I considered Five Star while researching my cooking choice for my kitchen remodel. I was set to buy one based upon reading their literature. I called the Five Star company and discussed my questions with one of their people. They referred me to a cooking school in my local area that had Five Star ranges where I was able to see, test drive and discuss the performance with the cooking school staff. The ranges are owned by Five Star and provided to the cooking school for display, "test driving", etc. since they do not have a distributor in the area. The report from the staff was not great. They said the ranges (they have two) all too frequently required burner and oven repairs on both of their ranges. The day I was there, both ranges were waiting for repairs--one oven wasn't heating sufficiently and a total of three burners on the two ranges were not operating. Most of the time they have to use long reach butane lighters get the burners going. Service is difficult to get even though they are in one of five largest cities in the country. Their opinion was the Five Star is impressively marketed but cheaply built and problematic. They said the burner performance stats are impressive in the literature but performance is weak in practice. They said if they were buying for their homes they would spend a little more and get a better built range. And that's just what I did thanks to their advice. Hope this is helpful to you.

One thing that seems to be shown here, from your experience and also laranbrian's, is that mesh filters are noisier. We have "pro style" metal baffles. Here's the (obviously biased, but I think informative) quote off the Modernaire site: "Modern-Aire Ventilating believes like most major range manufacturers and restaurant supply houses that the most efficient filtration system is the Baffle Filter. Unlike non-filtered range hoods, a Baffle Filter catches up to 97% of all grease and grease particles before they ever enter the interior of the range hood, making clean up a breeze. Unlike mesh filters, the air passing through a Baffle Filter is not restricted, thus allowing a smoother and quieter transition. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Baffle Filter is that the baffles in the filter are positioned to eliminate direct passage of flame through the filter thus making it one of the safest and most efficient filtration systems available today." I think it's a far superior design for the liner. And it looks cooler too :-)

Great point - Thanks so much for that idea- i will need to check and see if the item could be returned locally (in the worst case scenario like it being a total dud). I will call the local Costco and inquire - I wonder if they have ever addressed this before. I did review the written warranty from Bluestar and it says something to the effect: "warranty valid for all items purchased in US or Canada. It is looking like difference it will be the same range (RCS model) and after tax, etc would be approx $450 more to buy in the states. Not a huge amount but enough to make a difference and have me consider Canadian option (assuming it goes easily and relatively pain free). I will keep checking but have to pull the trigger eventually ... Don't want to be one of those who come back in 2 years saying "ok, I'm almost ready to buy" ...lol I did look on ebay and found 1 or 2 BS ranges. For anyone else thinking of doing this, beware of a company hawking BS ranges under the name if Markdown Madness - check some if their reviews on Merchant Circle. There is a similar outfit in my area (somehow associated with this Markdown Madness outfit) and they seem shady to say the least. 1 thing I think these shady ebay sellers do is sell a ton of simple items (shoes, lunch boxes, whatever) to overcome any negatives they may have selling high ticket scratch and dent items. At least that is the only way I can imagine a company maintaining a good ebay rating while having an "F" rating at the BBB and terrible reviews online (like Markdown Madness). In other words, if you are buying a "new" or "floor sample" item from ebay or craigslist, make sure you are buying from an actual dealer or personal seller and not from some guys using a storage garage to sell potentially non-warrantied items. Good luck getting any money back from people like this no matter what assurances they give you. Not saying you can't find a deal this way but you have to ask yourself if you have the capacity to deal with a total lemon (financially and emotionally). Unfortunately people looking for deals usually can't afford to buy another appliance if the "deal" goes bad. If it seems to good to be true - it probably is.

My budget for all appliances is 15K, so if I spend less on the range/hood, I'll have more money for other appliances. If you are budget constrained, keep in mind that an island hood is more expensive than if you have your range against a wall. You'll need a larger hood for an island than if you had your range against the wall. Also, hood manufacturers price island hoods higher than comparable wall hoods. You'll also need more cfms for your island hood than for a wall hood as there is no wall or cabinets to help contain the smoke and grease from floating all around. Your island itself will need to be quite large to hold a 36" gas range plus the needed landing space, plus space so that the people nearby don't get splattered by what you are cooking on the island. As has been mentioned many times on this forum, more time is spent on prep than on actual cooking so if you want an island range for social reasons, it would be better to dedicate your island to prep.