Austin Blues

The flames on our gas stove were out of control. The Use & Care Guide warned us that flames should not lick the sides of pots and pans, but even when the burner was set to medium, this was a problem. On low, a setting to keep items warm, our food boiled and burned. Recipes that required two cups of water were changed to three, and we still had to add more water as the pan went dry again and again.

We knew something was wrong. My mother and the Care Guide said we should have the flames adjusted. The booklet insisted a professional technician perform the job.

The stove was under warranty, so we put in a work order for the builder to fix our flame problem.

Bruce called me promptly to tell me that they don't handle flame adjustment. If I gave him the stove's model and serial number, he could set up an appointment with the local Whirlpool repair shop: A & E Factory Services.

They were supposed to arrive last Friday, but I rescheduled since I had a doctor's appointment that morning (which was a good thing considering how long we ended up waiting there).

A & E called me on Wednesday to see if our stove had "been converted." I told the guy on the phone that I had no idea what that meant. He asked if an "Orifice Conversion Kit" had been installed. I informed him that the stove came with the house and I knew nothing about it. He explained that it converts a stove to use natural gas, and he said he would send one to us by UPS. We just had to put it aside for the repairman to use when he came.

I kept a look out for the package, but it didn't come the next day. Then late that evening, our doorbell rang. UPS had delivered our conversion kit to the wrong house for an unexplained reason, since the house numbers shouldn't have been that easily confused.

Since the package was overnighted, the neighbor thought it must be important and didn't want to just leave it on our porch. So, Ronak not only learned the name of someone from the neighborhood, he met a nice, conscientious person, who lives diagonally across the road from us. Thank you for your ineptness, UPS.

I received a call from A & E Monday afternoon. The technician was just down the road and would arrive in a few minutes - which he did.

He didn't understand why the conversion kit had been sent. He said it was for propane. He also told me that he has to adjust a lot of stoves in the area - for D.R. Horton and Centex Homes. So, we weren't alone in our boiled over rice, dry soups, and burnt sandwiches.

To adjust the flames, the technician did the following:

1. Turned the burner flame to low.
2. Pulled off the knob.
3. Stuck a tool into the hole the knob had been in. (I asked about the tool and found out it was a simple flat-head screwdriver with a long, narrow shaft.)
4. Turned the screwdriver to the right to lower the flame height, left to make the flame higher.
5. Replaced the knob.
6. Turned the knob back and forth to check the height of the flame on low, medium, and high.
7. Then, after adjusting all the burner flames, he turned all the burners on high at the same time to make sure they were still strong enough when using all burners at once.

And that was it.

So, now we know how to adjust the flames ourselves if we need to. And luckily the task won't require a fancy tool for the job. And we met a nice neighbor, and we can cook without burning all the moisture out of our food. Very successful overall!