SMEV Feedback

[guy99]

As documented in this thread: SMEV Cooktops? Any one tried them? I recently purchased and installed a three burner cooktop.

The good: Its great looking and I think we are going to appreciate the flush top a great deal. The high setting on the burners seems to put out a lot of BTUs which will make it nice to cook with. I assume that the low power burner (one of the three) will be useful for rice, simmering, etc.

The neutral: the burners have only two setting High and Low. There are two high power burners and one low power. We have stainless steel appliances in the house and they DO scratch and show all smudges, etc.

The not so good: The igniter is a spring loaded switch (not automatic like my home range). You must hold in the valve for the burner until it lights (and maybe a few seconds longer). This make lighting a burner a two handed operation.

The Bad: The manual is poor and not easily understood by a none technical person. The vendor will not provide installation support - they tell you to find a "qualified installer" - not sure where you'd find qualified SMEV installer. It took a long time to receive the cooktop which I purchased on ebay. When I contacted the vendor I was told that they had been away at a show in Europe and the ebay store should have been down during that time. Cooktop arrived quickly after that.

It turns out that it was shipped without a supplemental regulator, which I of course didn't know until I had a problem and contacted the seller. They did send the regulator promptly and the fellow I spoke with on the phone was very knowledgeable and polite (he apologized for referring to a bastard file). BUT if you don't catch him at his desk, good luck. After I installed the stove and had an RV tech inspect the installation, I had a problem wherein the burners would not stay lit. Each burner has it's own thermocouple. You lite the burner by holding the valve handle until the burner lights, wait a few seconds, then release the handle. Two of my burners failed to stay on unless I held the valve in for up to 20 seconds. They would then go out when turned to low.

So I contacted them and that is when it was discovered that I was missing the regulator, which they sent. I spoke with the support guy on Tuesday and he told me I would need to file the compression bead off of the stove since the nut on the regulator fitting was a different size than the nut which was originally supplied. On Wednesday I called and left a message. No reply, called again, he answered (on a cell phone) said he was out of the office and promised to call in 2 or 3 hours. As of now (Thursday morning) I still have heard back.

I'm sure we will eventually get this sorted out. BUT, had I realized how hard it would be to get support and service I doubt I would have purchased the unit. How much fun do you suppose I'll have if a I have a problem with it in Mexico this winter?