Don't believe it! SEARS DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR MERCHANDISE!

Hi TKoomen1-Welcome to MySears. I am so sorry to hear about this problem with your refrigerator installation!  I am sending this along to SearsCares to see what they can do to help.  Please check back to see if they have responded.

Whoops!  Sorry about that!

I have sent it on to them, and they should be responding sometime soon.

To Tkoomen1,

I'm very sorry to hear about the problems getting the conversion kit to you (I am assuming this is what is backlogged). Typically we have no problems with availability of the parts/kits, however we do rely on the manufacturer (Frigidaire in this case) to provide us with these things. If the manufacturer does not have the parts/kits to send to us, unfortunately we cannot provide the items to you, our customer. That being said, we would like to step in and assist you in resolving this to a satisfactory conclusion. My name is Brian and I'm part of the Sears Cares Escalations team and we can help. At your convenience, please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com so you don't have to continue to be frustrated. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the range was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, please provide the screen name (Tkoomen1) used to post here for reference to your issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you,

Brian J.

Senior Case Manager

Sears Cares

I feel your pain TKoomen1. 

We had a similar situation when we purchased our gas range from Sears several years ago. Like you, it was supposed to be set up for LP but instead had the orifices for natural gas. We ended up having our gas company install the correct orifices but shortly thereafter noticed that the oven vent always had black soot around it. We then called in an appliance repair service that said something wasn't adjusted correctly and they fixed the problem.

We then had two burner ignitors fail and after getting a price quote from Sears decided it was much cheaper to buy stock in a match company. Or maybe purchase the match company outright. On top of that, here it is Thanksgiving week and the oven ignitor just failed! Needless to say, we needed it fixed and just paid $261.00 and the tech was here for a total of 15 minutes.

Good luck with your issue. I hope you have better luck with your next purchase! 

Converting from natural gas to LP is no big deal folks.

Things needed: conversion kit which is probably taped to the back of your stove, 2 different sized nut drivers, and 1 wrench.

I just got a new stainless steel Elite delivered Tuesday. The delivery guy fired up the burner and it was huge orange flame. I knew that wasn't right. I also saw the included LP conversion kit taped to the back of the oven. So I had him slide it back out, I grabbed the kit. He tried to tell me, "no this is the kit to convert to natural gas". But I knew he was wrong. You arn't suppose to have big orange flame. The flame is suppose to be BLUE.

Instead of getting into a big argument with him - which I imagine they arn't certified to put the kit on anyways, I just took it and after he left, I opened it up.  I had to have the oven for Thanksgiving so I had to get it working.

Basically the work consists of: shut off your gas, use a metric nut driver to unscrew the burner heads. Use another nut driver to unscreen the brass orifices on the burns. Keep track of which ones come off of where because with stoves that have different BTU output, the holes are slightly different. You screw in the LP ones. (LP has smaller holes than natural gas). Put the burner heads back on.

Then slide out the warmer drawer, there is a plug that you reverse on the pressure regulator. Then you screw down 1 nut for the oven burner and 1 nut for the broiler. Done... It takes about 15 minutes. Fired it up.. Nice blue flame. Make sure you get the oven one screwed down all the way or you will have orange flames coming up into the oven compartment.

In any case, you do NOT want to run an oven, broiler, or burner that has orange flames. 

So I don't know why you are having to wait for them to send parts, when most likely they are taped to the back of your oven. Unless the delivery guys grabbed it off of there or something and took it.

When i ordered ours online, there was no where to specify that we wanted it to come with the LP conversion already in place. If there is a Sears issue, it is that they need to make that clear as to how it should come from their distribution when you order it. I guess if I have ordered from a store, I could of specified to the salesman that that is how I wanted it to come - but maybe they don't even do that and you ALWAYS get it for natural gas... I dont know.

Anyways, our oven worked great for Thanksgiving yesterday. Convection had the 14 pound bird done in about 2 and a half hours.

Kenmore gas ranges all have LP conversion kits. However, most ranges don't, and must be ordered separately, either at the register as an accessory or through Sears Parts Direct.

It's a BIG deal if the kit isn't there! Duh! And we did specify!

It wasn't there because the kit is on back order.

I guess the 2 stoves I have ever bought - Jenn Air and the Kenmore Elite all had the kit so I assumed that is standard.  That is pretty poor to not include it considering it is just a few brass pieces.

Thank you all for having this conversation.  I am at the point of "fix it or buy a new one" with my LP Kenmore.  I'm tired of having to get this or that tightened etc. on this older range. I'm dreading the potential costs of repairs.  I secretly want a new one but I don't want to be wasteful if I can avoid it.  So, I'm debating the virtues of repair or purchase.  Thanks again for having this conversation.

Ever considered ditching propane and going electric? It would cure a lot of problems in one fell swoop...

You should buy from someone else!

BlueCrewGuyInMA said…

Ever considered ditching propane and going electric? It would cure a lot of problems in one fell swoop...

 

How so, BlueCrewGuy? There's a strong possibility that because the writer has propane, the kitchen isn't wired for a 220v unit. 

Assuming that the breaker panel or fuse box isn't an old 50 amp service panel, the writer would still need to pull a permit and hire an electrician to do the work. If the panel is old, he/she would then probably want to upgrade to a minimum 100 amp service as well.

I'm not sure your suggestion is the most cost effective or reasonable solution to his/her dilemma. I think a more reasonable, albeit unrealistic solution, would be to insist that manufacturers build a quality product and service personnel be trained to properly install and maintain that equipment.

Besides, all great chef's cook with gas. Not a fan of The Food Network?

---

Do the great chef's cook with Natural Gas or Propane - not including the Great BBQ's - who I believe prefer charcoal or wood anyway?

Being a no-so-great-unless-it-comes-from-a-can type of guy, I couldn't say. I can say that it is not with electric, though.

My comment was to point out that BlueCrewGuy's suggestion wasn't a practical solution. 

Perhaps we should start a new discussion about the benefits of gas vs. electric?

Don't forget "induction", too.

CAT1212 - I just went through that as well.  My option was to fix my 17 year old Jenn Air or buy new.  The Jenn Air had many problems: oven wouldn't get above 200, 1 burner wouldn't light anymore, the back splash panel had a section about 4"x8" where the paint totally peeled off due to the heat coming out of the oven, there was black exposed were the baked-on enamel was chipped on the top surface.  The temperature adjustment knob was intermittent.

Oh - and in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, it started beeping with a code of "E1" on the display.  Whatever that meant - never seen that before!  Some error code obviously.  This is what clinched it.  Stupid thing woke me up!

Yes, a gas oven SHOULD last longer than that in my opinion, but now that I have my new Kenmore Elite stainless with power burners and convection oven - WOW - I am VERY glad we replaced the old one.  With that many problems I had, it would of been way to cost prohibitive anyways.

But even if you don't have that many problems, we are enjoying the much more powerful burners.  The convection oven cooked our Thanksgiving turkey in 2.5 hours, and it just looks amazing in our kitchen.

Oh, and the person that suggested look at electric, if you are the type of cook that just heats up food on a stove, fine...  There are a lot of people that cook that way and there is nothing wrong with that.

But if you are actually cooking items from scratch - like making candy, making tricky sauces like hollandaise sauce, or working with ANY kind of sauce for that matter when you need instant heat control changes, gas is the only option.

Good point on Food TV.  I have been a fan of FoodTV for 15 years and I can say I have never seen an eleectric stove used.

Julia Child used electric. :)

Then again, her PBS show was being filmed in a studio, and they didn't have a natural gas line. Still, she did full-blown gourmet French cooking on old electric coils.

The perception that gas is a quantum leap beyond electric is based on electric technology that was prevalent 20 years ago. Compared to today's ceramic-glass top ranges, gas and electric are on even footing. Residual heat in the grates is comparable to residual heat in the glass surface. Compared to induction, gas is primitive and sloppy.

Commercial kitchens use gas because there is nothing to break even with hard impacts of heavy pots of water or with spills, not because it's inherently superior for cooking. Chefs became accustomed to this system and wanted it in their homes.

Actually, I've heard of a lot of commercial chefs moving to induction ranges so they don't cook themselves in the kitchen while they're cooking the food. The instant on and off of induction is really cool. I saw a demo where a pot of water was brought to a boil, then power cut and it stopped boiling, then powered on again and it started boiling again.

A lot of people use propane in more remote areas where stable electricity can be flaky. It's also one of the best choices if you're not "on the grid." Outside of that, 

I'd personally prefer induction over anything else, since you get the best benefits of everything, except you can't use specific cookware. 

Cast iron is supposed to be great with induction though! Just make sure you don't use a pan with a fire ring or it'll scratch the heck of the cooktop.