Yep - definitely stay away. It was leaking gas, problem kept reoccurring. Couldn't fix it, wouldn't fix it. They finally took notice when I got the local news channel's consumer advocacy group involved. Even then, incredibly underhanded/incompetent (at the VP level) down to every last detail. (Finally got them to replace it when I consulted a lawyer and used his language/phrasing.) Flat-out lies. Over and over. I've never seen anything like it. Turned out my range had actually been converted from LP to natural gas, and the conversion wasn't done correctly. It was hilarious, because the company was pointing fingers like "Aha, THAT'S what happened, like they were trying to blame me or my retailer (University Electric in Santa Clara, who's been in business for over 100 years and has an excellent reputation. Plus, I ORDERED the natural gas version, which University ordered from the American Range factory, and University has documentation of this.) Stay far, far away. No company is perfect, as far as customer service, but these guys have zero integrity. Get a Blue Star or Capital, or anything else. This was an incredibly upsetting and frustrating 10 months of my life dealing with their BS.

My Performer range has been in use daily for almost two years (plus an intermittent year prior to that). I am really happy with it and the cooking results. I have also found it light-years easier that the Wolf AG to clean. (I did not replace the Wolf, which I liked, but we moved.) It had seemed to me that the oven might be turning on and off while in use more than in the first year lately, but perhaps not--I am also the one who suddenly looks at a mole and things, "how long has it been that color?" despite seeing it every day. Murch, I read the negative reviews you linked to. One confusion is that people will report problems with the ovens, the ranges, and the company all in one thread. The ovens seem to be more problematic than the ranges. Perhaps I have been lucky, but would not change my decision. I agree totally that the company should stand behind their products, but have not had any to deal with. should add--the Burners do poof when extinguishing, at least the 25k, but not as much as the Wolf. But I had the older semi-open Wolf.

In most cases , serice after the sale is much worse that presale service----Generally there are hungry anxious Salemen and "Marketing Types" trying to get the sale, so one wonders what would after market support be? Having said that, It is the Holiday season, and maybe some of "Those types" are out for the rest of the year????? I would wait, till the start of the new year and try again, if you get the same type of "Non-response" I would move on. I have been impressed by both Electrolux and Jenn-air. Whenever I call them I get a live person "Straightway" and they answer my questions. Not had any problems with either of the 2, but I have called them in an attempt to answer other user's questions here. I tried that with Miele, left many msgs, even emails and some of those msgs are over a year old now. I do have a Miele Optima Dishwasher and I like it, but I suspect my fingers gonna get tired of dialing if it ever breaks!! Good Luck on your decision!! Gary

We had our 30" American Range installed yesterday. I thought I'd post about our experience so far in case it may help someone else. I really appreciated being able to read through everyone's posts as we worked through making our decision. We did the oven burnoff last night. It sure put out a lot of fumes. I'm wondering if our hood is working the way it should be. Didn't seem like it. I had the hood going full blast, two windows open, and a fan blowing. What experience did others have during the burn off? I read through all of the threads on this range on this forum and was nervous about this purchase due to the issues with the gas smell from the oven and hot knobs , but we really wanted this range. It met our requirements better than anything else we looked at and was less expensive than a lot of the other pro style ranges. We just couldn't find anything else that we liked. We seriously considered Bertazzoni, but we didn't like the burner configuration, and I didn't think I'd be happy with the oven performance. I called American Range before we made our purchase to query them regarding the issues owners had posted on this site. I was told that the gas problem in the oven was caused by bad valves and that they had remedied the problem and none of the current units should have the issue. They told me they hadn't heard about the problems of the hot knobs. Our appliance store hadn't received any feedback on it either, and they sell a lot of these ranges. Here is what we found while doing the burn in. No gas smell issue, other than the first minute or two the oven was on, which is apparently normal. The sides of the oven got very hot and the cabinets next to the range were warm, but not hot. Hopefully this won't cause any damage to our brand new cabinets over time. The oven door got warm/hot. The door handle stayed cool. The shield that hangs out below the knobs got hot enough to burn skin if it was touched for more than a few seconds. The knobs got warm when we ran the oven, and were hot when the broiler was going. They weren't so hot that I couldn't use them to turn on the burners, but it was uncomfortable if I left my hands on them for very long. The longer the broiler was on the worse it got. The bullnose got pretty darn warm too after the 2 hours of running the oven and 20 minutes running the broiler. I wasn't about to touch the oven vent. We put in the 4" riser vent. We did this because we put in engineered quartz counters and used it as our back splash. I had concerns about the heat venting straight up out of the standard vent onto the splash and possibly damaging the quartz over time. With the 4" riser the hot/warm air vents out the front and the wall stays cool. The air coming out of the vent was quite warm, particularly when the broiler was on. My husband and I are vegetarians so I don't expect we'll use the broiler very much. I purchased a mercury oven thermometer and when set at 450 degrees the oven temp was dead on. I'll be checking lower temperatures over the coming week as I do some baking. So far we love the burners. We have a pressure cooker and the simmer on the small burner didn't go quite low enough for the pressure cooker when setting it the normal way. My husband ended up turning the knob back to the right past the light position to get it low enough. I'd read that suggestion on this forum somewhere. Hopefully there aren't any issues with doing that. I don't know if I'd put one of these ranges in a home with small children or pets that might hang around the range due to the external heat issues. We don't have kids, dogs or cats, so it's not an issue for us. We do have a bird, but she doesn't wander around the range. We locked her up in a room upstairs while we ran the oven last night. I am a little disconcerted about the external heat build up issues, but hopefully the function of the range will make it worth dealing with it. I may call American Range next week to see if they think all of it is normal. Since others have experienced it, it seems like it may be normal for these ranges. Although they did deny the hot knob problem when I asked about it before. That's it for now. If anything else comes up or I learn anything new if I call American Range, I'll post again. Thanks again to others for sharing their experiences on this forum. It was a huge help.