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So the electric range at my mother-in-law's has an issue. It's about 5-8 yrs old, with "glass" top. One or two of the back burners are shot or not working right and apparently it's expensive to fix ... you'd have to replace the entire cooktop? I haven't actually researched yet; there's no model information in the door anywhere.
Been looking at older ranges on craigslist, the kind that's way out of fashion, with the exposed stove coils that can be removed for cleaning/replacement. Any caveats choosing an old design, today? (I'm aware that on older models the oven door probably isn't as well insulated.) Almost pulled the trigger on a swanky 42" model from 1997, griddle in the middle etc. She doesn't need to stick to 30" necessarily.
Also liking the "slide-in" kind, since controls are on the front, not in the back! There's a cabinet-mounted microwave above.
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check locally for a used appliance store and buy a coil-top electric.
it will outlast any glass-top.
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The glass top is usually just a cover for the burners themselves . When I replaced my glass top after a shattering accident , the burners were nested in insulating ceramic. You might try opening it up and see if the wiring has come loose or is damaged.
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Repairing it shouldn't be too hard but sometimes it's better to replace a stove that to fiddle with burner controls. I got tired of continually replacing controls (crappy offshore replacement parts) on a friends stove and told her to buy a new stove.
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cbelt3 wrote:
The glass top is usually just a cover for the burners themselves . When I replaced my glass top after a shattering accident , the burners were nested in insulating ceramic. You might try opening it up and see if the wiring has come loose or is damaged.
That is the case with most glass top stoves. The top is just a cover and the burners are beneath it. Depending on the model/brand you should be able to lift the glass top up (sort of like a hood on a car with my stove) and look at the burners. It may be worth replacing the burners. If memory serves me they are not that hard to replace. Can buy parts from online sites such as this
one, or this
one that has how to info on it. Repair Clinic site has how to videos that helped me in the past.
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Our local Sears Mom and Pop store has been sending out flyers every week or two with good deals on appliances. I'm sure there's one close to you.
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what's a "Sears Mom and Pop store"? I though Sears was a large corporation, I doubt they have franchise stores.
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Yes, Sears has franchised stores. Among various names used is Sears Hometown. They contract with independent operators who sell various Sears branded merchandise.
They have been doing this and similar since about 20 years ago. Back in the early to mid-90's after closing most of their small local and catalog stores to concentrate on operating big stores located in malls they found they lost a lot of walk in business. So a couple years later Sears started to advertise for independents to open up Sears branded stores to sell some of their lines that people weren't willing to travel to the nearest mall store.
As an example, here they closed their catalog, appliance and outlet store for scratch and dent items as part of that small store closings. About two years later they took out a large ad (full page or nearly so) in the local paper that ran for a while looking for someone who wanted to open a store under the Sears brand. They would have to obtain the location and Sears would provide the merchandise. There were no takers here, but I understand they did get persons to do the same at other places.
