I've had my Sully (one gas oven/one electric (not convection) oven) for 3+ years, cooking daily. I haven't had ANY of the problems noted ("hot knobs, have had to replace heating elements three times in three years, uneven heating in the ovens and the heavy oven doors don't close tightly, had to replace knobs. . . ). Quite the opposite. The ovens are a dream -- the doors are solid and make a great seal and keep the heat very consistent. The (burner) knobs get hot only if you leave the oven doors open! (and the oven handles never get hot). Absolutely no problems with the heating elements and the few little issues I had when it was new were dealt with by AC (either over the phone with the tech guys or sending the guy to adjust temps on burners) quickly and efficiently. And, that interior designer had no idea what she was talking about; the burners clean up beautifully, and with remarkably little effort (thank you, Bartender's Friend!). But, we are talking un-enameled staineless steel, brass and aluminum burners, so yes, they show some wear, but not dirt. I love them. I rejected BlueStar because after much poking around I just didn't think it was made as well as the Lacanche; things felt a bit flimsy to the point that an oven door disconnected when I shut it in the showroom! The stainless steel of the cooktop seemed to be thinner gauge than the Lacanche. And I've heard enough of BlueStar problems to confirm that uneasy feeling (admittedly, not anywhere near as many as about Vikings). Although the BS burners are supposed to be a bit hotter than the Lacanche, I have cooked on both and have found this to be untrue, in practice. All-in-all, I'm thrilled with my gorgeous workhorse, which looks as good as the day I purchased it. It took me awhile to learn how to cook on it, but the learning curve was worth it. (And, by the way, our kitchen is VERY modern - dark brown wood, white counters and backsplash, and black granite. The Lacanche fits the style beautifully!)

[Edited July 14, 2013 to add that the OP has deleted the post to which this responds.] Wayhop: I'm sorry you took my post as angry. It was not meant that way. I certainly did not mean to suggest that your question was stupid. Sometimes, what we write here comes across with a tone that was not intended. So, if you took my response as angry or hostile, please accept my apology because it certainly was not meant that way. I was concerned that using the caps in my post might make it sound angry which is why I put in the comment that I didn't know how to make italics here. Now, thanks to deeageaux, I do. Except that it isn't yet working for me. Oh well, I'll get this figured out. Anyway, when I refferred to yet another post, I was referring to the fact that others have been confused by Blue Star's instructions and that you are not the only one to have this question. Mainly, I was just trying to get you see that there is a distinction between horizontal surfaces around a stove --- which aren't going to be exposed to open flames --- and adjacent vertical surfaces which are higher than the stovetop burners which means those surfaces potentially could be exposed to flames and heat from the burners. (Flames and heat don't drop down from burners. They go up, right?) So, I tried to reassure you that this would not be a problem with your island installation unless you did something that put vertical surfacrs right next to the burner top and had them rising above the burner level. Here's another way to think about it. If you had to have non-combustible horizontal surfaces for six-inches around the stove, you would not be able to put it next to base cabinets, would you? That is certainly the case with commercial (restaurant) stoves. So, it is not a stupid question to think that this might be the case with Blue Star ranges because they do look like commercial stoves, after all. But they are, in fact, residential stoves. That means you can put the BS ranges right up against base cabinets just like you see in all the pictures. That is because it is a residential stove and is designed for that. If the base cabinets can butt-up against a BS stove, then doesn't it make sense that the countertops can do the same thing? And, by the way, I hope you don't take my use of the abbrevation BS as signifying that I'm somehow accusing you of b***sh** because I am not. "BS" is a commony used abbreviation here for Blue Star. If we mean the other, its usually done with a lowercase "bs." Okay? I mentioned that there are other sources where you can get confirmation of this. The post I linked to has quotations from the Blue Star manual about the specific issue that you raised here. Those might be be helpful to you in figuring out what we've been talking about and figuring out what Blue Star means by its arrows. I mainly gave you the link because I thought the photos in it might be the ones that deeageaux mentioned but could not find. No anger or insult was intended or directed at you or anybody else. Again, I'm sorry you took it that way. And to respond directly to your question about the line on the install diagram, I don't disagree that it can be confusing. You are not the first to get confused by BS's instructions. That's why we've had other threads on this topic. Now, I certainly do agree with what deeageaux and others have been saying --- that the line on that diagram is supposed to represent a measurement to an adjacent vertical object. It is supposed to be pointing to the wall/cabinet and not to the horizontal countertops below the line. The difference between a "wood wall" and a "butcher-block" countertop is that the top of countertop is at or below the stove stop where the flames don't flare at it (at least they don't if the stove is working as they normally do.) The wood wall or cabinet sides are above it and therefore potentially exposed to flames and heat if they are too close to the stove. As shown in Deeageaux's photos, you avoid the problem with the vertical surfaces by either putting those surfaces 6" out from the stove --- and again, please don't think I'm trying to confuse you here, because I'm still talking about the walls and cabinets that are above the counter, not the counter itself --- or else you sheath the vertical surfaces with a non-combustible covering like tile, metal, etc. Do you see the difference? In answer to you next question, the "6-inch to wall" rule is "not necessary" when you are putting the stove in an island --- because, as you say, there are no walls. Just so nobdy who reads this later gets confused by what I just said, the "6-inch to wall" rule is necessary if you want to put a stove with island trim or or a cooktop with island trim close to a wall or other cabinets, such as is shown in the photos that Deeageaux posted above. The rule is "not necessary" when you you replace the "island trim" with one of Blue Star's riser/vent/backguards. But, again, Blue Star is only talking about vertical surfaces that are above the level of thee countertop adjacent to the stove. It is not requiring 6" sheathing on the countertop. Have the photos that Deeageaux provided cleared this up for you? If not, I'm going to again suggest you call or e-mail Blue Star and asking them this directly. My comment about this was serious. The point is this: if they can't communicate with you in a way you understand and find credible, that is a good reason to not buy their products. I'm not limiting this to Blue Star, either, but the company does respond to inquiries, at least according to other posts, here. So, if you really like their stove, then I think it is worth your while to do this. Is that clear enough? This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 13:17

Thanks for the detailed write-up. My wife and I have a 10 y.o. Thermador range, and recently looked at their 36" rangetop for our kitchen renovation. The star-shaped burners were a big selling point to me. Ultimately, we ruled it out because the salesman said it doesn't have an option for an integrated grill. I just looked at the Thermador website though, and it sounds like they'll be offering a grill soon. Other than that, I don't like the Extra-Low burners for simmering (although we can can a great simmer from the normal burners on our range). The biggest problem we're having is deciding whether to replace our 25 y.o refrigerator. Every model I've looked at seems to have complaints about noise. As you said, it seems to be the luck of the draw. It also seems to me that, in order to comply with energy efficiency standards, manufacturers end up making noisier products as well.

@lcm1986, The 12 inch griddle cleans up pretty easy, but to get it looking new you have to scrub a little. It does come off completely(heavy) and if you have a big single sink you can wash it in there. I have a 36 inch sink so that is what I do. I do scrub with the grain. I am not sure if the griddle needed to be seasoned first a little because when we first cooked on it bacon then pancakes the pancakes stuck even though the griddle was hot. Last time we did pancakes we rubbed with a little oil on paper towel first and pancakes came out perfectly.