Granted I have a 36" BlueStar range and not a cooktop, but I just had my 1st customer service experience (Ive had my beast for 9 months or so) and everything was handled very, very well. I had low expectations from this board but was blown away by the prompt service.

I love my Bluestar, love the burners, and know for sure you would, too!

Bluestar service in recent times seems to be fantastic. I think they lost a lot of sales because of poor relations in the past, but every post I see in recent times raves about their service (particularly Mandy at Bluestar).

I have an older Bluestar (2008) and have not yet needed service.

I would say "safest" bet would be Miele, then Wolf as far as reliability and customer service. However neither of those would compare to a Bluestar for performance.

My opinion:
Bluestar (by far best performance and what seems to be excellent new found CS)
Miele (most reliable appliance maker on the planet, and has a good reputation for standing behind their product)
Wolf (good reputation for reliability and CS)

(wouldn't consider others)

Being a CC owner I will repeat what I said before. I love the open burners and Capatial does not make a Culinarian cook top, therefore I would take the Bluestar cooktop hands down over any closed burner cooktop. Most of Bluestar's problems have been with the oven door hinges, and their customer service really does seem to be much improved. I totally agree with deeageaux.

"Miele (most reliable appliance maker on the planet, and has a good reputation for standing behind their product) "

Have you taken the time to read the reviews on the low temperature problems with the Miele Ovens????

I guess "Poor Baver" , finally gave up.
Like any other manufacturer, Miele has their both good and bad for performance,support and/or reliability.

Both Elux as well as Wolf, seem to get the most positive posts as far as oven performance, reliability and support, (If needed), as far as ovens go.

We have little info as far as Miele gas cooktops go, so, (at least to me), much more research would have to be done before making such a "Broad Statement" as far as Miele
appliances/ and , or their support for same!

Gary

Thanks for all the input. I ended up going for the Wolf for a couple reasons. The main one is that I called two vendors who had all three. One knew that he could ship me the Miele and not the others and still suggested he would buy the wolf. Another knew I might buy the Bluestar from him, but not the other two and still suggested the wolf. It strikes me as rare that a salesman will suggest a product that costs him money.

The second reason is that while I love the Bluestar range, the cooktop seems like a bit less good on the low end in the sense that it has a great simmer burner, but the rest of the burners can't go below 12000 BTU, which strikes me as not flexible enough (can't simmer chili and cook rice, for example?).

One salesman explained to me that this why the rangetop has the cool circular grates that spin to raise the pot - a great idea! but the cooktop does not have this feature.

It also seems a little silly to waste energy cooking at too high a heat and then raise the pot away if you could just design the product to use less energy in the first place.

All in all they seem like three great products and like there wasn't a wrong choice. I think if I had been looking at ranges or ovens the order might well have ended up differently, but again it looks like a lot of great choices in those products, too.

Secondo,

Glad you made a decision-- enjoy it and don't look back.

That said, you got some bum steer from whatever sales drone you spoke to. All Bluestar burners (that I know of) will go below their max rating, just like any gas burner. You just turn down that knob thingy! They go from raging inferno to tiny blue dots floating above the holes. From 12K or 15K (or 22K) BTUs down to a few hundred.

Either way, the Wolf will be a great appliance for you, but it's always amazing what sales folks will cook up (har har har) when talking to a prospect! :)

-Stooxie

Ya "right on" Stooxie.

It is appalling to see the miss info put out there by various salesman.

Too bad She didn't watch Trevor's Simmer contests between the Wolf, CC, and Blue star---The wolf certainly didn't win that contest.

Anyway, like Stooxie, I'm sure the Wolf will suit your needs well, I just wished you had more "Factual Inputs" from Sales People.

That's why GW is still the best source for
"Telling it like is" (Really is,)----That is!!!
Probably why some of us still hang around, even thou we
purchased our appliances "some years ago"-----and----
particularly important this time of year (Autumn)
Separate the "Chaff from the Wheat" (Probably SP) I ain't no Farmer (LOL)

Gary

Speaking of simmer, though...I find I can only cook rice on the true simmer burner on my 36" BS. Anyone agree?

Simmering chili or other soups/sauces can be done on any of them however.

Thanks for pointing this out, you are correct that the salesman was wrong about this. I pulled up the specs (which I had done before but forgotten after talking to the salesman) and two of the burners start out below 12k, so, of course, they turn down lower than that. It would be nice to know how much like most vendors tell you, but it is clear that my vendor was wrong. Perhaps the 22k burners only go down to 12k and that was what he spotted, but clearly the other two burners go lower as well as the simmer burner.

I don't know if this would have changed my choice, but it certainly would have made it much harder. On the other hand by far my favorite vendor is the one I bought the Wolf from and he didn't have the other choices and I do think vendors matter.

-"Miele (most reliable appliance maker on the planet, and has a good reputation for standing behind their product) "

Have you taken the time to read the reviews on the low temperature problems with the Miele Ovens???? "

Yes, every manufacturer has had their issues, but I still stand by that comment. Has Toyota had issues with any of their products? Of course! But would it still be safe to say that they are the most reliable car make on the planet? You bet.

And regarding low temp issues with Miele ovens, I would say even with that there are relatively few compared to issues from other manufacturers. Oh ya, and I have built enough kitchens to think my opinion has at least some weight.

"Too bad She didn't watch Trevor's Simmer contests between the Wolf, CC, and Blue star---The wolf certainly didn't win that contest"

do you have a link? I'd love to watch it.

http://www.capital-culinarian.com/Eurostoves_Capital_Culinarian_Site/Videos.html
Here is a link to all the videos the one on heat distribution is the one you want. Watch all the videos, you may want to change your mind and buy a CC, I did.

oops, sorry I forgot you wanted a cooktop which is not available in a Culi.

The Capital website is showing a Culinarian rangetop. Not sure about wait time...you'd have to check on that. The ranges have a very long wait time now with full payment up front.

This is the old bluestar vs wolf burner comparison video.

Here is a link that might be useful: LINK

Thanks for the links. Those are interesting. The Wolf burner is a different design from those videos, but I don't know if it is now better or worse (although it does seem to address some of the complaints). I also don't know how different the cooktop burner on the bluestar is from the range burner shown in the video, but my hunch is they are the same.

The idea of an open burner being more even has always made sense to me and appealed and the videos seem to confirm one's intuition on this.

As for the Capital on the website mentioned above, they do have a rangetop, but I don't think they have a high end cooktop in gas which would work better for our current kitchen (although their rangetops would look better here than the rivals rangetops from what I can tell because it seems to be a little more slim).

In any event, we don't have a Capital vendor here and so even if it were the best product (and it sounds like many feel it is) and it matched, service would be enough to scare me off probably based on where I live.

Thanks again to everyone for your input!

ps for Miele reliability, it is only one datapoint, but my mother in law's works hard and is like new. She is going to be appalled that we bought something else. (And given how nice hers is, I thought that would be the direction we'd go, but my wife surprised me by picking the Wolf and I felt like given that each one had strengths and weaknesses I felt like this was a good choice, but I also felt any of the three she'd picked I'd have been able to say that about).

oops, I guess the video is comparing to Wolf's open burners, which are available on their ranges, but not on their cooktop so it is not as I said above that it is out of date, only that it is a different choice. Even so it does make sense that the star shaped open burner would be more even than concentric circular shaped open burners.

(I couldn't see how to fix the previous post by editing it).

To Any Lurker,

There are no service availability issues with either Bluestar or Capital.

Any place you can get service for Wolf you can get with either Capital or Bluestar. Even if you don't have a local dealer.

If you need warranty work,and there is no dealer/established appliance repair shop that has a contract with Bluestar or Capital then they will establish one with the local place that services Wolf or some other competant shop.

Especially when considering gas cooktops/rangetops,this should not be even a slightest issue. These are super simple machines. Any first year tech should be able to fix it. On top of that it is highly unlikely to need any repair. Gas cooktops/rangestops are mature technologies and simple to make and repair.

If the local shop does not normally repair Capital/Bluestar it may take a few days to ship ignitor,spark modulue, or some other part. Such a tiny matter should not dictate your rangetop/cooktop choice.

I am also looking at the Bluestar 36 cooktop, could this be used with a downdraft ventilation unit?
Thanks

You can use anything you want, but I don't think there is a downdraft powerful enough to handle a top line open burner like BS or CC.

I agree with rat