I do have a kitchen and a stove (-: even though I'm known for being an outdoor grilling/smoking kind of girl. It's nice to put some barbecue side dishes or bread on the stove burners or in the oven, and . . . heck . . . I do make a lot of Southern dishes traditionally in the kitchen . . . or I did before I bought the kitchen stove from hell made by Frigidaire owned by Electrolux.
My old stove was 38 years old so when it bit the dust, I went to Lowe's and went back and back and back. I went three months sans a stove and just cooking outdoors while I looked over the stoves on the market and tried to make a good selection.
Finally I made up my mind and bought the Frigidaire glass top stove you see above. It does look nice, and it does have nice features or so it seemed at the time.
The fun NOT began from day one with my brand new Frigidaire stove. I would put someting in a pot on the burner on simmer, and it would be boiling like beat the band. Good grief. I'd go to high, and it might be high, or I might have bathtub barely warm heat. It was always a roll of the dice, so I had to stand and babysit anything I put on the burners on this horrible stove.
Let's add some insult to the injury with the Frigidarie oven. The heat was so uneven that I had to put canned biscuit on the rack placed to the top notch, and then I'd still have to turn on broil to get the tops browned to go with the burned as heck bottoms of most foods. Argh.
My brother told me that maybe I needed to use the fan which meant that I had to go with the "fast bake" button. I thought maybe that was my problem. But . . . no . . . the baking was still awful, and I could not post up photos for my cooking blogs due to the lack of browning and other problems related to the oven not doing what it should have done.
Before six months rolled around, one of the metal rods on the fancy rack pulled loose. I'd only used this crappy stove 15 or 20 times total, since it was so lame.
I went to Lowe's. That where I bought this dreadful Frigidaire range. They gave me the rack out of the display model, since my rack was clearly messed up with the rod sticking up and making pans sit all crooked. When I mentioned the heating being off on the burners and oven, I was told that I'd have to hire a repair person to test the stove (at my own expense) and then if . . . and only if . . . I had proof that the heat was off, then I might get some help.
Seriously now, I am a food and cooking writer. I can carry in some biscuits burned on the bottom and anemic on top baked in this oven. Or, I can make photos or take video. But, I don't see throwing good money after bad which seemed rather likely given the poor quality of the Frigidaire stove. Some "broke" really can't be fixed, and this struck me as that variety.
I trudged along and pretty much lost my inside cooking mojo with this awful stove that cost close to $800 (but a litle less with a 10% discount) and didn't even work as well as the $10 toaster oven I had back in college. Bascially, I just avoided any kitchen cooking if at all possible. But, I sure gritted my teeth every time I walked in to see that shiny new piece of junk stove taking up space in my kitchen.
I should also mention that this glass top stove won't work with just any old pans. They must be totally flat on the bottom. And, they don't recommend cast iron on them due to scratching. Break out the wallet to buy new pans to go with the new stove.
And, you need ceramic or glass stove top cleaner as well. You can shine this sucker stove up but spill a few grains of salt on the stove top, and it looks like a hot mess and dirty. Glass topped stoves are billed as easier to clean, but I can attest that as being a dirty marketing trick too. Unless you just have a stove for decoration, then plan to stand around with a cleaning rag all the time, and the stove will usually look dirty anyway.
Yes. I copped an attitude on the Frigidaire stove. It was THAT bad. But, it got worse.
On Friday, I decided to make some Chex Party Mix. That's hard to mess up, and even my awful stove could bake at low for a while and crisp up Party Mix. That was my thinking anyway.
When the Party Mix was done, I shut off the Frigidaire. I left the Party Mix in the oven to just rest as the oven cooled.
But . . . the oven was not cool an hour later. Ouch. I touched that but let go fast.
STRANGE!
I took the Party Mix out with a kitchen glove, and I kept checking the Frigidaire for two hours. Hot. Hot. Hot. The oven was turned off, but it was not off.
Thankfully, I had left the Party Mix in the oven to cool off, so I noticed this problem. I looked online, and others were not so lucky. Just Google Frigidaire and fire hazard. You will not only see stove problems but problems with almost everything they manufacture. Some of the stoves are even recalled due to fire hazards. I'll bet my year model 2010 will be. Perhaps Frigidaire is waiting for someone's house to burn down or for someone to die.
I could raise cain and as a cooking/food writer, then I'd likely get some action under the table on this. But, guess what? I think it's much more important to warn others than to get personal help. I write, because I do think I help others. I would not be able to sleep at night knowing what I know now about Frigidaire and thinking about other unsuspecting people buying Frigidaire products which are bad in general and dangerous on top of that.
I'm just getting by like most of my readers. I can't go buy a new stove every year. I checked on Craig's List and found a 1994 GE stove for $150, and I'm not pawning off my Frigidaire stove which looks fabulous on anyone else. That would not be right. I guess I rented that Frigidaire stove for one year and 16 days to the tune around $800. It was a gosh awful stove from the start and ruined the few meals I tried to cook on the stove. I guess I'll just be thankful that the stove did not burn down my house or kill my family. But, I have an awful taste in my mouth when it comes to Frigidaire. That company should be ashamed . . . very ashamed.
I'm very happy with my second hand GE stove. It may not look as flashy as that Frigidaire stove, but it cooks and bakes good, and I don't have to worry about a fire when the thing is shut off but isn't or with burners coming on at random times with no circuit shut off (another problem noted online with Frigidaire).
If you are looking to buy a Frigidaire, please do Google. You will find a shocking number of problems like mine. Frigidaire deletes Facebook posts about these problems, and Lowe's won't post reviews that mention the Frigidaire fire hazard issues. But, you can still find other places where you can read about these safety problems and direct CPSC Frigidaire consumers problem reports, and you can feel free to add comments to my post.
Frigidaire Stove - $799 plus taxes
Being Alive to Post About Frigidaire - Priceless
If you are having safety issues with your Frigidaire range stove or other products, you can call the Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC at (800) 638-2772. You will need to provide your contact information including a phone number as well as the model and serial number and place of purchase with a purchase date.
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