PATTYCAKES

I decided to give canning meat on my range another go. Here is the reason why it has been a BIG deal. The control panel for the oven is on the front of the range rather than against the back wall. As a result, there is a sensor in it that detects heat and when the front burners are used, this thermal sensor triggers a disconnection and the control panel no longer works. The manufacturer is aware of this overly sensitive sensor and has developed a new one that is not so sensitive. The first time it was triggered by some power surge that flipped our power off for a fraction of a second, not even enough to reset all our alarm clocks. The first time the repair people were out, they simply reconnected the thermal sensor but when it happened again, they replaced it with the newer and better one. This required an additional visit from the serviceman as the part had to be ordered, then installed. So, by this point we had had a repairman in our home three times over this range. We plugged away again but, because I have to use the front burner for my canning as it is the bigger burner, I tripped this sensor again. We called, said it was the same thing and please just order the part first! Well, according to the warranty, they have to come out and diagnose the problem. By this time, I felt I could do the diagnosing myself. Still, they came out and this time ordered the parts and had them mailed to our house. Now i was wondering when the parts arrived in the mail if they were expecting me to install them. Hmmmmm That had me worried as the entire range has to be taken apart from the back in order to access the front panel!!! Nice job engineer guy! Anyway, they did come back, installed the new sensor as well as some fan that they said should have been running but was not. I never noticed a fan before so I am guessing it has never worked since we bought this range two years ago. Thank goodness we decided to buy the extended warranty or all of these trips would have been about $125. At this point they have now been out 5 times! So, now the fan is working and that is super except that now this fan never shuts off, just runs constantly! We called the manufacturer and asked if this should be happening. They said no and so we had to once again get the warranty people to send a service person out. They are coming next Friday. I decided to save them an extra trip by heating up the front burner that seems to trip this sensor to see if using this burner would once again cause troubles. I figured if they were coming out anyway, they could order the part then! ha ha Sad, I know. So, as I set to work doing my canning, I had meat cooking on one burner and water boiling on another to add to the canner. I had another pot boiling to add to the meat once it was in the jar and the third small pot was set to boil for the seals to go in.If you do the math, you can see I needed all four burners, which I have never needed since the last repair job so it was then that I discovered that the knob on one of the rear burners, one I rarely use, does not even move! I am guessing this nifty fan they installed in the control panel is blocking the knob's ability to turn. It used to work! Holy Cow! Now they have another thing to fix when they are out here on Friday! Ahhhhhh!

So, now I have completed another 20 jars of extra lean ground beef and the thermal sensor has not been tripped. I guess that constantly running fan is doing the trick together with the inability to use the burner behind it. Big Sigh!