First, be very cautious. Unless you have personal knowledge that others have successfully accomplished a private importation of a similar American gas range without any great difficulty, what you are proposing may not be feasible. There may be an important reason why there are no dealers for such products in that particular country.

Second, in engineering there is a principle of redundancy. Most commonly seen in aircraft design. Aircraft flying between more distant airports have two engines to cope with reaching safety if one fails.

What I'm saying is that you might want to consider two 30" ranges instead. One of which could be equipped with the 12" griddle and two burners.
If available electric power is not 120v 60 cycle, the ignitor unit and oven convection fan might need to be modified, swapped, or fed by an additional step down transformer as well.

This post was edited by laat2 on Mon, Jul 15, 13 at 20:43

The other thing to check is if the host country's electricity is compatible with the BS plug.

If not you will need a knowledgeable electrician to provide a fix.

5+ year old 48" rnb with grill and griddle. No problems at all until about two months or so ago when the ignition module on the right hand side went out.

As far as maintaining and or repairing the range yourself if needed, I actually think that it is the better way to go if you are mechanically inclined. As the old saying goes "if you want it done right, do it yourself".

The great thing is most of the parts are generic so replacment parts are easy to find. The only parts I can think of that would be propritary would be the hinges and possibly the infrared broiler? The hinge issue on bs's seem to have been resolved so you should be ok there. Aside from the few specific parts, the only other thing I could see rendering the range unrepairable would be flaking oven enamel and I can not think of a single case of that happening with bs off the top of my head. I honestly think these things could give a service life of 50+ years.

Importation is not an issue and BS has already provided a US wholesaler responsible for international sales whom I have contacted. Plumbing is imperial, not metric and electricity is "same" as US - technically, they have 110 V at 60 Hz and utilize Type A and B plugs. Fuel is LP vs. NG. Viking and Wolf have a presence but the "less" internationally known brands such as BS, Capital, American, etc. are not present. The familiar US brand "non-professional" ranges are readily available...

Thanks for the input provided thus far... anyone care to comment on the quality of the BS stainless steel? I ask because this will be a beachfront home and high humidity ... although the range will be in an air conditioned environment most of the time, there will be higher than normal exposure to humidity and salt air.

My parents have the same 36" bluestar RNB as I do and they live on the beach in New Jersey. They've had that range for over 5 years and never had any issues, and certainly no rusting of the ss or the cast iron. You'll have no worries on that front.

I have had my 48 inch BlueStar range for a year and a half. I got mine with 8 burners since I prefer my Lodge cast iron griddles and like having space to do what I want on the cooktop portion.

I absolutely love this range and it is such a joy to cook on. I live in a very humid climate and have had no issues with my BlueStar stainless components, even if I neglect to clean them up right away. As expected, if you leave an acid based sauce on there too long it will discolor it a little, but Bar Keeper's Friend removes it.

I like that it is a simple proven design, and can be kept running forever, although so far we have had absolutely no issues.When it first arrived a couple of grates had minor cosmetic chipping in the enamel coating and BlueStar sent replacements out immediately. In reality, they season anyway and it would not have been a problem. We are on propane.....works great. You will not be disappointed.

I was humored by the airplane comment. I have been a pilot and flight instructor for many, many years. Yes, two engines may be appropraite for overseas flights, and then I would prefer a jet with mnore than two engines. Other than that, I prefer a single engine. There is a long standing joke that two engines just take you to the ground faster....there are sometimes aerodynamic issues for this, in some of the twins, when combined with pilot error causing such a situation.

That said, a friend of mine, Carol Ann Garette, made two record non stop around the world flights in a single engine Mooney aircraft and raised funds for ALS victims.

Aircraft in general have very low accident rates or problems, and a well trained pilot 99% of the time can, and will land safely with their engine dead.

Not sure what any of this has to do with a range. I saw a similar analogy made about washing machines in the laundry forum. Bearings in a washer have nothing in common with any aircraft. Odd comparisons.