There are many a rabid fan of the Blue Star range at this site, but I am not one of them, even though I have had one for three years. Your concerns about the cast bowls and grates is legitimate. They are heavy,awkward and could cause damage to counter tops, floors, the dishwasher or to your toes if you drop one. After you get done pulling those out for cleaning you are left with whatever crumbs and grease worked its way on to the supporting sheet metal frame,which has some sharp sheet metal screwsand edges. The oven has a long pre-heat time and because it is gas, you need to have the exhaust fan cranking as soon as you light it. the convection fan is loud and reverberates if you have a rack pushed against it. The oven is nice and large, but the fact that it has to be cleaned manually with some pretty strong chemicals to dissolve the burned grease. make me rethink why I got a non-self-cleaning oven Thermador has a more basic 6 burner model that I would look at or I would consider that 36" Fisher Paykl model which is few grand less. Blue star is a good choice for professional chefs who don't mind the manual cleaning and have use for the extra btus (22k) that two of the burners have. The wok capability is also very useful. As far as simplicity of design, that is a red herring. The electronic ignition system and the igniters are not as reliable or durable as the price of the Blue Star would lead you to believe they would be. If you still have doubts, look at a Blue Star 6 burner and lift out all six grates, the six rings and the six burner bowls and carry them over someplace. Then go get them and set them all back in place like you would after you cleaned them. If that is no problem for you and you can see yourself doing that, cleaning inside under those and of course,manually spraying and cleaning the oven, the Blue Star might be a good choice for you.

I am going to go ahead and chime in here for the OP although I fear may be flamed by Bluestar enthusiasts for what I'm going to say. Bluestar's flame pattern and BTU power on their high-powered burners are exceptional; that is without question. However, unless you are a frequent stir-fryer or need water to come to boil super-fast, I don't think it's fair to imply that a Wolf won't do an excellent (in fact, exceptional) job cooking and should only be chosen for its build quality/looks. I have owned a Wolf AG range for two years; I prepare 2-3 meals a day for our family of five on my range every day and consider myself to be an excellent cook although I'm not a professional chef. I don't remember thinking at any time, "Gosh, this thing doesn't have enough heat/power" but then I'm not a stir-fryer. I know that it performs much better than anything else I've ever cooked on/ owned, sears meat, etc., very quickly, and performs other high-power feats admirably. I never encounter "hot spots" in my pans so I think its flame pattern (double concentric rings) does a nice job of distributing the heat although I do agree the Bluestar's star pattern is probably superior, especially on low heat. I personally like having all my burners the same power even if they're "only" 16K. There are other considerations besides burner shape/power when selecting a range. Some prefer ranges with closed burners from the likes of DCS, Capital, and American for their ease of cleaning. I have a DCS AG range at our beach place and would prefer my Wolf AG's open burners for any task except maybe simmer where I can't see much difference. The fact that the DCS has 17.5K BTU's is insignificant for me as I find myself using the DCS on low/medium low setting most of the time in order to keep the flame under the pan, not coming up around the sides. I'm willing to do a little extra cleaning for the open burner performance and won't buy a closed-burner range again. Another consideration is which part of the country you live in. I'm in the South. When we built our house, I really wanted to go with the Bluestar. However, we didn't have a local showroom although there was one local company that could/would be willing to order it for us. My husband and our builder both questioned the wisdom of buying a lesser-known company's product sight unseen and were concerned about getting service on it if/when we needed it as Bluestar didn't have much of a presence state-wide. I ended up driving to Asheville (5 hours away) to see one on the floor in a new showroom and was turned off by the build quality. However, I was impressed with the star burners. Anyway, the point of this is that I ended up going with Wolf because the local dealer was well-established and I knew I could get good service through them. The stories I've read on this forum seem to bear out the wisdom of the decision I made for our situation. There are lots of threads on this forum where people are having trouble with their Bluestar ranges. Mostly small issues but issues. If I called a service person in Raleigh to come work on my range, I know that he would have worked on before and be familiar with Wolf ranges. I asked my regular service person (who came out to calibrate my oven temp) if he'd ever worked on/seen a Bluestar. He works on most appliance brands but specializes in the higher-end repairs. He said he'd never seen one. I know they are straight-forward machines but I still believe this should be a consideration for some of us. If you live in California or the Northeast, service for Bluestar should be readily availiable by a person experienced in working with Bluestar. However, for someone like me, it would be a concern. Experiences of others on this forum bear out this theory. I know that with Wolf I have a local dealer who can have a local repairman at my house within 24 hours to work on my range and he will have worked on Wolf many times before. I also know Wolf is consistently easy to work with and accommodating if I have any problems. My only problem has been the oven temp being off - this was fixed within the day. Also, after a year and a half, the rubber feet were falling off my grates (I put them through the DW when they get grubby). I called Wolf and they immediately mailed out a new set of grates (the newer model has metal feet) without charge. My experience with Wolf has been top-notch and I'd choose the same range again today. So do I get flamed now? I hope not ;-)

Cooked on new Pro Harmony AG 48" for Thanksgiving (hadn't been used). Range was part of a full Thermador kitchen package. Most uses were baking and roasting; both ovens performed well--used most of the bells and whistles (temperature probes on both ovens, convection on and off) and warm function. Roasts and baked goods were evenly cooked, temps appeared accurate. To the extent I used it I was impressed. Racks were smooth (smoother than my Capital's) which for 20lb turkey is important. One oven door had a latch sticking that had to be watched to keep the oven from running hot: that was about it for negatives Don't think the burners are in the same league as the 25K bluestar or capital, but for what we cooked they were fine. Can't tell how they'd be for wokking versus Capital or Bluestar. Large oven door got a little warm (no where as hot as my Wolf AG oven would get). The hood was a pleasant surprise: cleared the effluent, was reasonably quiet (have had Modernaire and VHs). There warming lights are in the front rather than the rear, are aimed towards the usual position a shelf would be. Can't think of a negative, am used to mine being in the back, aimed down on the shelf. 48", probably 1000CFM, internal blower(s). Fit and finish were impressive. Compared to old clickity simmer burners, Thermador seems to have come up in the world.

This photo was before we moved in so please forgive the sterile look of the kitchen. It's just the 2 of us now and since we recently downsized we purchased new appliances. We opted for the 30" Platinum, a 1200 CFM Prizer hood, a 30" Thermador Pro wall oven and microwave. I agree about the 'quick minute' - it's silly to have to also hit start. We love the BlueStar and the 25,000 BTU burner is the one I use the most. We did have to adjust the simmer burner to get it low enough but that was fairly easy. We haven't used the griddle or grill - maybe if we were cooking for more guests we would. DH loves the 25,000 for his wok and for heating up our small Lodge cast iron grill to sear steaks. I've baked in both the Thermador and BlueStar and even though one is electric and the other gas - they both maintain temperature settings. I also appreciate the open burners for ease of clean up.