Problem with Blue Star vent

9 years ago

Hi,

I have owned a blue star range and vent for one year. To be honest, I thought I would be happier with them, but I am slowly working through the issues.

The burners on the range click continuously, and one burner blows up while lighting. The fan on the vent started making a terrible noise that sounded like a 747 winding down. The blue star rep came out and fixed the burners, although sometimes the clicking continues. There was an inspection sticker that came loose and fell in the fan blades, hence the noise. So, nothing too major to say they are lemons, but I thought I would LOVE the items, and they are OK.

So here is my current conundrum. The vent drips grease in the weirdest place. I clean the baffles all that time, and I don't even cook that much greasy food, so I am surprised this is happening. I have looked everywhere and cannot find a grease trap I am overlooking. I have a picture here, and hopefully you can tell what I am talking about. There is a collection of grease at the bottom of the screw on the outer right had corner of the vent.

If anyone has ANY ideas about what is going is going on here, please let me know. It drip s onto the counter over night, and I am afraid it will hit my white oak floors at some point.

Thanks.

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Comments (5)

kaseki
9 years ago
When the baffles are out for each cleaning, use some detergent such as Simple Green and a cloth to clean all of the hood interior surfaces that you can reach.

It may be of interest that the baffles collect only the larger end of the grease particle spectrum, and the finer particles continue up the hood and through the ducting to the outside (ideally). These particles can collect on other surfaces that they pass.

Extraction efficiency of the baffles and of the externally blown air is a function of the air velocity. Too low and the baffles won't capture as much due to less centrifugal action on the particles, and the remaining particles moving more slowly in the hood and duct can also deposit more of their number on the passing surfaces.

I've come to the conclusion that even when the greasy effluent upward velocity* is well below the peak value that the vent system should be designed for, the blower should not be run at a level just sufficient for capture and containment of the low velocity plume, but at a higher speed to improve baffle capture and reduce duct condensation.

kas

___

* Plume velocity can be quite low when browning up certain greasy foods such as precooked frozen sausage.
M and M
9 years ago
Kaseki's observation about running the vent system at a higher speed than the minimum to capture effluent is interesting.

SF - which models do you have? We'll be installing our BlueStar 30" Platinum range and Incline hood with 1200CFM inline blower in a few weeks. I spoke with my area BlueStar rep before ordering and he assured us that we have properly sized our system but I'll definitely keep an eye on this.
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John
9 years ago
sf_treat:

With regard to the burners clicking, are you on propane or natural gas?
sf_treat
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks. I will make sure to have the blower higher, but I usually have it on medium. It is really bothersome.

The insert is BS-PMLSS-40-SS. The blower is BS-CFM-1200.

We we have the 36" RNB.

The stove over is natural gas.

I may contact BS and see if they have any ideas.
John
9 years ago
If it were propane, a small modification to the igniters would have been a possible solution -- doesn't apply for natural gas though. Have you checked the electrical outlet that the range is plugged into to verify that it is correctly wired and grounded?

From the user manual's troubleshooting section:

Burner ignites – “clicking” sound does not stop

Burners are wet

Burner setting too low

Air draft flowing over cooktop

Electrode wires not properly connected

Electric plug not in grounded outlet.