Next Day, Next Craftsman, Next Problem

With our toilet problems behind us, let's talk stoves!

You may recall that we had a brand new stove sitting in the dining room at the end of this post.


We had to remove the original packing box to fit it into the elevator and avoid carrying it up eight flights of stairs.  In fact, this defines the size of our elevator.  It will hold exactly one stove and one good sized person.

The stove installation was scheduled for Sunday between 9 and 3 and the installer actually showed up around 1:00.  The installer was from the "gas company," which was probably a mistake.  We would have been better off with an installer from Universal, the stove company.  As I moved into the kitchen to move some things out of the way near our existing stove, we heard a loud metal bang followed by a screeching noise.  The gas man had lifted the stove out of the box base and was dragging it across the ceramic tile.  I shouted, "No, No, NO, NO!" I showed him the proper way to move the stove by putting it back into the cardboard and then gliding it smoothly across the floor into the kitchen with nary a scratch on the tiles. We were not off to a good start!

The gas man did a good job of preparing the stove with a proper fitting and connecting the unsheathed flexible rubber hose to the stove.  I guess the code is different here than at home.  Next, he swapped out the gas jets on all the burners from LP to Natural Gas.  More on what that's about here for the technically inclined.

There are more safety features on this stove than the last.  That means lighting is more difficult.  Also one burner flame sensor seems a bit iffy. The large burner doesn't work right at maximum flow and only one burner properly turns down to minimum without going out.  The gas man pointed to the logo, "Universal," and told us in Arabic, "not my job," more or less.  We were using a telephone and a friend to handle translation.  The Universal man is scheduled for Wednesday to fix all problems. We were told that it will cost 50 Egyptian pounds to begin the 3 year warranty. We'd call that a buyer protection plan not a warranty.

But, we are both delighted with the stove.  Here I am cooking our first dinner, an Indian chicken vindaloo.  The big burner can be adjusted to both high and low temperatures.  The small burner does a great job of cooking rice without boiling over.  And remarkably, if you pour some oil into the center of a pan, it no longer runs over to the side due to a concave top on the stove.


As for Linda, she couldn't be more pleased.  The oven lights without a match and a "whoosh," and it maintains a remarkably steady 350 degrees without opening and closing the door to act as a temperature control.  Here are her first batch of cookies, many of which have just been delivered across the hall in her "cultural exchange program."