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“Stoves Richmond 1000ie Electric Induction Cooker”

written by DanMR on 11/12/2014

This 100cm electric induction range cooker looks the part, but sadly doesn't full-fill that expectation. At around £2000, though, it probably should!

We have had the cooker 18 months now and in that time I have had a succession of engineers out to fix and replace the induction hob which keeps malfunctioning. Because the 12 months is up, we are ow paying for this pleasure.

In a nutshell, the touch controls on the glass hob stop working. I phone up, and engineer is booked. A courier delivers the replacememnt hob unit; it is almost always broken upon delivery. This is because it is not packaged at all, just placed in a thin box with no padding whatsoever. So we then go through the process of trying to get hold of another.

When we have taken delivery of a replacement hob that is not too damaged, the engineer comes and fixes it. This has happened twice in the the last 18 months. Except that the engineers Stoves use aren't too familiar with replacement of induction hobs, so they get themselves into a fix. I'm expecting the fourth back next week after the latest guy repaced the hob then managed to smash the glass. The glass protruded down onto the new hob, so both need replacing. He also damaged the kitchen floor, so we are looking into that.

Because two totally unrelated induction hobs have malfunctioned in exactly the same way, I can only conclude there is a design fault. I won't be surprised when it goes wrong again and in the same way. Stoves play failr hard to get, pretending no one else has complained and adamant that we pay for the engineer, but it is my contention that the hob and its electronics are not baffled well-enough form the heat of the cooker below, subsequently malfunctioning.

After over a month, we are still cooking on a camping gas stove in the kitchen - not good with 3 kids under 5 years-old. Thanks, Stoves, you've been really great.