Posted on 12/04/2018 6:10:00 PM PST by chrisser
Let me preface this by saying we live in a very rural area. Most of the year, our road and sometimes our driveway are impassable without 4wd and high traction tires. We also have no cell service. So getting a repair service out here or warranty work is basically not practical.
We bought this Maytag gas oven. We run it on propane. Bought it less than a year ago from Lowes and it's been nothing but problems. I've spent more in parts for it to get it working than what we originally paid for the oven (something like $350-400) and finally got it to work a few months ago after replacing the second ignitor. I've replaced the ignitor (twice), the gas control valve, and the touchpad/control board. Basically everything but the burners and the chassis. Tonight, my wife got an F1 error, which is either the touchpad, or the control board. Before it would just refuse to maintain a temperature.
I found some literature online that helped me troubleshoot it, and I'm getting pretty good at it.
But I'm frankly sick of dealing with it.
Is there anyone who makes a basic gas range that just works? Maybe one without all the electronic gizmos that are so unreliable? We don't need something fancy, but I'd like to get something new that I don't have to keep pulling out and taking apart.
Or maybe next time I should just buy two ranges and stick one in the garage to cannibalize for parts...
I’ve bought older stoves. The latest is a Tappan from the 50’s or 60’s. NO ELECTRONICS
Sorry, it’s a Whirlpool, although I’m not sure that makes much of a difference.
I paid $50 for the Tappan.
Maytag is now, unfortunately, owned by Whirlpool.
Despite the great reputation of Maytag appliances in general, this isn’t the first story I’ve heard of their microprocessor equipped whiz bang stuff being troublesome. My brother had a Maytag washer that blew out control boards on a fairly regular basis @ $350 each. If I lived out in the boonies, I would definitely prefer luddite-grade appliances with no computers in them. The Maytag washers & dryers that I have seen work for twenty plus years are entirely mechanical, turn the knob and push the button. No clock, no display.
We live a lifestyle similar to yours.
The bigger problem you have is if the grid goes down or there’s an EMP. All that modern junk becomes worthless.
I suggest just trying to sell your current POC and get an all mechanical/analog range even if you have to buy an antique. We used a 40 year old gas range for about 10 years that worked perfectly and sold it last year for $150. The one we have now is all mechanical except for the igniters. When the power goes out we use matches to light the burners.
Tell us your budget first, then we can give you suggestions on good ranges.
I’ve had good luck with our GE Profile series gas range, but you’re going to pay $2,000+ for a 30” free standing single oven unit today. (Ours cost $800 in 1996)
If you want to spend $400 on a gas range, you’re going to get $400 worth of range.
You probably already know, but you’ll also need to re-jet the range for propane. They usually come jetted for natural gas, and will run very poorly on propane if not re-jetted. (Some ranges come with the LP conversion kit included.)
Was the gas oven you bought rated to run on propane? There is a difference.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. We bought a Samsung a few years ago and aside from the knobs being a little cheap I love it. It has a continuous top, a griddle, convection bake and roast, and a a dehydrating cycle.
Can any gas stove be converted to propane?
This is just about the same model, but we got ours on a great sale. You might find it elsewhere for less?
Good luck!
Oven we have came with a propane kit to rejet.
To be perfectly blunt about it, there’s a huge market crying out for the solid quality and simplicity of the products of yesteryear. Blenders, gas stoves, refrigerators, office chairs, jigsaws — everything under the sun. As it is, Chinese mainland manufacturers crank out a vast flood of junk that fails quickly and demands unending repairs. American companies that value quality have fallen by the wayside. I’ve been watching this phenomenon spread like cancer for more than twenty years, and it’s depressing as hell. -_-
Did you change out the coupling/adapters for ones that will convert the usage from natural gas to propane? Check out any number of videos on youtube: Converting A Natural Gas Stove To Propane
You have to get the oxygen mix to be what it needs to be by manipulating a few things on a factory direct natural gas stove.
My old Viking finally died after 20 years.
Bought a Samsung, the one rated #1 by Consumer Reports.
Excellent piece of gear.
Budget wise, we bought the nicest basic range at Lowes that didn’t have a bunch of extra gizmos. We thought convection was just one more thing to break and most models above the one we bought were convection or larger than the opening in the counter (standard 30”). Their weren’t any purely mechanical ones on the floor.
I wouldn’t be opposed to paying more if we could be confident it would work reliably.
The best stove that I have had (for the past 6 years) is my GE profile convection oven with a second oven in the bottom.
I am a cook and yes it was pricey but has been totally worth it. It has 6 burners of various type, comes with a Lodge griddle that fits onto 3 of the burners. Yes, it is electronic, but I also put in a surge protector to protect the computer part of it during a power surge. When I had a service guy out for a minor repair, he was impressed that I had that. He thought that it was brilliant. If the power goes out you can still light the oven and the burners with a match.
It does have the built-in oven cleaner which I have never used because I have heard that it is very hard on the oven since it heats it to an incredibly high heat which basically destroys the oven. ( Was told that by more than once trustworthy source and that after 5-6 cleanings you can kiss that oven goodbye.)
We are selling our house. We will be replacing my stove with a much more economical stove and taking that one with us. I am not parting with that stove. While I would love to get a Wolfe, that is not in our budget. So I will will make do with my GE.
Our Wolf gas range is five years old and gets heavy use every day. No problems so far.
I watched several vids and followed the instructions in the manual.
When it works, the burner the flame has good color and it heats up quickly. Because it wasn’t generating a code previously, it was a little difficult to troubleshoot until I found the service manual online. Essentially, the gas valve has a “safety” feature where it detects the amperage draw of the ignitor. So the ignitor can glow red hot, but if it isn’t within range, or drifts in and out, the safety valve will shut the gas off. That and the control boards are notoriously craptastic. Once I found the specs and got myself an amp clamp, I was able to identify that the ignitor was the root cause.
But now the new control board is throwing an error indicating it’s either the touchpad or the board itself. I’m pretty certain the old board was working, and I can probably put it back in, but it seems like a fool’s errand to keep chasing these problems.
The last Maytag drier we bought was a hunk of junk. Bunch of plastic pieces that broke all the time.
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