I am assuming the Thermador was a 30" range, since a $500 Whirlpool fit in its place?

Understandable that you would find a $500 range flimsy after being used to a much higher end unit, but nobody should be getting burnt by touching the exterior. Where was he touching? Oven handle, window, vent, etc...

My advice to you would be head to a local appliance showroom. NOT a big box store. Take a look at their more affordable dual fuel range offerings. Play with their knobs/control panels, open and close their doors, try to get a feel for their quality. See what it will actually get cost to get a new range that meets your quality standards. Then weigh that against the cost of a replacement board. By the way will this be a refurbished board or a new one? Thermador is notorious for NLA'ing parts on products that are not even that old.

Yes, the Thermador is a 30" W range.

The Whirlpool became hot all over after just 3-5 minutes with the oven on and the door was so flimsy it was depressing. My husband touched it under the lower (warming) drawer and he literally got burnt.

I have no knowledge of any specialty appliance store - this is why I ran to Home Depot. Unfortunately, based on what I saw there, I don't think we could get away with less than 2000 dollars to get anything that would meet these conditions:

220 Volts
dual-fuel
very good insulation with sturdy oven door.
self-cleaning
reliable, durable.

I am not sure what they want to do with the board - replace it or refurbish it. I would have to get back in touch with the servicing company.
I also don't know what NLA-ing means.

"NLA" = No Longer Available. Commonly used in the appliance repair industry as a verb for when manufacturers discontinue parts.

Where do you live? I have a hard time believing that you're so remote there is literally no appliance showroom within a reasonable distance - though I guess anything's possible.

>I don't think we could get away with less than 2000 dollars to get anything that would meet these conditions

That sounds about accurate.

Now as for your Thermador. Thermador has made 2 types of 30" ranges. There are the Professional series, which are freestanding, better than average quality, these are still being made, available in gas or dual fuel. Then they had the slide ins/drops ins, available in either electric or dual fuel, downdraft or unvented, discontinued about 10 years ago. These were average in quality, nothing special, though definitely better than a $500 range. I am assuming, based on the fact there was an electronic button panel, that you have the latter. I am also assuming that the Whirlpool is a freestanding range, due to it only costing $500, and that it fit fully into your cutout, not poking out at all. If that is the case, and there is nothing that would obstruct a backsplash, you shouldn't need a slide in to replace it. Replacing with a freestanding would help keep costs down.

Something is wrong with your Whirlpool - nobody should be burning themselves by just touching the exterior for a couple seconds. I can understand you don't want to keep it (neither would I) but just letting you know, it is not normal operation for even the cheapest ranges to get that hot.

There are a couple outfits that repair appliance boards (possibly more, these are the two I know).

FixYourBoard.com
CorecentricSolutions.com

I used FixYourBoard for an NLA Whirlpool wall oven board a few years ago.

OP assuming you ultimately end up replacing your thermador and you don't want spend the $$ to buy another thermador here is a quick list of ranges to look at

Bosch Benchmark Series HDIP054U

Bosch 800 Series HDI8054U

Bertazzoni Master Series MAS304DFMXEX

GE Cafe Series C2S985SETSS

Verona VEFSGE304P

Used appliances....so far I have had good luck buying used. You just have to do more research as the manuals are usually missing (you need to know what the appliance really looks like, accessories etc) and you may have to clean the item (people quit maintaining things and then decide to get rid of them "as is") but make sure it would only be a cosmetic cleaning. I have found that people are usually honest about whether or not an appliance works and whether it works properly. If you get even a remotely odd vibe, keep going. You are not the only person who regretted this type of decision. Sorry you have to go through this....

Thank you so much for everyone's suggestions. I am now trying to decide between fixing our current Thermador for about 400$ or buying new - which would clearly involve shelling out a lot more money, and this - right before the Holidays (where's a "pull my hair out" icon when you need one...).

What bothered me most is that the service guy we called to look at our Thermador said that for the money we will have to pay to fix/replace the electric board we might as well get a new one. Did he really not see what kind of appliance we had or he truly thought that we could get an equivalent of THIS with just a few hundred dollars?

If anyone could give any extra advice about the above options based on the attached pictures, I would appreciate it.
I am not sure how good or bad this decade old (or more) Thermador is, but it is clearly better/sturdier than anything under 1500$ I have seen in stores. If anyone knows anything about the merits of this particular model I would appreciate any advice. Bother with repairing it or bite the bullet (BIG bullet) and get new from among the ones suggested here?

Thank you for looking at the pictures.

This post was edited by Begonia2005 on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 13:26

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I would get it fixed. As you discovered it will cost you a lot more to replace with something comparable. If you do end up replacing it, you should consider an all-gas model which will be cheaper than a dual-fuel range.

By the way, did you get your range back from the delivery company?

Weissman,

Yes, I did - thank goodness!

Coming from a culture (and period) where you fixed EVERYTHING, including wrapping paper, fixing was my initial instinct too.
But husband, raised in the "chuck and get brand new" mindset, pushed for new - and it cost us a few good days of stress and nervous breakdowns.

Thank you so much everyone!

I would also learn towards the repair route if you are able to get the range back. I would not however go with that $400 repair quote, I would take matters into my own hands, remove the board from the range and use a board repair service as dadoes did. I found a board that looks like it fits your model on FixYourBoard.com (pictures below). They claim to be able to fix it for $200 including return shipping.

Back side

You don't think Thermador repairs those boards in house do up you ?

That's a very specialized industry and not one in which those in light manufacturing are usually good at. Hence why the thing is subbed out to an electronics in the first place. Tdor will just take your board, forward it to a repair place and take a markup on the "service" then return it to you.

The Thermador you have is definately older than 10 or 12 years. I'm pretty sure that is a mid 90's model which makes it closer to 15 -20 years old.
If you find the serial number the first 2 digits tell you the year.
I think last production on those models was right around 1999 -2000.

I believe these were discontinued in 2004, so OP must have gotten one of the last.