[masraum]

Originally Posted by zakthor

Went and looked at appliances yesterday. Horrified mostly by the complexity and the utter lack of repair knowledge in the showroom. As far as I can tell these units are for people that care that the anodizing matches on the knobs, not people like me that have been unable to repair a bad capacitive touch controller that is NLA.

And lastly nothing is in stock, order times are crazy, etc, etc.

I've known so many people with crazy parts prices and stuck with busted high end appliances. $8k ranges that 'broke' and not repairable after 3 years. Friend had a viking 'rise from the counter' hood where the switch that controlled the rise was an integrated mainboard/membrane button that cost $650 to replace. Problem maybe a combination of complexity, parts costs, and total lack of knowledgeable repair people. Probably a bad cap or transformer, or a broken solder joint.

I've used ancient stovetops that were valves for gas and you dropped a match in and whump it started up. The basics of what a stovetop does are super simple, no excuse for how difficult my jennaire is to repair, let alone the non-repairable viking fan switch.

Looks like our best option is some whirlpool derivative downdraft stovetop from home depot for $2500. But before we go that route, is there some common sense stovetop maker? Some startup that is branching out from outdoor grills and making stovetops? Seems like the profit is there if someone could figure it out. Is there some brand that doesn't suck?

PS: Sorry about the downdraft - I know its crazy - but it is the fact of the house. There's just nowhere 'up' and 'over' for the air to go.

Yep. If you check consumer reports, they say that the functionality and especially the reliability of the "pro" models is usually not as good as the consumer models. The interesting thing is that they also say that the customers reporting issues also love their "pro" appliances and would buy them again.

Agreed, trying to actually purchase stuff right now is a nightmare. Your best (nearly only) bet is to find something in stock somewhere. If it's not in stock, then be prepared to wait.

And funny that you'd mention using old stoves. We just bought a Chambers stove that was built in 1948 to be our "new" stove.