Home Repair forum - Follow-up on my friend's gas stove, from months agol

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Follow-up on my friend's gas stove, from months agol

2006-03-30, 3:21 am

Follow-up on my friend's gas stove, from months ago.

My friend decided to call a specifically GE (I think it was GE) repair
man for his oven, which wouldn't start well (it exploded a bit) even
with the new hot surface ignitor.

He looked on the GE website, and the guy who came had a truck that
said nothign but GE on it, no private owner's name, or address, and if
there was a phone number, it was GE's 800 number.

He looked at it and didn't see the problems right away. Then he found
what my friend had told me about, that he had starged to take off the
nipple where the gas comes into the oven compartment (without taking
the oven out of the wall mount.), but my friend had not screwed it
back fully.

Also the guy really had to think before he was sure of this, but my
friend had mounted the ignitor upside down, so it was farther frrom
the gas. I figure that was the actual reason it didn't start.

He charged 90 dollars, and my friend is kicking himself for being
stupid, but still satisfied that his oven is fixed.

BTW, if this oven had been at my house, or if I hadn't had him doing
part of the repair without me, I would have fixed it. But every time
I was there, we seemed to be in a hurry. I asked him if he was sure
he had the ignitor on right, for example, but next time, I'll insist
of watching more carefully when he takes something like that apart,
and seeing it in my hands when it is put back together.

Tony Hwang

2006-03-30, 4:21 am

mm wrote:
> Follow-up on my friend's gas stove, from months ago.
>
> My friend decided to call a specifically GE (I think it was GE) repair
> man for his oven, which wouldn't start well (it exploded a bit) even
> with the new hot surface ignitor.
>
> He looked on the GE website, and the guy who came had a truck that
> said nothign but GE on it, no private owner's name, or address, and if
> there was a phone number, it was GE's 800 number.
>
> He looked at it and didn't see the problems right away. Then he found
> what my friend had told me about, that he had starged to take off the
> nipple where the gas comes into the oven compartment (without taking
> the oven out of the wall mount.), but my friend had not screwed it
> back fully.
>
> Also the guy really had to think before he was sure of this, but my
> friend had mounted the ignitor upside down, so it was farther frrom
> the gas. I figure that was the actual reason it didn't start.
>
>
> He charged 90 dollars, and my friend is kicking himself for being
> stupid, but still satisfied that his oven is fixed.
>
> BTW, if this oven had been at my house, or if I hadn't had him doing
> part of the repair without me, I would have fixed it. But every time
> I was there, we seemed to be in a hurry. I asked him if he was sure
> he had the ignitor on right, for example, but next time, I'll insist
> of watching more carefully when he takes something like that apart,
> and seeing it in my hands when it is put back together.
Hmmm,
Slip of common sense, LOL!

Debi

2006-03-30, 5:21 am

Oven fires account for about 5% of house fires every year (NFPA data)

I have an electric , self cleaning oven. I was baking one day, and the
temperature just kept going up. When it hit 550, I kicked the circut
breaker.

I called the company, they figured out it was the electronic control
board that had malfunctioned, and sent a repairman to come a few days
later. They had to order a part, they said..
Before he got there, I took it apart. The board was fried.
When the repairman came , he installed a new board from a different
lot. He wanted the old board back, but I refused. I sent it to NFPA as
part of their investigation.

There was no voltage surge or storm. It was a bad board. The repairman
said they got a bunch of them from China. This was happening a lot.
What if I had set the auto timer, started baking when I wasn't home,
and this happened. House fire, the fire chief told me. Not all that
uncommon.

Question:
If they knew about this problem, why didn't they issue a recall or
retrofit?

I alerted NFPA and the local fire department. NFPA instituted an
investigation,and forced the company to do a mandatory recall and
retrofit.m They were fined too.

When crap like this happens, please report it to the appropriate
agency. There actually are gov't supported consumer protection groups
out there looking out for us.
Your tax dollars at work!

Have you noticed more and more american made appliances are failing?
Just my observation...

Debi

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