h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And now it doesn't work at all.

I was in the middle of making dinner, when there was this sudden loud *POP* from the exhaust hood.

Normally, that wouldn't be that much cause for concern, at least as far as the stove itself is concerned, but ours just *had* to be different.


Most stoves are 30" wide and sit on the floor, ours is only 27" wide and is a "drop-in" style. It's also almost 40 years old, and this particular model has the range top controls in the hood.


Anyhow, after the loud **POP**, the burners didn't seem to want to heat at all.

Even stranger than that, when you turned a burner on, the hood light would turn on instead. Turn the burner off, the hood light turned off.


This is not good. Need a new stove. GE is the only company that makes these stupid 27" drop in stoves. Over the years since we've lived here, we've looked into having the lower cabinets moved over enough to fit in a standard 30" stove since we knew it was inevitable that the stove would need to be replaced eventually anyway, but that would throw everything else off in the kitchen, to the point where the light switch on that wall would end up being behind the refrigerator.

I don't think any appliance stores in this area actually have these stoves in stock, so it'll probably have to be ordered from the company, but I'll call around tomorrow to find out for sure. I'm just hoping that they can install one quickly, and I don't have to wait a couple weeks for it.

Oh and we'll also have to replace the vent hood, since it's obviously fried too.




If it isn't one thing, it's another - just had to have the dryer replaced this past week too, because when the repairman arrived and I'd explained to him what it was doing (or rather *not* doing), he immediately asked how much we wanted to spend on fixing it up, because it was at least 10 years old. We asked some questions, like how much in round figures it would cost to repair, and how much a new one would cost and quickly decided it would be best to just replace it.


With the stove, we're going to cut our losses and just have it replaced - I don't think stoves are expected to last this long, and the last thing we had replaced on it cost more than it was worth.


So, cooking is going to be *interesting* in the interim. I have the microwave, a Georgie, and crock pot, so it's not like we'll starve or anything like that, it'll just be a bit more difficult to figure out how to cook certain things... and there will be certain things I simply can't cook for a while.

That stinks! I hate it when appliances explode. How dare they?

*brings over a hack saw ~ starts hacking a bigger slot*

While you're at it, you'll also need to move the hood opening over about 3 inches, ok?

Oh, and be sure to shim up the counter top, it's coming away from the wall.

Thanks - I knew I could count on you to fix it right up!

*hammers, saws, glues, draws graffiti*

I really appreciate your help on this...




Wait a second... what does that say on there?

Say what?

Can't the stove be in some other part of the kitchen?

Not without major remodelling.


Of course if AW would just get over here with her chain saw, we could put it anywhere we want.

*VVVVVVvvvrrrrvvvvvvvrrrrrrrooooooooOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*

*runs with chainsaw*

Sounds like you have a kitchen built the same time ours was Lady S.! Before you order a new stove - check out some places that sell used applicances. When we had our kitchen remodeled, we removed our drop-in stove top (I think it was the same size as yours) and put in a new oven. Our drop-in was working fineand still looked great when we had it replaced - so I know you can still buy good useds ones.

You know... it may just be time to have the kitchen redone!

I think I know what you're talking about, Michele - My Mom had a cooktop that dropped into the counter-top, and a separate oven beside it. She remodelled her kitchen a few years ago and put in a regular one piece stove instead.

My "drop-in stove" is all in one piece, except for the fact that it has a hood, where the controls for the stove top burners are located. The controls for the oven are located (more logically), on the front of the drop-in stove. It looks like a regular one piece stove that sits on the floor, until you notice that the area below the oven is wood. One of the more aggravating features of these stupid little drop-in stoves is that they only have one large burner, and 3 small burners. I've checked - NONE of them have a second large burner like a *normal* stove would have.

The first thing Lord Scott found when he googled for a "27 inch drop-in range" last night were some *antique* sites. Yes, the old ones are still around, but apparently there's some very people out there who actually *collect* these things!

New ones aren't nearly as expensive as I thought they were - apparently they've found a way to make them cheaper (and probably junkier) than the last time I looked, or perhaps the price I'd been quoted several years ago included a hood too, because adding in the cost of a hood brings the price up to about what I'd been quoted back then. Or perhaps since I didn't have the advantage of looking for them online back then, maybe the stores I was dealing with around here were only willing to order the highest priced ones that GE made at the time.

Whatever the reason there are some available cheaper now, the first ones on the online list are about *twice* the price I was quoted several years ago, but they're super-modern looking, with solid platinum cooktops and sub-atomic self-cleaning ovens or some such nonsense. I don't need all that, just a functioning stove and oven. And a new hood. Which I'll have to buy separately. I may go ahead and opt for a self-cleaning oven though (there were several cheaper models with a self cleaning oven), simply because it would be a nice little selling feature for the house eventually.

Much as I'd love to remodel the kitchen, that would involve a lot more $$$$ than we can possibly come up with right now, and probably for the next several years, at least. We still have a kid in college and another starting next year. The one who's starting next year wants to be a , so we're talking about *several* years of college expenses yet to go. We've weighed our options for fixing up the kitchen, and let's just say it'd be cheaper to move than to remodel the kitchen.

Well, as the Hapsburg Emperor in "Amadeus" was fond of saying, "There you have it."

If there're collectors out there, maybe you can sell your broken stove to pay for the new one?



That sounded a lot better before I typed it out...

It certainly did.

Lord Scott told me that when he found these things on the antique sites, they were only selling for about $60. A new basic one sells for about 10 times that much.

Stove and new hood have been ordered, and hopefully will be installed on the 29th, assuming the stove arrives at the appliance store in time. (Not exactly something they keep in stock, seems no one really *wants* these things!)

Cooking dinner without a stove was interesting, to say the least.

I browned the meat in the Georgie this morning.

Then put some sliced green peppers, onions, broth, seasonings and the meat in the crockpot.

About an hour before dinner, I tossed a little boiling water and some whole wheat noodles in the crockpot and turned it up on high.

Then I baked a very small batch of biscuits in my two-slice toaster oven, and nuked some green peas.

See! There's your problem Lady S. You still cook!!! Now if you'd give up cooking, eat fast food more often, frozen pizza, hotpockets, etc. You could just live with a small toaster oven!

That's exactly the sort of thing that has gotten me into the sort of terrible physical shape I'm in today!


Over the last couple months, I've grown rather fond of food with *flavor*, something that fast food and pre-fab food is usually sadly lacking. Flavorless food may fill you up (and out ), but a little flavorful food is so much more satisfying.

Oh, I have to agree with you there, Lady Scott.

Fresh fruit is so much better than donuts, I can't imagine why I ever ate when I was younger.

But seriously, there are some people who coook some intricate meals with just a microwave oven. You have one of those, don't you,. lady Scott?