Which BlueStar Range?

11 years ago

Hi all,

I am in Canada and looking for a 36" gas range for my new house that is under construction. The Bluestar options from Costco are literally half the price of any other comparable range that I can get around here, so I will be going with one of them (we will have a separate electric wall oven, so I don't need a dual fuel).

Costco has two options: the RCS (I believe) or the Culinary series. The RCS has the Nova open burners but the Culinary has sealed burners. The two ranges are identical except for a few important differences:

-The Culinary costs $500 less than the RCS ($2900)
-The RCS has five 15,000 BTU open burners and a simmer, whereas the Culinary is sealed with two 18,000 BTU burners, three 15,000s and one 5,000.
-The Culinary comes with the closer-to-flush small rear trim as opposed to the six inch high back plate on the RCS. My wife finds the smaller one more attractive as it will expose more of our travertine tile backsplash.

Can I save the $500 bucks and get more power, or do you think I need to have the open burners? Neither of us are amazing cooks at this point but we plan to work on that.

Thanks for the advice.

Featured Answer

Eric Keenan

11 years ago

I have owned an RNB 30" range for about 13 years. I never regretted it. 2 18k burners, 1-15k and and 1-9k. I have never had to call a repair man, but I have had to fix a few things. The only reason and the best reason to get a Bluestar is the open burner, which is the best burner in anything that I have seen short of a professional range. I am a foodie and I really dislike cooking on every other residential stove...Vikings (their open burner is horrible), many sealed versions from KitchenAid to Dacor. I haven't cooked on wolf, but at the time all they had was sealed burners and I hate the quality and dispersion of sealed flames.

Here are my issues with BlueStar

1. I just fixed a noisy fan...see my post on that on my profile. This has nagged me for many years and I just fixed it.

2. Learn how to change an ignitor...and buy a fistful of them! What happens is boilovers come in contact with the ignitor and it ends up cracking the now-hot ignitor. the spark will leak to the burner below the flame holes and not ignite the gas at ignitor tip.. I think I have changed about 7 of them over the years. It is really easy. The problem is the ceramic in the ignitor is "cupped" and collects boilover water instead of being "peaked", which would shed water. I have experimented with putting silicone caulk in the cup before installing and that does help, but over time it just burns out. Oh, ditch the ignitor screws that come with the range and replace them with stainless steel found at most hardware store. The regular machine screws end up rusting and I ended up breaking an old screw off in the burner and I had to buy a new burner (expensive!). My next project is to find a cheap aftermarket ignitor and fab it to work...standby on that.

3. My door did get stuck. I used a little extra force to "pursuade" it open and it slightly bent the mounting hinge. I have not replaced it nor have I asked for replacement. It still closes pretty good and gets up to temperature fine. The key to keeping the door working well is to periodically put a little dab of axel grease (90w) on the contact surface and it will keep it moving smooth. But since mine is well-broke-in...I haven't done that in at least a year. Time to go do it now I suppose.

4. I needed to replace the electronic control module. It is a standard component and I believe compatible/identical with the Wolf module. It wasn't expensive and not difficult for me to replace, but what is easy for my probably isn't for another. I can't remember the symptom, but I either had no cooktop spark, or the spark sensor wouldn't turn off.

5. The last thing that is a little annoying is that during oven warm-up or during broiler use, a simultaneous cooktop flame changes shape/quality and it looses contact with the ignitor/flame sensor. That, in turn, causes the ignitors to stark clicking away. It goes away when the the warmup is done. Subsequent oven burner ignitions have no effect on the cooktop flames. I have no idea what causes this. I use natural gas.

That is about it. The way I look at Bluestar is that they can be very Ferrari-like. Most components are very strong, some are finicky, but overall, it will give a performance like no other.

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Comments (11)

3ilovepie
11 years ago
BeMurda, there has been a lot of discussion around the oven doors getting very warm on the BlueStar.

As a fellow Canuck I was enticed by the Costco version too. We have young children so we are going to get the rangetop an seperate ovens.

Others with more experience can advise the sealed vs unsealed burners - but from my understanding if you choose BlueStar then it's because of the open burners.

Happy shopping.
User
11 years ago
I would prefer the open buners.
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mayflower1032
11 years ago
The only reason to get a Bluestar is for the cast iron open burner set up. Only reason. That was my sole reason, to get a 100 percent cast iron top. I replaced the stainless steel center piece with their cast iron replacement piece so it is all cast iron. I needed the durability the cast iron offers. I did not want the cleaning issues associated with stainless or baked enamel on the top. The rest of the range is very medocre at best. I have mixed reviews on Bluestar.
Appliancetoday
11 years ago
Hi,
There are 6 current Bluestar 36" ranges on the market.
- RCS366 Open Burner style (Costco)
- RCS366 Sealed Burner - new this year
- RPB366 Open Burner (sold at independent dealers with more features than Costco in canada)
- RPB366 Open burner sold in the USA different than the canadian model feature wise.
- RNB366 Open burner
- BPS366 Open Burner platinum (very nice)

The main reason to buy a Bluestar would be for the 100% cast iron open burner top and the performance of the high heat burners. As far as the oven is concerned Bluestar has fixed previous issues in its last revision.

Its priced very well in the RCS and RPB versions.

Checking today the open burner Costco is $3400.00 and the RPB version sells approx 3900.00 with upgrades such as island trim, 18k btu burner, glide out oven rack and some small design things.

use the dealer locator on the bluestar website to find a RPB selling dealer at bluestarcooking.com

Goodluck in your selection.
BeMurda
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi all,

At this point I don't really feel like I could get anything other than a rangetop from Bluestar.

Some nice salespeople turned on the oven of an RNB for us and let us touch the door and the kickplate. It was unreasonably hot, four people who touched it agreed that it would burn them within one second (we all had to pull our hands away immediately). With dogs and small children this is a serious hazard. If a child were to fall over it would be a disaster.

I really love the cast iron of the bluestar, but now I am looking at American Range Performer and Capital Culinarian.
mayflower1032
11 years ago
Bluestar corrected a door issue, but the new doors are garbage compared to the old version. I am on my 3rd door in the past 2 months. Quality issues on the 1st 2 that were sent.
User
11 years ago
Just feel the need to share my experience even though this post seems idle. I have a Bluestar RCS 30" and the oven door does NOT get HOT, it's the kick panel that gets HOT. I do understand the concern for people with small kids but just want to clarify that on my range the door never gets hot. It also functions fine in my case, no issues so far. Personally I don't understand why anyone would let small children near a stove that is being cooked on but that's just me......
User
11 years ago
I just got an RNB 36" and had the oven on for 100 minutes (40 at 300 degrees and 60 at 425) the first night during the BS-recommended initial burnoff. And I broiled in it last night. The door does NOT get HOT as the post above this notes.
User
11 years ago
Thanks wookie2, great stuff.
Eric Keenan
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Oh, another thing FWIW. We have raised two girls, one from infant and the other was a toddler when I got this stove, and raised a total of 5 puppies for a guide dog program. None of us have burn marks and none of us have been injured. But one thing to know about gas ranges, and gas oven's in particular is that they do "breathe" to a much greater extent than electric. I live in a very temperate climate and I don't mind openning a window and turning on the range hood to disipate heat. The colder the climate, the less I would worry about this range. However, if I lived in the South or Florida and had to have AC for 8 months out of the year, i would gravitate toward an electric wall oven. But I simply could not live without a Bluestar cooktop.

Which BlueStar Range?

Eric Keenan

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Which BlueStar Range?

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