Not really food question. Should I replace my 16yo Wolf 6 burner / 1 grill / 2 oven range?

I know little about how ranges actually work, the useful lifetime, etc. Hoping someone here is either an expert or a dealer who understand this.

The inside of my Wolf oven is pretty stained. 16 years of use, the oven cleaning function no longer does a good job. And the door window also stained, the window gasket is hard, etc. Mostly the big oven, not the little one. So I called a service guy. The service guy told me that I needed a refresh. 2 new windows and gaskets, a new ‘inside’ for the big oven, some new elements as one of my heating elements was shot. 6 hours of work, parts, about $3k all in. I said “Go ahead” as we use this a lot.

The service guys (different guy, same company) came to install the parts. He spent 20 min taking things apart and he stopped. He told my wife (I was not home) that we should not do this, that we’re throwing good money after bad, that a 16 year old range isn’t worth repairing, that we should just buy new, and that other things will go out on this range and he will just have to do another big repair job when that happens. So she told him to stop.

So what do I do? I’ve never actually known anyone who replaced the range in their house, never heard of them wearing out! Most of what I wanted was cosmetic, except for the element he found that was out.

I don’t know who to listen to. I lean towards listening to the tech service guy who told me to not buy tech service! But I just don’t know. Maybe it was a big job and he didn’t feel like doing it.

Anyone with expertise here? Is range replacement a thing? Do these high end ranges only have 15 or so years of useful life?

Thoughts from informed people?

I’m not an expert and this is a tough call. Guessing that a new unit is 10k and they are hard to find right now. If it is about 1/3 the price of new I’d probably go ahead and do it.

What I do know is that service techs have told us to never use the oven self cleaning feature as that is the easiest way to shorten or eventually kill you oven and/or the controls. That cycle is long and at the maximum heat the oven can generate. Running anything at full tilt puts a lot of wear and tear on things. I asked one tech why then is there a self cleaning cycle and he replied that everybody loves that feature but doesn’t understand that it ends up trashing the device over any medium or long period of time if used regularly. He noted it keeps him well employed tho.

I think new will be more in the $13-15K range, assuming this is 48’’. If it’s 60’’, it will be more.

We are paying ~$13,500 for a 48’’ Blue Star range, which now has a ~12-week delivery time, minimum.

Given all that, $3k doesn’t sound like that crazy of a price for a major refurb, but yeah if it’s just going to break again you may just want to get something new.

Peter-

As someone who purchased a high end range and has also worked on a few repairs myself, I would absolutely do the refresh. 15 years is not very long and I think it is important to point out that these semi-commercial type combos can be rebuilt from the ground up with not much effort. Aside from that the wear parts, mostly ignitors and elements, are few and cheap. I can’t think of a good reason a good one doesn’t go at least 30 years or longer. It’s just a hunk of metal, insulation, very little electronics, and some gas plumbing. It’s not complex and doesn’t really “wear out”.

I would also avoid self clean. Once or twice a year I get busy with some Barkeeper’s Friend it works magic with a few soaks and a nice stiff brush.

You may also try the Barkeeper’s Friend on the window glass or using a pad and cleaner designed for fireplaces. That stuff comes off.

It doesn’t necessarily sound like there’s that much that needs to be fixed?

Thanks for the comments. I’m going to go ahead with the refresh, and never use the self cleaning function again!!!

Adding on. I would be concerned that while the service tech may have had good intentions, he probably only sees 15 year old units when there is a problem. Most likely he has little experience with all of the older units that still function without issue. In which case, he is unintentionally biased by his one sided experience.

I’m the wrong person to ask. Decided to replace my thermador cooktop and ended up gutting the kitchen and doing an entire new build out with a Molteni stove. So don’t ask me. :joy::joy::joy:

I have a 23 year old Viking. I don’t love it, but it’s a tank. Every few years we do a little service as some igniters start to get cranky. I am waiting on some replacement hinges for the big oven. But in general, a few hundred dollars here and there over 23 years has been fine. As Kenny said, these things are made to be stripped down and built back up.

Someday when we downsize, if I were building a kitchen, the I would splurge on a Bluestar or something else higher end. But this one does the job and is infinitely repairable. I am sure your Wolf is the same (probably better).

I will add in another vote for keeping the existing unit. We have a Thermador Pro (not quite Wolf but not Kenmore either) - now six years old. We’ve had a couple of issues (one failed ignitor and one bad control board due to a power surge hitting the house). I fixed the last one myself, which gave me plenty of familiarity with the unit. There isn’t much to go wrong with an oven/range and, as long as parts are available, they are easy to fix. While the parts seem expensive when the small box arrives at your house, you could pretty much rebuild the whole thing with spare parts for less than the cost of new. The labor is expensive but the simplicity makes it pretty easy to do yourself. The hardest part is moving it away from the wall to get behind it. I suspect that the lifespan of our unit will be defined by how long spare electronic control boards are produced. If you have a control board go out after they are supplied I guess you are left scavenging EBay or troubleshooting board components on your own. Everything else should be pretty easy to source effectively indefinitely. Because of this, I actually have a spare main control board tucked away for just such an event. That might be planning a little too far ahead but seemed a very inexpensive insurance.

As an aside our oven/range is one of the few expensive electronic items in the house not behind a power conditioner/surge suppressor. It has a very heavy gauge electrical cord on it even though it is a fully gas unit (gas oven/gas burners). I spoke with the repairman that helped us the first time about whether there any any issues putting it behind a standard surge suppressor (given the size of the cord I assumed there must be a significant draw coming from somewhere). He said it pulls almost no power - the super heavy cord is just there for a bit of extra protection given the environment it is used in. From experience I recommend adding a surge suppressor on your gas oven/range if you can. It would have saved us a control board.

13 year old Blue Star here and another vote for refresh. These type of ranges, as someone said above, are built like tanks and are not complicated.

Wolf ranges last forever. It seems like a lot of the changes you’re talking about are mostly cosmetic. I bought a 20 year old wolf range a couple years ago. The inside is dirty but who looks at the inside? The stainless outside scrubbed up like new with some elbow grease. I finally did get a couple things replaced recently and the repair guy said they last forever. Maybe you should try a different repair guy.

Yep. I’m going for the refresh. My range is dual fuel, one of the elements that heats the oven doesn’t work, so it takes longer to heat up. All part of replacing the inside part. Only difference between the one I have and the same model today (away from a few electronic tricks that I don’t care about, wifi and such) are the sealed burners. Not worth spending an extra $10,000 to get sealed burners! Refresh it is for $3k…

BTW, I tried the Barkeep Friend on the inside glass. Don’t need new glass anymore, that stuff works great!

Nice! I also second the reco to get a different repair guy. They do a good job, it’s a solid range, just keep hammering away at it and getting some stuff fixed now and then.

20 year old Dacor dual fuel - replaced window, gasket, bottom heating element all pretty inexpensive. Had to do the computer board which was about $1K all in as they rebuild the board as new parts are not available anymore. Glad I did it. It is still going strong. Obviously doesn’t look brand new but it has character. LOTS of meals cooked on it.

George

I’m actually thinking of downsizing from a 36" to a standard 30" and picking up a few inches of counter space. I never cook meals with more than 2 burners.