If not, I'm not really happy with any of the above (I know the Thermador has sealed burners.)

Reading the complaints on this board about Viking is enough to make me think twice. On top of that, I looked at one in the showroom the other day, and it's hard to see how those huge circular burners could hold a decent simmer and not overwhelm, i.e. send flames jumping up the sides of some of my smaller All-Clad saucepans.

As for Blue Star, sure, there are complaints about that, too. But my biggest issue is that there is no local dealer, and DH won't buy an appliance from anyone who doesn't have a local door he can pound on if he is unhappy. (There's a reason for that, involving a hot tub bought on the Internet, which essentially was many thousand dollars down the drain.)

So that brings me to Thermador. I HATE that it has sealed burners, but at least the star design would deliver some heat to the center of my wok. And I have read few complaints about Thermador rangetops on this board, except for trouble cleaning inside the stars. I am not a big cleaning person, so that won't bother me as long as it cooks really well, and I am half deaf, so I doubt the clicking on simmer would bother me either.

What say ye? Which should I buy?

Thanks a bunch!

Good luck.

Out of the 3 the OP mentioned, I'd immediately cross off the Thermador. Not only because it doesn't have the open burners you want, but also because its simmer setting has an annoying clicking noise. That's just the way it's made, and the click doesn't bother some people, but does bother others.

So that leaves Bluestar and Viking. I know that there are people on this forum who like their Viking rangetops, and feel they've gotten a bad rap. A lot of the bad rap on Viking has to do with their ranges and ovens, but you are just looking at the rangetop which should be less troubleprone. And Bluestar as you've pointed out also has performance issues. There is another thread I just read where Trevor at Eurostoves said he's seen fewer problems with Bluestars lately due to the White Glove service Bluestar offers upon installation, and perhaps Bluestar has improved quality control (I don't know).

To me, happy husband = happy life. If your DH is going to grumble about the Bluestar, maybe just go for the Viking and be relieved of that, and also the dreaded "waiting for the shoe to drop" angst that DH will have over the Bluestar. Are you certain though, that there is reliable service for the Viking in your area?

good luck

I don't have any particular issue with Viking. My problem was with the sealed burners. I will say that I did have a good experience cooking on a sealed burner cooktop in Siena of all places. That one had the burners raised a bit more which provided a flame more like an open design so it can be done. The only negative thing I'll say about Viking (and Wolf for that matter) is that as their brand gets bigger and they start producing models intended for a more brand oriented rather than performance oriented consumer, *some* of the models tend to be geared more for "looks" than performance. I'm sure if Bluestar ever gets as big or get's acquired (as in Wolf's case), there would be a similar shift. I think all of these are good brands but even good brands put out a dud model sometimes. That's why it's important to do the research if you care about real performance. Sounds like you did your research and liked Viking for you style of cooking. As I said, my choices were limited. Would have loved to test an open burner drop-in cooktop from several manufacturers but that just wasn't possible.

I like the Blue Star burner design and would buy one in a heartbeat, but it seems there is nobody anywhere near Tucson who sells them. We called the distributor who promised to have the person who handles the brand for all of Arizona call us back. That was two days ago, and we have heard nothing.

Tomorrow we need to approve the slabs for the new countertops, and the fabricator needs the rangetop to cut an opening that it will fit into. I don't have any time left to try to track down the elusive Blue Star dealer network, so it looks like I will go with the Viking.

I am a bit reassured by jejvtr's experience with simmering on a Viking, so thanks for that.

My thinking is that if they can't get a sales person to return a call within two days, when there is money to be made, how hard might it be to get someone to call back should there be a problem requiring service?

Close to impossible, I would guess.

I do not regret it at all. I did have a few minor problems in the beginning with the Blue Star (a cracked ignitor and a leak in a fitting), but they authorized a local repairman to fix the problems, sent the new ignitor immediatley....

Have no regrets whatsoever. It's been three years and I love every single minute of cooking on my Blue Star Range Top.

Have read the discussions. Leaving the oven aside as I am looking at a rangetop, it seems that Blue Star has had problems-ignitors and adjustments --- but they have been easily fixed. Viking has problems but cannot tell if they are across all models. Have the Viking open burners experienced problems?

I can buy Viking locally; I cannot buy Blue Star locally. And, at the moment, at least on the AJMadison site where I have looked at prices, the Viking 30 inch open burner gas rangetop is significantly less than the BlueStar.

So-- for a Viking open burner rangetop, is there as much cause for concern as there might be on the range? Since I don't need 22000 BTU and would prefer to deal locally if possible, I have to consider Viking.

You may not need 22k btu burner but I think everyone who has 22k btu benefits from having it, maybe your style of cooking doesn't need high heat.

Bluestar has had problems with Modules not ignitors, but those are for the most part in the past now, that's not say it may not happen, but the chances of it happening are smaller than the posts on the GW suggest.

As for buying local it sounds like Viking fits the bill

With regard to the burners on the Bluestar vs Viking.. One thing you should also consider is that the combination of the star design and being open produces heat that is extremely even. AFAIK, Viking burners, even on their open models, are the traditional cap design. There is no center ring or even center air flow opening which would help to pull the flames towards the center. That means on the larger BTU burners, the heat is still more towards the outer edge rather than in the middle. Granted this is much improved with the open burners but in my experience, Bluestar still wins on even heating. Add to that the higher BTU, you've got a cooking machine. Now I've never owned a Viking open range and only cooked on one a few times at a friends house but I did cook on a restaurant range that supposedly used the same burners as the Vikings back then. Comparing what I remember from then to what I have now, I actually like my Bluestar more than that restaurant range. Bluestar is an absolute joy to cook on.

Good luck with whatever you choose and have fun with it.

In my experience the local dealer thing is overrated. I've use the super-high-end store in town for the service, and they sent over the least qualified people I have met (next to the best buy guys, but that's another story). If the company assures you there are local folks they trust to fix the bluestar, that's all you really need.

If you look at the bluestar and the viking I bet you pick the former. It is so clearly great-- at least to me. The viking is a touch prettier, but the bluestar has the coolest burner design, especially for wok cooking.