Fun with appliances
Feb. 19th, 2009 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonI'm back, if still pretty worn out. Public areas of the house are in much better shape now, and I'm half tempted to camp out in the kitchen. It's actually uncluttered, well cleaned, and organized for a change. Maybe we can keep it that way, this time! I'd better take it easy for a couple of days (ha!) before starting back in on the cleaning.
Indeed, a new stove is on the way, to be delivered Saturday. Yesterday we had two lots of repairmen. The first walked in, exclaimed "This is a gas cooker!", and left again. At least he did pull out his phone and call someone who deals with gas, informing them that he could smell it in there. Yep,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vatine had told the call center about that. They also should have had the appliance details on file.
After a bit of phone tag, we got shuffled to priority same-day status, what with the gas leak and all. They wanted to pencil us in for today. Eventually, two guys did show up, and at least turned off the gas supply to the stove before leaving. I'd have done that before, if I could have found it; it was lurking in a nearby cupboard. And once again I felt more than a little stupid, since knowing where things like gas valves are is an excellent idea. :/ We weren't about to turn off the mains supply and have no heat.
I was hoping they could fix it, but apparently not. I don't know if that's SOP, but the second bunch claimed all they could do was turn it off, since it was leaking. Yep, I've got my doubts there. By that point, I was particularly glad Ingvar was able to stick around and work from home yesterday, so I didn't have to deal with them! Already worn out, after the first round, and the extra phone ringing, I opted to lurk completely out of the way. (Thanks again, hon!)
So, we got to order in a new one yesterday evening. That was unexpectedly fun, in itself. Apparently, as of the beginning of 2008, you can't install a gas stove in a multiple occupancy building without a failsafe. This makes sense, as exploding gas appliances are best avoided--to the point that one would think the FSDs would be required in new appliances, across the board. Since we're in an apparently converted building with four units, that applies to us. We were hoping not.
The fun came in, more than a year after that went into effect, trying to find them with FSDs! IIRC, none of the sites we looked at actually offered that as a search criterion, which was supremely unhelpful. I ended up hitting Google, then trying to find known-FSD model numbers within the shops. (Not that this helped with a couple of sites, which kept claiming the same lower-price models did not have FSD. Grrr.) A lot of retailers must not want to sell appliances to a large percentage of the population. :/ And, indeed, it was hard to find cheaper ones with FSD. As it was, we ended up with a model about £130 more than what we were initially thinking, for a combination of desirable features--such as a separate grill compartment--and fairly quick delivery.
The new stove should be arriving on Saturday. Amusingly, opting for regular Saturday delivery (£6 extra, IIRC) was both faster and cheaper than going with expedited delivery (£10+, available Monday at the earliest). Maybe I should break it in by making myself a (GF, lower sugar) birthday cake. *g*
Tonight I think I'm going to try to make some jambalaya or similar in the crockpot--which ought to work OK--or something microwaved if I run out of time. We've had takeaway three nights in a row, and I'd probably be keener on another round of that if there were more GF options nearby.
Indeed, a new stove is on the way, to be delivered Saturday. Yesterday we had two lots of repairmen. The first walked in, exclaimed "This is a gas cooker!", and left again. At least he did pull out his phone and call someone who deals with gas, informing them that he could smell it in there. Yep,
vatine had told the call center about that. They also should have had the appliance details on file.After a bit of phone tag, we got shuffled to priority same-day status, what with the gas leak and all. They wanted to pencil us in for today. Eventually, two guys did show up, and at least turned off the gas supply to the stove before leaving. I'd have done that before, if I could have found it; it was lurking in a nearby cupboard. And once again I felt more than a little stupid, since knowing where things like gas valves are is an excellent idea. :/ We weren't about to turn off the mains supply and have no heat.
I was hoping they could fix it, but apparently not. I don't know if that's SOP, but the second bunch claimed all they could do was turn it off, since it was leaking. Yep, I've got my doubts there. By that point, I was particularly glad Ingvar was able to stick around and work from home yesterday, so I didn't have to deal with them! Already worn out, after the first round, and the extra phone ringing, I opted to lurk completely out of the way. (Thanks again, hon!)
So, we got to order in a new one yesterday evening. That was unexpectedly fun, in itself. Apparently, as of the beginning of 2008, you can't install a gas stove in a multiple occupancy building without a failsafe. This makes sense, as exploding gas appliances are best avoided--to the point that one would think the FSDs would be required in new appliances, across the board. Since we're in an apparently converted building with four units, that applies to us. We were hoping not.
The fun came in, more than a year after that went into effect, trying to find them with FSDs! IIRC, none of the sites we looked at actually offered that as a search criterion, which was supremely unhelpful. I ended up hitting Google, then trying to find known-FSD model numbers within the shops. (Not that this helped with a couple of sites, which kept claiming the same lower-price models did not have FSD. Grrr.) A lot of retailers must not want to sell appliances to a large percentage of the population. :/ And, indeed, it was hard to find cheaper ones with FSD. As it was, we ended up with a model about £130 more than what we were initially thinking, for a combination of desirable features--such as a separate grill compartment--and fairly quick delivery.
The new stove should be arriving on Saturday. Amusingly, opting for regular Saturday delivery (£6 extra, IIRC) was both faster and cheaper than going with expedited delivery (£10+, available Monday at the earliest). Maybe I should break it in by making myself a (GF, lower sugar) birthday cake. *g*
Tonight I think I'm going to try to make some jambalaya or similar in the crockpot--which ought to work OK--or something microwaved if I run out of time. We've had takeaway three nights in a row, and I'd probably be keener on another round of that if there were more GF options nearby.
