I bought my stove with an oven and broiler. Only in the 3rd world do ovens come without broilers. Who knew? I still can not believe that a stove maker thought of this. It gets even more crazy. They also can come without an interior light, and with no glass in the door. Not a problem, I never could keep that glass clean enough to see through it anyway. My stoves were never for decoration, I am a sercious cook. The light I will miss, but it was not on the model I bought (with broiler). I was examining every detail of the stove for a half an hour at least, and, I had already been to every store in two towns when I realized that it did not say broil on every stove and every stove went to a different degree of hot on the dial. One model did not even give the temperature just low and high. How does that work for a cook using the oven? My model has 4 burners, oven and broiler, solomente, nada mas. I could not get it with auto ignition, that model did not have a broiler. Some models did not even have the storage draw in the bottom, just a fixed metal front plate. I never liked those stupid storage drawers. Ovens should be on the bottom portion and the little drawer should be above it and it should be a second oven, in my opinion. This configuration does exist already, I know, for a big price, not in Turrialba, and not in the little stove.

The broiler: Is located in the very bottom where that little storage drawer was located. The drawer does not pull out now, the door folds down, and the broiler pan slides in and out. Not one employee in any store knew this and they are still scratching their heads. I am not sure they know what a broiler is. They have no idea what they are selling, except a stove, whatever that means. It has an electric oven they said, no it doesn’t, it is gas, they were all gas. “NO, it is electric!” Really? Then why is there an ignition hole with the picture of a match here, I ask? They got the book out and are hurriedly looking through it. An electric oven would not serve my needs, I know that stoves can come like this but they are not available in Turrialba.

Like most stoves with one oven, you can not use the broiler and the oven at the same time. Okay. Then the geniuses at the store decided that you need the electric to regulate the gas. I don’t think so, that makes no sense to me at all, the knob does that... We will see.

I will light the stove with my butane BBQ lighter and use a flashlight to look in the oven. The cost for this gem was about $180.00 USD (96,040.00 colones) and it was on sale. If my electricity does not get better, the light bulb would not work anyway.

Phil wanted a different model that did not have a broiler, it had bells and whistles, a clock, light bulb in the oven, no broiler and the stupid drawer. “You don’t need a broiler”, yes I do! If I am getting a stove, I want the broiler!!! I don’t need the clock, I use the wind up timer for an alarm and I have a watch to tell what time it is.

Sometimes I wonder why everything is so hard to make happen. Will I use the broiler, I don’t know, it is literally on the floor…. But I use to broil, more than I baked until I started making our bread. We like broiled chicken, broiled steak, …… We no longer eat steak, because I don’t find cuts I can eat. I think they go to good restaurants, I give up.

So the stove is in the kitchen, still in its cardboard box. We need a part that fits in the back of the stove and connects it to the gas hose that goes to the cylinder. They don’t come with the stove and the appliance store does not sell them. They are at the hardware store my clerk, Raul, tells me. Oh, sure they are!!!!!!! Not!!! This is the 3rd #*&! world and it is little things like this that make it stay the 3rd world. No one can use the stoves without this part, so why don’t they sell them? Charge for them, overcharge even, and give one with each stove. No-no, that would make it too simple and we would not want to think of providing service to the customer, nor make life easier for anyone. So there it sits. Did I mention some assembly required? Yeah, we must put it together, like a gas grill from the Home Depot.