When I bought my house in 2005, it came with 3 brand new stainless steel appliances. There was a refrigerator, a dishwasher, and a stove/oven - all Kenmore products. I had never really used a glass-top surface electric range before, but over the years I learned to enjoy its convenience and efficiency.
A couple weeks ago, I pressed the Bake button on the top-left part of the control panel and the side of the panel snapped. Apparently the panel was held in by some plastic pieces that pressing it hard enough over the years caused it to snap. The right side was still in tact, but it was just more difficult to press the buttons. I continued to use the stove and oven as so until finally the right side collapsed as well. The panel was now sitting inside the top part of the range, making it very difficult to access the buttons. I decided to pull the panel out so that I could access it easier. Everything still seemed to function this way. However, when I tried the Bake button, there was a big spark and the circuit board was shorted and fried. I guess the wires in the back were touching each other. Whoops! Rather than go through the hassle of trying to get it repaired (one would have to replace the panel and the top of the oven, but this thing is pretty old), I decided to just go looking for a new range.
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| Old Range - 2005 Kenmore |
Since I cook pretty much every day and am also on this Paleo diet that even more so requires home-cooking, I wanted to get a replacement as soon as possible. I went to three stores and looked at models. I started at Lowes and found a GE and a Samsung I liked for $600 and $650 respectively. I then went to Home Depot and they pretty much had the same inventory. Sears was my last stop and they had the same as both of the previous stores, but they also had Kenmore models, but not for very cheap. I decided I wanted to get the Samsung model. Since I was at already at Sears and each place had the same thing, I asked them when was the earliest they could deliver the range. Sears told me Dec 23... I then went to Home Depot and they told me Dec 11th... Lowes turned out to be the winner since they were able to deliver the next morning!
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| New Range - 2014 Samsung |
I installed the new range myself, using the old hookup cord. I also learned during installation that I can have a gas range if I had wanted. The new range has some cool new features, like convection baking, which baked my salmon perfectly the other day. You can also set a cook time so that the oven will turn off automatically. There's multiple cooking surface areas on the front two elements, so it nicely fits the pot you are using. And finally there is a warming center...I guess that's kind of neat too. I was lucky to get the stove at the end of the Black Friday sale that continued through Wednesday after Thanksgiving. The range was $650 for me and apparently it's
back up to $900 today online.
Although my old range was a good one and probably could have worked for longer if not for the poor panel design, it's nice to have a new range to play with!
