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Gas range: Wolf? Thermador? Bluestar? Viking?


annachan

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Yes the burners are ALL 15K but most other ranges if they have a higher burner rating, then the other burners are lower to keep the same total heat load.

I have two 22,000, one 15,000 and one 12,000 (simmer) BTU burner. BlueStar does not provide you with a high output burner, a wimpy simmer burner (this one goes from 350 to 12,000) and mediocre secondary burners. I can cook full blast on all of them. I also use the griddle to keep sauces warm and maintain temp or simmer. It's my compromise for not getting a flattop.

My Viking has all 15K burners. The BlueStar burners are not all the same, the 12K burner is not full power so I stand by my statement. I do wish the Viking burners were higher output but I don't have to worry about which burner I am using. -Dick

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[My Viking has all 15K burners. The BlueStar burners are not all the same, the 12K burner is not full power so I stand by my statement. I do wish the Viking burners were higher output but I don't have to worry about which burner I am using. -Dick

All 6 of the burners on my DCS are 17.5.

Dave Valentin

Retired Explosive Detection K9 Handler

"So, what if we've got it all backwards?" asks my son.

"Got what backwards?" I ask.

"What if chicken tastes like rattlesnake?" My son, the Einstein of the family.

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I have a 36" all gas DCS seen here: http://www.dcs-range.com/indoor/detail.php?id=8

Very pleased with it. The simmer works great very low. To tell you the truth I was so hung up with BTUs when looking at ranges that I have to laugh at myself - I hardly ever use the burners past medium, but I do have "the power" for the rare instances that I do. :smile:

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  • 10 years later...

What are, generally, the maximum cooktop BTUs of the high-end ranges? ~15,000 to 20,000 BTUs?

What's the approximate diameter of the burner itself?

I'm considering setting up a high BTU outside searing station. devil2.gif

 

:smile:

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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I have the Bluestar Platinum with the 25K BTU burners, and I now find it difficult to cook on other stoves.  I had also considered a Capital range, which as far as I know is the only other range available in the US with 25K BTU burners, but I preferred the Bluestar for the "Garland" shaped burners and the ability to fit a wok into a burner without a ring.

 

While the Platinum burners are excellent, the oven is much less so, and some elements of the range design are ridiculous to the point of un-useability (i.e., I find the griddle absolutely worthless and for aesthetic purposes only because of the lack of real grease traps), and I have found Bluestar's customer service unresponsiveness to be horrible.  If I had it to do over again I would consider a Capital range, or if I had enough space just go with the Bluestar cooktop (which is really better for Chinese cooking which I do a lot of), and put in a Rational or other good oven system (i.e., Wolf, Capital).

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3 hours ago, gfweb said:

My regular Blue Star I think has 18K BTU burners.  They are plenty hot enough for me.

 

For Chinese cooking there is no such thing as "hot enough," and there are times when I wouldn't mind even more power, but the 25K BTU works much better than my old Viking, and I think that 25K is near the limit of my ventilation cababilities.  I have 8 burners, but find myself cooking mostly on the 25Ks, even for Western food.  There are many cooking tasks for which hotter is better, that you don't realize until you have the power to do it.  

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Can you guys give me an estimate of the diameter of the ring (or whatever) of burner orifices at the widest point? 5"? 6"?

 

Thanks!

:smile:

 

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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51 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@DiggingDogFarm my blue star has six inch burners. Their website will show the configuration. Lots of flameholes , ...if that's not a word it should be. 

 

 

Thanks! 

:smile:

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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 @gfweb Yeah! Oh, what I plan to set up—if I decide to follow through—will have plenty of potential BTUs—supposedly.

But the orifice distribution isn't as nice as what's on the the fancy high-end cooktops.

Hopefully the burners that I have in mind will work well with a very heavy cast iron skillet—if not I'll try a copper or aluminum plate (probably aluminum) under the skillet to better distribute the heat.

I'm still pondering.

A searing station outside with some nice long utensils sure would be nice!

Single burner outdoor hot plate cooker with a 6" diameter 40,000 btu/hr low pressure burner, appropriate regulator and a needle valve to permit temperature adjustment down to a simmer.

 

There are other potential options out there. :smile:

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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I do have a turkey fryer burner which—in terms of turkey fryer burners— is a good quality one, but the flame ring isn't as large as or as well defined as the Tajas Smokers burners.

I'll dig the turkey fry burner out and try it, but it doesn't have a needle valve (but one could be added) for more precise temperature control.

I do work with charcoal a lot but I'd like to have a versatile gas burner that I can also use the my All-American pressure canners, etc.

I would also like to set up a charcoal salamander based a on a park grill and with some expanded steel mesh to better contain the coals.

Charcoal salamanders do an excellent job broiling. devil2.gif

Check out the following short Alton Brown video—the important business starts at about 1:30...

 

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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6 hours ago, gfweb said:

Induction gets pretty frigging hot.  And all things considered is cheap. 

I plan to have a nice, high-end portable induction burner some day—but that'll require it's own, new, dedicated circuit.

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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The Edelmetall Brü® Burners are attractive and the burner rings are real nice.

But I don't know how small of a skillet they would accommodate or if a needle valve is readily available (I'll have to ask)—although I'm sure one could be easily obtained and added.

 

 

 

edelmetall-bru-burner.jpg

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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The Blichmann HellFire burners are also very nice.

 

 

 

 

 

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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In the midst (well, the beginning) of a full gut kitchen renovation, I have done a fair amount of research on appliances.  

 

One of the kicks I got out of researching ranges is how much attention is paid to burner BTUs. From salespeople to literature, how high can they go?!

 

Certainly it's interesting that not as much attention is paid to ventilation, which is a huge thing in my book.  If you're cooking with 4 18,000 BTU burners cranked up all the way, you better be venting some major CFMs, don't you think?

 

As one who cooks a fair amount at home, I often wonder - who the hell needs all these BTUs for home cooking? Sure, sure, I get it - to wok cook properly, crank it up to 80K. But do it outside.  For me, I gotta think 15K BTU burners are plenty. And now that I found out I can do some interesting things in our NYC apartment vis-a-vis ventilation, I'm thrilled.

 

 

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

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My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

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 I agree, @weinoo And its hard to get a realistic answer out of hood sales people who complicate the hell out of things, I think for their own gain.

 

Another thing is hood specs always say to have it something like 36" above the range, which is way low if you have any height to you.  We mounted ours much higher and it does fine.

 

And there's the whole issue of "make up air"

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For years, and years, and years, I've cooked in an NYC apartment with no vent hood. Fortunately, my kitchens have always had windows - but they're far from the same thing as a proper hood.

 

Even the hood we're getting for our new range isn't the best or the most recommended; but I figure it's better than what I've had for decades!

 

As far as "make-up air" goes, I think that's really an issue in newer homes with much better insulation than in the past.  Or whatever code might be.

 

By the way, I learned a lot about hoods from a few places on the web:

 

http://www.kitchenhoods.ca/shop/

 

http://www.imperialhoods.com/Official_Site

 

http://www.futurofuturo.com/common-installation-mistakes-faq

 

There's a lot more, for sure.

 

 

 

 

Edited by weinoo (log)

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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I have lived here without a range hood exhaust vent for 7+ years.

Had a Panasonic ceiling vent installed about 3 weeks ago. Community improvement project.

It's no at all hefty (110 cfm) but it's better than nothing—the damn thing is so quite it's very easy to forget it's running. :(

So we still have limitations.

I may fashion a high velocity fan that can be popped in and out of the window opening as needed.

Something I should have done YEARS ago!

:)

 

 

 

 

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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