Without an Oven to Bake in
When we purchased this home in 2011, it came equipped with appliances not of my choosing and I have lamented the fact from day one. First of all, they are all stainless steel, and let me tell you, stainless steel appliances are of the devil! They are constantly smudged with little fingerprints and have been etched by who knows what. They are impossible to clean and keep clean. I have been biding my time until I can replace them.
The worst of our appliances is our Kitchenaid range/oven. It was purchased by the previous owners in 2010 and has been an absolute dud for us. We've had it repaired at least 4 times in the three years we've owned it. People, this is a $4500 top-of-the-line appliance and not one I would have ever considered purchasing myself. I've loved having a gas range, and for what it's worth, that part of the piece of junk has worked just fine. The oven, on the other hand, has had the blower motor replaced and I can't remember what other repairs. At the beginning of October I preheated the oven to bake bread. The display indicated it was heated to the proper temp, but when I opened the door to pop some bread in to bake, I could tell it was no where close to being 450 degrees. If you bake as often as we do, you get to know how 450 degrees really feels. I immediately called to have service performed. Boy, are we glad we purchased a service agreement on this lemon.
Of course, it was over a week before the repair folks could make it out here and then he was only here to diagnose and then order the needed part, which ended up being the bottom element. The part usually takes a week to arrive, which thankfully it did arrive on time. Our repairman was out here on Friday to replace the element but found he was going to need the help of a second technician. Second technician was dispatched and the two mused and mulled over the problem of replacing the element.
Now, Wingnut and I have replaced an element ourselves on a past oven. It is usually a fairly common, inexpensive, and simple repair. Oh, no, not on this range. For some inexplicable reason, Kitchenaid decided to build the element into the frame of the oven, completely inaccessible to your average home owner and in this case also completely inaccessible to service technicians. I could hear the techs speaking to the corporate repair headquarters and I heard corporate tell our tech the element on this oven is "non-serviceable". You've got to be kidding! The poor guys put our oven back together and apologized, but my oven cannot be repaired. Can anyone explain to us why we then have a 5 year factory warranty on the element to begin with????
As of Saturday, the Whirlpool Corporation has our case under review and have promised to get back to us in 7-10 business days with a possible offer for a pro-rated replacement. In the meantime, we are still without an oven. I am telling you, I will not accept a pro-rated replacement of this oven model. First of all, I would have never purchased an oven that was $4500. I'm certainly not going to put down even half that for a replacement. I am hoping they will offer us a cash settlement. I already have my new all gas range/oven picked out. It is not a Kitchenaid or a Whirlpool and it is only $1500. We are just now hoping for a settlement in time for Thanksgiving. Otherwise we may be grilling our bird this year.
The worst of our appliances is our Kitchenaid range/oven. It was purchased by the previous owners in 2010 and has been an absolute dud for us. We've had it repaired at least 4 times in the three years we've owned it. People, this is a $4500 top-of-the-line appliance and not one I would have ever considered purchasing myself. I've loved having a gas range, and for what it's worth, that part of the piece of junk has worked just fine. The oven, on the other hand, has had the blower motor replaced and I can't remember what other repairs. At the beginning of October I preheated the oven to bake bread. The display indicated it was heated to the proper temp, but when I opened the door to pop some bread in to bake, I could tell it was no where close to being 450 degrees. If you bake as often as we do, you get to know how 450 degrees really feels. I immediately called to have service performed. Boy, are we glad we purchased a service agreement on this lemon.
Of course, it was over a week before the repair folks could make it out here and then he was only here to diagnose and then order the needed part, which ended up being the bottom element. The part usually takes a week to arrive, which thankfully it did arrive on time. Our repairman was out here on Friday to replace the element but found he was going to need the help of a second technician. Second technician was dispatched and the two mused and mulled over the problem of replacing the element.
Now, Wingnut and I have replaced an element ourselves on a past oven. It is usually a fairly common, inexpensive, and simple repair. Oh, no, not on this range. For some inexplicable reason, Kitchenaid decided to build the element into the frame of the oven, completely inaccessible to your average home owner and in this case also completely inaccessible to service technicians. I could hear the techs speaking to the corporate repair headquarters and I heard corporate tell our tech the element on this oven is "non-serviceable". You've got to be kidding! The poor guys put our oven back together and apologized, but my oven cannot be repaired. Can anyone explain to us why we then have a 5 year factory warranty on the element to begin with????
As of Saturday, the Whirlpool Corporation has our case under review and have promised to get back to us in 7-10 business days with a possible offer for a pro-rated replacement. In the meantime, we are still without an oven. I am telling you, I will not accept a pro-rated replacement of this oven model. First of all, I would have never purchased an oven that was $4500. I'm certainly not going to put down even half that for a replacement. I am hoping they will offer us a cash settlement. I already have my new all gas range/oven picked out. It is not a Kitchenaid or a Whirlpool and it is only $1500. We are just now hoping for a settlement in time for Thanksgiving. Otherwise we may be grilling our bird this year.
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