Taking the day off to buy a STOVE - must have today

[dreamshark]

Of all the things I'd rather be doing 2 weeks before Christmas, appliance shopping was not high on the list.

But... the stove is now down to 3 burners and an oven that works as long as you don't want to change the temperature setting. The clock/timer function never worked. The right front burner has been very hard to light for several years now. But the reason we have to do something right away is the faint odor of gas ever since the right rear burner quit working a couple of days ago.

This is a terrible time for this. We have a big party coming up on Sunday (Annual Caroling Party) and then, of course, Christmas. But there really are only two choices: get somebody in pronto to fix the old stove or get the new one we've been talking about buying for several years now. The old one is manifestly NOT worth fixing. So we need to buy one NOW and from someplace that will absolutely for sure get it installed in two days or less.

Any suggestions, anybody? I've never bought a stove. Two refrigerators, a couple of washers and a dryer, but NEVER a stove.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I don't think I've bought a stove either. And it's definitely two washers and one dryer (still using the 1982 dryer from Massachusetts). Maybe only one refrigerator. At least three dishwashers.

Places I check for prices and what's available: Home Depot, Best Buy, and Warner Stellian Appliance (I go to the one on Nicollet south of us a ways).

You can buy a one-month membership to Consumer Reports online if you aren't a permanent member, they're the must-check place for appliance information. (Or a month-by-month membership that you aren't committed to keeping going; same thing.)

Things I'm interested in on modern stoves:

High-power burners, with enough oomph to really stir-fry. Or just bring the water for a batch of spaghetti to the boil in less than 20 minutes.

Low-power burners. For simmering. Often a problem on gas stoves.

I find I'm not interested in any of the kinds of flat-top stoves. Induction stoves are tempting in theory, except we have so many non-ferrous cooking vessels, and they still require reasonably flat bottoms. The ceramic flat-tops are slow and not too powerful and actually difficult to clean.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation for Consumer Reports online. I've consulted them whenever I've needed to buy anything big.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

No clue what stove are good but when we recently bought a washer and dryer we were happy with Warner Stellian.
We always check consumer reports for thigns.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Second this, although we never checked CR. Then again, we never bought any really complicated stoves.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I'm another satisfied Warners' Stellian customer. I even bought a stove from them. (And, many years later, a fridge and a portable dishwasher.) I seem to remember them being able to deliver and install quickly.

Like dd_b, I went to the store down on Nicollet.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Re: checking with consumerreports.org - I can probably send you the info you need to access the site through our account, if you so desire - although I'd recommend opening your own account.

We got our stove through Sears, and they installed. I don't have any complaints, although I note that we really don't use many of the features.

Warner-Stellians was good when we got the washer and dryer.

Overall, I think Warner-Stellians is probably better on customer service.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I was happy with the prices and options at ApplianceSmart in Saint Louis Park. They do have some high end stuff when you first walk in the door, but most of what they carry is overstock and minor scratch and dent for very reasonable prices.

Make sure it's got at least a thirty or nintey day warranty, any major flaw will show up in that time.

ApplianceSmart
7350 Excelsior Blvd
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
(952) 930-1740
M-F 9-9, Sa 9-6, Su 12-6

[mle292.livejournal.com]

If you decide that you want to check Consumer Reports, every library I've been to keeps a reference set of the big year end buying guides, and some of the bigger ones keep a non-circulating reference set of the back issues in addition to a set of back issues that can be checked out.

[sraun]

When we go appliance shopping, we always start with Warner-Stellian.