I need to vent.....

[aftermidnight]

What's up with kitchen ranges these day, when we moved into this house in 1965 we bought a new electric range, it lasted 21 years and served me well, the oven door came off for easy cleaning. The next one was O.K. too it had self clean oven, I thought I had died and gone to heaven it lasted a long time. The next one was a glass top, self clean oven but some of the finish flaked off the inside of the oven every time I used it, finally one of the elements wouldn't turn off so rather than call the repair man we trashed it, it lasted 4 years. Now, this last one, one of those so called steam clean.........................................those dots are a bunch of profanity. It is as useless as tits, well you know how that goes. Being anxious to see how it worked I tried it out and with a pretty clean oven. Even after putting it through the cleaning cycle twice and much elbow grease I didn't get it as clean as I would have liked. All I ended up with is a sore back, the door doesn't come off so a lot of reaching .
You can't even use Easy Off on the finish in these ovens, I haven't tried the ammonia stink up the house thingy yet.
Now I just do the best I can, we've only had this one a year. The hunt is on for for the next stove. I have compiled a list of must haves, forget the self clean/steam clean ovens, I'll use E.O., leave it over night and wipe out the next morning.
I do like the glass tops now that I've found a cleaning product that works like a hot d*mn, I'd love one that has a door that comes off, I have enough trouble getting down and up off the floor, never mind all that reaching into the back of the oven. The control knobs have to all work the same way, lord is that ever a pain when you have to stop and think, now which way do I turn this one to put it on low and did I turn the right element on, my latest stove is a KitchenAid and for the life of me I can't see where the Aid fits here, totally disgusted with it other than it does bake cookies without burning the bottoms but those elements that don't stay a consistent heat but fluctuate up and down I burnt my welsh cakes every time I tried them so now have to pull out the griddle for our old Jenn Air grill and do them on that Rant finished, I feel better .
Annette

 

[Ridgerunner]

Rant all you want, you are among friends and we understand how you feel.

In my opinion there are are two things going on. First, there are too many features on everything. The more you add the more complicated it is so more can go wrong. It seems these companies constantly have to rebrand and "improve". They can't stay in business sticking with a model that does basic things well. People want gimmicks and won't buy things without them. I like a self-cleaning over too, when it works. Some do a reasonable job from what I've seen. But a lot of these are more gimmicks than practical stuff. They may work great in laboratory conditions but not in real life.

The other is in the materials and labor. You would not believe it by the prices they ask, but they are trying to cut costs by using less expensive material. It's fine when they work but to me the least expensive material is the one that does the job.

The labor problem has two parts. One is that so much is built by computer, or robots if you will. That's fine as long as tolerances are maintained, but often they are not. Even the inspection is often by electronic devices. They can build things consistently but its not always consistently good.

The other part of labor is that they don't do a good job of training and motivating the manual workforce. People used to get on with a good company and they had a job for life. They took pride in that company and the job they did. I don't see that anymore. There is little job security and not a lot of loyalty to employers or employees. I'm not just talking about the stuff made overseas, I'm talking about the American labor pool.

Times have changed. I'd be really happy with basic stuff that does a basic job well and lasts forever. I don't like rebranding but that's the world we now live in.

That's my opinion, for what little it's worth. I'll get off my rant. Can't say I feel a lot better.

 

[digitS']

I'm sorry you are having trouble with it, Annette. I will put your information on "steam cleaning" (?) under "guidance" since we may also soon need a new kitchen range ... One dial has to be turned from high to off before changing. Otherwise, an element stays red hot no matter how low of a setting it shows.

Mom was completely dissatisfied with her self-cleaning oven so the replacement I needed to buy here at home 20 years ago does not have that feature. I can, at least, get the door off and sit on a stool to clean. Altho! That stool is a match to that one I ranted about 2 years ago on TEG. It said right on the thing that it was rated at 300# and my under-200# body fell right through it while I was painting the living room!!

I wasn't injured so me smashing a plastic stool is a looong way from having problems with a kitchen range. Maybe it would be therapeutic for you to smash a plastic stool intentionally ..!

Rants are only okay around here under strict guidelines, Annette. A. conservation of punctuation B. conservation of capital letters Administration will note your compliance.

I'll stop now and maybe someone who knows about your range's features will have meaningful advice. Edited to Say: Ah, ha! There's wisdom from Ridgerunner!

Steve

 

[aftermidnight]

Ahhhh a basic range WITHOUT all the bells and whistles, something to dream about . Still want to stay with electric tho, gas scares me. A few years back a house on the other side of town blew up due to a gas leak and I don't know if it was gassed fired or not but some years back a hot water tank blew up, buckled the outside wall of a house went right through the roof and landed a couple of yards away, I know, used with care not a problem but it still makes me a nervous Nelly.
Annette

 

[majorcatfish]

when we purchased our double wide back in 1999 it came with all the appliances <ge brands> of course everything worked fine for the first couple years. dishwasher died replaced it with another ge washer it died, we now hand wash everything....
the range have had to replace the controller board once, numerous elements<oven and top elements> just replaced both large elements switches..

the fridge, the ice/water dispenser you could get water but no ice either crushed or cube, found the problem and put a jumper on the circuit board now you have a 50/50 chance of getting crushed or cubed....ice is ice.. now the ice maker will keep making ice till you raise the bar, nothing like opening the freezer door and a pile of ice comes dumping out on the floor..
have replaced 3 water heaters...

but when i win the lottery.. will be going gas......

 

[aftermidnight]

Never had a dishwasher, thought I would but after thinking it over I think I'll stick to hand washing, my hands are one thing that are still working LOL.

 

[Nyboy]

My younger sister who is a little crazy has 3 dishwashers. She entertains a lot, a dirty glass or plate in sink would torture to her .

 

[ninnymary]

I replaced my dishwasher for a wine fridge. Love it!

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

We have found that one has to go old school to find appliances that work like they are supposed to and for a long time. We've also found they are cheap...especially when young people buy an older home or "inherit" older appliances from parents who die and they ditch those and get a newer set of appliances because they think newer is better.

I think all the newer appliances are built to fail so people have to buy more of the same, just like the cars nowadays. Can't have repeat sales if the thing lasts for 20 yrs, can they?

Love, love, love old stoves, washers and dryers and will never buy a new one as long as the older models are still in circulation out there. Another blessing of older stuff, when a part ever does wear out you can replace it yourself without an engineering degree to do so.

 

[Carol Dee]

Well now @aftermidnight you are fitting right into this forum. Vent all you want. We will listen. I hate shopping for appliances. I do not like all the new fangled options. I like SIMPLE. We also removed a dishwasher that failed after about 4 years. I now have shelving there for bulky items like my dehydrator.