Yes. Magically, two new wall cabinets have materialized in the Funny Farm’s kitchen.
The previous owners handsomely refurbished the kitchen, which was one of the reasons I bought the house. They put in a lovely Kenmore double oven, very excellent. And because (unlike them) I cook a lot, I actually…well…used it.
Yes. I know. Bad move.
What can I say?
After a bit, as you might expect, the thing went on the fritz.
Control panel needed to be replaced.
Time passed — not much of it, we might add.
New control panel has to be replaced.
WTF!?!?? I say to the Sears repairdude. I just changed this thing out, to the tune of $500!
Why, replies he, are you using the self-cleaning cycle?
Huh? say I.
As it develops, if you have a self-cleaning wall oven, you’d better not try to use it. There’s not enough room around a wall oven installation for enough ventilation to cool the motherboard, and so if you turn on the self-cleaning cycle, you will fry the motherboard.
Yup.
Since then, I’ve never once turned on the self-cleaning cycle.
But. I did use the broiler the other day — wanted an open-face melted cheese sandwich. Mistake, apparently. When I got home from today’s junketing, I walked into a kitchen resonating with the oven’s pathetic bleating. And yes: the error message is F7: bad motherboard.
I was less broke then, when I learned about this quirk, than I am now, and it took several months before I could afford to have the damn thing fixed. Today, it’s flat out of the question.
Fortunately, there’s a breaker switch dedicated to the oven. So…the oven and its convenient little digital clock are off. And they’re going to stay off.
I’m going to convert the two ovens into storage space, which will be handy.
As for melted cheese sandwiches? I may get one of those countertop toaster ovens. A fancy Kitchenaid convection(!) oven can be had for less than the cost of a new motherboard, and a regular boring toaster oven costs all of $129.
For serious baking, the grill in the backyard does the job. Yes. I have actually baked bread in a backyard grill. Does a very nice job, indeed.
It’s not just wall ovens that have this vulnerability – I have read the same issue for freestanding range/ovens as well. I haven’t used the self-cleaning nor broiler options on my stove yet and I don’t plan to 🙂
Really!! That’s interesting… The guy told me it was because of the way they’re installed in the cabinetry. Hm…makes sense, though: he also said the problem is the electronics can’t stand up to the heat.
Apparently they can’t even stand up to the heat of turning on the broiler elements for five minutes to toast a piece of bread!
What, after all, is the POINT of digitizing stoves and washers? Any day I’d rather have a dial instead of a bunch of complicated push buttons. And ANY day I’d prefer simpler mechanical parts that last to electronic parts that a) crap right out and b) are a PITA to learn to use.
So now what we have are appliances with features we have to pay extra for that don’t work.
I had a heck of a time with my GE double ovens. They were made in the late 60’s I’m guessing and performed admirably for years. But things started to go wrong and parts were no longer available. So I began to search for replacements and even had the GE dude out to the house. He measured and shared (while scratching his head) that the opening from the old stove was bigger than the opening needed for the new double oven…WTF??? Sooo this would entail quite a bit of “retrofitting”….etc…etc…$$$$. Guy quoted like $5K…No thank you…Limped along for a couple of more years and then finally decided to fix this mess….So I got the serial and model numbers off of the stoves and called “Ge Cares” who helped solve the mystery with help from their archives. I didn’t have a “double wall oven” I had two “single wall ovens”….And then it all made sense why the opening was larger…Waited for a deal and I pulled the old ovens and replaced with two new single wall ovens…one self cleaning….one not….So far so good….And did it for a bit under $1K and it was a pain in the neck to do.
I’m likin’ that toaster oven just make sure you have the amperage to run that unit. Otherwise you’ll be running to the breaker box every time you use it. May want to invest in a “dedicated line” just for this unit….. I can only imagine what replacement of the double oven would cost from the Sears Dude. DW gives the thumbs down to any sort of toaster oven….Evidently had a bad experience with one catching on fire….YIKES!!!
A standard electric oven also presents a fire hazard, as does an electric stovetop.
The element in an oven can short out and set a fire — I had this happen in my last house. Was able to stop the fire by running outside and throwing the breaker switch…interestingly, even though a fire was burning inside the oven hot enough to melt the element and the oven’s wall, the breaker did not flip on its own.
The insurance company paid to replace the oven, and when I went over to sears they had a KILLER convection oven on sale for less than I’d paid for the regular s/c oven — the insurance covered the entire cost, to my amazement.
When the electrician came over to install the thing, he said it’s not uncommon for elements in electric stoves to do that…and, come to think of it, an element in a stove at my parents’ house once exploded — though it didn’t set a fire. He also said those round stovetop elements would do the same, and when the do, they can explode and shoot red-hot metal all over the room. He said people had been pretty badly hurt when that happens. Whether there’s a risk with a glass-top stove, I don’t know…and don’t want to know. That’s why I have a gas stove-top. That and the fact that if you like to cook, gas is much preferable.
Yes, I noticed that some of those countertop ovens are 1800 watts. Good lord!! Some are 1500 watts, and even that seems a little startling.
There are several outlets in the garage — my plan was to put it out there, since that’s where the slow cooker is. There also would be a layer of drywall and a solid-core door between the proposed cooking site and the rest of the house. Guess I should put a smoke alarm out there, though.
Since I do most “oven” cooking in the propane grill, it probably wouldn’t be used for much other than toasting sandwiches and heating a pizza.
Two full-sized ovens, eh? Huh. Why not, though? If you bake a lot, that would probably give you a lot more space. The pair the previous owners installed are not very large. The main one is the size of a small or mid-size wall oven, but the second one, which is not self-cleaning and therefore IMHO useless, is really very small. I think of it as basically a warming oven, but have never used it because I’ve paid my dues in the Easy-Off department.
Heeyyy…waitaminit here. Just looked at the 2012 post linked to in this post and see the LAST time the motherboard went out, it was shortly after I’d used the broiler…I hadn’t used the self-cleaning function in months. Whaddaya bet it’s the broiler that’s doing this? I’ve NEVER used the self-clean since this current motherboard was installed.
Kewl. A broiler oven whose broiler you can’t use.
Yep, I learned that lesson the hard way with a free-standing range a couple years ago the day before a Thanksgiving dinner I was cooking for family who had flown across the country.
OMG! What on earth did you do?
Sounds like the time I succeeded in blocking the kitchen drain on Thanksgiving Day. 🙂
My first thought was reservations at a restaurant, but trying to find a reservation in DC at that late date is impossible. So with one of those giant electric roasters for the turkey, a microwave, and a couple crock pots I was able to put something on the table. It was not one of the better meals I’ve prepared in my lifetime.
@MD: Wow! That must have been an experience to remember. Sounds like an Epic
Save on your part.