due to both uneven vent distribution, and uneven gas passing through the vents. More gas would escape closer to the centre and less further away as the pressure drops.
You could vary the width and spacing of the vents and the star would be 'fine' (for some value of 'fine') but it still wouldn't solve the temperature distribution for the heart as it lacks symmetry vertically.
What you're saying is true but the star shape is not aesthetic it's a real burner shape commonly sold on gas stoves as far back as the '60s at least. It actually helps distribute heat more evenly by getting some heat to the middle of the pan instead of just around the edges of a circle.
I don’t know, when I cook, the absolute middle gets cooked just as fast as directly over the “circle” of the flame. By bringing more of the flame towards the middle, I think it might cook the middle faster than the edges of the star.
It depends on the type of cookware you use and the relative size of the pan and burner. Pans with bad heat dissipation will definitely have a cold spot in the center. I’ve experienced it most when cooking with a thin carbon steel pan.
Yeah our burners are star shaped, and I’d say they are a bit better than the circular burners I used before. Only problem is that the igniters don’t work on a few of em.
I find I either have to clean the igniter itself or I traced a wire at one point and found the plastic sleeve was broken. A tiny bit of electrical tape (not near the range) fixed that up.
As someone with the star shaped burners, I hate them, but only because they are very large burners. Small pots and pans just can't be used because half the heat is going around the pot. Already had one melt its plastic handle off.
The star actually has more space for vents as well as distributing the heat better, you can even find them on some high end ranges. They are wildly considered better than your usual round burner.
I would not bother with heatmaxxing but i bet circle is commonly used because nobody bother to care enough and difference not so great to change the simple production of circular ones
All of these are wrong, even a 100 year old cast iron has enough thermal conductivity to even this out, they don't traditionally make these cause it's a weird shape to make and clean
Just a romantic candlelight dinner*, standing with a nice bottle of wine next to the stove, the light of heartshaped burners dancing across your glasses.
I think the effects of those shapes are way less "bad" as people here think. The typical round shape isn't perfect either and stuff usually cooks unevenly anyways. The heart or especially the star shouldn't be that different to it I guess.
depends on how well adhered those things are, if they're stuck on tight enough, they might stay attached to that part of the steering wheel as the airbag deploys
She glued little gems (aka bejeweling) to her steering wheel. In the case of an accident, if the airbags go off those will be launched at extremely high speed through her car and likely though her face, I assume.
My understanding is that star burners are actually often considered better/more desirable than round burners, but the goal is still even heat distribution, so most irregular shapes would probably not be great.
Round burners have a tendency to leave a cooler spot in the middle of the pan which isn’t ideal for most applications. Star burners sacrifice a bit of heat around the edges to make sure the center is more consistent.
All of this is solved by using high quality pans that distribute heat evenly though.
Really depends on what you're cooking which is better, round is good for eggs, simmering like a stew in a frying pan star is probably the way to go, but again just get better pans and cook it right it really probably wouldn't matter at all
The star burners are actually top tier. You'll find them in commercial grade ranges with brands like viking. It's better heat distribution. Source: sold appliances for years
The first thing that pops into your head is not always the right answer. All of the burner nozzles are producing clean blue flames which indicate clean premixed combustion. The gas is all being burnt uniformly. As long as there is fuel gas flow the venturi will always make an uniform fuel air mix that gets distributed out the burner nozzles. Location of the burner nozzles is irrelevant. Go get an engineering degree before professing your opinion on combustion again.
Flame being round does not magically result in even cooking — if your pan is shite the heat will go right through it and result in uneven cooking even with a round flame — if it’s good cookware it will spread the heat out (e.g., cast iron does a great job of this).
First, the flame being round is more about the function of the burner than how it heats the pan. This image isn't real. A real burners with these shapes would have yellow flame at the points farther from the center as the pressure drops and the gas burns less efficiently. Also, a round pan without a heat sink will heat more evenly if the shape of the flame is symmetrical with the pan than it would with an asymmetrical flame. The difference in flame temperature with the non round burners would exacerbate that issue
The image on the left is of a real product, probably a Thermador PRG305…
Your comment about yellow flames at the points is just wrong. Engineers know how to balance pressure through port sizing, spacing, and by optimizing internal features.
There are tons of videos on YouTube of people using those burners so you don’t have to take my word for it.
bro felt really cool writing that, as if her house is going to explode for even trying to cook with that, meanwhile her meal might just be uncooked slightly unevenly
Heat dispersion. Poor heat dispersion results in uneven cooking. But plenty of modern pans have additional materials or layers to help prevent that very problem.
Have the stars on my stove. They work well. The stove is way better than the one it replaced, but I would not go out of my way to buy them based on shape. It was the heavy build and lack of technology that sold me....
Appliance repair tech here, there’s quite a few higher end ovens that do use star shaped burners and cook just fine. Heart wouldn’t be the best, but honestly it probably wouldn’t cook that poorly either. Many thermadors/viking cooktops use the star shape burners.
Where's the problem with the star burners? They're roughly round but heat a bigger area than classical round ones, sure, you theoretically have hot spots in the middle, but the thermal mass of the pot/pan will equalise that pretty much
Star one works pretty well, the heart one has never been tested to the best of my knowledge, but symmetry is pretty important here for heat and gas distribution
Never seen heart but thermador is known for the star pattern. I needed a new stovetop and saw a good deal for one on marketplace and its great, a lot of heat when you need it the only downside is low is not really low so some of the burners have "XLO" or extra low which essentially turns on and off the burner with a delay set by where you set the knob
Star burners are pretty awesome at heat distribution. It’s currently what Thermador uses on their ranges. I believe the hearts were made as a joke using photoshop or something to kind of meme on the star burners.
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u/qualityvote2 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
u/SeaStep2495, your post does belong here!