Our New BlueStar Stove

This has been a life changer. No electronic controls or screen. For oven convection, you turn on the fan. It’s such an upgrade from 25 years of a Jenn-Air. A lot of people prefer it to the Wolf Range these days, it seems.

With this model, when you remove one of the 4 ring grates, there’s a well and about a 2″ space down to the burners; a wok nestles down so you don’t need a ring for it.

Both the burners and oven work better than any stove we’ve ever used.

It’s easy to clean, and a relief not to have to mess with touchscreen controls. Made in America. A wonderful tool.

If you’re a Bay Area person: I got it at CG Appliance Express in Daly City, CA (adjacent to San Francisco), the best place I’ve ever seen for appliances of all kinds.

Note: See Kevin Kelly’s (more complete) review of the BlueStar on Cool Tools at: https://kk.org/cooltools/bluestar-range/

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

9 Responses to Our New BlueStar Stove

  1. Looks nice too.

    Maybe some time in future you would give us an update….?

    I, myself, like the looks and the ease of the front buttons. (and no touchscreen)

  2. Blue Star are very nice stoves, but a little pricey at $5,000 and up (WAY up!). Still, if you do a lot of cooking, it is probably money well spent. Makes more sense than spending $50,000 on a truck or SUV to go grocery shopping!

  3. Lloyd, is there no electricity to this stove at all? I know many stoves require heat as a safety measure for the gas to flow. We live off grid and so are looking for a stove that doesn't require a plug at all. Which model is this?

  4. Brad Kik.

    Take a look at http://uniqueoffgrid.com for off-grid stoves. They can either use propane or natural gas (for non off-grid townies) and do not require external electrical supply. The power needed for the igniters and oven thermostat is provided by standard batteries (size C I think) which need to be changed occasionally.

    We've had one for several years and it's been excellent. It cost around $1,200 (CDN that is) and is robust, simple and lacking all the weird electronic gadgets that we'd never use because we could not be bothered to understand them.

  5. Brad, These stoves have an electrical connection for igniting the burners. However, you don't need electricity if you use a (refillable) lighter, a match, or — I think best — a welder's flint striker. My neighbor, a chef, uses one of these on his 6-burner BlueStar. Also, see Kevin Kelly's review, which I added to my post.

  6. Peter, Great website. Actually, you know, the BlueStar stoves work off-grid, all you have to do is manually light burners. The DC refrigerators look pretty good — heavily insulated. Solar powered refrigeration (at least part of the time).

  7. Lloyd, Brad,

    I think the off-grid electrical issue is not so much igniting the burners. You can certainly ignite these using a match, a lighter or a piece of flaming newspaper (bad idea).

    The problem is the oven. I think the oven burners operate on a cycle. After initial ignition they burn until the oven reaches the requested operating temperature. They then cut out until the temperature drops by a determined amount, then re-ignite and bring the temperature back up to where it should be. This cycle is repeated. The problem is that some method of ignition is needed at the start of each burn cycle. This can either be electrical or can rely on a pilot light in the oven. I don't know which method the Blue Star uses.

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