Even though the Samsung is a gas range it still has plenty of electronics. 5-12 years down the line the integrated circuit board will fail and you will have to decide if you want to spend $300-$500 to fix a used range that cost ~$1200 when new.

Additionally, there have been more complaints than average about Samsung ovens holding their temperature. Most people here on AF like GE and Frigidaire/Kenmore gas ranges in this price range.

If you live in Canada, that Costco Bluestar RCS is by far the best value in gas ranges and it is not even close.

(Hey, I live in Vancouver, BC as well!)

I purchased the Bluestar 30" from Costco as well.

Notes:
1) that you are paying for curbside delivery, not delivery to your kitchen.

2) the best money I ever spent in my life was hiring a mover for an "in-home" move. He moved my BlueStar from my car port, up my back stairs, into my kitchen and moved my old stove to the carport. The best $75 to $100 I've ever spent. My back thanks me and he had moving insurance.

3) The picture you see on the Costco web site is *NOT* what you get.
3a) The blue badge is not present, instead it is engraved.
3b) It's hard to tell, but the door you get is not as wide as the stove itself. It is narrower about 1/4 inch on each side.
3c) The piece below the oven door is definitely smooth without the 10 "slats".

So if you look from the front, the front face containing the dials, the spill tray, and the bottom fascia of the stove are full width. The door itself is 0.25 narrower on each side.

That was a bit unexpected. If you want to chat about the stove, PM me and we can talk over the phone.

Here is a link that might be useful:

>>> I just noticed today they have a new gas range on sale for their black friday event. "They" meaning Costco and referring to the 5 burner 36" Ancona gas range and not to a new stove by NXR? Or did you mean that the Samsung was the new gas range?

Beyond that, I'd say it would be a good thing to take up the offer by unixisgoodforyou and discuss the BS stove in detail. Even better is seeing some of these stoves in person and actually using them.

Well, except that you probably aren't going to see the new Ancona "in the flesh" anytime soon. Compared to the Samsung, I would say the Ancona looks great in its photos but has characteristics that may or may not fit your planned kitchen and cooking. .
As best I can tell, the Ancona seems likely to have been made in Italy by Fratelli Onofri or a similar Italian company which means it is what we would call " counterdepth." Looks snazzy but makes the oven pretty shallow. The oven is downright small by North American standards. Also, when you look at burner power, seems that the Samsung might be a better deal, at least for a small kitchen.

That said, the Samung has smaller burners than those in the BS/RCS and NXR/DRGB models. Which may or may not matter to your cooking.

When it comes to appliance longevity and ease of repair, there is something to be said for simple, traditional gas-stove designs like those of the NXR and BS. A Samsung may or may not have longevity. While I harbor suspicions/prejudices that make me agree with Deeageaux's projection of weak-kneed ciircuit boards/microprocessors failing in a 5 to 7 years, that is prejudice and pessimism, not a data driven point. I find myself thinking of the recent proclivity of Whirlpool/Kirchenaid/Maytag ranges to blow out the oven electronics or the over-temp circuit breaker whenever self cleaning functions were used. But, OTOH, there are lots of microprocessor driven circuit boards in the stressful environment under the hoods of motor vehicles, and many of those last for decades. Stove makers should be able to achieve similar durability and reliability. Maybe they have. Maybe next year?

At this point, it seems to me that we just do not yet know how durable or short-lived electronics will be with the Samsung ranges.

Anolther consideration that may favor a Samsung for you (or not) is that the electronics give ou a lot of features not available on the NXR DRGB3001 and Blue Star RCS models. Sabbath modes, self cleaning ovens, and a bunch more. Can't get any of those features with NXR or BS stoves.

Samsung's cooktop real estate is more restricted --- the thick backsplash and the major-brand standards for burner spacing mean you may have trouble ftting four large pots on the stove at a time. If that matters to you. It does for some (like me) but a lot of people just do not care.

The back burners of the Samsung are definitely better suited to using smaller pans. The NXR and BS/RCS give you more flexibility on pan placement, if that matters to what and how you cook. But, as I said, this will matter to some and not others and will matter in varying degrees.

As for deciding between the BS/RCS and Duro/NXR, there are a number of other considerations. Most of them are matters of personal preferences and opinions.

If you can tolerate it, here is a car analogy. The NXR is a budget choice. A Huyndai, maybe an Elantra or an Accent, (Credit Tyguy with that helpful analogy). The Blue Star is more of a domestically produced, heavy duty durable vehicle like a manually shifted Ford F150 pickup or one of the domestically produced Subaru Outbacks. The Samsung is more akin to an imported Kia Soul. Less exoensive, fully functional wheels, that maybe (or maybe not) what you'd prefer, given the choice.

If budget is an importat factor, then the NXR (currently at $1799 on Costco.ca) is substantially less expensive than the BS/RCS (currently at $2399 on Costco.ca).

For some cooks -- deeageaux being one --- the flame spread characteristics of the BS open "star" burners are a significant advantage to their cooking. Others (myself, for example) don't find the open burners a big deal and find the dual-stacked sealed design of the NXR perfectly acceptable for what we do. While I might prefer the BS-style open burners in the abstract, I'm not willing to fork over the extra $600 to get them. (When I was stove shopping last year on this side of the border , the NXR-BS difference was even greater, more like $1500.) Again, if your budget isn't limited, then this is a matter of preference

However, when it comes to oven size, the Samsung and BS beat the NXR. The NXR oven is a bit shorter and shallower (due to the projection of the convection fan housing) and has only two racks with five rack positions. (Actualy, it seems to be the same size as the ovens in the Electrolux Icon gas stoves that I've seen.) The BS will (barely) hold a full size sheet pan. MOst of us use half-sze sheet pans, and the BS oven can fit two of them side by side. I haven't really checked out the Samsung oven, but I'll bet its the same size as the oven in the Samsung NE597NOPBSR that I looked at last year. WHile it will not fit a full size sheet pan, it does allow you to shoehorn two half-dheet pans side-by-side and also has seven rack positions. Some people are strongly attracted to the BS range's cast-iron range-top surface. Others are repelled by black (non-induction) cooktops. That's a matter of personal esthetic preferences.

Some like the industrial/commercial look of the BS and are fine with cleaning the Blue Star's cast iron stove-top. Others find the stainless top of the NXR fine and easier to clean/keep clean. Remember what I said about about perferring Fusions, F150s and Outbacks to Rios? Same thing goes here.

Then there is the matter of warranty service. NXR, as the newest brand with the smallest market share, probably has the fewest complaints. Not so much because it is significantly more reliable or has better quality control but more because its smaller market share means that there are fewer people from whiom complaints could come.

Any gas stove -- including BS and NXR --- will need some occasional upkeep and maintenance. For example, you'll eventually need to replace oven and burner ignitors just as you will eventually have to replace sparkplugs on you car. But --- and her is the big qualifier --- if you get a lemon, or if your stove arrives with warranty damage or if your stove gets damaged in shipping to you --- it seems that all three brands have difficulties with timely and competent service for their warranty contractors. Check out Samsung complaints on consumerafffairs.com. The market shares of Blue Star and NXR are so too small to produce much of a response on consumeraffiars, but there have been numbers of threads here with tales of woe about both companies.

Counteracting those uncertainties, there is the great benefit of buying each brand's range from Costco. Maybe the stove gets dropped at your curb (rather than fully installed in your kitchen) but you can take it back months later (for a full refund) if you just don't like the stove, never mind warranty issues.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Nov 29, 13 at 16:17

that is prejudice and pessimism, not a data driven point.

Whether it's data driven or not, I haven't seen it well supported on this forum over the past 13 or so years of reading. Consider that perhaps with the exception of one or two folks that I'm not aware of, everyone with wall ovens has electronics. Consider how much people are spending on these, especially high end ones like Wolf and Miele. Consider that replacing a wall oven may require cabinet modification. Now show me all the "repair or replace?" threads. We see a lot of them for dishwashers and fridges, but very few for wall ovens with electronics, let alone DF ranges.

Perhaps ironically, I did blow the board on a Profile wall oven due to what I consider a design flaw, but I find it hard to believe this is a common problem that few post about for some reason.

I'm not disagreeing with foodonastump's point particularly the "haven't seen it well supported on this forum over the past 13 years of reading."

That's what I meant by contrasting "data driven" with "pessimism and prejudice."

As I suggested with my analogy to vehicle electronics, it seems like manufacturers could make long-lived, durable electronic controls that will readily survive kitchen use for decades.

What I see is uncertainty over whether (and who) has done so. We just don't have data to say much one way or the other. Foodonastump makes an interesting point that the paucity of oven "repair or replace" threads implies there is greater reliability than pessimism and prejudice suggest.

I'm just not sure how much to make of that. For one thing, there were dozens of reports about the electronics in Whirlpool/Kitchenaid ovens and ranges failing from self cleaning cycles that either fried the electronics or tripped an over-temp circuit breaker that could only be reset by taking the oven apart. Much of the commentary was in the vein of "I'm never buying a WP product ever again" rather than "should I fix this or replace it?"

For another, I recall seeing numbers of threads that begin with "the controls/electronics in my 6 year old [ insert brand name here] just bit the dust . . ."

And for another, there are the oft-repeated pronouncements by the likes of Consumer Reports, National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) etc. Seems to me that in 2007, CR or, maybe NAHB, reported survey data indicating that electric ranges generally lasted 13 years and gas ranges 15 years. More recently, I recall CR saying that current appliances are expected to last seven or eight years on average based on manufacturer warranty information. I don't recall seeing any data back up this assertion, though. (Not saying there wasn't any; just that I haven't seen it.) So, here's another holiday research project, maybe.

Maybe when I've got more time over the holidays, it might be interesting for me to try to compile a catalog of complaints about electronics, too?

And, BTW, I too blew the oven controller on a GE Profile (although mine was an 11 year old DF range rather than a wall oven.) The replacement parts cost more than the stove was worth and more than half the cost of a comparable replacement. That inspired some prejudice and pessimism that factored in when I shopped for a replacement stove.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Nov 29, 13 at 16:11

It wouldn't take an Einstein to put all these electronic control cards into an outriggger box that could be screwed to the lower frame out of hot harm's way and connected by a ribbon cable up to the hot stuff. The fact they don't and buy their cards from the cheapest junk makers who submit bids tells you all you need to know about appliance company executives.

JW - I wasn't including the self-clean issue because that seemed like a brand specific problem, not a general statement about electronics in ovens. You make some good points though. I don't argue that there are threads about blown control boards, I just think the volume is pretty low considering how much of these things are out there. Granted, the vast majority of ranges/ovens out there are fairly disposable after a decade so we probably don't hear about them for that reason. Who knows.

Good points, laat2. Sad commentary.

So, these are not data driven points either. I don't think it's possible to have that type of data.

The Samsung isn't particularly highly rated - people having problems with the stove top design and with the oven thermostats or bake burner arrangements. I would agree about the stove top design from the pictures alone. Fish burner in center isn't a very useful thing. as it crowds the other burners - it's more like use the fish burner or use the other four burners but not both. People who have actually used it report that the rear burners are too close to the back of the range, so its difficult to have large pots there.

Read some of the reviews in each category of rating to get an idea of what others like/dislike about the product and whether it affects you. People have widely differing expectations of performance.

I, of course, had two NXR's - the second one a replacement for the first. The second one was repurchased by the maker. In total, we owned the stove for almost 9 months - it was being repaired or waiting for repairs for 5 months. While there's going to be some unfortunate souls who have that kind of bad luck - there were actually two of us.

The other person bought through costco and was delivered a stove with problems, so they got another one intending to take the first one back. It turned out to have a different set of problems. So they took bits of each and exchanged them to get one working, correct stove. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure they kept that one.

Even at that, it just can't be happening to everyone or NXR would be out of business. I think it's fair to say beware.

I have seen 3 Blue Stars this month in two different showrooms. Any of them could beat up an NXR on quality and fit/finish. And 15k open burners will work much better than 15k sealed burners.

Interestingly, all three of them had oven door issues - mostly with the interface between the oven, the gaskets and the door - extra pieces of gasket, missing pieces of gasket or falling apart gasket material. One had a warped door - no brainer to get that replaced but still.

It was a little disappointing - but still has a great cooking surface. The only time I got to cook on the burner design was on a garland. It was smooth even heat across the entire pan and you could drive the heat way up without the flame starting to climb the sides of the pan. I know nothing about their oven.

Read some reviews - both here and on other sites. Learn what types of problems have been found and Bluestar's record of repairs. Think about whether the reported issues would affect you. Service can be a lot about location - whether anyone in the area is trained to work on your manufacturer's product or even on similar products.

the.green.wombat: Are you still interested in the BlueStar? I hadn't heard from you. The offer is still open. We can chat about my Costco BlueStar RCS, or if you would like, you can drop by to see one in person.

This post was edited by unixisgoodforyou on Fri, Dec 20, 13 at 17:18

unixisgoodforyou We will be redoing our kitchen soon and I am seriously looking at Bluestar, although probably a BS cooktop with a separate wall oven, but am considering a the Costco BS RCS305bv2. What are your thoughts on yours now, several years of using it, Thankyou

Am interested in the same unit! Have you had any replies?

I am interested in the Costco BS RCS 36" model.