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paddlenpedal

Any Satisfied Jenn-Air owners?

PaddleNPedal
10 years ago

Hello,

I have stumbled on this forum AFTER making my appliance package purchase. Now feeling a little concerned that I may have made a mistake. While there is little I can do about it now that the items are on their way to my home within the week, I am hoping to hear from other Jenn-Air owners as to any problems with their Jenn-Air appliances. I am thinking if I know of potential problems to keep a watch for, I could be better prepared to decide on warranty purchase. Truthfully, I am hoping to hear from SATISFIED JA owners......might there be some out there??

I am positioned to be able to purchase extended warranties if I do so through Jenn-Air. My appliance package is being installed by a Jenn-Air approved installer and I have been given an additional year of warranty free of charge for doing so.

I went with this package because of the rebates and free dishwasher. I am located in a small town with no appliance stores. I traveled about an hour away and found an appliance store that treated me with kindness and respect despite my meager budget. My full package was a steep purchase for me and I felt really good about the advice from my salesman until reading some post on the forum from JA owners. Many of the post were from owners of older JA appliances. Hopefully, newer appliances have better satisfied owners.

Here is my package:

JA 36" Induction Cooktop
JA 30" Dual Mode Convection Oven
JA Trifecta Dishwasher (free with the package)
JA Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator

I am also adding a 30" Sharp Microwave Drawer.

Thank you for reading my long post....If you made it this far, perhaps you will share your appliance story/wisdom.

Thank you!

Comments (20)

  • sail_away
    10 years ago

    I, too, have Jenn-Air appliances. About nine months ago we purchased a gas cooktop and 27" convection wall oven. We also got the free dishwasher, although we upgraded to the DW with the third rack for $300 (it looked just like the free DW otherwise). A little over a month ago, we bought the Jenn-Air counter depth french door refrigerator.

    So far, we are very happy with our appliances. There was a slight learning curve, as our previous appliances were more than 20 years old, but otherwise I'm very happy. Of course, my satisfaction is based on less than a year of ownership. I'm hoping they prove to be durable, but I won't know that for some years yet.

    There are certainly a lot of Jenn-Air naysayers here, but I think the best advice I got was that I should just do my research, and choose what works best for our circumstances and budget, because all appliances have some problems and there isn't a company that hasn't been reported for bad customer service. Due to the many negative reports that we found on the various appliances we looked at, we finally realized we had to stop researching and go ahead and buy something. The Jenn-Air appliances seemed to be a good fit for us.

    I hope our choices work out well for both of us and that someone else will chime in with a good report.

  • susanlynn2012
    10 years ago

    I hope to get more replies as I plan to sell my refrigerator next year to get a counter depth Jenn-Air Refrigerator.

  • PaddleNPedal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sail-Away thank you for your post. Lynn2006- I am hoping for more replies too! My appliances arrive on Monday of next week. Just a few more days. However, we won't move back into our house for a few weeks. I will be excited to try them out!

    The refrigerator is the one area that I feel pretty confident about. Apparently Jenn-Air has had good success with their freestanding counter depth model and it has been among the best in Consumer Reports (2011). I often read the blog that Yale appliance publishes. They are an appliance dealer so you have to keep this in mind when you read their blog, but they speak highly of the JA CD refrigerator.

    I ended up with the JA package because the dealer had a JA induction set up for demonstration. I had been very curious about induction. I was trying to decide between gas and induction. My DH wanted me to consider induction because of the cost to install gas. We have a gas line going into the adjacent room for gas fireplace but he thought the induction would save some cost. Little did he know that bumping the electric to accommodate the cooktop cost more than continuing the gas line! Hope I like induction!!

    Thank you both again for your post.

  • lepages
    10 years ago

    I just installed Jenn-Air appliances and so far am very happy.

  • Debbi Branka
    10 years ago

    I love my JennAir counter depth french door fridge! It's about 2.5 years old now. We did have the water freezing/leaking problem behind the freezer door (found much info on this online - mostly about Whirlpool, but our JA did it). My husband took it apart and so far so good. The fridge is beautiful and I love it.

    We are trying to retrofit double wall ovens and an induction cooktop in our kitchen right now. JA is my choice for both. I had hoped to buy them before 12/31 to take advantage of the free dishwasher, but that didn't happen.

    I hope you love yours and look forward to a review from you!

  • sail_away
    10 years ago

    Deb, JA repeats their promotions frequently through the year. If you keep watching and have a little time, you may still be able to get the free DW. (Love mine.)

    We did not connect the ice maker on our previous refrigerator of more than twenty years, and we chose not to use ice or water with our JA. We just didn't feel the need for it, and if it eliminates some potential issues, that's great, too.

  • susanlynn2012
    10 years ago

    Thank you everyone for responding. I had to put off my kitchen until my tax season ends again as the new kitchen guy did not send me what the design looked like until a day before I had to decide or I would not get the discount! There were chances to be made that I did not like & he had the area not wide enough when I told him I was getting a Jenn-Air Counter Depth Refrigerator! He had the height correct. I missed out at the end of the year for the $300 rebate due to trying to keep two of my little dogs alive that died anyway and the stress was too much.

    Thank you sail-away for letting me know there will be maybe another promotion later on in the year when I am more ready. I have one Maltese let that is the oldest of the three that is now in congestive heart failure but the medicine seems to be working that the Cardiologist gave her so only time will tell how much longer she lives.

  • sail_away
    10 years ago

    lynn, Just check on the JA website. They have a section entitled "Promotions" that lists the current offers. Sometimes, when one promotion ends, another starts the next day. We didn't want to buy our refrigerator at the same time we bought the other appliances (with free DW), because we wanted to be able to pay cash for everything by making the changes over time. Since our old fridge was still working, we could wait. So we missed the rebate offer at that time on the fridge. I kept checking online for the promotion for $300 off the fridge (Fiire & Ice), so that when we finally bought it we were still able to qualify for the rebate.

  • User
    10 years ago

    I have a Jenn-air counter-depth french door refrigerator, GE ovens, Kitchenaid dishdrawerds. In the six years I've been using them, the Jenn-air is the ONLY appliance in my kitchen that HASN'T required repair. It just works. I can't speak to the other Jenn-Air appliances, but I'm very happy with my refrigerator.

  • sombreuil_mongrel
    10 years ago

    I have had a good run of luck with my 2006 JA CD FD fridge. There has only recently been an issue on the RH door with a small strip of the gasket becoming torn, and I did have to grease the plastic cams of the center stile hinge when I detected it was staring to bind. The utility of it as a fridge is flawless.
    Casey

  • goodbyekitty
    10 years ago

    delete

    This post was edited by goodbyekitty on Wed, Feb 5, 14 at 22:14

  • James27
    10 years ago

    Just received delivery on a 30" Jenn Air slide in 8860 and microwave from Drimmers. Professional installation and so far very happy. I have a Fisher fridge and Bosch dishwasher and they work together well.

  • Barbarav
    9 years ago

    James which Fisher fridge do you have?

  • misplacedtxgal
    9 years ago

    I was very pleased with my JA kitchen appliances which were installed in 1992. In fact they were still working when we updated the kitchen in 2010! Therefore, we decided to put in a JA cooktop, convection wall oven and speed/microwave oven. (Fridge and dishwasher are KA)I had the first generation of the speed oven - that was a mistake. It took three updates to work out the kinks after my getting pretty testy! Oven & cooktop have been fine. To be honest though I don't think they will last like the old models did. The JA of today is not the JA of yesterday. Sadly, I believe that is true for most things. We got rid of a 20 year old mattress that was still comfortable. Now I"m wishing I still had it as the five year old new one is a piece of junk. Good luck! Their customer service is pretty good after you get through all the Whirlpool people and FINALLY reach JA.

  • sail_away
    9 years ago

    It's now been a year-and-a-half since we bought our Jenn-Air appliances, and they are still working beautifully. One other thing I've enjoyed about them is that they are fairly easy to clean and don't seem to show every smudge like some SS appliances do. I really like the brushed finish.

    We actually bought our refrigerator about 6-7 months after the other appliances, and when we walked into the store I noticed it sitting next to a couple other SS refrigerators that really looked bad (fingerprints, smudges, etc.), but the Jenn-Air looked great. It's not trouble-free, but definitely looks better with less work than some of the other options.

    So far, no issues with how they work.

  • corinth10
    8 years ago

    The French door
    design of this refrigerator is seriously flawed. If you open the right door
    first, which most people will do, then open the left door, a normal next step,
    and close the right door, the left door will smash against the glass of the
    right door when you try to close it. The problem lies in the fact that the
    hinge attached to the left door does not retract far enough to clear the right
    door. This is my third French-door refrigerator (other brands) and I have never
    had this problem before. Here is what Jennair has to say in their user guide:

    “ There are
    two refrigerator compartment doors. The doors can be opened and closed either
    separately or together. There is a vertically-hinged seal on the left
    refrigerator door.

    ■ When the left side door is opened, the hinged seal automatically folds
    inward so that it is out of the way.”

    I bought this fridge over a year ago and have had
    at least three different repairmen come more than six times to try and repair
    it. They have changed the hinge twice, to no avail. They have installed shims
    to level the back of the fridge, no improvement. I called again today and they
    are sending a new technician to view the situation. I am not holding out much
    hope.

  • Debbi Branka
    8 years ago

    I don't have that problem. I've had the left hinge not close every once in a while like you describe, but not very often (like maybe 10 times in 4 years).


  • corinth10
    8 years ago

    I know better now. So I do my best to remember to open the left door first. But when the kids use the fridge it smashes against the glass every time.

  • HU-54518164
    2 years ago

    I own a Jenn Air CVG4280B gas cooktop that was purchased in 2002. Great unit for most of the 20 years we owned it. Recently we started having issues with the knobs, and not being able to turn them. The burner controls were completely stuck (corroded). Now being a tech myself, I went through removing the venturi and removing the one burner control that was stuck. Each burner control has a switch on it that slides down the stem. When you start moving those switches around to remove the venturi, the connectors on the wire ends break off (junk), and the next thing you know you have multiple wires hanging loose and no idea where they go. I scoured the internet looking for a wiring diagram, and none to be found anywhere. I finally called Jenn Air's help line, and was quickly told they do not supply these diagrams to the public! IMAGINE THAT. So I have no choice now but to buy a new cooktop, and you can be sure it won't be a Jenn Air!!! This is a common problem with these gas cooktops. If you get into this repair, be certain that you take pictures of everything beforehand. Mark each wire somehow so you know where it goes. You will not receive any help otherwise to reassemble your cooktop, especially from Jenn Air.