I have the CC stove and i think it simmers fine. the whole questions really depends on what you are simmering, what type of cookware you are using. If you are simmering at least 2-3 quart of liquid in an uncovered pot, it simmers well,. If you cover it,, it will eventually come to a boil..

If you doing a lot of small quantity simmering, I believe they have a new simmer head you can choose.

Overall. I like my CC.. I think all three ranges are pretty good so you probably won't go wrong with either one, although I haven not work with BS or AR before

The American range has the worst simmer of the 3 you mention, with the addition of a dedicated small pan burner on the CC, the BS and CC are now hard to split, both simmer equally as well as each other.

I have a 36" Bluestar RNB. The simmer burner is great. I was recently distracted several minutes while melting a stick of butter. The butter just continued to melt without browning or boiling.

I second Mata's point. My RNB simmers just fine on ALL burners, including the 22k burners.

I've added a third 22k burner in the front row so now, my entire front three burners are all 22k. So I literally am cooking on a 22k burner with every cook. Needless to say, the high heat is impeccable as is the simmer. I've made poached eggs a plenty and rice for one and marinara from scratch and lots of other things that require very gentle heat. Never have I found the 22k burners to be too hot on simmer.

For purposes of full disclosure, I did adjust every one of my six burners to have that superlow flame by pulling the knobs off and tinkering with the screw inside. Plenty of people do it in order to get a lower simmer than comes from the factory. Very easy to do all 6 burners in about 10 minutes total and no special tools required. Just need a small sturdy flat head screwdriver and you're set.

Does a true pro-commercial restaurant range have a simmer burner? If not, how do they accomplish this task? I don't know so I ask.

I have a 36" RNB and I seem to be able to achieve the same simmer on all burners, It's just that the simmer burner is better suited for small diameter saucepans. Tip for BS owners: I found that by turning the knobs down to the right, towards the "off" position, I can attain a lower heat, than all the way to the left "low" position...

Some commercial ranges have a French top, or griddle type of plate if they make a lot of sauces. Otherwise they just put the pan off to the side of the burner.

The newest Culinarians have one specific simmer burner for small plates. The larger burners are of course adjustable down to a simmer, but not as low as the special simmer burner. Blluestar is much the same, although they also have a mid-sized burner as well.

American also has various sized burners. And as mentioned, the simmer (or the low) can be adjusted somewhat on all the burners.

A tip to cdycdm who posted above. You can set the low simmer (turning the knob to the left) just as low as turning the knob towards off. You would need to slide the knobs off and use a small screwdriver and set the flames lower. You can do a search here to find out how or call Bluestar.

Here's a video to help you adjust your low setting- it's for a different brand, but the idea is the same

Here is a link that might be useful: adjusting a simmer flame

Thanks for that adjustment tip alexr! I'll give that a try...

Well, that adjustment took all of five minutes! Thanks again!

This post was edited by ctycdm on Mon, Apr 29, 13 at 10:37

Also when adjusting the simmer toward the off position it will disable the re-ignite feature on a BS as per the manual. No experience with it personally.

You're welcome ctycdm....I can't believe I may have actually helped someone!