Honest opinions about how to buy Appliances and Lighting.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Ge Cafe

As I have stated in a previous post, GE has launched their new Cafe line. Its actually some pretty decent equipment, especially the stove.

Lets look:

The slide has an enhanced burner of 17,000(the average burner on a 10 year old stove is 10,000BTU) as well as a griddle burner in the middle, electric convection and an oven below. The knobs and most of the finishing touches are stainless, so the stove looks upscale as well


GE Cafe Slide-In



On the surface, the refrigerator looks good as well. As Michael points out, it is a side by side competely finished in stainless including the sides. Unfortunately, GE dropped the ball a bit. Although the product looks good, most upscale consumers buy bottom freezers and products that are shallow depth. GE effectively is marketing a product, which would be successful 10 years ago.


GE Cafe Side x Side



Have a Nice Weekend,


Steve

11 comments:

  1. Went to buy this stove and the saleperson told me that the stainless cooktop is horrible to keep clean. He said food will discolor and leave burn marks. any experience with this? I haven't found anything online because it's so new.

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  2. I do not have experience with this particular range to be honest, because it is brand new.

    We do have experience with other ranges with stainless tops and that has not been our experience. Bosch, JennAir, Amana, Bertazoni and Thermador have stainless tops.

    Now that I think about it, roughly 40% of the high end brands utilize a stainless top, so GE is not unusual and should be fine


    Steve

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  3. I ended up getting the Csfe Series and I'm loving it so far. Here's a link
    http://www.foodhuntersguide.blogspot.com/

    Thanks for your help.

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  4. Anonymous6:48 PM

    We bought the GE Cafe Microwave and the GE Cafe stove (gas).

    Trouble right out of the box;

    Microwave turntable makes a Walter Mitty, 'puckita, puckita' sound (Food Hunter is starting to experience this too).
    Microwave over the counter halogen bulbs are both gone now. One never worked and the other blew out a short time ago with a flash like a camera strobe unit.
    Stove control knobs look great and I won't complain about the fact that they are really plastic (do other manufacturers do this too?).
    The right front burner's ignitor will fire whenever ANY of the other ignitors are activated.
    The gas stove's control panel (LCD) cannot be read easily as shown in Steve's photo which was taken with flash or spot lighting (one can see the reflections). You have to get very close to it in normal lighting in order to read the control icons. GE says: "We've never had that complaint before."
    We bought this on the basis of looks alone. I should call a repairman to have my head examined.

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  5. Ercillor,

    Trust me on this one, I do not use any phtography other than a $249 digital camera. We are a lighting store as well, and the stoves are displayed under basic(but attractive) track lighting...

    Foodhunter was from Phoenix, but let me try to help. service issues, occur with 12-18% of new appliances. The vast majority of the 35,000 plus yearly service calls at Yale are minor fixes. The microwave is an OEM or sourced from another manufacturer as all microwaves. I have never heard the Walter Mitty sound, but microwave have very few working parts. So this may be a chronic issue

    The range problem could be a spark ignitor or module and is minor to repair(seriously)

    Your expectations should be repair under warranty and replacement if repair cannot be effected

    Your first step should be a call to your store to start the process. Hopefully they offer service or can at least point you in the right direction

    Lastly, all knobs are plastic...even the $6,000 Wolf


    Good Luck

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  6. Anonymous1:10 PM

    Steve;

    Thanks for the re'assurance...

    I was relieved to hear that all stove manufacturer's "knobs are plastic" -- funny how little things like that can really eat at one.

    We went back to Home Depot and our salesman told us -- as might be expected -- to contact GE. He is a very helpful human being whom we have known for a few years and so I know that he isn't giving us a 'run-around.' Home Depot, as you may know, just doesn't offer support except via the manufacturer. We'll see what happens next. I'll keep you posted.

    Can you suggest a fluorescent under cabinet lighting fixture (wired in)? Our kitchen cabinets have a leading edge of 1 1/8" and I am trying to find fixtures which will hide behind that.

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  7. Ercillor,

    If he tells you to contact GE, isn't it by definition, the "run around"?

    Your situation will not be mitigated properly without some more intervention on your part...

    For undercounter lighting, try a halogen based light source...There are no 2700 kelvin fluorescent undercounter lights, so the color will be washed

    Good luck

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  8. I am having ge cafe appliances put in my new home. My problem is the microwave. I don't want it above the range because I've ordered the cafe vent with chimney. They only have one microwave. Does anyone have advice on how to make the microwave work as a "built-in" instead of an "over the range" unit?

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  9. Renee,

    You can build in many microwaves with a trim kit...There is one a GE Jem31, which will hang from a cabinet..

    There are also draw and fold down(built in) microwaves available

    Hope this helps

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  10. Anonymous8:39 PM

    My kitchenaid architect series has metal knobs. Ting whenever my buttons knock against them. An angel got its wings.

    Re: The right front burner's ignitor will fire whenever ANY of the other ignitors are activated.

    I could be wrong but I think this is how some ranges work... there's a main one that always fires.

    Replace the halogen with incandescent bulbs if you can.

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