Commercial-style home appliance manufacturer BlueStar has relaunched and revamped its range hood with new technology.
The relaunch adds updated technology to their previously available kitchen ventilation hoods while combining two previously acquired brands under the BlueStar name. Known for their customization capabilities, the relaunch also expands kitchen hood customization options.
BlueStar handcrafts appliances with chef-level performance, the company says. Widely revered chefs, such as Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Suzanne Goin, have BlueStar products in their own kitchens, as do hundreds of cooking enthusiasts.
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“As a brand, we’re always looking to enhance the overall performance of our products and as part of that, we wanted to bring in some improved features and benefits of the new line,” says Ann Muth, director of marketing at BlueStar. “In doing this relaunch, we were able to accomplish a lot of that as well as bring in things like the Hy-Ex Blower, introduce some new designs, like the Abbaka Classic and the Abbaka Mesa, into our existing business.”
Within the past few years, the company has acquired the Abbaka and Prizer Hoods brands. Instead of previously having a select amount of kitchen hoods available for customization, the relaunch allows all hoods, now including Prizer Hoods and Abbaka, to be designed uniquely through color, metal, size, and hardware.
“The reason for blending these lines together under the master brand was there were great performance benefits and design benefits of each of these that we wanted to be available across the entire broad line,” says Muth.
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BlueStar offers 1,000 color options for all products, including the latest Heritage Blue color in honor of the company’s 140th anniversary in 2020. Designers and clients can also choose from 13 different metals such as brass, copper, and stainless steel.
The company explains that in addition to the design choices, the upgraded ventilation line has a three-speed fan feature allowing for high heat and smoke removal, along with grease capture. An additional “Power Boost” speed was also added for high-smoke cooking.
The grease capture capabilities of the kitchen hoods were advanced through the relaunch. Durable dishwasher-safe, stainless steel filters catch grease while a removable tray collects residual grease, the company says. An inner shield allows for even air flow across the cooking surface. Ventilation hood CFM directly correlates with a client’s oven BTU, and BlueStar hoods are made for high-BTU cooking. Although the hoods are powerful with up to 1,400 CFMs—depending on the blower—the company says their hoods have “whisper-quiet” operations.
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As part of the relaunch, BlueStar added numerous ease-of-use features to its products, such as LED lighting and push power buttons. These buttons control the intensity of the ventilation hood
“The buttons on the controls have very easy to identify designators that show the low, medium, and high heat,” says Muth. “It also shows the boost feature that will go into effect if you need it to, and the beautiful LED lighting really helps to illuminate your cooking surface so that you can really see everything that you’re doing, which is obviously important.”
Muth says ventilation should be discussed more when designing a kitchen and hopes an expanded updated line of hoods will push ventilation to the top of client’s priority lists.
“Ventilation at times can be an afterthought for consumers,” says Muth. “A lot of times they think of ventilation last when it really needs to be at the forefront of their kitchen design or their remodel because depending on the layout of the kitchen, and where they can externally vent for their hood, it can really, very quickly and easily dissipate the layout of the kitchen.”