Out with the Old and In with the New

As I have mentioned before, I spend 6 summer months with my husband at his house on the gorgeous west coast of Scotland. We moved into the house 4 years ago and with it came a huge Leisure Rangemaster Electric cooker.  Very impressive indeed.

The previous owner went on and on about how fabulous it is and I had no reason to believe otherwise, until I started to use it ...

To start with - it is 110 cms wide - wow wee.  Now, take a good look and you can see a griddle right of centre.  Great for grilled cheese sandwiches and not much else as grease splatters everywhere - absolutely useless.  The warming section to the extreme right is useful. The big thing that I really had against it is this:

4 close together solid metal hobs - they take ages to heat up and you don't know which one is on until it is letting off heat, and they take ages to cool down so burnt whatever is a menu mainstay.  My fave was turning the water on to boil on the front hob, coming back in 15 minutes and finding that I had turned on the back hob.  When I had my large frying pan on - there was no room for anything else. HATEFUL.

On Tuesday we got the NEW COOKER - a Rangemaster Ceramic Excel 110 :

It is a truly beautiful thing.  6 ceramic cooking areas on top - several of which are double sized - and a warmer on the right side (if I want or it can be a cooking ring). Top left is the grill - awesome; bottom left is the multifunction oven and I mean multifunction starting with R for rapid heat warmup and goes on from there (and there is a handy rack right on the door so that I don't have to bend down too low to put the chicken in!!); bottom right is the convection oven, and top left is the warming oven.  TOTAL BLISS!

Of course there was a drama with the installation: the delivery men easily pulled out the old 110 Rangemaster and hooked up the new 110 Rangemaster and then proceeded to slide the new 110 Rangemaster into the old 110 Rangemaster space.

You guessed it: the new 110 Rangemaster WOULD NOT GO IN where the old 110 Rangemaster had been not 2 seconds before.

Lots of ringing back and forth to the store. My main point being that if Rangemaster is going to use laser measurements then they should rename the cookers: try '110.25' or '110+' or maybe 'around 110.' 

After I emotionally threw up with despair, I gave my head a shake and then asked how much 'up' leeway they have with the legs ... "Spot on" was the reply and we were able to get it in comfortably that way; so, the top of the cooker is resting on top of the countertop and isn't flush with the countertop which is not a big deal, but not the installation it should be.

And because of the pushing and shoving prior to my bright idea *lighbulb on* there are some scratches on one side that no one can see unless they happen to be there - and I am looking there compulsively - (because it is above the countertop and not hidden by it) BUT point being I did not plan on buying a scratched cooker.

Apparently the Rangemaster rep is to get in touch about the whole thing: I think that a BIG voucher to the Accessories store would be a nice start. I have, however, been waiting since Tuesday for the call so I had to write to the Chairman of AgaRangemster ... He should have the letter on his desk on Monday morning.

Hmmm ....

Note: I'll be interested to see how this post comes out as the preview shows two different fonts and I can't get them to match up ... always something!