With all of that associated with a product / company -

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU EVEN WANT TO TAKE A CHANCE ON IT?

It's not like that model or KA are cheaper, better, faster, or have some gee wiz feature that something else in the marketplace doesn't have!

If you want - buy it, and assume the risk. It may turn out to be nothing, may not happen to you, or may even be fixed. But what if they are still B S ing you?

I just can't do business with co.'s that flat out lie to their customers. KA STILL says there is/was nothing wrong with those ranges/ovens!

Here is a copy of my response to a very recent similar post:

I have the KA wall oven similar to those with the fuse problem. I had not heard that there was any problem with the range version. The problem appeared to be insufficent fan cooling near electronics. Some wall ovens have limited clearance. I would think that any range would not be so sealed-in that trapped heat would be a problem.

Mine did not have a problem but I had certainly read every post in the closed thread and was cautious about self cleaning. In fact I waited until last week (when I had an appliance guy coming to check out what turned out to be only my own ignorance) to do a regular full three hour self clean. It worked fine.

Now, on to antss's point etc. KA or Whirlpool certainly did not handle this problem at all well. You may have noted that 3/4ths of the way down that thread, someone found a service bulletin that they would finally replace the fans of certain serial number ranges of those Superba wall ovens. They took a ton of time to do so. My s/n wasn't on the list. When I originally called and asked about the complaints, they were denying that they had ever heard of complaints. On the other hand, they do answer their phones fast and (in other cases) are willing to provide help and useful information generally speaking.

I think that the problem is solved and wouldn't have applied to you anyway. I think that the more important question revolves around supporting a company that treated some of its customers poorly. The question then becomes, are the other providers treating their customers better? I don't recall any threads with such a bad pattern but there are certainly plenty of horror stories out there. I don't read many of them because I don't have the items. Check um out.

"They took a ton of time to do so. "

And still deny there is a problem !

Well, in my post, I wasn't saying that they STILL deny a problem,
but
I was googling around about other oven stuff and came accross a couple of recent posts about continued fuse failures, one on a range, with continued problem denials.
While these numbers are small, considering the history, I guess I will have to stand with antss at this point.

appletini, your problem is more serious than the normal fuse issue (which is bad enough). This appears to be a life/death issue. Whirlpool has a safety department. I don't recall the formal name. I was directed to them while I was trying to resolve flame control on my KA cooktop. Once they feel that safety is not an issue, they will transfer you back to regular departments. But this is right in their target zone. I suppose age might be an issue, but you may have called within the 5 year period the first time, and anyway age is probably irrelevant in this case.

Call whirlpool and get transfered to safety. Or wait, and you or your airs can sue when your house burns down.

"you or your airs can sue " [sic]

Heirs ?

Like thousands other people my KitchenAid Superba oven (KEBS177DBL7, serno: XJ3101002) refused to heat up after I used SELF CLEANING feature for the first time since I've bought a house with it. Of course it was the infamous blown thermostat. I contacted the KA customer service providing links to other complains about the same issue and asking just for a new part. They said that even though I am 'a valuable customer' they can't help me since the oven is out of warranty. Fine, I asked to redirect me to a supervisor and finally she called me. I told her, that everybody knows about this problem but KA and that should be a recall. She kept repeating 'your oven is out of warranty and we can't help you'. I said fine, I'll join the army of unhappy customers in the Internet and will just spread the word about how badly KA design their products. She said again that she can't help me. Oh, well, apparently KA doesn't care.

I am going to buy the part off the Amazon ($34) and install it myself, not a big deal, but this is definitely the last product of KitchenAid in my household. I'll never buy anything else from them and will continue to tell everybody about my experience with KA.

We have a 5 year old KEBC208 double oven that has been successfully self-cleaned a number of times till yesterday. Now nothing works the panel is completely dead. The inside lights do not work and the top oven door was in lockdown. I did use a coathanger to open the top oven door.

I really am uncertain as to whether it is going to require just the thermostat or maybe fuses or maybe even a completely new touch panel. This is really frustrating because it could get very expensive very quickly. I will call Kitchenaid tomorrow, but if they say it is news to them that their ovens have a self-cleaning problem then I will just keep asking to speak to a supervisor till I start getting someone who will tell the truth.

Maybe I will just get a double oven without convection and without self-cleaning. My parents ovens never had those features and I got fat eating my mothers good food.

I will only add yet another no vote for the KitchenAid ovens. Same story: the self clean worked for a few years and then went out. No help from the Company. Replacing the part was easy but afraid to self clean again. To add to that, my KitchenAid dishwasher also experienced a known problem with one of the tensioners for the door (replaced by me at my cost) and my KitchenAid refrigerator has had water leak issues and a switch issue that ruined all of the food. We will never buy another KitchenAid product again.

If You oven is completely dead, IE no inside lites, etc etc etc, check the "house circuit breaker/s" for it---even if they don't appear "Tripped", turn it/them off and then back on.

Gary

Wow, I thought I was the only one who had this problem and now I read this thread dating back to 2006. I bought my KitchenAid gas range model#KGSI901PBS00 in Dec 2005. The first time I used the self clean was Dec 2009 after Thanksgiving mess - the fuse blew. It cost me $75 for a new fuse (which is not easy to get to) and $86 for service call (they did not have the part and had to order it. Took over a week with no oven during holiday cookie season). In March of 2010 the touch pad burnt out when water dripped on it. This is an oven so you would think it was made to withstand water?! This would have cost $687 to fix and I somehow convinced KA to pay for the parts so it cost me $370. Now here I was again this year, after Thanksgiving with a dirty oven. I figured, they fixed this problem, go ahead, self clean it! Guess what... blown oven (I assume it's the fuse again). I'm writing a letter to the attorney general and coping the postings from this blog. KA needs to stand behind their products!! I owned a stove before this for 15 years, never had one problem with it, and it was 1/3 the price of this piece of junk!! I gave it away in perfect working condition to get this new KA stainless sleek range. What a mistake that was!! :(

Definitely this was an old thread and I promised to post on my self-clean ages ago. I have the KA double ovens with steam assist. I FINALLY ran the self clean on them. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. It was so nice to see the pretty blue ovens again. I am married to a professional chef and we are VERY HARD on our ovens. The self clean ran just fine with no problems. (I ran it only 2 weeks ago).

The problems I read about were very old. I mean c'mon 2006? 8? 9? That was years ago.

I cannot speak about free standing ranges. However, ovens installed in the wall will always be subject to venting issues, depending on the installation and the oven. It is possible that the design on the KA ovens make them more susceptible to heat issues. Even so, I will continue to advocate that no owner of a residential wall oven should be surprised if there are problems after using a self cleaning cycle. The self clean is nothing more than a super heated oven that literally heats the interior to such a high temp that it incinerates whatever is in there. This puts tremendous stress on all of the components and you are only asking for trouble. If you clean the interior manually on a periodic basis you will prolong the life of the appliance.

I equate this to living in a hot climate and putting a refrigerator in the garage. Will it work? Of course it will. Will the compressor fail quicker? Of course it will. Does that mean the frig is a lemon?

Could KA come up with a different design or use different tolerances for what is acceptable venting? Of course, but that is a business decision. Even if there are no real problems I still say that self cleaning cycles are too hard on a residential oven and its components to make it an acceptable process. Self cleaning ovens are a marketing ploy, nothing more, IMHO.

C+M: Just wait a few self clean cycles.
Just because you have been fortunate doesn't mean anything to those with problems.
The link tells a different story.

Here is a link that might be useful: Consumersafffairs.com KitchenAid Ovens

I still have to agree with Tarheel. It just is what it is. You don't actually have to use the self-clean... you can clean the oven yourself.

Someone else, I think it was Ants, asked what this oven does that none of the others do... For me, it's the plumbed "steam assist". I have double ovens, both with steam plumbed to the ovens. I also have convection if I want it.

For a baker, that's a lot of options -- steam, proofing, convection, regular bake - in 2 ovens that are quite large. I didn't find any other ovens out there that did all that.

Our KitchenAid oven stopped working after we used the self-cleaning feature for the first time last month. When we tried to use the oven to bake again, the oven would not heat up. We purchased our KitchenAid wall oven Model KEBC147VSS00 Serial No. XW5000833 in January of 2009.

A quick online search of "KitchenAid oven self-cleaning problems" results in many consumer complaints about this from owners of KitchenAid ovens. Many of the complaints also tell about KitchenAid ovens that have other serious safety problems such as oven door glass that breaks when using the self-cleaning feature. We feel fortunate that we have not had the glass in our oven door break. However, we are concerned that this could happen after we have the oven repaired. According to our online research, KitchenAid oven owners have had their ovens repaired only to have the problems recur when they use the self-cleaning feature of their oven.

We called KitchenAid customer service concerning the problem with our built-in wall oven. KitchenAid offered to sell us a one year extended warranty on our oven for $300. That would be in addition to the charge we would pay to have the oven repaired this time, which we estimate to be over $200. They did not have an answer to our question: "How has the faulty KitchenAid oven part or parts been improved so as to not malfunction again and cause our oven to be inoperable each time we use the self- cleaning feature?"

We do not want to have a repair done that may not really fix the problem. We called Consumer Reports. They recommended that we call the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We think that this oven should be recalled by KitchenAid.

I can't say how accurate is my info, but I have heard that there's a replacement blower that generates more airflow. Replacing just the thermal fuse won't fully solve the problem unless the blower is also changed, assuming the updated version is legitimate. If you cite your model number, or search it yourself at SearsPartsDirect.com, perhaps can see if the original blower part number substitutes to an update.

I have a 2007 KA duel oven and have read all of the threads. I have not had a failure but only used the shorter time self cleans 2 or 3 times. I can confirm dadoes info although I couldn't find the link. I believe it was approximately 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down the 158? long thread, there was a reference to a repair bulletin where specific ovens should have an upgraded fan. Mine wasn't one of them. I looked for my hard copy and couldn't find it. I skimmed the long thread without success. The link was probably not in blue.

As I mentioned in a recent thread and now realize there are 2 other references as well, the bottom piece of trim that is called a vent is poorly designed and decrreases circulation around the back of the oven. We must have accidently not found ours during installation and I only ordered one recently. Therefore my cleanings had better circulation than most.

I've lost count of the number of complaints I have read about KA self clean function. I was a KA owner with the same problem and could not believe the company could get away with selling a product with such a defect.

I spent months, searching the web and making many phone calls and sending emails to KA - with no satisfaction.

I decided to lodge a claim in the Small Claims Court (Canada). It was cheap $100 (it costs more to fix my stove after using the selfclean cycle) and easy.

I am happy to say the matter was resolved, out of court to my complete satisfaction. The terms of the agreement mean that I must not disclose what the settlement was.

If anyone in Canada needs any help getting started with the small claims process, please email me. I can help with that :)

Talk about David and Goliath - I am sure they are just hoping that we will go away, or clean our ovens by hand.
Not me!

Just a follow up on the KitchenAid self clean function which trips the thermal fuse or worse, destroys the entire front control panel.

If your expereince is anything like mine, talking to Kitchen Aid is a frustrating and unsatisfactory experience, that's if you can get to talk to anyone to start with! KA will deny that there is a problem with these ovens (really!!). The only way I could get any response was to file a claim in the small claims court here in Canada.

I have had a number a people contact me who I have been able to help, if you are unsure of filing a claim with the courts please email me and I will help with the process.

Just came across this thread..
Our KA double oven is from 2006. Used it successfully for 5 years. Would use self clean mode maybe twice per year. In 2011 the oven shut down, locked - etc. The repair ran us $600. New fuse, new blower & labor.

Recently put it on a "short" clean - a 2.5 hour cycle. It shut down - but the bottom oven still works. -- not the top.

#1 - this is dangerous.
#2 - why have a self-cleaning oven if you can't use it or are afraid to?

I am not going to have the repair and instead plan to purchase a new Bosch double wall oven. While I'm at it, I'll probably replace my KA dishwasher & cooktop....

I don't plan to deal with Whirlpool. Been down that road with our KA microwave (would turn on spontaneously) and it was like banging your head against the wall.

Has anyone solved this thermal fuse problem other than replacing the oven with another non-Whirlpool oven?

Our oven is a 1998 model and we have had this problem since it was new. We have replaced the fuse 5 times, and successfully cleaned the oven perhaps 2 times.

Thanks for your help.

Bob, you must really like beating our head against the wall.

There is no solution for a problem that officially doesn't exist.

Why wouldnt you want a new oven?

I can't say if it's correct but I was told by a service tech that a revision was issued on the cooling fan and motor for the control panel to increase the airflow volume.

Might as well add my story to the list. I have a Kitchenaid Superba range that was purchased in 2005. I think I used self-clean once, maybe twice, before the oven died. The repairman pulled out a part (mostly wrapped wire, don't remember what it was) that was ROASTED. Haven't used self-clean since.
I have also had the control panel go dark on me twice.
I miss knobs and buttons. And well-made appliances.

The problem with mine is the fan just shuts off after a 30 min or so of cleaning. Then the thermal fuse blows at some point. Tonight I tried it again and it was going along fine, then fan shuts off 30 min into the cleaning. The glass control panel and surrounding metal get too hot to touch. Then I shut it off before the fuse blew. The fan seems to move enough air, it just can't be shutting off !

This post was edited by DonnellyJT1 on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 21:49

I have a single KitchenAid Superba KEBC107KSS05 oven that was installed in late 2007. It shut down last week after we ran a self-clean cycle. After reading of others' experiences with this problem, I'm debating whether to spend the money and get the thermostat, thermal fuse, blower and oven lights (which burned out a couple years ago and we can't fix it) replaced -- and never use the self-clean again -- or cut our losses now and just buy a new oven. This oven was not cheap!
My question: Has anyone in the Los Angeles area had an oven serviced lately? I'm trying to get an idea of what this repair might cost before calling for a service call. What did you pay for the service call (not including parts)?

texas_transplant: Whirlpool has a service bulletin out on this issue that I've linked below. Your model is on the list of affected models. You need a new blower as detailed in the service bulletin. The fan may be slightly louder but it is supposed to solve the problem, you should be able to run the self clean cycle after the repair with no more issues.

The service bulletin says at the end: "Upon completion of the repair, indicate S16122 on the work order and submit payment for parts and labor through normal procedures"

S16122 is a "special project" code and it implies Whirlpool will pay for the repair. You need to find someone who knows what they are talking about and who can confirm that Whirlpool is still paying for the repair.

DO NOT let them just replace the thermal fuse and leave or the problem will happen again (as long as you continue to run self clean). If customer service insists they never had a problem, it's out of warranty, etc, reference the service bulletin and special project numbers.

The problem is fixed on 2009 and later ovens.

Here is a link that might be useful: KitchenAid self clean service bulletin (4317445B)

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 14:56

hvtech42, thank you so much! I'll definitely check into this. It would be great if Whirlpool would pick up the repair tab. I'll post back with what I find out. Thanks again.

hvtech42, do you by any chance have access to other such service bulletins? I also have a KitchenAid double drawer dishwasher (model KUDD01DP, also bought in 2007) that has had issues almost from the beginning. It has not worked reliably for the past two years or so.

Water somehow gets onto the circuit board during or after a cycle -- sometimes a day or longer after the cycle ends -- and the unit begins beeping, lights flashing. You can't turn the dishwasher off. The only way to make it stop is to switch off the circuit breaker, pull out the bottom drawer and manually dry whatever moisture is there, with towels and a blow dryer. Then you might be able to run a few cycles before it happens again, or it might happen again the next time.

We had a service person come out several years ago, but he just wanted to replace the motherboard, which is the victim of the problem, not the cause. I'd love to know whether KA is doing anything to fix this problem. Apparently they stopped selling drawer dishwashers due to this issue.

KA had two versions of the drawer units. KUDD01 and KUDD03 (there was no 02). Your 01 is sourced from Fisher & Paykel, same mechanism as their DishDrawer (DD603 version). The KA 03 units were different.

The board in the bottom is a power supply and leak sensor module (also runs the drawer lids). Each drawer has a separate motherboard mounted behind the respective front panels. You are visually confirming water in the cabinet bottom panel? The leak sensor on the board can get corroded over time and trigger a false positive. There was a redesign on the board to better protect it against stray moisture.

If there is water accumulating, you'll have to do some investigating to determine the leak source.

Could be a very slight leak from the water valve, which is mounted in bottom of the cabinet at the left rear. Turn off the water supply connection for a couple days to check if water does or does not continue to accumulate in the bottom.

Can also be a crack in the drain hose (or fill) on either the top or bottom drawer. This is somewhat common. The hoses flex every time the drawers are opened/closed.

F&P did a revision on the support linkage for the hoses several years ago. A retrofit kit is available for F&P models, I assume it would also apply to the KA units. What happens is the old-style support linkage breaks which allows either the support piece or one of the hoses (fill or drain) to get caught beneath the drawer lid when it closes and the lid doesn't seal which allows some leaking when the drawer runs. I checked my 11-years-old F&P unit, the upper drawer hose linkage is broken but the lower is not. I have thus far not had any leaking.

Can also be a problem with one of the drawer lid mechanisms, either the left or right side support yoke broken, or even a cut in the rubber lid seal from a knife protruding too high.

I do have access to ServiceMatters. I ran your model number and got a service manual, tech sheet, wiring diagram, and one service bulletin. However the service bulletin has nothing to do with your problem, it just addresses extended drying times.

Your dish drawer was actually manufactured by Fisher and Paykel, not Whirlpool, so there may be some service bulletins on their end that I don't have access to. I do know they eventually dumped Fisher Paykel and brought production in house, then discontinued them later, but I have no idea whether it had to do with that specific problem or not. However, there is a member here, dadoes, who is an expert on Fisher & Paykel dish drawers. You might want to start a new thread and then he may see it and help out. Or, you can go to his member page and contact him directly.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 15:15

dadoes and hvtech42, I am truly grateful for your information and insights. What a resource of knowledge you both are. Thank you. I will contact F&P regarding possible retrofit and we will investigate the source of the water looking at the specifics that dadoes mentioned. I love the drawer dishwasher and would be really happy to get it to work reliably again.

And yes, dadoes, we have visual confirmation of water in the cabinet bottom panel. We just haven't been able to figure out what is causing it.

Also, this dishwasher info probably should be its own thread, but I don't know how to move posts. I'll look at FAQs later today and see if I can figure out how to do it. Apologies for hijacking the original thread.

Ha that is funny, he replied while I was writing my post. You can't move posts but you can just start a new thread. Good luck getting your oven and dishwasher fixed.

F&P won't help you with a KA-branded unit.

Here's one source for the Link Support Kit.

Don't order any parts until you confirm what's the cause of the leaking. Visual observation of the leak happening is necessary to properly diagnose it.

This post was edited by dadoes on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 17:36

OK, thanks, dadoes. Wasn't sure whether F&P would help or not.

Update: KitchenAid agreed to have my oven repaired at no cost to me, and it got done this week! They replaced the thermostat and the blower (with a new, more powerful one). It's working fine now ... But I won't be using the self-clean cycle again. It's not worth the risk. The repairman was vague when I asked whether it was safe.
Also, both he and KitchenAid professed to be unaware of this bulletin -- he wanted to replace just the thermostat -- so I highly recommend that you get the service update doc to show and reference if you're trying to get your oven fixed.

Glad to hear they paid for it but it is very lame you had to show them the service bulletin. If you had not found this thread you would have paid over $100 for a "repair" that would not have even fixed the problem. Even if you were under warranty they probably would have replaced the thermal fuse only so you would have had the issue down the road. I do not know what is going on at that company, obviously someone there knows about it and is willing to fix it but there seems to be a complete lack of communication between the engineers and the phone reps.

Update: KitchenAid agreed to have my oven repaired at no cost to me, and it got done this week! They replaced the thermostat and the blower (with a new, more powerful one). It's working fine now ... But I won't be using the self-clean cycle again. It's not worth the risk. The repairman was vague when I asked whether it was safe.
Also, both he and KitchenAid professed to be unaware of this bulletin -- he wanted to replace just the thermostat -- so I highly recommend that you get the service update doc to show and reference if you're trying to get your oven fixed.

The link referred to no longer works and the problem has not been fixed on ovens after 2009. My parents had a KitchenAid oven installed in June 2014. I ran the self cleaning feature for the first time a couple of weeks ago and the oven hasn't worked since. I am building a house and will be purchasing new appliances for it. There will not be any Whirlpool or KitchenAid included. I have not seen anything in my searches that would give me confidence as a consumer in working with Whirlpool.

My KA wall oven blew after self clean mode. Replaced the fuse, and everything worked except it wouldnt produce any heat. The simple solution: REPLACE THE THERMOSTAT!!! $60 part. 10 minute fix. All done.

I have had a Jenn Air stop functioning twice after using the self clean feature. The tech told me never to use it again. Then I bought an LG. Again using self clean seemed to be not so good for it. And did not even get it clean. After about 5 years flames started shooting out the back of it during Bake. So I bought a Kitchenmaid-the beautiful yellow one. It looks quite beautiful. However after just 2 months it has 3 times refused to turn on the oven either for simple Bake or Broil. Lucky for me my house is 80 years old and my slide in ranges all have a cord dropped through the kitchen floor to a 3 prong plug on the basement wall below. This allows me to just unplug it and wait and plug it back in. I do not have to throw breakers which I understand is the usual advice. Really ? Just pay more than $4,000 for an appliance but you will have to become an electrician regularly just to cook dinner. It is enraging. In the old days a simple gas range would bake and broil and boil water without any issues for about 50 years. So far in 12 years I've spent over $13,000 on stoves. When will I be done ? We should all revolt somehow.

Oh, and just don't ever turn on the self clean feature on any brand of oven because you are playing Russian roulette with your appliance or perhaps with your house as well.

We purchased a Kitchen Aid wall oven 14 months ago. Minimal use, but decided to do the salf clean before Thanksgiving company arrived. Oven stopped functioning. It took weeks to get a repairman who knew what he was doing, though they were Kitchen aid " certified". The first repairman just never showed back up and there was no follow up with the company. Eight weeks and $700 later my oven was fixed. Still no reply from customer service regarding my complaints.

Well, it looks like I am the newest member of the disgruntled KA wall oven owner club. Ran the self clean cycle on our 1 year old, still under warranty, KA wall oven. 3 hours into the cycle I noticed that there were no indicator lights on the control panel - the oven was dead and the door was locked. I waited a few hours to allow the oven to cool down and followed the web-based procedures to unlock the door but nothing has worked. I've flipped the breaker off, waited several minutes and flipped it back on (did this a few times believing each time that something magical would happen) but the oven is still locked and nothing works. Finally, I called KA/Whirlpool and waited 45 minutes to speak to someone in customer service. After patiently waiting I was finally connected. We spent some time verifying that my oven was still under warranty (with 5 days to spare!) and documenting my problem. Once it was determined that she could not resolve the problem with weasel words I was told that it would be 2 weeks before a repairman could come. When I politely but firmly protested she transferred me to a technical representative who also was unable to resolve my issue but did confirm the 2 week lead time for the service call. I am now in the waiting period with a locked oven door. If anyone has a suggestion as to how to unlock it beyond the breaker on-off trick, I welcome your input. I will continue with chapter 2 once our repairman arrives.