As for the stove...it's a piece of crap. If you remember, this was the VERY expensive stove that we built our kitchen around. We love to cook - so we got an oversized pro range. Six burners, oven that fits a full sheet pan - and we use it! We made sacrifices in other places in the house so the budget would work to have our dream kitchen.
Two years after we moved in (just outside the thing's warranty) the oven gave out. We had to have the burner and igniter replaced. We worked with the company to try to make the case that yes, it was now out of warranty, but these are essential parts to the oven and should be designed to last longer than 2 years. No luck - we ended up paying for the fix, but at least we had our oven back.
Last week the oven gave out again. The warranty on the parts for the previous repair has expired - and it's the same parts that have given out. The repair guy actually said they are "wear and tear parts". Seriously? We should expect a $400 repair bill every two years on parts that lasted 10+ (and were still going strong when we sold the place) on the plain old consumer oven we had in our old house? Seriously? The repair guy also said we should have the gas company come out to verify there isn't a problem with the gas supply.
So the gas guy came yesterday. He discovered the valves for all six burners on top are leaking. It's not dangerous, he said - the leak is very very slight, and he said it's totally safe to use the stove right now, but he also said he has never seen a 5-year-old stove leak like this - he normally sees it on stoves 20+ years old. And he has worked for the gas company for 38 years. He was a gem - wrote up his expert opinion on the whole thing as ammunition and gave us contact info for a couple of the people in the gas company's appliance center who will also state that this is ridiculously out of spec and should never, ever be seen in a range this age, no matter how much was spent on it.
Sheryl is rolling up her sleeves to do battle with American Range starting today...
DO NOT buy American Range products. Maybe ours was a lemon - but the lack of support and willingness to stand behind their product is what has really tainted the brand for us.
(The gas guy said he was so glad to get the call to our house - the company sold American Range for a little while but didn't have much success with sales - they have a deeply discounted model in their clearance room that he was seriously considering, but he said "no way! Not after seeing yours!)
