Yeah, I looked at blue star but I ruled it out because my kids are still young and clumsy. My friend has one and I'm afraid for her because she's super clumsy and she knows it too but still went with it.

I'm not sure what you mean by an error code. I didn't notice any panels on the thermador, where does it show up? I need to go back and find out more about the simmer function, I thought that all of their burners were the same and simmering is done using that on/off function on all of their burners. Might be wrong. Other than the simmer, everything else seems to be better than the wolf.

I also heard that wolf has the best service, the model I'm looking at doesn't have the blue enamel in the oven bc I'm just looking at the straight gas range. I just don't want any complicated stuff.

We have a 4 year-old, but that wouldn't stop me from buying a Bluestar. Maybe I'm too callous, but I figure she'll learn pretty quickly not to touch things that are hot.

The controls on the new Thermadors are probably completely different than the old, so my comment about the error code most likely isn't relevant. Every once in a while, the range starts beeping and the code F3 starts blinking in the clock.

I can't say for sure on the ranges, but the Thermador rangetop I looked at had 2 simmer burners that worked exactly the same as the ones on my range (i.e. they constantly shut off and turn on). The salesman said that it's supposed to provide an average number of BTU's per hour, but that he thinks a very low constant flame is better. I agree with him completely. The interesting thing is that we can get a great simmer flame on the non-simmer burners of our Thermador. The Wolf simmer burner seems excellent.

In theory, it seems to me that the star-shaped burners on the Thermador would be superior to the circular ones on the Wolf. The circular flame on our current Thermador creates hot spots on the outside of the pan, and the middle doesn't seem to get hot enough. That's the reason I wanted a Bluestar (which my wife rejected as being too difficult to clean). The Wolf rep that I spoke with claimed that circular burners (at least on a sealed range) are much easier to clean than star-shaped ones. This kind of made sense to me.

If you're going with all gas, then I agree that Wolf is the safe but less exciting choice.

Thanks, greasetrap, you've been very helpful. I guess I'll make my final trip out and pull the trigger.

This thread is really helpful as I have been seriously considering an AG 30" Thermador. I have read a bit about this simmer clunkiness, but never heard it spelled out. Does this on-off mean that the burner is constantly clicking to reignite when set to simmer. I am also then back to the drawing board to look at Wolf -- or maybe DCS or GE Monogram. Did anyone choose a non-BlueStar path here that wants to help lead the way? THANKS!

Swatyreno, yes the burners are constantly clicking on and off, depending on the level of simmer you've chosen. I could live with the noise, but I really don't like the way it works. The item simmering is either heating at too high a level, or not heating at all. The interesting thing is that you can get a great simmer on the normal burners (at least on my 10 y.o. model), by simply carefully adjusting the knob between Off and High. The other issue (at least for us) is that the simmer burners won't work in a power outage. It would probably be worthwhile to go back to the store to ask them to demo the burner for you.

There's others here who know far more about the other choices than me, so perhaps they're in a better position to guide you. Although we're getting separate ovens and rangetop, Wolf seemed to be the natural compromise for me and my wife.

I want to know why you all are saying Wolf is not exciting. Is Thermador, BS and GE exciting? I think I am missing some excitement in my life then. What is exciting about those brands?

So I just pulled the trigger. I went with Thermador. Regarding the simmer issue, it's the 2 left burners. In addition to the normal setting these two have the added extra low simmer setting. You can adjust it to turn on/off upto 5 seconds and yes they do click but only in that setting. I chose it because I will most likely not use that function much and I think the oven would be better for me. However, I have heard that people who do delicate sauces actually love this feature.

You're right, kalapointer. Ranges are not exciting. I guess I've just seen too many kitchen magazines and everything is pretty much Wolf. I just got tired of looking at it. I didn't mean to be negative about Wolf. Trust me, I was very close to getting that one, its really hard to beat.

I thought I didn't need a dishwasher, but I actually looked at the one coming with it and you can upgrade to get a sapphire dishwasher for $200 which has a top rack for utensils and water-softner which are features that I wish my 7yr. old Bosch had.

I was so glad to finally make this decision and thought I don't have to read another appliance review for awhile until late last night my washer broke!

sorry Topaz dishwasher, Sapphire was $400 more for extra moving parts.