Interesting info about the Dacor. Please keep reporting back as you learn more.

With your history have you thought of an exorcism?

Appreciate the review. I've had a Dacor cook top and double wall overs for 7 years and we're very happy with them.

"This is really different from sealed burners from US manufacturers which primarily shoot the flame out to the side.
It just seems to be the way they are engineered. My range(Wolf) and my sisters(Kenmore) are both that way but her daughters flare a lot more.

I had a Dacor DF range that had temperature issues. The only way you could trigger the element to come on if the temp started dropping was to open the door and get a difference of 150F degrees between the oven and the set temperature.

In my multitudinous experiences with Dacor service they never once turned on the oven in either an attempt to diagnose or to see if what they did fixed the problem. They would come and call Dacor tell them the problem and they would send out a new computer board or oven or part. I received an email from them a few years ago that they have streamlined their service to one call. I don't know if they still do this but you call and talk to someone on the phone and they diagnose the problem and send the parts and a tech to your home. I guess they cut out the middle man. The normal temp swing should be 25 degrees on either side of the set temperature.
Great review on your range. I linked to it on another thread. Your cake sounds delicious.

Thanks for the tips. I thought I'd live with it until next month. Too much cold and snow to have service people moving appointments every time it snows. And, at least the oven turns on every time.

I did buy the "Cast Iron Heat Diffuser by Ilsa" from Eurostoves through Amazon. I'm just going to use "simmer plate". I had some trepidation in choosing one, but I got the 8 inch-ish version. It comes with a little detachable lifter.

I used to use the Max Burton 8" Induction plate on the NXR and the GE Profile. Its just a flat, sandwich of steel with a handle and that worked ok to redistribute the heat from the small diameter simmer burner over the entire bottom of a pan.

It didn't work so well on this range. I didn't need to even out the heat distribution as much as tame the too high simmer. Things still boiled.

The Ilsa simmer plate is brilliant. Coming out of the box, I was looking at the big center hole thinking "This'll never work" but it really does. It's porcelain on the outside,not heavy to lift but very sturdy.

Since I've only got a 30" range, the detachable handle means there is one less thing in my way. It has an ring underneath that lifts the plate above the grates and then the surface has little raised ridges that lift the pot above the simmer plate.

Plopped it on the 15k burner, preheated the plate a little bit cause that's what I normally do, set burner on simmer, pot of water on top, walked away - not that I am recommending you ever leave your range unattended while running (*cough*, cough - cough).

The naked burner would have resulted in an even low boil. but wearing the new simmer plate outfit, even after an hour, the bottom of the pot is still just covered in tiny bubbles with one or two occasionally letting go and rising to the surface. I reheated cream of crab soup (hey, its Maryland and we're crabby) without a care.

Happy Camper :)

I hope this is an example of Dacor service for everyone. A burner started whistling but only on simmer, which I thought was kinda odd. It a real odd noise - kinda of like a harmonic like when a person both whistles and hums at the same time.

I called up Dacor and after a few questions they agreed to dispatch a repair tech after forwarding some parts. The repair tech called me up the next day to verify that they had received the order and would call back to confirm an appointment once they had the parts in hand.

They called up a little over a week later and we scheduled a time. The tech came, took a look and determined that it wasn't due to the parts Dacor sent. He said he would call Dacor back and have new burner heads and we'd see what happened. That if new burners didn't fix it, he'd be back.

Whole thing took a bit over two weeks because of snow.

Fantastic review. I just looked at a 30 inch Dacor Renaissance (ER30G), but it seems like the Distinctive model (DR30G) is just as good and costs significantly less.

Still happy? Any new news on this stove?

Thanks so much for your wonderfully detailed review.

@bmorepanic

Thanks for the great review.
How are you liking your stove after a year of use?
Did the problem get fixed promptly last time?

I moved into a house ten years ago with a 48" Dacor duel fuel range... I don't know exactly what model, and think it is probably 13 years old now. On the pro side, until the oven thermostat crapped out on Thanksgiving (of course), I've used it every day of those 13 years and never had a major problem that required calling in service. However...
The oven heats far less evenly than the cheap-o gas ranges that I previously lived with. Cookies and muffins will always burn in the back before they are done in the front. (The range has two ovens, both share this problem.) This experience had more or less turned me off of convection ovens till I read another post here from someone who had the same problem with their Dacor, but better luck with a different brand.
The hinges failed on both oven doors - they were worn out when we moved in, and the range was probably 3 years old at that time. My husband was able to replace them himself (the power of youtube) or this would have been a service call, I suppose.
The touch pad for setting the oven temp or timers is ridiculously insensitive, until suddenly it is hyper-sensitive.
The burners have never lit properly. For four of them, I have an igniter on hand to light them with. I have cleaned them. My husband maintains that this is because all the igniters are on the same electrical circuit, so the current flows to the easiest path, which is the burners that we use the most often - so the less frequently used ones won't light.
There is no simmer burner, and the lowest simmer is just not that low. But neither is the high all that high.
I do really like the configuration of the range - it's the only 48" I've seen with six big burners (I've replaced two grates with a nice big griddle) instead of 8 smaller ones. But even so, I'm shopping for new ranges now and Dacor is definitely not on the list. It has just never been a joy to use and at that price point... you ought to like it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in the previous post... if I have more than three burners going at once, the igniters for all the burners click continuously until I turn one down or off.