Interesting comment about the high levels of Carbon Monoxide from your gas range - that's something I've never even worried about before.

We've bought another home and doing major renovations before moving in. The kitchen is gutted and we ordered new appliances - a 30" platinum BlueStar range and hood, a Thermador wall oven and microwave, a 42" Sub Zero and a Bosch dishwasher. However it's the BlueStar that is tickling our fancies - DH is retired and as we prepare evening meals he often says "now if we were doing this on or BlueStar we'd ............"

So I'm definitely looking forward to many happy cooking experiences.

Thanks for posting - it's always inforative to hear from someone who has actually cooked on these.

Dizziness, nausea and convulsions within 45 minutes. Unconsciousness within 2 hours. Death within 2-3 hours. Maximum air-free concentration from gas kitchen ranges (ANSI).

This is what will happen if you in a room where the CO levels are 800 ppm. The ANSI standards are referring to the CO levels in the air coming out of the range vent. 800 ppm air coming out of the vent does not translate to a room concentration of 800 ppm. Especially if you have your ventilation on. Now, if you were getting 250-300 ppm where the cook was standing, that indicates a concentration of way more than 800 ppm out of the vent, and thus a violation of ANSI standards. Either way, those readings were way too high and Wolf's response was poor.

I ended up testing it which showed around 250-300ppm during normal operation. Most stoves can be tuned to be around 50pm.**

So, what happened when you tried adjusting it? Was 250-300 ppm the lowest it would go? That would surprise me, I have adjusted several gas ranges and have usually been able to get them down to 30-40 ppm from as high as 500 ppm.

Keep in mind when I say 500 ppm, I mean the air coming out of the range vent. Even with those high readings, the readings were only 15 ppm a few feet away. The highest readings came right after starting up the oven.

What CO readings did you get with the Bluestar?

What is a "local
safety officer"?

What do you mean
"a bunch of back and forth" with your "local safety officer and
Wolf"?

What prompted you to
use your CO meter to test the levels?

They
are employed by our BC safety Authority who are the regulators for all
regulated work, gas and electrical and such. As a licensed gas fitter I hold my
ticket through them and they are the final say when it comes to appliance
safety. Permits and approvals for equipment go through them. I chatted at
length with him about the stove and he did agree we can’t do anything because
it meets ANSI standards being below 800ppm, but he did say he wouldn’t have it
in his house. His advice to me was if Wolf won’t do anything to then adjust the
burner input by under firing the appliance to bring the CO back inline. I went
to Wolf with this information and they said ‘based on your requirements I don’t
think Wolf products will be right for you, would you consider a buy back’.

Checking
CO is very common here in Canada especially when commissioning an appliance. I
didn’t mention the CO alarm going off because it never went off, however it did
show peak levels in the 15-19ppm range after cooking for a short period of time.
Enough to make me concerned with a pregnant wife and 2 yr old.

This is what will happen if you in a
room where the CO levels are 800 ppm. The ANSI standards are referring to the
CO levels in the air coming out of the range vent. 800 ppm air coming out of
the vent does not translate to a room concentration of 800 ppm. Especially if
you have your ventilation on. Now, if you were getting 250-300 ppm where the
cook was standing, that indicates a concentration of way more than 800 ppm out
of the vent, and thus a violation of ANSI standards. Either way, those readings
were way too high and Wolf's response was poor.

Yes,
I agree, somewhat. The stove should never be operating at the ANSI levels, your house would build up to a dangerous level of CO over time ie. When cooking a
turkey for hours. Our utility will actually shut down any gas range over 540ppm during
normal operation. Also they shutdown any other appliance if its over 250ppm while operating. I
agree we need ANSI standards but as new homes get built tighter and with less makeup
air having a cooking appliance pumping 800ppm at the vent/flue is insane. Consider this regulation was put in place in 1926, buildings have changed considerably since then.

So, what happened when you tried
adjusting it? Was 250-300 ppm the lowest it would go? That would surprise me, I
have adjusted several gas ranges and have usually been able to get them down to
30-40 ppm from as high as 500 ppm.

I
knew this question would pop up, but yes I went through the full range of what
is reasonable on a brand new appliance. Below is what I went through, to try
and reduce the CO:

Tested
inlet pressure, adjusted within 1”wc of manifold pressure. ‘Wolf recommends
having inlet pressure within 1” for proper operation’ – no change

Checked
flip top regulator and it was set to natural gas

Checked
manifold pressure on stove it was at 5”wc

Verified
orifice was correct as per spec sheet supplied by Wolf

Adjusted
air shutter, no change was actually higher and this was the lowest I was able
to get the stove to run at

CO
tests were done after 10-15 minutes of operation and the burners were warm

Clocked
meter to verify burner input is correct

Verified
no blockage in burner tube

Verified
all secondary air ports were free and clear

House
is still very drafty, so not a lack of air within the house

The only thing I never did was under fire it, as I didn't want to go down that road on a brand new piece of equipment.

Wolf
blew me away with their service and willingness to make a customer happy. From
a cooking standpoint however, it will be Bluestar for us.

Interesting to me that several posts question the legitimacy of the high CO report. Seems to me that the concern is extremely well documented. Most Wolf stoves are sold in the USA and we simply do not have anywhere near the public safety infrastructure that our neighbors to the north have so lack of previous reports may simply be due to absence of testing. I don't know if UL tests Wolf stoves but knowing how simple UL tests are it wouldn't surprise me if they've never evaluated CO production.

Recall that the current "Wolf" company has nothing at all to do with the experienced Wolf stove manufacturer based in California. The right to use the "Wolf" brand is now owned by SubZero, a refrigeration company. Makes you wonder just who is designing the newer Wolf stoves. Marketing executives????

Scott, thanks for the extra info. I'm surprised that was the lowest the burners would adjust, as I've always been able to get them down to more normal levels on cheapo ranges. And these gas oven burners are quite simple devices, so I can't imagine what is different about Wolf's that would cause all this difficulty with adjustment. But you clearly know your stuff, so I'm not going to question it.

And wow, Wolf really dropped the ball here in their response. It does seem very atypical of them, since they have quite the reputation for customer service compared to other manufacturers, especially in warranty. We've seen plenty of stories on here of them rushing to help with much smaller issues, so it amazes me they were so cavalier with something like carbon monoxide. Clearly though in the end they were willing to acknowledge there was a problem, as they bought your range back. So I'm extremely surprised they were willing to buy back the range without even once sending one of their technicians out to take a look. I've NEVER heard of a manufacturer doing that before.

I'm still curious what CO readings you got from your Bluestar.

orourkeej9,

Interesting to me that several posts question the legitimacy of the high CO report.

I was not questioning the legitimacy of the post (though I found parts of it very surprising), I just wanted more information as the original was missing some. Also I wanted to clarify about the ANSI standards, because comparing symptoms of CO poisoning against those standards is misleading (even if the standards themselves do have issues).

Most Wolf stoves are sold in the USA and we simply do not have anywhere near the public safety infrastructure that our neighbors to the north have so lack of previous reports may simply be due to absence of testing.

I really don't know what you're talking about here, Canada and US have a great deal of regulatory harmonization in areas like this to enable ease of trade. Appliances for the US and Canadian markets are built and tested to pretty much the exact same standards (sometimes with slight differences like power cords, etc). As far as I know, residential gas range installs in Canada are not required to test for CO, so regulatory-wise there's no difference from us.

I don't know if UL tests Wolf stoves but knowing how simple UL tests are it wouldn't surprise me if they've never evaluated CO production.

Obviously they are tested by UL (or one of UL's competitors), just like all other appliances sold in North America. And yes, CO is part of that testing. The problem is that they are testing to ANSI standards, which, as Scott points out, are not adequate.

Recall that the current "Wolf" company has nothing at all to do with the experienced Wolf stove manufacturer based in California. The right to use the "Wolf" brand is now owned by SubZero, a refrigeration company. Makes you wonder just who is designing the newer Wolf stoves. Marketing executives????

The fact that SubZero was originally a refrigeration-only company is completely irrelevant here. Pretty much ALL the appliance manufacturers we know today, started out by making one type of appliance and then expanding into others.