I've been researching the same and was pretty sure I was getting the performer. I went and looked at the residential model and was quoted a price on a 36" Performer w/an 11" griddle. I had previously been all set to get a BlueStar RNB but for the assumed price difference and the AR oven I figured I was all set to get the AR. I then went and looked at a 36" BlueStar RNBV1 and priced it out too. When it comes right down to it, adding backguard and color it's nearly a wash. Color on an AR is $750, it's $349 on a BS. You can't move the griddle location on an AR (center), you can on a BS but it'll cost you a little over $300. It's about $500 difference for the base SS models, add color and the difference is negligible once you see the BS in action. Finish on the BS is much nicer, I like the way it all comes apart, the catch tray on the BS has 3 compartments so you only have to clean the dirty one, the AR is just one tray. I'm ordering my 36" BS RNB w/griddle on the right in color #6024 tomorrow w/a matching canopy 42" hood.

I don't own one, but I've seen one work. The knobs are different, because the unit is simpler than their "Heritage" models. So only one knob for oven and broiler. You simply turn the oven temperature knob to light the oven and set the temperature...you continue to turn it all the way to light the broiler. The broiler is slightly different as well, but claims to put out the same heat. I saw it in a showroom in S.F. maybe a year ago. It doesn't have stainless drip bowls, they are black enamel instead.

FYI Standard drywall is not a combustible item. from Wiki When used as a component in fire barriers, drywall is a passive fire protection item. In its natural state, gypsum contains the water of crystallization bound in the form of hydrates. When exposed to heat or fire, this water is vapourised, retarding heat transfer. Therefore, a fire in one room that is separated from an adjacent room by a fire-resistance rated drywall assembly will not cause this adjacent room to get any warmer than the boiling point (100°C) until the water in the gypsum is gone. This makes drywall an ablative material because as the hydrates sublime, a crumbly dust is left behind, which, along with the paper, is sacrificial. Generally, the more layers of Type X drywall one adds, the more one increases the fire-resistance of the assembly, be it horizontal or vertical. Evidence of this can be found both in publicly available design catalogues, including DIN4102 Part 4 and the Canadian Building Code on the topic, as well as common certification listings, including certification listings provided by Underwriters Laboratories and Underwriters Laboratories of Canada (ULC). "Type X" drywall is formulated by adding glass fibers to the gypsum, to increase the resistance to fires, especially once the hydrates are spent, which leaves the gypsum in powder form. Type X is typically the material chosen to construct walls and ceilings that are required to have a fire-resistance rating. Fire testing of drywall assemblies for the purpose of expanding national catalogues, such as the National Building Code of Canada, Germany's Part 4 of DIN4102 and its British cousin BS476, are a matter of routine research and development work in more than one nation and can be sponsored jointly by national authorities and representatives of the drywall industry. For example, the National Research Council of Canada routinely publishes such findings.[21] The results are printed as approved designs in the back of the building code. Generally, exposure of drywall on a panel furnace removes the water and calcines the exposed drywall and also heats the studs and fasteners holding the drywall. This typically results in deflection of the assembly towards the fire, as that is the location where the sublimation occurs, which weakens the assembly, due to the fire influence. When tests are cosponsored, resulting in code recognized designs with assigned fire-resistance ratings, the resulting designs become part of the code and are not limited to use by any one manufacturer, provided the material used in the field configuration can be demonstrated to meet the minimum requirements of Type X drywall (such as an entry in the appropriate category of the UL Building Materials Directory) and that sufficient layers and thicknesses are used. Fire test reports for such unique third party tests are confidential. It's important to consider deflection of drywall assemblies to maintain their assembly integrity to preserve their ratings. Deflection of drywall assemblies can vary somewhat from one test to another. Importantly, penetrants do not follow the deflection movement of the drywall assemblies they penetrate. For example, see cable tray movement in a German test. It is, therefore, important to test firestops in full scale wall panel tests, so that the deflection of each applicable assembly can be taken into account. The size of the test wall assembly alone is not the only consideration for firestop tests. If the penetrants are mounted to and hung off the drywall assembly itself during the test, this does not constitute a realistic deflection exposure insofar as the firestop is concerned. In reality, on a construction site, penetrants are hung off the ceiling above. Penetrants may increase in length, push and pull as a result of operational temperature changes (e.g., hot and cold water in a pipe), particularly in a fire. But it is a physical impossibility to have the penetrants follow the movement of drywall assemblies that they penetrate, since they are not mounted to the drywalls in a building. It is, therefore, counterproductive to suspend penetrants from the drywall assembly during a fire test. As downward deflection of the drywall assembly and buckling towards the fire occurs, the top of the firestop is squeezed and the bottom of the firestop is pulled. This is motion above that caused by expansion of metallic penetrants due to heat exposure in a fire. Both types of motion occur because metal first expands in a fire, and then softens once the critical temperature has been reached, as is explained under structural steel. To simulate the drywall deflection effect, one can simply mount the penetrants to the steel frame holding the test assembly. The operational and fire-induced motion of the penetrants, which is independent of the assemblies penetrated, can be separately arranged.

My Performer range has been in use daily for almost two years (plus an intermittent year prior to that). I am really happy with it and the cooking results. I have also found it light-years easier that the Wolf AG to clean. (I did not replace the Wolf, which I liked, but we moved.) It had seemed to me that the oven might be turning on and off while in use more than in the first year lately, but perhaps not--I am also the one who suddenly looks at a mole and things, "how long has it been that color?" despite seeing it every day. Murch, I read the negative reviews you linked to. One confusion is that people will report problems with the ovens, the ranges, and the company all in one thread. The ovens seem to be more problematic than the ranges. Perhaps I have been lucky, but would not change my decision. I agree totally that the company should stand behind their products, but have not had any to deal with. should add--the Burners do poof when extinguishing, at least the 25k, but not as much as the Wolf. But I had the older semi-open Wolf.