The New Stove

It’s way too soon for a new stove. When we moved into our house in 2004 we bought a Dacor range with gas burners and an electric oven. Professional style. Ridiculously expensive. But Debbie and I both enjoy cooking, and we both enjoy good tools (let me tell you about Debbie and her paint brushes…), so it wasn’t an expense we begrudged.

The Dacor was a disappointment from day one. The oven was spot on at 350 degrees, but try to slow cook something at 300 and it would hold the temperature around 225. In convection mode food would brown much more rapidly towards the front of the oven than at the back, a stunning failure for a convection mode oven. The broiler, which was gas, would occasionally not light when it should, and then light with a THUMP that would blow the oven door open. On the plus side, the gas cooktop was a delight to use. Blistering heat when you wanted it, and pinpoint control.

Built-in flaws aside, we got well acquainted with the repairman from A & K Appliance in Fort Wayne, the only local authorized repairers. They’re great folks, I recommend them highly. The Dacor needed constant service. We had A & K out once or twice a year ever since we owned it. This was annoying while it was under warranty, but once the repair costs started coming out of our pockets, it was untenable.

As the repairs started piling up, I checked the Internet for recalls or to see what other’s experiences were. Particularly annoying was to look at the Dacor website. As we continued to pour good money after bad repairing what we were realizing was an expensive, but poorly conceived and implemented appliance, I came across this on the Dacor website:

I don’t know how they’re doing on bullet points 1, 3, 4, 5, 6. They’ve sure failed miserably on number 2. This sort of public godliness makes me uneasy at best, and when it’s put forth by someone building an expensive, yet poorly made product it reaps nothing but scorn.

Just before Christmas this year the oven went out on the Dacor. It would heat up to the desired temperature, then immediately start to cool back off to room temperature. Enough was enough. We went to Stuckey Brothers in Fort Wayne (if you live around here and you’re shopping at national big box appliance stores, you need to stop doing that. Go to Stuckey’s, the prices are competitive and the service is world’s better) and got a DCS range to replace the Dacor.

We finished up the installation today. Around here any sort of change is accompanied by repainting and reconfiguration of the entire room. So we have a new backsplash behind the stove, and the walls are painted (I’m told) a soothing bluey gray taupe.

Despite the fact that I wired up the new stove and hooked up the gas, everything seems to be working. The only thing we’ve done so far with it is boil water. Tonight we’ll take it for a spin!