If you detected arrogance in posts that say pretty much the same as you are saying aggie perhaps you should read them again. It is problematic from both sides and if you read laag's post above I don't think it is arrogant. His post pretty much covers notsohappycthulhu complaint too. Imagine a room full of astronauts and the guys who make the rockets they fly in "That one didn't work too well Bert" says Fred the rocket scientist, "Luckily there were only monkeys up there, eh Fred?" said Bert, another rocket scientist. "So, what are you going to do before you send us up there?" asks Arnold the astronaut. "Use up all the monkeys, eh Bert." Fred said. Some people in the design business want to improve the quality of the service the same as a rocket scientist so that there is less hit and miss, this is not arrogant it is conscientious. And when nicethyme says "It has to do with people not recognizing the profession as anything more than "he/she planted the columnar thing at the corner (cause that's what you're supposed to do)" LOL screw'em! raise your rates and make sure those type of people will avoid you." she is joking. Constructive criticism from ones peers is a viable way to improve but if all you are looking for is "wow what a nice dog" fuggedaboudit.

I warn you to seriously consider my account before purchasing any Ilve product. It took 9 months to reach a resolution with Ilve. Terrible customer support for a brand new range, and trust me it’s not just one customer service rep that caused this, it was everyone I worked with. Here is what happened: – Ilve Nostalgie 36inch range arrived in sub-optimal condition. Gas burners would rarely ignite or hold flame, only 1-2 burners would work at the same time with low BTU. – Began troubleshooting by calling Ilve Customer Support number, the Customer Support is contracted out to Superior Marketing who is their distributor in the US. – Customer Support began trying to locate a service technician in my area (top 10 metro in USA). For weeks, I would call in once per week to check the status of my case, Ilve rarely reached out to me with updates. – Customer Support could not locate a service provider in my area and asked me to find one myself. When reached, many service providers in my area said they would not service Ilve. – At this point, the customer care team began to hang up on me when I would call in to ask for help with locating a service technician. – I now had to call into the Sales team and begin working with them for support. – A service technician was finally scheduled and assessed my issue 3 ½ months after contacting Customer Support. – It took 8 weeks to deliver the parts the technician needed. – Technician re-assessed the range with new parts and concluded the range was not manufactured correctly and should be returned as it was irreparable. – From this point, it took 5 weeks of constant requests to begin the refund process. – After this, it took an additional 9 weeks for the refund to be processed and to get my money back. A product issue was seriously compounded by a failing customer care team. This market segment of home appliances is often called “attainable luxury” – you get the high end look while sacrificing the backend support. Please understand that your appliance may be optimal and working as it should when you purchase it. But buyer beware if you need customer support – that is when the buyers regret kicks in.

Final update: American Range refused to replace the defective range, so my purchase was refunded and the distributor worked with a nearby retailer to pick up the range about 1.5 weeks ago. I am glad to be through with American Range. I replaced it at the same time with a new Capital Culinarian 30" manual clean open burner range (MCOR304LP) that I bought through Eurostoves. We're still getting to know it but so far it's great. The burners are incredible! They worked like a charm with essentially no adjustments needed after installation. The three 25K burners are super strong on hi, yet they turn down to an incredibly small flame on low. It's quite the range of temperature. We only used the oven a few times thus far, but it cooked those items well (trays of bacon, a batch of muffins). The thermostat seems to be set for using convection, and when we don't want to use convection we need to turn the setting to ~25 degrees higher than the temp we want. For example, if a recipe calls for 350 degrees no convection, we generally need to set it to 375. When first turning on the oven, the initial heatup seems to turn off well before the oven reaches the temp setting. We found that turning on convection during heatup helps the oven get to the temp setting more quickly. The American Range oven behaved similarly, so perhaps pro style LP ovens work this way in general. The fit and finish is great. No scratches and everything is put together well. We haven't used the broiler or the wok ring yet but look forward to using them. My best moment thus far is when the CC brought ~6 quarts of water to boil (for cooking pasta) in like 5-7 minutes. I was surprised and elated! We are way, way happier with this CC than the similar-model American Range that did not work out for us at all. Cheers!

I don’t know about Blue Star as I couldnt find any here in Europe, but I’ve seen all other three ranges up close. Lacanche more or less sits between Ilve and la cornue price wise if you compare comparable models (all three come in multiple choices of what you can have in/on your stove and the width) Personally I think Lacanche is the best value for money if you can afford this price range. The Ilve is a lot of parts screwed together. So eventually grease will build up between the parts and it will not be such a pretty sight long term. Shortly said, it’s a pain to clean. I’ve also seen La Cornues up close and for that amount of money (more expensive than a Lacanche) I think they look rather flimsy. It was in a Williams sanoma, so lots of people will have touched it, but it looked like it could fall apart any minute. So personally I chose for a Lacanche. I‘ve only had it since Easter, but I’m loving it. Ask anyone who knows me and I’m a fairly tidy person, but by no means spic and span clean. But I actually enjoy taking a wipe over my Lacanche after cooking because it cleans so easily. The power on this beauty is one I’ve never experienced on any cooker I’ve had before and I’ve moved around a lot, so have had extensive use on 8 different cookers, but this is by far the best. If I ever move again (I hope not) the first thing I would change is replace any cooker if it’s not already a Lacanche.