I have a five burner gas Jenn Air stove top that I was deep cleaning in honor of my sister Stacey's impending visit. Having removed the knobs, I was wiping down the surface of the controls when somehow I must have triggered the electric starter, as the right front burner began to "click" like it was trying to turn on. Regardless of what I tried to do, nothing worked and the clicking would not stop. I called the appliance store where it was purchased and spoke to a woman in the service department who quickly informed me that I must have gotten it wet and I'd just have to let it dry out. Sounded logical, but that clicking was really getting to me so I took a hair dryer to it for longer than it should have needed and no luck. Still clicking. After 30 minutes, I called her back and told her I did not think that was the problem. She said it might take several hours. Inquiring what time they closed, I began to think I might need to throw in the towel and have a repairman come out and take a look at it before business hours were over. She had a snide, pompous laugh when she assured me there was no way
anyone could come before Wednesday. This was Monday morning. I'm committed to be in Houston all day on Wednesdays, so it would have to be at least Thursday. Not so much was I impatient, as I was irritated that she was totally indifferent to my cause, so I confidently announced I'd simply call someone else! (Here in these parts we refer to that as "cutting off your nose to spite your face".)
While I was pondering what to do next, I made a not-very-hopeful phone call to my brother Dan and asked if he had any suggestions. He instructed me to locate the outlet that the stove top is plugged into (under the countertop, in the cabinet) and unplug it. I did. Problem solved.
The only inconvenience was that I had to use a match to light a burner. Big deal. Next day I plugged it in and it started clicking, but by Thursday, it no longer clicked when plugged in!
There are several lessons to be learned from this experience:
1) What does it say about their appliances that there are so many calls, they can't schedule you for over 48 hours? Are that many of their appliances needing repair?
2) If an appliance is working properly, do not, under any circumstance, deep clean it.
3) If you wait long enough, a broken appliance will repair itself.
2 comments:
This story reminded me of the ticking clock I had in college that drove me nuts. I did everything in my power to shut it up including suffocating it with a pillow to hiding in the deep dark corner of my closet until you suggested I simply take out the batteries. Duh! I like your theory of not deep cleaning a perfectly working appliance. Brilliant!
That's what you get for cleaning! Ha
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