I can get either a Jenn Air or a Kitchen Aid gas slide-in range for about the same price (between 1700 and 1800.) Both have convection ovens. Which would you choose?

Cheryl, I purchased a suite of KitchenAid appliances...Professional Dual Fuel Range, Architect Series Refrigerator, Dishwasher, and a Microwave, and they were installed in my new kitchen the last week of December 2004. My dishwasher was top of the line at the time, Model KUDS01FLSS, and we paid more than $1000 for it. It operates quietly enough, but my dishwasher door squeaks and squeals every time it's opened and closed,and gets worse as each day passes. I called KA and they said I needed to schedule service call. It bothers me, alot,to pay for a service call on a 2 1/2 year old top of the line DW, that gets used 3-4 times a week. Debi 2006 mentioned in her post about the KitchenAid Forum, and I registered with KA and posted my problem with my DW door. I received a response from KitchenAid Ricky and I think the response may be the answer to your DW door problem. The door hinges have a nylon rope on pulleys. The pulleys and nylon rope can be seen on each side of the DW bottom front just behind the toe kick plate. You can see them easily with a flashlight, so you may want to check and see if the nylon rope has snapped. KA Ricky stated that the DW has tension springs, but the squeaky and squealing is probably coming from the nylon rope being too tight, and the rope may need to be replaced. I have checked my door and the sqeaks and squeal are coming from the tension springs, but I don't know if the nylon rope is a problem, too. You described hearing a snap, and then your DW door would not stay open half way, but would crash open. Did your DW door squeak and squeal when you opened and closed it, before you heard the snap? I wonder if there are others who have problems with their KitchenAid dishwasher doors. Linda

>>>Should I call for service?Yeah. Some suggestions for things to check and to discuss with the servicer. First, I'm wondering if you have preheated the oven enough? Before baking or roasting, try giving the ovens twenty-five or thirty minutes to fully preheat. The symptoms you describe are consistent with starting baking while an oven is still heating up. (Also consistent with other things, but trying a longer preheat may help eliminate this as a possibility.) Please note that I'm not talking about triggering the so-called preheat signals. I'm telling you to disregard those because they are usually grossly misleading about the ovens' actual readiness for even baking. We've had numbers of threads on this subject, but, briefly summarized: think about how the oven heats up. Many ovens fire both the upper and lower elements during preheating. (Don't know if the Cafe double-ovens do this -- does your owner's manual say anything about that?) If the top burner is still heating the cavity or is still very hot when you start your baking, you can get burned spots and such. But even if the top burner isn't being used, the pre-heat indicators only measure air temps to give manufacturers some bragging rights about how quickly their ovens preheat. It actually takes much longer to get the cavity itself hot and radiating as opposed to just having hot air in the cavity. The radiant heat from the cavity walls is what actually does most of the work in baking. Also, until the oven walls and floor are fully preheated, the burners will cycle a lot and produce some pretty wide swings in temperature. Turn the oven on, and the burner(s) stay on until the air temp may goes some distance above the set-point, maybe 50F above the set-point or more. At that point, the burner shuts off. It comes on again at, maybe, 50F below the set point and continues to heat until nearly that far above the set-point. This process continues for a number of cycles, with the variance lessening with each cycle as the walls start radiating an even heat. Eventually, the oven temperature will stabilize around the set point. When it does, you are much less likely to get serious hot spots and burned baked goods. A second possibility, is that the oven wasn't properly calibrated at the factory or got shaken out of calibration in shipping. You would not be the first person to find yourself with an oven display that is reading too low. Check it with an oven thermometer. If you've set your oven for 350F but the oven thermometer shows 425F, you may well find hot spots and burned patches on the baked goods. Maybe you've already tried this? If not, go to a hardware store and get a dial face oven thermometer. (IIRC, CDN, Taylor and Cooper-Atkins have been recommended brands.) If you find your oven is running hotter than the setpoint, you've got something to discuss with your servicer. Again, this is something a servicer should be able to handle but advance knowledge is power. (The GE manuals will tell you how to recalibrate by yourself, but the service folks should be equipped to do this and you are entitled to warranty service.) Also, bear in mind number 2 above, too. Don't let the servicer try to claim they fixed things by running the oven for a mere five or ten minutes. Third, against the possibility that the service person might turn out to be the kind of idiot who says "they're all like that," I suggest a search here, on chowhound and anywhere else that might have threads on the double-oven GE Cafe ranges. If you find that most users report the ovens being fine, then they're not "all like that." You might also point out that Consumer Reports rated the GE Cafe double ovens as good for evenness of non-convection baking and that is hardly the case with your oven. This post was edited by JWVideo on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 19:45

I have a entry level Kitchen Aid built in induction cooktop. It is set in over a Whirlpool oven because this is my forever home and I hate pulling the stove out to clean the floor. It works for me. I chose the cooktop after reviewing clients' experience. It also is safe for my young grandchildren to use. I like the lock feature on too. I purchased the patterned glass to hide minor scratches. The cooktop makes no noise at all because I use very heavy laminated pots and pans. I just picked up the ones I wanted at Winners. I learned from working in the industry, it's about the pots more than anything. I like cast iron but I don't use them because of scratching. I use parchment paper between my ancient wok and it scorches the paper but at least the top stays clean and not scratched. I also have tried the paper on the surface when flipping in a fry pan. It works great. I seldom use the higher settings because the residual heat in the pans does the work. I often shut off pasta and veggies early. My bridge works evenly because the pans are heavy. My blue roaster was a disaster on the bridge and burned on low heat. Proof it's about the pan. My only concern was that the magnets were damaged with shipping but they were replaced right away. I believe it has more to do with going through customs from the USA than anything else because it seems to be a common repair with CDN clients. Not a deal breaker but wish they would just assemble on site if my hunch is right. Overall I'm pleased with this purchase. It has given excellent performance. We have used it for 3 years now. I cannot say the same for premium brands that others have purchased or I have used on vacations. One note is be prepared to learn how to boil a soft egg again. I finally am consistent.