Big Blue, aka #BSP488B 48″ Platinum Range in Heritage Blue w/ Stainless Trim, in her new home.
Like you, we’ve used the pandemic as an excuse to do some projects around the home. Our biggest investment was a new 48-inch BlueStar range, which arrived this week. We are loving it so far though it is a powerful beast that requires much learning and calibration of technique, I suppose not unlike riding a racehorse or driving a Model S in Insane Mode.
The last we saw of Old Thermy, getting loaded into the Adirondack Appliance truck.
I’ve written about Old Thermy, the 30-year old range that came with our house, and it was sad to see her go. But Bosch (which now owns the Thermador brand) no longer supports it and as electronic parts failed they could not be replaced. When we started looking into new stoves, the BlueStar was an easy choice. It’s mostly mechanical with very few electronic parts to worry about, and it’s made right now the road from us in the Keystone State, Pennsylvania USA. Plus the New England Sales Manager for BlueStar, Tom Thibeault, is based out of Adirondack Appliance in our home town of Saratoga Springs. So it was relatively easy to get what we wanted (though there are universal shortages of appliances during the plague) and we know who to call if we need service.
Hood install. This monster is solid brass and must have weighed close to 200 pounds.
However, the most exciting thing about this install might not be the stove but the hood, the solid brass Abbaka that Tom took on as a project to rebuild. The original liner/vent system was disabled in a fire so Tom came up with an ingenious solution: two single-blower BlueStar vents mounted at facing angles to create a vortex, plus custom-made rails to make it fit the old hood without gaps. As a bonus Tom steam-cleaned away the decades of grease and polished it to a glow. We couldn’t be more pleased.
Tom Thibeault with our new baby.
On the first night we cooked hand-torn Sichuan cabbage in a wok (with one of the burner grates removed to make the hot heat even hotter), warmed sauce on the simmer burner and grilled off some spiedies for sandwiches in our hoagie rolls. No complaints at all.
Our first grill on the new stove: lamb spiedies.
If you’re in the market for a professional-grade home stove, I’d certainly recommend you look at BlueStar (and contact Tom Thibeault at Adirondack Appliance if you live in the northeast; reach him through Adirondack Appliance at the link above or call BlueStar at 610-301-9934). We found surprisingly little useful info on high-end stoves online; the site that typically ends up at the top of searches is Yale Appliance, a BlueStar dealer. Capital, a manufacturer of roughly equivalent stoves, seems to be in trouble and their local dealer was not interested in our business. We did not consider Thermador for reasons stated above. The next tier down is stoves like Viking which look rugged but have been compromised to keep costs down; not interested. After this install (which took the better part of a day) looks like Big Blue will be with us for a while and we’re good with that.
I’d hope that for the $12K retail on that monster, that you’d be utterly ecstatic. I have range envy to be sure. Enjoy!
Yes indeedy. And that’s not counting the cost of the custom vent system! But so far, very vey happy!
Your new system of producing heat to prepare food looks great. Are you ready to prepare “sweetbreads” again. Remember once we tried that dish for the poker gang. Not a big hit but a delicious dish nonetheless.
Wow, she’s a beaut Clark 😀 I’m still trying to cobble along my “old Thermy” from 2003, which I actually enjoy, but you know the struggle. Maybe this BlueStar is a possible solution. I’m in the Sacramento area. Depending upon the fate of Thermy, I may have to investigate. It looks like you opted for the non-sealed burners on the BlueStar.. Why do you prefer those burners? Are they easy enough to keep clean? Thanks again
The non-sealed burners are significantly hotter. And I haven’t had any problem with keeping them clean…. just like on my old Thermador you can lift out the cast iron parts and clean if you like, but so far I just give them a gentle wipe down with a soapy sponge taking care to stay away from the holes in the burners.
Going on 3 months now, I’m loving the BlueStar. It has a few quirks which you need to get used to but I have zero buyer’s remorse.
Hi, thanks for this informative post! I’m in the market for a gas range for our kitchen remodel and came across your blog while researching. I was looking into Thermador, Viking, Kitchenaid, and Thor and leaning towards a Thermador, but after reading your post, I’m not seriously considering a Blue Star Range. I was originally considering the 48”, but I think I’m going to go with a 36” because it’s fits my cooking requirements perfectly.
The thing I noticed in my research was that so many ranges now have WiFi and so many electronics, which I really do not want.
I had a gas range years ago. I don’t even remember the brand. I was young, newly married, low budget, and bought it used and I absolutely loved it! That has been so long ago, but I don’t recall having any issues with it being an all gas range for baking.
Now, I’m conflicted because of the dual fuel options, but Blue Star does not offer a dual fuel range, apparently. Can you tell me if you are satisfied with yours for baking? I don’t do a lot of baking and will use it mostly for roasting, so it may not be that big of an issue, but I do bake cookies or a cake on occasion. I would appreciate your advice.
Thanks again for writing about your gas range experience.
By the way, I’m in North Alabama, so will be looking for a dealer in the southeast.
Tina, my experience so far is that the BlueStar works fine for baking so long as you do it with the convection fan on. There are some hot and less-hot spots which the convection evens out, plus there is a big hot fan at the back of the oven which will make things at the back cook faster without convection. The wife of the guy who sold me the stove is a professional chef who has baked many cakes and such and loves it.
If you’re getting the 36 inch you’ll only have the one oven, which works as described above. The smaller oven in my 48 inch works much more like a regular oven.
Keep in mind without an electric oven there is also no self cleaning!
I will be happy if I can steer you away from Thermador. The way they discontinue parts so they can sell you a new stove is not ok.
I just replaced my 15 year old RNB Blue Star gas range with a new Platinum Series (RSP) Blue Star gas range. While I expected to have a slight learning curve with baking, what I didn’t expect is the over browning issues I’m experiencing. I feel like I have no idea how to bake things I’ve been baking with success for years in my old Blue Star!
What I’m not liking is the new heating system in the oven where the fan cycles every minute or so on low speed to keep the temp consistent. I’m not talking about the convection feature – that runs at a higher speed and only when the button is pressed. We’ve had a service tech out and also have spoken to blue star service about this and they say they changed how the fan relay and heating systems works and ours is operating exactly as it should. (It’s possible that you’ll have no idea what I’m taking about as I’m not quite sure when they made the change to the fan relay so that it cycles on whenever the unit is heating. Yours may be operating before they made this – imho, stupid – change).
Any tips? I’ve been testing some cookies and it seems a lower oven temp (than what is specified on the recipe – so 325F instead of 350F) along with shorter cooking time is helping a bit with the over browning but the center of the cookies are not quite where they need to be. And if I continue to bake to get the centers right, the tops are over browned.
Any tips or thoughts to offer?
First of all, check out this post in which I did a test to find the hot spots in the oven. Without convection the top of the oven is hotter and the back is hotter. so for baking cookies you might start on the middle rack with your pan toward the front of the oven.
That is, if you’re not using convection.. which Michelle Heinz Abrams Thibeault, the wife of the guy who sold me the stove and a professional caterer, told me you should never do! The oven with the big fan in the back is designed to always cook with the convection on which distributes that blast of heat from the rear. As with all convection cooking, you should set the oven for a temp around 25 degrees F lower than you’d use without convection. This is quirky but correct and I’ve cooked many a roast and pizza successfully with the convection on.
If you happen to have the double oven, the non-convection side is true to temperature with very even heat. That’s what I use for most of my daily cooking. Hope this helps. Please report back.
I’m not finding hot spots in the oven – that large heating element in the back along with the fan seems to keep things very even. I’m not baking with the convection setting.
I did more testing after I wrote you and it’s looking like a 25 degree decrease in temperature from what the recipe states along with a reduction in the bake time (in the case of what I was testing today, this was 4-5 minutes less) yielded a pretty good cookie result.
I haven’t even done any baking yet with the convection feature. Still lots more testing to do!
Thanks for your input!
i’m very happy with my BlueStar. It’s rugged and reliable and just works, with none of the temperamental electronics of the Thermador. There are a couple things to watch out for:
*The burners are REALLY powerful and it’s easy to burn food if you aren’t careful. Early on I sent one of the burners to a very low flame setting (it’s easy to do this with a screwdriver) which I use for simmering… highly recommended.
*On the Platinum series, there is an infrared heating element at the back of the oven with its own fan. When I first got the stove I had uneven cooking results, then I got the advice to always run the convection system when using the oven to distribute the heat evenly and use a temperature 25 degrees lower than you’d use in a non-convection oven. Now I have consistent results with the temperature equalized throughout the oven.
The one disadvantage, and I knew this going in, was that there is no self-cleaning feature. Luckily you can easily remove the plate on the floor of the oven and wash that in the sink.
Hi there! Thank you for such a helpful review! Can I ask how you are feeling about and what your experience has been now in 2023 with your Bluestar range? Any issues to report? Still love it? My husband and I are about to redo our kitchen and I would love to hear how you feel about it now in 2023!