Brief report

[altivo]

I'd like to say because my fingers are stiff from the cold but we have the woodstove going so it's not that cold in here.

The repair guy for the electric range came in and handed Gary a piece of paper. It's a recall. The problem has been officially known since last May. At that time, there had been 126 similar incidents reported, and two of them involved fire damage. A whole series of different models are affected, ours included. The fault not only can cause burners to remain active when they had already been shut down with the controls, but also can lead to the heat being turned on at random times and without warning. This sounds serious enough that they should have sent out notices to every owner of record the way auto companies do, but no. So they claim they will fix it all, free of charge, but we have to wait for parts to arrive. This is a Frigidaire product. Guess what brand I will not buy again if they can't be bothered to notify customers of their own very serious design errors.

Tomorrow we get to go meet Red, the adoption candidate proposed to us. I expect that to go smoothly and he will probably come home with us. This should be a welcome diversion for Gary, whose school term ended today and who will now be worrying about his grades until they are posted.

And that's the news from the Oak Grove.

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

My folks have had similar issues with General Electric appliances, including our stove, washer and dryer. We received no recall noticed until after we reported serious problems including the smell of smoke. They still haven't gotten the oven properly fixed.

[altivo]

Frigidaire is owned by Electrolux now, so this is even more surprising. Electrolux has always had an extremely high rating on customer service and satisfaction. The logo on the unit reads "Frigidaire" but under it in slightly smaller letters it has "Electrolux" and that's one of the reasons we selected it.

We can't fault the service, really. Once contacted about a problem they have always been prompt and efficient about correcting it. My issue is with the management policy that let them get away without direct advance notification of what amounts to a serious safety issue. Apparently this fault takes some time to appear, as we've had the range for about six years and use it several times a day.

[farthing]

I guess it's something odd on the controller side, I'd be curious to see what's the trouble behind this. But all that can be found are these recall notices. They even have a website for that, www.smoothtoprangerecall.com. :-P

There's another recall happening too, liquids from the stove top can leak under the knobs and that causes the same trouble. Bad design all over. Hopefully they'll get the faulty parts replaced soon...

[altivo]

Yes, they're being pretty secretive about it. The repair parts are being sent to our address, and I have every intention of looking in the box to see what they are before the service tech comes out to install them.

[farthing]

It wouldn't surprise me if they'd send four pieces of separately boxed $0.05 rubber O-rings, after they scrounge them together for a couple of weeks. :-P

Oh, and a specialized contact cleaner tool (Q-tip) for repairs.

[altivo]

You're probably right. A lot of the "fixes" for auto recalls are like that. Only the safety ones require the manufacturer to notify customers directly. I had two in my Jeep that they didn't fix until it broke. One was the fuel pump (nice job guys, wait until my car won't start, and then fix it by putting in another one that fails the same way a year later) and the other was something to do with valve lifter springs. That one made the "check engine" warning light go on and probably cost a bundle to fix, but it was still in warranty.

[hrrunka]

Ugh. Good that it'll be fixed free of charge, but very bad that they've known about the problem for so long and yet not done anything pre-emptive to resolve it. The timing sucks, too.

Good luck with Red.

[altivo]

Kinda makes me wonder how many of these were sold in other countries where the consumer protection regulations are not as stringent as they are in the US. The prices given in the recall notice are on the high side and tend to be heavily discounted. I think we paid more like $750 for it.

Functionally the design is good. We do a lot of cooking, probably far more than the US average even in households with children these days. The range is easy to understand and use, and has generally done what it is supposed to do without problems. A previous catastrophic failure of the control unit rendered the oven inoperable, but did that in the safe manner: no heat. It was fixed within a few days without charge. My mother always used an electric range and would typically need a service call about once in five or six years, so I assume that's normal. What I dislike is the fact that some management decision to save money has kept them from issueing pre-emptive notices about a safety issue.

Thanks for the good luck wish. I expect Red to be delightful based on Gary's discussion with his foster mom. He is on thyroid medication, which probably explains why he's so laid back for a retriever, but that's fine. I'm more concerned about the 300 mile round trip. We'll have photos soon if in fact Red comes home with us. The rescue group allows us a "trial period" of several weeks to make sure we will get along with a new dog, but I'm sure once he's here he'll be staying. "We spoil dogs" is a motto at our house.

[hrrunka]

Yeah, the fault sure sounds serious enough to warrant pre-emptive action...