Crap. Range Busted.
 

Well, crap. The oven door of my range is locked into a self cleaning mode. The repairman says it will cost $400 to fix (sensor bad), plus $200 to fix the barely readable LCD display (circuit board), and the non working self igniters are NLA. This is a Frigidaire Gallery Professional, about 15 years old. So I have no oven, except for a toaster oven. And Thanksgiving is approaching.

I basically hate this range, and wasn't inclined to spend more than a couple hundred bucks to fix it. I'd told myself that there'd be no new range bought here until we remodeled the kitchen, a project that has never quite happened. So, what to do?

Perhaps I should buy a $100 (very) used range on Craigslist to tide us over until January. But that's $100 down the drain, and a(nother) crap range in my kitchen.

Perhaps I should simply buy the range that we'd want for the remodeled kitchen. But that would be a 36" or wider model, and the existing cabinet gap is for a 30" range.

Perhaps I should rip out the adjoining cabinets and put in that 36" range, since they were always going to go in a remodel - I want just a bare wall there, with pretty subway tiles and elegant shelves of course. But then I have to look at a $5K range surrounded by a half demolished kitchen during the holidays.

Perhaps I should just start the remodel now, plans and schedules and budget be damned. But then Ill have no kitchen for the holidays, and we have about 20 guests coming for thanksgiving as well as friends staying with us over Christmas and New Years.

Perhaps I should sleep on it, and wait to see what the Brain Trust comes up with overnight. Yes, that's it.

I will add my story. A story of gore.
I bought a dual oven gas range from Italy, from an internet store.

It was hip. It was hot. It was here.
It got delivered. It got installed. The perfect kitchen was near.

I pulled it out to check something, and it fell forwards and smashed into the floor.

That demolished the front glass door.

That all rhymed. There's nothing more.

got a bbq?

This is what we're taking about.

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The range sits in the short leg of a "L" of cabinets. In the remodel-that-never-gets-done I want to remove that short leg, just have a straight run of cabinets down the adjoining wall, and instead of the short leg, have a wall of floor to ceiling subway tiles, with a big 'effing hood that you stand underneath, and the flexibility to put any damn range I want, of any size, on that wall. I'll put little work tables on either side of the range, if there is room.

So seems I could rip out the base cabinet to the left of the range, reposition the upper cabinet higher, install the new 36" range, and live in my ghetto kitchen until after the holidays?

Yes, my BBQ is outside and it will be raining 24/7 from now until May.

For my next range, I want something with lots of big burners, all gas, and no electronics. No timer, no self clean, no nuthin'.

The choices look like
- One of the commercial-like residential ranges. American Range, Bluestar, etc. They cost $4-5K.
- A commercial range, like Garland, Wolf, etc. Not completely suitable for a house.
- A restored O'Keefe & Merrit, that matches the house (built 1911). Very spendy, I think.

My parents and aunt have Agas and swear by them.

I kid on the first post (although it was a true story).

Three (4) thoughts-
1. go for it
2. For the short term- what kind of cabinents are those- they look maple/pecan or something. If they are a mass produced home depot/lowes type thing- they will have a corresponding 36 inch overhead type door which you can go buy for next to nothing. Go buy it. That will get you through the holidays.
3. If you are converting to gas- (for the holidays)- you can get a propane tank for your gas grill and run it to your gas oven. I think they are both 4 psi or something- all you need is a gas line and pressure regulator (pm me if you need one)- I used for about a year before I tapped into my outdoor propane tank. You can hide the grill propane tank in a floor cabinent next to the oven.
4. In your long term plan for the kitchen- think of some real exhaust in your overall design- ditch the damn microwave and get real on a real exhaust vent. I went to some insane cfm vent directed oustide and it was the best decision EVER. When I am in the garage- I can smell what my wife is cooking in the house- and I come running.

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Pick up a cheap used range on CL that fits that width and use it until you re-model - then resell it on CL.

Or but a cheap new one and resell it later on when you remodel.

Good luck!

Good thing you even got a repairman.
Around here, we have to call 10 times over a week or two.
Maybe they pick up the phone to say they are booked through next July.
(plus another $100 for just showing up.)

It might be fixable.
Oven control board is $150-180. Clock is $110. Switches are about $30.
Frigidaire Range / Cooktop / Oven Parts - AppliancePartsPros.com

Kill the breaker. Pop the top off to get to the internals and lock mechanism. Look at the insulation and see if oven heat is leaking out and frying the electronics. Igniters may all be linked to a rusty ground and fixed with a little rough polish. My stove does that and gets finicky whenever inserts are dirty.

Buy one on Craigslist and resell when done with it. If it costs you $100 and you take a hit on it EOD it cost you $50 to not rush the remodel and keep a happy home for the Holiday season.

Consider yourself lucky, it could have decided to go into lock mode while the turkey was in there and you had a house full of hungry guests.

Timely post. I feel your pain... Our electric cook top died 2 weeks ago. Un-wired it so we could use the oven. Both hooked to same 60amp breaker.

Using a propane camp stove for now. LOL! (Yes we have a range hood and open kitchen window to avoid carbon monoxide DEATH)😄

Ordered a new gas cook top yesterday from Homedepot after wifey searched and we looked at some local showrooms.
Happily, gas is stubbed in from old cook top. Need to open up cut out from 18" top to 21". Tight fit but can make it happen.

Limited selection in White appliances... 1918 house with white kitchen and copper range hood.

Would love to redo it all, but house needs to be picked up and foundation leveled. Arrrgh!! Have to spend that $50-$80k first...

Hope your range/cabinet situation works out well!

Maybe check out youtube and repair it yourself, then you're only out the cost of the parts?

Buy a decent range on CL and be done with it. Can't be worse than before. People are remodeling like crazy these days and can't give away their old ranges. Many older ranges are high quality - you may even get an upgrade!

I definitely would not let this trigger a full kitchen remodel. You won't eat until next spring ...

G

I saw you were having 20 people over for Thanksgiving. Don't panic !! Order enough turkeys w/ dinner fixins from your local big box (or small box) store to feed them. You can make some kind of arrangements for the small add ons that go with it. That will give you some breathing room to figure your course of action. We gave up the hassle of cooking a huge amount of food for a group a long time ago. If it's just the two of us, we have fun making a small turkey dinner for just us, but ordering rhe turkey dinner(s) is a really easy & surprisingly tasty way to go.

They all have some type of electronics in them now. Residential Wolf has them too, thanks to lawyers. No offense to you John, but that's they way its headed. I put in a Thermador range in my parent's 15 years ago. The computer finally went about 5 years ago and the damn thing shut down for safety reasons according to the factory rep. Took it in the shorts and pay for the repair. 450 bucks later for a circuit board like thing. Now it just happened to the other side a couple of weeks ago. If you are going to put the 36" range in there, that microwave hood has to go. too much heat and that hood can't handle the heat. Keep that in the back burner when you plan your kitchen remod.

My suggestion is to avoide starting the remodel during this time of the year. Workmen get lazy, shipping from vendors slow up due to the holidays. Its not to your advantage to do this now. Start next year, you will be in a much better position. Keep your eye on price increase on appliances.

I really like Wolf, Thermador. Capital, Imperial and American Range are really good bang for the buck. Only thing you will notice between them are the fit and finish between Wolf, Thermador compared to the Capital and others mentioned.

Commercial range can't not be used in a home. They get too hot and have no insulation on the side. Wolf do make residential ranges but they are 2-3 k more then their commercial counterparts.

1918? Brick foundation?

I'd buy a good second hand range that fits into the space and if you remodel sell it on to someone else.

It's great to plan for the future but nothing is certain. You may never do that remodel.

I just looked on craigslist, and saw a very nice range in stainless for 350.00. It was almost new, clean, and ready to go.

I bought a very nice used range 10 years ago, and I am still using it, while I am ''getting ready to remodel''. Stuff happens.

Get a decent range, and move on. This isn't an agony issue, it's Thanksgiving. Get a move on, and spray soapy water on the connections if you hook it up yourself.

I have to go to work. I'm sure a range will fit in a Westy. How fortunate. ;)

+1 above. It is not the end of the world. Lots of good suggestions here. If your range lasted 15 years that is pretty good. The salesman who sold us two glass top electric Samsung ranges for our house and condo said they would last about 10 years due to the electronics. Our kitchen is no show piece - still got the original countertop from 1957!
Deal with it and move on....

Not a show piece but a museum exibit!;)

Appliances are a crap shoot these days. I bought a bunch of Kitchen Aide stuff 15 years ago and it has all been pretty good. When you do go to replace your range, a 36" professional style will require between 300-600 cfm of exhaust from a range hood. With the higher cfms, you will have to start thinking about make up air to replace the air exhausted from the hood.

My Fridge is a Jenn Air/Maytag and I have been inside it twice to replace defrost timer printed circuit boards. Once to replace the defrost termination stat and heaters. Now the ice will not come out as a power outage last year browned one of the control boards.
Still works though...

I think the Craigslist idea would be the best way to go until you are ready to rip and tear into that kitchen reno.

Same here, I just installed a bluestar 36. It's only been a few weeks but I really like it. A ton of $$ to me, not to mention the hood but its exactly what I wanted. Worth the $$ if you can make it work.

Do you feel like it is trash now, at least to you?
Do you own tools?

Why not DIY.
Bypass all that stuff. An oven is just a box that gets hot, with a thermostat to determine how hot. It's not rocket surgery.

I'm in the same boat, my JennAir cooktop and range are both slowly self destructing by falling apart, problem is all kitchen appliances are total junk now.
Even the expensive units, anything with a computer, it's all garbage.

With the VW diesel emissions scam it's not a far leap to believe that the computers in appliances have a timed kill code buried into the programing.

we like our new unit. lots.
It is a Dacor, made in America.

I have tools, am handy. Don't want to spend any more money or effort on this crap range.

Went to a couple appliance stores. Planning to buy an "American Range" 36" six burner range on Monday. The problem is getting it delivered and installed before Thanksgiving.

If you do decide to install that 36" American Range, keep an eye on the left (assuming you are going left) upper cabinet. It is too close (too low) to the burner. Also, intense heat has been known to melt the bottoms of those microwave combo hoods.

Might is the operative word....

When the control board on our then 13 YO double oven went out a couple of years ago the repairman told us the board was NLA and our options were to buy a new oven or pull the board and have it repaired (would take about 2 weeks and would get a 90 day warranty). Repairman said these days when any appliance with a control board gets past the 10 year point, good luck finding a new one if yours goes out.

Not really believing him I spend a good bit of time trying to find one on the internet and no dice... truly was NLA. Not being in the mood to buy a new oven and wife really liked this one we had the board repaired and so far so good.

Especially if you want to level your house and kill your family... Probably your neighbors also...



.

"NLA." errr. do not like those letters.

I was looking for sparkplug and flame sensor to tune up the 25yo Lennox Pulse Air furnace.
The poor thing was groaning and spitting when trying to fire up, then it would blow like a wind tunnel.
Parts? You guessed it...
A two-stage Trane took its place, it's whisper quiet and hardly noticed.

Originally Posted by LEAKYSEALS951 View Post
3. If you are converting to gas- (for the holidays)- you can get a propane tank for your gas grill and run it to your gas oven. I think they are both 4 psi or something- all you need is a gas line and pressure regulator (pm me if you need one)- I used for about a year before I tapped into my outdoor propane tank. You can hide the grill propane tank in a floor cabinent next to the oven.
]
fwiw: you cannot mix lpg and natural gas. the orfice requirements are different, for starters. i believe lpg has higher psi past the regulator, as well.
the "bbq tank in the cupboard" thing is done all over Europe, from what i could tell. you purchase the cylinders from the local gas stations.

Yeah- my stove came with LPG and natural gas venturis. I set mine up with the LPG. I was really nervous about the tank under the kitchen cabinent-I actually set mine up under a cabinent far away from the stove, but we used it over a year before I had our oudoor tank line installed to the kitchen. I originally planned to use it for a week or two.

When the propane people installed the new lines running to the kitchen (amerigas I think) - they did something real nice, which I did not expect. Once they had the pressure set, they fine tuned the burners to work with the house's specific gas pressure, so the burners could be set to the slowest of simmers. It was like fine tuning a carbeurator, and from a company such as amerigas- I was not expecting that at all. My wife was in heaven!

Will remove left side base cab and, if possible, reposition left side upper cab to higher. It will look very ghetto. But should get me through the holidays. Then we'll get a proper vent hood and start the remodel.

There is a slight chance I won't find an installer in time. Thinking about if, worst case, I end up hooking up the gas line to the new range myself. Would buy a gas leak detector, new flex hose. Thoughts?

Oh yeah- if you have the ability to really vent outside- there are some vent hoods that have thermostats which will automatically turn the fan on if there is fire to vent heat/fumes whatever outside That's pretty neat!
Also- there is a minimum height between the burners and a vent- it should be listed on either the stove or the vent itself.

At least we know you are up to the oven's capabilities. Good luck!

We went with the restored O'Keefe & Merrit ours is only a 32" but love it, it was pricey but not crazy expensive.

The oven in my house is 74 years old....

I have a Chambers model 12B bought on May 29,1941... to be delivered on June 2, 1941.

I have remodeled the kitchen twice around this stove....The fridge in my kitchen is a new Fisher-Paykal... but every time I think about replacing the stove.... nothing in the stores move me....

Of course there is the history, and that my grandfather was thrifty, yet paid $184.50 for this stove in 1941..

Mine is not a museum restored WWll era stove.. I use it every day...



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Really cool vintage range there!

There need to have about 30" for the hood, so I assume it should work for the cabinet too. But, don't quote me on this as I have never done this before, having combustible material like a cabinet above a big stove. You wouldn't need an installer. Just get a new flex and make sure the outlet is big enough for the new stove. That's an easy fix with a reducer. Find our that that American Range requires and change the shut off valve accordingly. A gas detector leak test kit is only a few bucks. Basically soapy water. When we are desperate, we take a plumber's torch, light it and point at the connection and see if it creates little sparks. There's not enough gas or pressure, to cause a fire. Do the liquid soap test. Crank the flared joints down and you should good to go.

Forget the installer, you will need help getting that damn thing in the house, sliding it in the slot without doing damage. That's damage to you, not the cabinet. Don't hurt your back. BTW, you aren't getting that stove flush to the wall. They all have a small cavity back there for the gas shut off to fit right in that hole so the stove will slide right in to the back. When you do your remodel, make sure your contractor read the installation page or measure the back of that range. Having a gap there will ruin your day.

Thanks!. I'm going to order the range Monday when the place opens.

I read the range specs for distance to surfaces and overhead etc. 30" to directly overhead, 18" to adjacent overhead.

Yeah, I figure the stove won't be flush to the wall at first. That's okay. I'm just trying to get a half assed but working kitchen together so I can feed the holiday hordes. I can worry about pretty later.

Do you know, the 21" shelf/riser option is $830!!! Screw that. For $800 I can put subway tiles and polished copper sheet on the wall, and install steel shelves above.