Are you looking for a range that is known for its high-quality cooking appliances? When it comes to selecting your cooking range, quality is crucial, often encouraging consumers to shop with brands that they are confident in with a well-established name, and that is where the Blue Star Range comes in.
What is the Blue Star Range?
Blue Star is the go-to brand for many chefs as they offer a range that has all of the power, precision, control, and performance that you could possibly want in your cooking appliances. Offering high BTU nova burners, infrared boilers, and spacious commercial and residential cookers, Blue Star has built a strong reputation within the industry.
Established in 1880, Blue Star is a family-owned business with a factory based in Reading PA. Throughout their years of establishment, this company has aimed to create a range of specialty cooking products from ovens and cooktops that are all built by hand.
What does the Blue Star Range Consist of?
Blue star creates a range of cookers offering different series and configurations. This includes the Platinum series, the Nova (RNB) series, the Precious metals series, and the culinary series, either available with a sealed burner or an open burner. The configuration options are as follows. French Top, charbroiler, or griddle.
The Culinary Series - A residential-style cooker with a precise simmer and a 15k BTU and featuring a nova open burner. If we had to pinpoint one difference between this and others in the range it would be the limited amount of customization options available as the knobs are the only part that can be customized to your taste. In regards to price, this retails at a relatively affordable price and is one of the most budget-friendly alongside the subset of this series which is the sealed burner. There are more options available in the subset series regarding the power of the burners as you can choose from a 15K, 18K, or 21K burner. Again with this cooker, there are limited customization options available aside from changing the knobs.
The Precious Metals Series - the only cooker to feature the popular standard French doors is the Precious Metals Series. With a 22K BTU burner, this is a powerful cooker that has a precise simmer burner along with a range of customization options regarding the trim and cooktop with over 750 color options to choose from.
The Nova (RNB) Series - Another cooker with a 22K BTU Ultra Nova burner is the Nova series which again features a precise simmer burner. This series offers an endless list of customization options including cooktops, the trim, and over 750 color options. This series does differ from the precious metals as it features a drop-down door instead of the classic french door.
The Platinum Series - The final option and the most powerful is the platinum series. With a 25K BTU Prima Nova burner, this cooker features unbeatable power along with a precise simmer burner and a drop-down door. This series really does stand out for its choices of customization in regards to cooktop, trim, and color options. Something that we like about this cooker is the interchangeable griddle charbroiler which creates a dual cooking zone.
The PowR oven is available as part of the platinum series and is said to be one of the most unique in the industry. With a patented power burner and an infrared gas heating element surrounding the convection fan, you really cannot fault the power of this cooker.
What's good about the Blue Star Range?
Now we have found many great reasons as to how the Blue Star Range has built up such a popular brand name, each of these are highlighted below.
Customization Options
The Precious Metals, Nova Series, and Platinum series offer endless customization options. From the trim to the knobs you have complete control over the appearance of your cooker. You can even choose between the door style and the burner type. With a palette of over 750 colors to choose from your cooker can be made to suit your exact vision and desired specifications.
The Power
The power of the Blue Star Range is truly impressive with 15K BTU to 25K BTU available depending on the series that you opt for along with an infrared broiler in the PowR oven, which is praised for its outstanding commercial quality. Each also comes with a precise simmer burner giving you ultimate control to cook some tasty dishes. Another great thing about these cookies is that they maintain their heat very well once they have reached your chosen cooking temperature.
Heavy-Duty Design
The design is often what draws customers into a particular product and the Blue Star Range doesn't disappoint. Whilst remaining an aesthetically pleasing and modern addition to any kitchen space, the design is also billed to be heavy-duty creating an efficient cooker that is going to withstand daily use exceptionally well. If you're looking for a long-lasting cooker, we can't fault the overall sturdiness and build of the Blue Star Range.
A Family-owned Business
As a family-owned business, Blue Star works to create excellent quality products that their customers can trust. Established in the USA you can be confident in the source of your cooker. Favored for their French door ovens, in particular, the brand has now developed their range offering built-in refrigerators too.
In regards to customer service, the company is praised for its quick response to customer queries during the purchasing and ordering process.
Good Size
When it comes to cooking, you don't want to find yourself compromising space for quality, especially if you have a large family to cook for. The Blue Star range combines good size with great quality to deliver the best cooking appliances. Known for making commercial-sized ovens, space isn't an issue with the capacity for holding many dishes at once. Even the residential ovens offer plenty of space to satisfy your cooking needs.
Issues with the Blue Star Range?
Whilst the range is praised for its quality, some changes could be made in areas where previous customers haven't been completely satisfied with their purchase.
The Heat of the Handles
The handles and front of the cookers are prone to getting very hot posing a potential safety issue. Whilst this may not be an issue for adults who are aware of this problem, it is important to be cautious if there are young children present in the kitchen to prevent the occurrence of any accidents. You are likely to need something covering your hands before attempting to touch or open the oven door.
Faulty Hinges on the Doors
When purchasing an appliance from a well-known brand, of course, you expect the build quality to be on par with performance, however, a common issue that we stumbled across concerned the faulty hinges of the oven door. Several reviews highlighted the issue with the doors fusing shut and failing to open when the oven was in use. As a result, they were left with food that was of no use to them. While this may not be an issue with every cooker available in the range, it is a quality concern that is necessary to be aware of. For the price that they retail, particularly the higher end of the range, you would not expect to be facing such issues, with a cooker that should be able to hold up well to frequent use.
Difficulties Igniting the Burner
Another recurring problem that we came across was issues with igniting the burner. In some cases, it took customers several attempts to ignite the burner only for them to burn out a short time later. Not only is this frustrating but it is also likely to cause disruptions to the cooking process as you may find yourself having to continuously ignite the burners for the duration of time that you are using the cooker.
Installation
Although we didn't come across a significant amount of concerns surrounding the installation of the cookers, few reviews did suggest that some stages of the process were a little tricky, particularly when it came to installing the hood. However, for some this may be a minor issue.
Final Thoughts
There is no denying that the Blue Star Range has a lot to offer. Each series excels in their own way and Blue Star has done a great job in producing cookers for commercial and residential use. When it comes to making your cooker a little more you, the range provides an endless list of customization options from the trim, to knob style, to over 750 different color choices, giving you full control in the appearance of your cooker. Offering some of the highest BTU burners, power certainly isn't ignored and you can begin creating some tasty dishes in no time.
However, we did pinpoint several issues concerning the quality of the range. Ensuring that you are aware of the issues surrounding the doors and handles overheating is crucial for every user to remain safe. You may also run into some issues with igniting the burner, taking several attempts to remain lit. Whilst the brand is evidently very popular amongst consumers, we feel that some minor alterations to the build quality and rectifications with the safety and igniting issues would make it that little bit better.