There are some real differences here and to make the best choice for you it would be important to know how you cook and what type of cookware you use. If you do a lot of high heat cooking, you would be interested in high BTUs. If stir frying, you might want the most centralized heat, which would be an uncapped burner. To others, it is important to have a great simmer. Compare by looking at the BTU ratings. You may have to email to get the low end ones. If you use cast iron or other cookware that does not conduct heat well, you would want BS star shaped burners. If you have heavy copper, aluminum, or some plied cookware, they conduct heat so the shape is not important. If you use big pans, I would look at the way the top is configured and notice the depth of the range top and if there are any impediments to your pan fitting on the grate. This is a little fuzzy but shows what I mean.

How important is the oven or broiler?

Look at the broiler size. Those with infrared broilers might be small but they work very well. Some are bigger than others.

For the oven, you will have to consider subjective reviews for evenness of heating but you might want to look at preheat times and lighting. I had one range that the lighting was on the bottom so you couldn't see anything. I would also look at usable space which is the rack size and how much space is over the racks. Some people love the racks on ball bearings but I like regular racks because I change them around frequently. If you do want rolling racks try changing them around. There can be big differences in the way they go in.

Debbie - thank you for your rec on the Bluestar. The blue is gorgeous! What kind of pots/pans do you use? I am wondering if I would need to invest in some new ones.

Wekick- thank you for your questions. I cook for my family of 4 every day, pretty much from scratch. I host most holidays (for 10 -12) and have my parents and MIL over weekly.

In terms of how I cook, I would say that I don't cook all that often on high heat except to bring something to a boil. (it is rare that I would need to sear a steak). I do stir fry every 2- 3 weeks.

My cookware is a combination of All-Clad and Calphalon (which are large - 10-12 in) for everyday cooking and Le Crueset for soups/stews. I also have some inexpensive Revere pots for boiling water and heating/melting. I did take 3 of my bigger pans to see how they fit on a Wolf 4 burner and that was fine. I could easily fit a 4th if needed. I have not tried them on any other brand yet. I am focusing mainly on ranges that have the controls in the front to give me more space on the burners.

The oven is important- I do bake often including making bread. I rarely use the broiler. I do move my racks around frequently. I will also have a wall oven so although oven size is important, it will not be my only oven.

Thanks so much for responding. I am struggling with this decision.

Chris, thank you. I use stainless steel (Princess House) with glass lids, cast iron skillets and Staub pots. Everything works great.

I was under the impression you couldn't light a gas range nowadays if power is out?

Ovens nowadays are lit by electronic ignition and don't have standing pilot lights I thought. If they don't have standing pilot lights, they can't be lit without power.

On Bluestar ranges, the top burners can be manually lit during a power outage but the oven cannot. The oven has an electrically operated gas safety valve.

Agree, Bluestar burners can be lit with a match, but not the oven.
I have the 36RNB with griddle version, but same goes for 30" four burner.
Love the range, best I've ever owned, going on four years now and not one problem!

I was I was under the impression that I would be able to light most, if not all, of the burners from the brands I mentioned during a power outage. I think some of the small burners on the Therrmador may not be able to light but that is ok.

cookncarpenter thank you for your recommendation for the Bluestar. My main concern with that brand is that it may be too powerful for the cooking that I do.

You might want to look at the BS RCS model. It's not as powerful as the RNB, less expensive, and it's a joy to cook with. The 30" has three 15K btu burners and one simmer burner. I have the 36" version with six burners. I love it. I've had it for almost two years. And yes, the burners can be lit during a power outage.

The burners are powerful enough to sear fish and chicken perfectly (we don't eat steak so I can't vouch for how well it would work for that), stir frys come out wonderfully, sautéing veggies, caramelizing onions-perfect! All of my burners simmer well. And the oven bakes bread, cookies, pizza, roasts veggies superbly.

(Chris T: "My main concern with that brand is that it may be too powerful for the cooking that I do.")

I have a Bluestar 30" and, from personal experience, this is not an issue at all.

The available burner sizes are (in BTU): 9K (simmer), 15K, 18K, 22K, and 25K.

For the RCS model, you get one 9K simmer burner and three 15K burners -- without option to upgrade to different burner versions (you can move the simmer burner to a different location though). It is only available in stainless steel (no custom color option).

The other models (RNB and Platinum) can be purchased (or later upgraded) with any combination of burners sizes.

The issue, really, is how low can each burner size go. For me, the 15K is the sweet spot for general purpose cooking and matches the maximum power output of the other brands that you mentioned. It goes low enough to gently simmer a small pot of liquid but high enough to easily sear a layer of meat without stewing it. It also works well for stir frying in a 14" round bottom wok directly on the burner (without a wok ring) .

For steaming a single cup of rice, the 9K simmer burner is the best choice since it can be turned down really low for simmer and warming without burning.

The higher power burners are really great for quickly boiling large pots of liquid and for high heat searing but you have to be careful because they can burn things pretty quickly and you will need a good ventilation system that can handle the load.

The really nice thing about the Bluestar ranges is that they have true open burners (like commercial restaurant ranges) with flames that go straight up no matter how high they are turned up. They are also very controllable from low to high output.

Malabacat- I think the RCS would be much better for us. Thank you for clarifying the differences between the models.

John - thank you for your detailed response. From what you have said, I'm think a 15K burner would be fine for us as a max output.

i have read that the Bluestar is easy to clean as well. Have you found that?

Thanks again.

Chris T:

I had a Wolf 30" sealed burner range (model GR304) before the Bluestar and I find that the Bluestar is much easier to keep clean than the Wolf.

Sealed burners are marketed as being easier to clean but, from my experience, that is not the case. The Wolf's burners are "sealed" with a very visible, non-removable, shiny black porcelain drip surface. This shiny surface highlights even the smallest drip, stain, or scratch. It will also permanently dull in spots where acidic drips (like tomato sauce) remain on it under heat for even a limited amount of time. This means that you basically have to remove the large and heavy (two burner) cast iron grates to clean the drip surface after almost every cook.

This is not the case with the Bluestar open burner design. The drip surfaces are all easily accessible. Small drips land on the top surface outside the perimeter of the pots. These can be cleaned without removing anything. I just touch them with a wet paper towel -- takes a few seconds. Slightly bigger spills go into the burner "bowl" that surround the burner itself. This is also easily cleaned by taking off the (not very heavy) individual burner grate. The largest spills go down through the burner bowl into the large slide out drip pans beneath the burners. Since these pans are not normally visible, they can be lined with aluminum foil so that cleaning just means sliding out the drip pan drawer and replacing the foil.

Another advantage with the Bluestar is that the burners, grates, and bowls are all made of black porcelain finished cast iron, with similar cleaning characteristics and appearance of a well seasoned cast iron frying pan. Like a cast iron pan, their slightly dull, textured surface tend not to show stains like a normally shiny surface does.

Also, if necessary, all of the component parts (grates, bowls. drip pans, even the burners can be taken out individually and cleaned (all but the burners can go in the dishwasher).

Thank you so much for the details! You are definitely selling me on the Bluestar! Wondering if I should even look at anything else.

If you have a large appliance showroom nearby, I would definitely recommend looking at all of the brand and model possibilities, especially if they have "live" ranges that you can turn on and play with.

One thing to be aware of with Bluestar is that they need to be installed properly in your home, with initial setup adjustments made by someone who knows what they are doing. The adjustments are technically very easy to do and you can do them yourself, but if they are not done properly, your experience will be less than optimal. Like commercial restaurant ranges, once setup properly, they are reliable because they are internally very simple and mostly "old school" in design.

The more powerful Bluestar burners do not need to be on full force- and because they have more flame holes, they will provide a more 'even' heat under your pan bottom - even when set on low.

Just thought I'd mention it. This would apply to medium (6 ") or larger pans. The simmer on a 22K burner will obviously not be quite as low with the extra flame holes as a 15K or smaller burner...

Thank you so much. I think the closest showroom that has any live ranges would be over 1.5 hours away. There is a Wolf distributor in town that has cooking demonstrations, but that is all that I know of here.

I had to have my F & P washing machine looked at yesterday and the repairman that came out happens to be the certified Bluestar installer for our area. He made a comment about clips on the Bluestar that can easily break. Do you know anything about that?

Don't know of any clips.

There were problems with the oven door attachment latches and also top burner igniters in earlier models, but the latest shipping models (version 2 of RCS and RNB) have had design changes that address those issues.

I would be interested to know what he is referring to.

What clips? I do t have clips on my range. Also, I realize 1.5 hours is a little haul, but for a $4k stove, I'd drive to see it. Our showroom was about 75 minutes away. I wanted to see and touch before I bought.

His comment had to do with repairs. He said that If a Bluestar needs a repair, you can take it apart only a couple of times and that these flimsy clips (where they are I do not know) break easily. This may not be very helpful.

He recommended Wolf mainly for their great customer service. He did say that the Bluestar was nice but he thought the Wolf was made better. I may see him again next week when he brings the part needed for my washing machine so I will ask him again. He did steer me away from Thermador due to their poor customer service.

All of the models I mentioned in my first post are available locally, but I would have to take a drive to use any of them. We live in central VA so I would guess that the DC area would have a store with some live cooking available.

That makes sense now. I haven't seen any in my Bluestar range, but maybe he is talking about "U-nuts" like these:

http://cliphouse.com/UNuts.aspx

They are meant to be replaceable and inexpensive so that when you strip the thread on it you can just replace it, instead of permanently damaging a thread on a large, expensive panel.

There have been many threads here over the years where posters have mentioned how easy it is to adjust the Bluestar gas burners and most of them considered that a plus. However if you purchase a new one and have them properly set it up - is it possible that you might never have to adjust it again?

Normal cleaning is one thing but I wouldn't be too keen on taking the burners apart to replace something. We do have several dealers nearby where I can see a cooking demo and I only live about an hour from Reading - but I would find it reassuring to know that they don't require frequent adjustments from the homeowner.

Thanks,

Maire

My range is 2 years old. I have never adjusted my burners. Love the range!

maire_cate:

The adjustment is a one time installation or repair procedure and is not normally done by the homeowner.

It would only need to be readjusted if something significant changes, like replacing gas related parts or moving the range to a new town that is at a different altitude.

Thanks Debbi, John

That is reassuring. I'm probably remembering the older posts about previous models where homeowners were cleaning the orifices and upgrading burners themselves.

We're moving this summer and are in the early stages of planning a total kitchen remodel. In our next home the range will be on an outside wall with a hood so we can contemplate higher BTU's. Currently we have a 6 burner Dacor rangetop at 15,000 BTU's each.

Thanks again for your help.

Maire

PS Debbi - you might remember I bought the RL apron from you last year - DD loves it.

Maire- Do you like your Dacor? Would you recommend it?

I've had my Dacor for 11 years and both DH and I really like them. The cooktop gets used several times a day and the 15,000 BTU burners suit our needs. We sear steaks and stir fry occasionally but don't use a wok. Our cooktop is on an island so we have the pop-up vent. When we move this summer our cooktop will be on an outside wall so we can install a hood so now we're looking into buying a BlueStar.

Samsung recently announced that they are buying Dacor. Apparently Dacor will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung but will retain the CA headquarters, brand name and manufacturing. Samsung is trying to gain a stronger foothold in the luxury appliance market.

Thanks so much. I think that 15k will be plenty for us too.

I did not know about Samsung acquiring Dacor.