Even back in the days when the door heat was at it's max, many people thought it was much ado about nothing. If you're that concerned about it get a Capital or American Range. The salesman was right to steer you away from Viking though.

I 've had a Bluestar RNB 36" 6 burner range since October of 2010. The oven door has never been a problem either with excessive heat or hinges.

It is most definitely a cooking machine.

thank you. sounds like its a great range. has either of you had any major service issues?

Larry, I've had no issues at all. Ours is a V1 which was the first update of the original RNB. I know some folks have had igniter problems in the past but that has apparently been taken care of. One of the things I like most about the Bluestar is it's lack of bells and whistles. That way there's less that can go wrong.

You will absolutely love cooking on this range. I know I do.

thank you will. my wife is excited. her mom had a garland stove, which after 50 years is still going strong.

I am very interested in the Blue Star, also. Can anyone give me info on cleaning the oven?

It's just your typical manual clean oven, nothing special about it. It'll take some Easy-Off and good old fashioned elbow grease.

You can also set up some tinfoil on a baking sheet below the rack you're cooking on (NOT on the oven floor!) to catch drippings before they hit the floor and bake on.

Thanks for the info. I would love to go with Blue Star, but I really want self cleaning.

Get a Capital Culinarian. Has nice powerful open burners just like Bluestar, but with a self clean oven. You also get a motorized rotisserie as a bonus!

Larry, Capital and Bluestar both make good products. I would not base my decision on self clean, because if you read many posts here, when self clean goes wrong, it can be pretty expensive to fix. Self clean boosts the heat in the oven very high, and many believe it can cause problems with the electronics in the oven. I went with the Bluestar RNB, but even if I bought the Capital with self clean, I doubt I would use that option much.

Make sure you have an adequate exhaust hood. That Bluestar range has a lot of btus. What do you have now for an exhaust over the range?

CC barely has any electronics. Most of the paranoia about self clean has come from an issue Whirlpool/KitchenAid used to have relating to poor ventilation which has been fixed for years now. It is true that on self clean you are operating an oven to the max and that can cause electronics issues if there are ventilation problems. Having said that, for most people that small risk is a well worth it for the convenience and I can't blame them. CC has cooling fans and keeps everything well ventilated.

We have decided to go with Bluestar is but had not thought about exhaust hood. Sahmmy has us thinking about if we need an exhaust hood. currently we have a ge stove with a microwave on top that has an exhaust fan. From reading some other posts it sounds like we need a dedicated vent hood. is that correct? the stove will be next to frig on one side and counter on the other. we will have subway tile behind stove.

Definitely ditch that microwave. I don't even like them above standard gas ranges. To be honest they are a fire hazard, and putting them above a Bluestar only magnifies that.

Hvtech,

thank you. Would the current duct that supports the microwave work with a dedicated exhaust hood or would we have to rip into the cabinet above the microwave and the wall to run a new vent?

Well, the other issue with microwaves is that the vents just aren't very powerful. OTR microwaves top out at about 300 CFM and for that range, I would want at least 600 CFM. If you replaced with a more powerful hood appropriate for the Bluestar, you may need to upsize your duct to take advantage of that power. On the other hand, if you replaced with a hood of equivalent power to your microwave, it wouldn't be an optimal setup, but at least you'd be solving the safety issue.

What size duct do you currently have?

I'm not sure the size of the duct. It runs through the cabinet above the microwave but is boxed in so I cannot tell the size.

i was going to call blue star as I'm worried that the height from the top of the stove to the bottom of the microwave is only 21 inches and they recommend 10 inches more. If we keep the microwave I'm worried about the heat burning the bottom of the microwave. Do u think it's an issue?

It's absolutely an issue. If you buy this range, the microwave must go. The bare minimum you would need to do for safety is to replace it with a hood of equivalent CFM, mounted the correct distance above the cooktop. That won't do an optimal job of venting your new range, but it will at least not be a house fire waiting to happen. If you want to do it right, you need to figure out your ductwork situation, upgrade to a 600 CFM+ hood, and if necessary, replace the ductwork. If you are not willing to do the above, I would not recommend buying this range.

Thank you for the quick response. I will try an get a contractor in this week to look at this. Safety comes first.

there is a refrigerator right next to the stove. Do you think that is an issue also?

The refrigerator is DIRECTLY next to the range? As in the side of it touches the range?

If so…the bluestar may not be the best fit for this. The oven and burners when in use will give off A LOT of heat. This could cause serious heat swings in the refrigerator. Thats bad for food and the refrigerator.

Almost all OTR microwaves have 3 1/4" x 10" rectangular ducts. This is a pretty common size. You should be able to replace this with a hood without major work. Just make sure its a decent hood.

Elica ECV630S2

Thats one that comes to mind that will fit the duct that is there. There are definitely others. Look for 23-26" deep, 600CFM or more and baffle filters if you can get them.

My RNB version 1 was installed 12/22/14. No hot door, no hinge issues. It's a wonderful piece of equipment, and beautiful! We had a microwave that was not vented to the outside over the previous range (flat top electric). We tried it with the Bluestar. After the first week, we ordered a vent hood (we ordered the Vent A Hood under cabinet model, 600cfm). The microwave fan came on automatically every time I cooked on the Bluestar. The heat was too intense for the microwave.

My fridge doesn't touch the stove, but I can tell you that the heat from the oven did melt the thermofoil on my cabinet drawers. We got drawer front replacements, but haven't changed them out yet. The melting isn't getting any worse, but it happened.

Would buy this range again in a heartbeat!

We don't really use the microwave for cooking other than maybe melting something. We do use it to reheat so we made a place for it in the cabinets by the refrigerator and out of the way of the cooking area. The drawer underneath has napkins, paper plates and corningware etc. one of the best things we did.

thanks all. i spoke to bluestar also and they confirmed that microwave would not work. We would be ok with that. Unfortunately they said having the refrigerator right next to it would could ionization and not to do that. I'm not really sure what that is. I assume its from the high heat of the burners. I guess we will have to find a gas range better then the GE that we have but not a professional line. does anyone have any suggestions?

You could certainly get a range that is "professional" in looks, but has the same power as a standard residential range. There are plenty of those out there.

That said, I have NO idea what he meant about the fridge and causing "ionization"

ionization? really? I don't think he knows what the word ionization means…

There are 2 things when next to a refrigerator. Burner heat and oven heat. The bluestar oven will likely give off enough heat to cause the refrigerator to warm up. A self cleaning oven will retain more of the heat and transfer less heat to the refrigerator. The burners next to the refrigerator will give off heat as well, especially when a pot is on them deflecting the heat to the side.

Neither of those are good for refrigerators.

Do you not have even 6 inches between the range and the refrigerator? This is a problem with any range. I mean it's rare to have all 4 top burners going at the same time and unless you're changing how you cook you would have this issue anyway. The Bluestar cooks more evenly, but you don't have to use it full blast. I'd move the range or fridge to give you a small landing area on both sides of the range.

By the way, Bluestar makes a 24 inch range and it has quite a large oven.

alexander, unfortunately we have a small kitchen. the refrigerator is next to the stove then a counter then the sink all on one wall with cabinets above. there is no other room for a big appliance . while the 24 inch stove is a great idea , my wife wont go down in size and see makes a big holiday meals and needs a full stove.

joe, i probably should have asked what he meant, but i felt a little overwhelmed speaking with him. i did notice there is about an inch and 1/2 of space between the stove and the refrig. i looked at the old manuals and it actually says 2" so i guess we are ok there but i did notice that the microwave does not meet the old ge's requirement

a contractor came in and made a suggestion and wanted to see what you all thought as saftey is my concern. while my wife loves to get this stove i do not want any issues. he says i can move the refrigerator 3 inches from the stove. He suggested putting up a wall from the floor to the cabinet above that would have stainless steel and ceramic tile between the stove and the refrigerator. of course when it is built it will be close to the stove. we would also replace the microwave with a professional hood. any thoughts?

That sounds like a good plan. Should cover all of your bases

Hmmm..my chaepo gas range required a minimum distance of 6" between stove and wall at and above counter level to make sure the wall doesn't catch fire. What do the install instructions say for your model? The only BS I could find install instructions for said that it should not be installed next to a tall cabinet (your fridge would count as a tall cabinet for this purpose) and that it needed at least 6" of countertop to its side...

i thought it would be good to upload 2 pictures

I'd be looking at an induction range. Induction requires 1" not 6"....do you have 240/220 into the house and space in the panel such that you could get it into your kitchen? The Frigidaire range is well reviewed and a good price ($1500), that plus the new dedicated circuit ($500-$800) and possibly new pots and pans ($350) will still be less than the bluestar ($4,500) and it will feel more spacious because it will look like smooth countertop. (Need a "hot" name Bosch induction is $3000) you cannot have a microwave hood over the bs but you can over induction. I'd get over loving the bs it is inappropriate in this limited space.

^That's not a fair comparison. The $1500 Frigidaire is a freestanding range. Bosch only makes slide-in ranges, and their $3000 is competitive with the other major players in that space (Electrolux, GE, Samsung). That said, Frigidaire did recently come out with a very competitively priced slide-in induction, but it will still be $2000+.

Anyhow, the sense I'm getting is that this range is something the wife mainly wants because of looks... I'm not sure induction is going to cut it.

Debbie's comments about oven heat from her Bluestar range melting the Thermofoil on her cabinets got me wondering as I am also considering a Blue star purchase. Mine would also be installed mid- point within a run of cabinetry. Would I run into similar problems to Debbie?

Hvtech,

my wife is an amazing cook who learnt from her mom( who was a chef) to cook using a garland stove. We saved up to be able to buy a professional stove, not realizing what installing it encompassed. Yes she wants a certain look but the stove is not being bought for looks alone.

Sync, my cabinets make a metal strip called a heat shield. We didn't need one when the installed the cabs as we had an electric flat top stove. So we didn't know about it. After the melt, cabs are still under warranty so they replaced the drawer fronts and gave us a heat shield. We haven't installed the new fronts or shield yet. No new damage has happened and it's not noticeable unless you're looking for it.

About 1/4 way up from bottom of drawer.

My Bluestar does generate some heat, especially the 22k burner. I also had to add a much better/larger range hood (spent almost as much on that as the BS range). My Zephyr 600cfm hood unit did not have the coverage to to catch all the fumes, grease that I was making. I went with a 27" deep 1200cfm wall hood (removed upper cabinets to accommodate the new hood) to capture all the effluent. larry foster: If your wife cooked on a Garland she would love the BS, I guess your wall idea, putting a non-combustible surface between the fridge, seems like a good idea.

Sorry to make assumptions, you're lucky to be married to a great cook! Good luck with the kitchen modification and hope you enjoy the BS when it's finally installed. Even if you were just getting it for looks, it's a great choice.

NP Hvtech. I appreciate all the feedback. I'm still waiting to hear back from bluestar to see if they give the green light to that.