OT: Oven trouble 1165

If you have the kind of double oven I think you have, you're gonna be stuck if you try to replace it - nobody makes anything like it any more. I'm in the same boat, more or less. I have a 23 year old Caloric 36" double oven range (gas). I love it and use it both ovens constantly. I have replaced the igniters on both ovens and the broiler more times than I can count in the past 23 years. But they don't seem to make the igniter for the broiler any more. I just replaced it about a month ago and it gave out after maybe 2 uses. It doesnt' seem to get hot enough to light the igniter that will open the gas valve. Something like that.

I've been looking at what could replace it, and there just isn't anything. I only have about 40" of space for the unit, so a big Wolf or Viking double oven is out (not to mention how expensive they are). Maytag makes the Gemini oven, and Jenn-Air has a knockoff of it (I think GE Monogram does, too). But it's awkwardly designed and there's a major flaw with the broiler. Seems the oven had a habit, when heating the broiler, of blowing the oven door open when the broiler ignited. In order to "fix" this problem, they re-designed the broiler so you have to heat the upper oven to 450 first, THEN switch to the broiler element, then wait while it heats up. Which means it takes a good 15-20 minutes before the broiler could even be ready to start cooking. There are other design features that are awkward, to say the least.

I've pretty much resigned myself to buying a standard single oven range and then a good countertop convection oven which I would mount in a cabinet over the range. I think that's the closest I'll be able to get to the configuration I have now, and which I dearly love.

Sigh. I hate it when things change like this.

Cathy