Valve Issues with Frigidaire Slide in Range FPDS3085KF

[jeralmac]

Model Number

FPDS3085KF

Hello all, trying to find someone that can help me with a significant concern with our new range. We just had a Frigidaire FPDS3085KF installed a few days ago. It has the LP conversion kit installed as we are on Propane. My wife cooked a meal that night and was immediately disgusted with the performance of the dials. The problem is that they do not have an accurate range. For example, the 9k BTU burner has the exact flame between 3 and 6 o'clock. It seems that each burner really only has a high, medium and low setting with very little inbetween. With some of the burners, you can dial in some flame settings in between but with much patience and very little movement of the knob. I did do the low volume adjustment and made it so the burners did not go out when switching to simmer but this did nothing to improve the action of the dials.

I called and talked to a kid with Frigidaire customer service and he naively told me that they are working as designed. I find this VERY hard to believe as I grew up using gas ranges and the last one we had was a inexpensive $400 range that had perfect variable action with each of the burners. How is it that this $2000 range can be so bad? Is it possible that we have too much or not enough pressure at the manifold of this unit? Any ideas?

If anyone has experience with Frigidaire ranges and knows how to address this, I will be very grateful!

Jeralmac

 

[rickgburton]

Who installed the LP conversion kit. Was the correct LP conversion kit used and the correct orifice from the kit?

 

[jeralmac]

I installed it and yes, I used the orifaces that came with the unit. The only way they could be wrong is if they included the wrong kit but per the instructions, I matched the numbers with the corresponding Natural Gas counter parts.

 

[rickgburton]

OK, try this; Start with cool burners. Turn all the burners on "Lite" and when lit, turn all burners on high. Turn the knob for the burner in question very quickly from high to its lowest setting. Does the burner stay lit?

 

[jeralmac]

Yes, they all stay lit. I have already dialed in the low flame adjustment. The problem is that the flame only has 3 or 4 sizes. And the problem exists with all 4 burners. Let me know if you want to see it in action and I will upload it to YouTube and then provide a link. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[rickgburton]

Sure!

 

[jeralmac]

Here's a video showing the issue. Notice during certain parts where I'm moving the dial and the flame does not change.

[video=youtube_share;byObvrR4OjQ]http://youtu.be/byObvrR4OjQ[/video]

 

[rickgburton]

I watched it several times and I understand what you're saying about low, med, and high but I think that's normal. It appears you can get a better adjustment on the flame size going from high to low than low to high. Do all the burners work the same? If you know the part number of the conversion kit I'll be happy to check it for you. I checked for any service flashes but didn't find any. I also checked for anyone else having a similar issue but didn't find anything. I have not worked on that particular model but that might be because it's too new. Is the left rear the smallest burner?

 

[jeralmac]

The label in the kit states:
LP CONVERSION KIT P/N 318565406


Did you happen to notice in the video that the flame size is the same, for example, between 4 and 6 o'clock positions? To me, that is strange for a valve to operate this way. Sort of like operating your kitchen sink and getting 3 settings. I'll try to take another video of the power burner which seems to have the worst performance. The right rear burner is the smallest, 5k btu I believe. Thanks for your help so far, really appreciate it! Would love to get to the bottom of this, seems everyone I talk to says this is not normal behavior!

 

[jeralmac]

Here's another video demonstrating the operation of the other 2 burners. The second half of the clip with the simmer burner shows the main problem - turning the dial, and nothing happens.

[video=youtube_share;UH_2TjdDTWA]http://youtu.be/UH_2TjdDTWA[/video]

 

[rickgburton]

I watched the second video and I agree with you, there seems to be a problem. I checked the kit part number and it's correct. Call Frigidaire and tell them to come fix it under warranty. If I was you, I would first recheck the LP kit installation and redo all the low flame adjustments first. If you're confident the installation and adjustments are correct, you shouldn't have any problem with warranty. If you know someone with a manometer, check the gas pressure. It shouldn't be over 14" water column and when adjusted for LP I believe it's 10" water column but not positive about that.

 

[jeralmac]

OK, I will have someone check the pressure and then if good, I'll call in a tech. Thanks so much Rick, it's nice to finally hear someone say it's not working right! Frigidaire has me believing that it is working as designed!