When we moved into this house a dozen years ago, there was an electric glass top range. Never having used a glass top range, I had no idea how much I was going to hate it. And when I say hated it, I mean with a fiery, blinding passion. There were near cussing sessions every day. But we were house poor at the time and couldn’t do anything about it, so I had to suck it up and make it work. A year later, the item at the top of my tax refund wish list was a different range. A gas one. I did all kinds of research, decided which features mattered and which did not, and decided on an option that was in our price range. I sold the glass top one on KSL for $150. Someone felt like they got a rippin’ deal. They probably did. I just wanted that hunk of frustration out of my house. And then I settled in with my new gas range and never looked back.
That range has been a workhorse for me for years. It has cooked, baked, and canned with nary a hitch. And then about a year ago, one of the burners wouldn’t light consistently. The striker was working, and the gas was flowing, but the fire struggled to appear. We researched and worked the problem (finding out in the process that the striker was not an easily replaceable part) and finally replaced one small part. Then it would light, but for some reason, the burner was only about 30% as hot as it had been. And nothing we could do seemed to make a difference. Over time, we just stopped using that burner because it was not hot enough to cook anything in a timely fashion. But we did just fine with the three remaining burners, so things were ok.
A few weeks ago, another of the burners would not light. This time the gas was flowing but the striker was not striking, which was not good news due to the lack of an easily replaceable part. There was a lot going on and it only happened once, so I honestly forgot about it. But last week it happened again. And while I can work with three functioning burners, two is not doable, so talks began about a new range. COVID has affected the availability of many products due to decreases in manufacturing speed due to shutdowns and staff reductions, inability to get raw materials, etc. We have been trying to buy a freezer for-e-ver (seriously, we paid for one last May and have yet to receive it) so we are fully aware that actually getting our hands on a new range could take a serious amount of time. With that in mind, we felt like we had to hustle to order a new one. All my research buying the first gas range worked in my favor and taking into consideration some of the new available features, we decided on a model and with the salesman’s assurance that there was one in the warehouse (which is like a miracle right now), we bought it on our first shopping trip. The delivery date was set for today, five days after purchase. We honestly didn’t expect it to arrive. But guess what? It did. We were a little bit stunned and a whole lot relieved.
Now I have a shiny new stove. All the burners work. An additional perk is the fact that it is a convection oven. I’m super excited about that. I’m a bread baker and I’ve learned some new tips from my binge watching of “The Great British Baking Show,” so I’m anxious to get some loaves in there and see what it can do. Convection is also supposed to yield more even results when baking on two racks at once so I’m planning to experiment with that as well. I might be able to bake cookies in half the time and stick to my high standards of cookie excellence. I fully intend to work this range just as hard as I did the last one. Hopefully it will perform just as well as the last one.
That range has been a workhorse for me for years. It has cooked, baked, and canned with nary a hitch. And then about a year ago, one of the burners wouldn’t light consistently. The striker was working, and the gas was flowing, but the fire struggled to appear. We researched and worked the problem (finding out in the process that the striker was not an easily replaceable part) and finally replaced one small part. Then it would light, but for some reason, the burner was only about 30% as hot as it had been. And nothing we could do seemed to make a difference. Over time, we just stopped using that burner because it was not hot enough to cook anything in a timely fashion. But we did just fine with the three remaining burners, so things were ok.
A few weeks ago, another of the burners would not light. This time the gas was flowing but the striker was not striking, which was not good news due to the lack of an easily replaceable part. There was a lot going on and it only happened once, so I honestly forgot about it. But last week it happened again. And while I can work with three functioning burners, two is not doable, so talks began about a new range. COVID has affected the availability of many products due to decreases in manufacturing speed due to shutdowns and staff reductions, inability to get raw materials, etc. We have been trying to buy a freezer for-e-ver (seriously, we paid for one last May and have yet to receive it) so we are fully aware that actually getting our hands on a new range could take a serious amount of time. With that in mind, we felt like we had to hustle to order a new one. All my research buying the first gas range worked in my favor and taking into consideration some of the new available features, we decided on a model and with the salesman’s assurance that there was one in the warehouse (which is like a miracle right now), we bought it on our first shopping trip. The delivery date was set for today, five days after purchase. We honestly didn’t expect it to arrive. But guess what? It did. We were a little bit stunned and a whole lot relieved.
Now I have a shiny new stove. All the burners work. An additional perk is the fact that it is a convection oven. I’m super excited about that. I’m a bread baker and I’ve learned some new tips from my binge watching of “The Great British Baking Show,” so I’m anxious to get some loaves in there and see what it can do. Convection is also supposed to yield more even results when baking on two racks at once so I’m planning to experiment with that as well. I might be able to bake cookies in half the time and stick to my high standards of cookie excellence. I fully intend to work this range just as hard as I did the last one. Hopefully it will perform just as well as the last one.
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