Are you nearby any dealers (or the factory in Reading PA) who have a working model? If so, ask if they'll let you take it for a test bake.

Ya, we have a local dealer and I spent 30mins or so checking out the 48' model. Think it would be too difficult to actually bake in the demo. May consider it though.

I have a BS, and was not very successful in creating a moist environment using lava rocks in a bread pan. Since it is a well vented gas oven, I think you would need to try the Dutch Oven or steam bread maker http://www.steambreadmaker.com/ or a similar approach.

I bought a used Cadco oven and have it in my garage for artisan bread. Since it is electric, it was easier to steam, and during the summer, heating the Bluestar up to 500 put a fair amount of heat in the kitchen.

Thanks. I've had great luck with the Dutch oven technique. I was thinking with the full size oven (my current five star gas oven has two smaller 18" ovens) I could use the technique of covering the whole oven stone with a large inverted aluminum pan. Do you have the platinum? I'm specifically interested how the new PoweR burner performed? Also was thinking the smaller oven might be easier to generate steam in as well.
Thanks for the input.
Mike

Wow, checked out the link after I responded. The 6" cover from the site seems like the perfect solution. The larger size is about the same as the oven dimensions. Needed to buy a larger pizza stone anyways.... Put my order in tonight.
Mike

This post was edited by MobyIck on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 22:21

Mike, I don't have the Platinum, I have the RNB. I bought the range for the burners, and decided that if the oven didn't work out for bread, I would try other options. I have not used the bread steam pan, but it does seem like a great idea. I just went with a very small electric oven, and a handheld steamer, and it works pretty well.