Product review (4 stars): Great Oven - BIG SAFETY PROBLEM!!!
Review Date:  November 25, 2011
WARNING:  YOU CAN BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN IF YOU DO NOT CAREFULLY WATCH THIS OVEN!!!

The oven I am referring to is Frigidaire (Electrolux) Model Number PLEFMZ99ECN.  This is an electric range oven, with a mini-oven & warmer drawer at the bottom of the electric range.  All of the controls are electronic digitally displayed heat values.  I have owned two of these ovens for over 6 years, and they have performed well.

Personal Practice:  You can damage the glass surface of the oven if you drop something on it.  To prevent damage to the glass surface of the oven, I place a large wooden cutting board, the size of the oven top, with rubber legs, on top of the oven surface when I am not using it to prevent objects that may fall on the surface from impacting and breaking the glass. Obviously, when I use the burners I always take the cutting board off.  I do not place it back on the surface until all burners have cooled down.

Problem #1:  Most of the controls on this oven are not pure mechanical rheostat controls... they are digital controls with a digital heat display linked to a computer microchip.  This oven burner "turn" controls are read by a computer microchip.  The chip reads the position of the switch, and translates that position into a digital value that controls the heat level of the burner, and displays that value as a number from 1 (low) to 9 (high) .1 increments.  That is where the problem is... these controls are not insulated from moisture coming from the venting system of the oven.  When moisture gets into them, the water vapor gets into the circuits, completes a contact, and can activate the left rear burner control to HIGH value (9) without you knowing it or touching it. If this happens, you can only de-activate the control by pushing it in and turning it left to value #1, then turn off the oven to allow the vapor exhaust to dissipate from inside the control.

Problem #2:  The mini-oven at the bottom is not only a warmer drawer, but it is a pizza roasting oven and can get over 350 degrees.  There is no effective heat shield at the bottom of the oven to prevent the heat of this mini-oven from scorching a wood floor, or starting it on fire.  YOU MUST USE A FLOOR HEAT SHIELD WITH THIS OVEN... DO NOT PLACE IT ON A BARE FLOOR!!!

I like this oven, I like its quality and performance... but it was not designed for safe use, carefree use.  You have to be aware of what could happen and watch it while you are cooking.

MY CASE EXAMPLE:  I have owned this oven for 4 years... I have two of them, one in my recreation home (over 7 years there) and one at my residence home (4 years there.)  I am referring to the oven I use at my residence.  These ovens perform great, but you cannot leave them alone or you risk burning your house down.  Here's why:

While convection roasting meat or poultry, there is a lot of water vapor expelled from a vent at the rear top surface of the oven located just below the backsplash wall, directly below the left rear oven burner control on the oven operating panel.  There is a major safety design flaw as to where this vent is located.  It is just below the electric rheostat control for that left back burner.  What happens is that this steam and water vapor gets into the burner control and the control panel, the moisture seeps into the burner control circuits and then activates the burner control all by itself... without you touching it!

Frigidaire knows about this, and two years ago they has an internal recall and dispatched technicians to come to your house and modify the oven.  The technician opened the back of the oven's control panel, and placed metalized duct tape over the circuits of the controls to insulate them from the water vapor coming from that front vent.  I had this done to both of the ovens I own.  Prior to this, I had been operating these ovens for two years, and I was not even aware of this problem... no one told me of the potential safety hazard.  So when they modified it, the technician assured me that the problem was solved.

NOT SO... Yesterday, I was convection roasting an 18 pound unstuffed turkey for 3.5 hours.  I had left the wooden cutting board on the top surface of the oven, because I did not intend to use any of the top surface burners.  For three hours I was in the living room watching a football game while the roasting was going on, periodically stepping into the kitchen to check the progress.  The oven was only used for roasting... I did not use it for any other cooking during this time.

At the three hour mark, I was in the kitchen preparing other food, when I noticed an unusual amount of smoke coming from the surface of the oven.  I quickly realized that the smoke was coming from under the wooden cutting board,  and that while the left burner control was clearly and mechanically in the upward OFF position (I DID NOT MOVE IT), the burner had activated itself to full heat value (9) and the heat of the burner had already ignited the wooden cutting board on fire.  This all happened within 45 seconds, and had I not been at the oven area, I would have had a full-blown flaming fire on top of the oven which would have led to the ignition of the wooden cabinets.  Fortunately I was there, caught it in time, and there was no damage to the oven... just a slightly burned wooden cutting board.

The simple modification I will make is that whenever I use the oven, the protective cutting board will stay off the burner surface. The modification that Frigidaire has to make has to be much more serious than its previous repair for these ovens.

I am contacting my appliance dealer today to make arrangements to have a technician come to my house and devise a way to correct this problem.  If a solution is not found, then I will spearhead an effort to get Frigidaire to design a better fix.  I am sure it is not hard to do that.  If you have had a similar experience, I suggest that you do the same... contact your appliance dealer where you bought the oven, and pressure them into moving Frigidaire to provide better a repair solution.

Otherwise... if Frigidaire does not move to act on its own to solve this safety problem, then you can be assured that I will... through whatever means necessary to call attention to this safety issue through the Federal Consumer Products Safety Commission, or even OSHA where these ovens might be used in work situations.

Joe S.
Wisconsin
(Amazon knows who I am... contact them to contact me)