Well, there's the issue of venting. With a Bluestar you SHOULD have a good vent hood that vents outside but with a NYC apartment you may not be able to vent outside - others on this forum have gotten by with a good recirculating hood.

I have the smallest 24" Bluestar in an 8'x9.5' kitchen with no venting and it works fine. I do have a window nearby that is always slightly opened, and I live in a mild climate.

Yes, venting is needed for stir fry, and would be nice for pan grilling, but I manage. Eventually I will redo the kitchen and put in ventilation, but it's been fine in the meantime.

There are a lot of good ductless hoods for 24 & 30" ranges. Prestige, Kobe, Zephyr all have great performing ductless hoods

carciofo, venting will definitely be an issue. You don't want your whole apartment to smell like last night's dinner.
Weissman is right - there may be an issue with installing a vent, so before you start looking for vent hoods, you need to know for sure whether you can or cannot install an outside vent.

I beg to differ. No one wants their apartment to smell like last night's dinner, but if you heat a cast-iron pot on a cheap stove for 5 minutes and cook, or heat up a Mauviel copper pot with a Bluestar for 1 minute and cook- the chance is, they're both going to smell.

Believe me, I cooked on a small gas range when I bought into this co-op and it stunk up just as bad.

I'm not saying ventilation isn't needed, but stink and smoke is determined more by what you cook than what you're cooking on. I prefer the speed and the control that the Bluestar offers,... I could burn the place down just as easily with my old range if I wanted to.

"others on this forum have gotten by with a good recirculating hood"

Just what is a good one? I have a simular problem in my Condo and no way to vent outside. I have been trying to find a good one without luck.

Thanks for all of the responses. It does seem to me that regardless of what stove you have, a small kitchen is going to lead to an apt. smelling of cooking. The BTU's given off by a range just determine how quickly you get to that stage. Regardless of what I get, there is no avoiding the smoke given off when browning proteins, etc. I have a window in my new kitchen which is an advantage over my last apt. which had a ventilation fan that was not very effective (I always had to remove the battery from the smoke alarm if I was browning something on the stove, which was often). I have no experience with ductless hoods, so I do not know how effective they are. I have meetings with two kitchen designers this Sat. and Sun. both of whom work for licensed BlueStar dealers, I guess I will see what advice they offer. I'll post their comments if anyone is interested.

carciofo,

When I lived in NYC (with a kitchen even smaller than yours!), I did two things that dramatically improved my "air performance":

1) Bought a Vornado tabletop fan and rigged it so it blew (exhausted) out the sole kitchen window.

2) Bought a Honeywell HEPA air cleaner, turned it on full blast about 15 minutes before cooking, ran it while cooking, and would let it run overnight if need be.

It's not the best solution, and a BlueStar may overwhelm this little setup, but give it a shot...

Hi there. As I have answered in previous posts, I too live in a NYC co-op. We also cannot vent out. My kitchen is small, but before we renovated, we really decided on the Bluestar 30 inch range.

We are also fortunate to have a window perpendicular to the range about 5 feet to the left of it. Above the Bluestar we have the Prestige Proline recirculating hood. I was told it was the best of it's type. I have to agree- it's great. BUT... we also benefit by having a Whirlpool Velos microwave/speed cooker/steamer/convection perpendicular to the right side of the range, across the doorway. The Velos has a very powerful fan underneath, and we have it attached to an upper cabinet.

When we know we are going to do "messy" cooking, we use a window fan, and the Prestige, and the Velos. This does the trick. (for the mostpart)

Try to avoid things like skirt steak, and you will be fine. We have used the wok on numerous occasions, and it has been great. The Bluestar has been absolutely wonderful to cook on, and in. You will not regret it.

Hoods reduce cooking odors they do not remove them