well, they are just different. Sometimes I grill on the grill, sometimes I broil. The grill will impart a char from the direct heat transfer but it's hard to beat the sheer evenness and searing crust you get from a broiler. For me I get the best of both worlds cooking over hardwood. That gives blazing hot heat (wood coals are HOT) and fantastic flavor. -Stooxie

Have you contacted their dealers for service? Seems like something that should still be under warranty.