All I recommend doing is going to see the products for yourself. You can go to a local appliance store, or if nearby, you should check out a showroom. I know Sub-Zero/Wolf has showrooms around the country, not sure about BlueStar. I looked on their website, but couldn't find anything. Check out both links posted...

http://www.wolfappliance.com/GasRanges/R36GasRange
The third picture over really shows the power of the Wolf grill.

Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Showroom Locator

What I ended up doing is ordering a bluestar 36" with 2 22k burners in the middle. I will just throw a 12" cast iron reversable grill/griddle in the middle to do steaks indoors. The dual 22k burners should get hotter than a 12" built in grill which is 15k.

If I am cooking more than just a few steaks I can go outside to the BBQ.

Of the built in grills I have read the wolf is supposed to be pretty good, but I have not seen or tried it. The best thing to do is to find a dealer that has a "live" kitchen where you can examine the grill for yourself.

Steve -

I've been spinning on the same question over the last few months. The Bluestar grill doesn't look hot enough. My old weber charcoal grill was hot enough, but my new gas (non-IR) grill is not. Is Capital's (the other range brand I'm considering) IR grill hot enough? In researching on google I found a youtube clip of a guy's sure-fire steak grilling method using an IR grill. First he sears it on a very hot IR grill for short time to produce grill lines, then transfers it to a cast iron skillet for the real searing to produce that desired crust, then he puts the skillet in the oven to finish cooking to the desired done-ness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shI5C4GdGwM

So now I'm figuring- if I'm only using the IR grill for cosmetic purposes and the best sear/crust comes from the cast iron skillet, why bother with the grill?

So I've been doing pan-seared steaks lately and getting great results. And now I'm thinking if I get a range with a grill, it will be for other uses besides steak. Dogs & brats in January? Grilled veggies? Grilled fish & chicken? Those sound nice but they are a distant second on the priority list behind cooking a great steak, so perhaps I'll just go with the all-burner range and get a good 2-burner cast iron griddle.

Sorry I can't answer your original question. I get the impression that IR grills (whether on a kitchen range or in an outdoor bbq) are hotter than a mid-range conventional gas grill. Hot enough to put a good crust on a steak while leaving it rare or medium rare inside like charcoal? Don't know.

I have a BlueStar with the grill. I use the grill every day. It will put a good sear on a steak, chicken, anything you put on it. If you like to grill at all, get a range with a grill, you will not regret it.

I know this may sound like heresy (perhaps explained by the fact that I am a recovering vegetarian), but I've been making pretty amazing steaks in my broiler (new DF Wolf). I don't have an indoor or outdoor grill. I also like the pan-seared method on the stove top.

Thanks for the feedback! I did manage to find a dealer with both Wolf and BlueStar, and we're going to try them out tomorrow. Unfortunately this particular BlueStar doesn't have a grill, but after these comments and some more research I think IR is the only possibility of getting the heat I'd need, which rules out their grill anyway. So I'm just going to see what kind of results I can get from the Wolf grill and the BlueStar broiler.

Of course the idea of a grill pan over 2 22,000 BTU burners is quite intriguing. Seems like a setup like that might get pretty hot :) I also get great results with pan searing the smaller, boneless cuts, but a porterhouse is a different story. I feel like that kind of cut needs flames. So we'll see.

While I agree that the Wolf grill might be hotter with the IR grill, if I recall it only has one heat setting ON, which for most things might be ok to start cooking but also too hot after the initial blast, in many cases HOT is to hot when it comes to BBQ. The problem most guys have cooking on the outside BBQ is they think everything needs to be on full blast, this of course is completely wrong. As too the Bluestar Broiler its 15k btu with cast iron grates, which if left for 20 -25 mins to heat the cast iron will be more than hot enough for stakes, we have a 60" range with a 24" grill and its more than adequate at cooking meats and veggies pizzas anything we need.

When it comes to the broiler the Bluestar should be hotter due to it having an IR plate and the distance from the top rack position to the broiler plate, Bluestar is a fraction over 3" while the wolf is 6" away.

The other thing to think about is (IMO) that most of your cooking is going to be done on the burners not in the oven on a grill or under a broiler, for me the Grill, oven and broiler together is less in % terms than I use the burners by a good margin.

when it comes to a grill pan on a 22k burner its not intriguing its fantastic especially in comparison to a sealed 16k btu burner.

Which ever way you go good luck.

Yes, I agree Trevor. I just needed to consider every possible detail as part of this arduous decision. However, upon seeing, finally, a BlueStar side-by-side with a Wolf, the decision was a no-brainer. I'll tell you, BlueStar really needs to work on their website, because it simply doesn't do justice to their products: the real thing looks and feels a whole lot better than I was expecting.

So the final verdict: 36" BlueStar, all burners. When I need flames and can't use lump charcoal outside, the broiler will do a fine job.

Thanks all.

I have a Bluestar range with the 12" grill and I can tell you that the grill has a week spot in the middle where it hardly heats up at all. Even after 15- 20 minutes I can place my hand over the middle and not feel that much heat. The burner has two arms that come off a middle one with no holes in the middle rather like the letter "m" only the sides really heat up. I thought about drilling holes in the middle where the gas comes in from to solve the problem but was advised that it might be dangerous and against the warrenty.