Problem started here. Damaged hotplate. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015
I’ve never before had to choose and buy a kitchen-stove. They’ve always come with the flat I’ve moved into. No choosing or buying. But now I had to do just that, choose and buy a kitchen-stove. As I now live in a cooperative housing community, we are all personally responsible for keeping our living quarters functional and working and in good condition. The housing community is responsible for the outsides of the houses and the common areas, but we, the owners of our homes, for the insides. That includes the kitchen-stove.
My kitchen-stove was installed in the flat in 2003 when the flat I live in was built (the house itself was built in 1985, but in 2003 the ground-floor, which previously was a day-care center, was transformed into four flats, mine among them). The kitchen-stove which was installed then started to have problems some time back. The hotplates were worn and dysfunctional, Particularly one of them kept blowing fuses and got extremely slow. No wonder, considering the look of it…
The old hotplates. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
You could of course hide the look of the hotplates, but that didn’t make anything for their functionality…
Hotplates under cover. Photo ©nini.tjader.2015
I used to store things on top of the stove too. Things I use daily.
Extra storage-space on the stove. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
So for some time I’ve had only three hotplates to cook on. The fast one (lower right) not advisable to use. And IF used, really slow to heat up and always with the risk to blow a fuse.
The old stove. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
When also the oven started to be really slow to get warm, I realized that I needed to exchange the kitchen-stove for a new one.
So I googled stoves, compared prices and functions and customer opinions. And checked which kind of electricity connection I have for the stove so it was the right one. And of course my own needs were important. In the end I settled for an Electrolux EKC5051BOW.
At first ordered it on a Wednesday at MediaMarkt, including transport, taking away of the old stove, installation. Seller was unable to give me a date of delivery but would come back to me about that. Payed and left the store. By Monday I had still not got any news about date of delivery. Called customer support. Someone would get back to me. Nobody did. So on Tuesday I called customer support again. They had no notes about my call on Monday. Someone would again get in touch with me. Nobody did. So on Wednesday I went back to MediaMarkt and cancelled the purchase. Went across the road (more or less) to ElGiganten instead. Explained the situation to the seller there and bought the same stove from them instead. It got SEK1000 cheaper there… including transportation, removal of old stove and installation.
And with a date of delivery for yesterday, Wednesday April 8th. All the way to there, they’ve been really good in informing me of where in the order process the stove was by sending SMS messages.
In preparation for the delivery I had to make free way into the flat. You have to pass two small hallways, one of them being my work-corner, on the way to the kitchen, so had to empty all that space before delivery.
Way into the kitchen, hallways emptied. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
Gave me a chance to vacuum the hallways and get the floors real clean there…
View from kitchen to door. My emptied work-corner to the right. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
I removed the old stove myself and rolled it out outside the flat to get the opportunity to clean behind and under it in preparation for the new one.
The empty space for the stove. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
And yesterday, they delivered, on time, fast and efficient. The new stove is installed and in its place.
The new stove in place. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015
The bottom drawer of the stove is smaller than the old one, but not too small. The oven is larger than the old one. 72 L.
The new stove, oven. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015
I have to stop using the top of the stove for storage so the surface doesn’t get scratched/damaged. It is a ceramic hob. I intentionally choose that so I wouldn’t have to exchange all my cookware… which an induction cooker would have meant.
Tested the oven last night (after earlier in the day having done all the burn-in of a new stove procedures needed). Only tested the regular function of the oven, and it worked just fine. Still have to learn how to use the top of the stove… and the hot-air functions and other to me new functions of the oven.
It is nice to have a new stove.
