Toggle navigation
Toggle navigation
Home
DCUM Forums
Nanny Forums
Events
About DCUM
Advertising
Search
Recent Topics
Hottest Topics
FAQs and Guidelines
Privacy Policy
Your current identity is: Anonymous
Login
Preview
Subject:
Forum Index
»
Home Improvement, Design, and Decorating
Reply to "Upgrading cooktop/rangetop...(going high end)"
Subject:
Emoticons
More smilies
Text Color:
Default
Dark Red
Red
Orange
Brown
Yellow
Green
Olive
Cyan
Blue
Dark Blue
Violet
White
Black
Font:
Very Small
Small
Normal
Big
Giant
Close Marks
[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here, thanks for the input! Interestingly no feedback on Thermador. [quote=Anonymous]I worked in a kitchen alongside some great chefs. Unless you're making really huge batches of soup every day, any range/cooktop of reasonable quality is just fine. This whole obsession with burner power and open vs closed is really just marketing BS for rich people who like to research things and buy gadgets. Having a hugely overpowered burner is fine, as long as it's well-ventilated, but also completely unnecessary. Oven quality/fuel varies much more and is maybe worth spending for depending on what you want to do with it. A burner is a burner. Pots and pans, liquid and stirring do a good job of distributing heat. So pick a well enough made burners, open or closed depending on your cleaning preferences. But only get something super intense if you will enjoy knowing how many BTUs it has and thinking about how much you paid for it, like a sports car or something. It won't make a difference to your cooking performance. [/quote] Thanks, this is helpful. Is the high BTU only useful for wok work? Or is there another use for it? As for the open/closed burner, I would guess that an open burner would be better for searing (more even distrubution) but maybe that's nitpicky? [quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a Bluestar 36", 6 burner range, and love it. The chief advantages are (i) the open burner configuration, which, though a pain to clean, allows for better control and cooking with a round-bottom wok without a ring (which I love); and (ii) being able to fit a commercial baking sheet into the oven, which isn't possible with other similar sized ranges. That isn't a concern for you, though with a rangetop. I did overpay for the Platinum series, though - I don't use, at all, the interchangeable griddle or grill. In retrospect, I wish I'd either splurged and gotten the 48" with the French Top - I'd have gotten a lot more use out of that - or saved some money on one of the less expensive models. The best thing about Blue Star is there aren't any bells and whistles, so there's less to break. [/quote] +1 -- We have the 36" Bluestar rangetop for about 3 yrs now. It is by far the best thing about our kitchen. No problems with it at all since we've had it. We do a lot of wok cooking -- the drop in design for woks is perfect. We do use the griddle and grill... we didn't expect much from them, but they are really good -- exceeded our expectations. In the winter when we want grilled steak and don't want to go out in the snow to clear off the outdoor grill -- it is perfect. If you are really into cooking, the high BTUs will really matter when you want to sear or stir fry something. Low end can be a challenge -- they do a dedicated "simmer burner" which helps... Whatever you choose, if you are a serious cook, be sure to get a vent hood that is powerful and big enough for what you plan to cook. [/quote] Thanks! As for cleaning an open burner, that concerns me since cleaning the range is always challenging. Open burner top would be more challening. Do you all find yourselves using the simmer burner quite a bit? Also, as for servicing, how often are you having it serviced? Seems like it's best to save the money and get the cooktop over the rangetop. I have a full oven/range and the knobs even though they are on the front, STILL get grease on them.[/quote] I am the PP with the 3-year-old Blue Star. We have never had it serviced, and have never had an issue with anything going wrong on it yet. It is super simple, no electronic parts, so I expect that we continue without issues. We personally really like the open burner design. Clean up is not a big issue for us, it has a drop through with a collection pan on the bottom, so everything is super easy to take apart and clean up. I think whether the high BTUs are worth it, comes down to your style of cooking. If you use a regular stove ( like the one you have now), do you ever say gee I wish I had a more powerful burner? If so, then you need a more powerful burner. We previously had a gas 12000BTU GE Profile cooktop, and we're constantly wishing we had a more powerful stove. We do a lot of stir fries, and do like to sear things, so the more powerful 25,000 BTU burner definitely exceeds what we need now. If you primarily do sauteing and sauces and boil water, and never think hey I need a more powerful stove, then you probably won't notice a difference. You should also try to see them in person. Go to one of the high end shops around, and you can compare a lot of these high-end brands. Ferguson has a lot of these on display. I don't really use the summer burner that much, but it is still pretty helpful. I made the comment about having proper ventilation, and want to reiterate that. If you will do me heavy cooking with frying, you need a powerful overhead vent. A downdraft vent will not do the job. Don't skimp on your ventilation. There was some discussion about gases and someone mentioned that with the vent going they can't even smell the food. That is the same as our setup, and that is what you want. [/quote]
Options
Disable HTML in this message
Disable BB Code in this message
Disable smilies in this message
Review message
Search
Recent Topics
Hottest Topics