Unreliable. Poor service. Poor VFM.

We dithered over whether we should buy a Lacanche or a modern electric Aga. I wish we had gone for the Aga, with its sealed ovens and consistent performance. I was worried that the Aga would take a long time to heat up, but in fact the Lacanche takes just as long as the modern electric Aga.

Our Citeaux is under three years old, bought in Jan 2018, with two electric ovens and one gas. One oven was problematic so we had a warranty call on 4th December 2018, because the thermostat in one electric oven failed. It then failed a second time, just outside the warranty period (in fact it failed just inside it but I failed to spot the warranty date). We also had a problem with the second electric oven which also kept overheating, so effectively we had no decent electric oven, which is the one we use most frequently. So I called to make an appointment with the service team on 29 January, for which I had to wait until 11 March. They cancelled the service by email 2 days before arrival, and I had to call to refix. Another wait until 20 April- no expedition notwithstanding they cancelled! So for 3 months I had no functioning electric oven. Also the door on one oven would not shut and had to be slammed. When the service engineer arrived he only had one thermostat, even though I had complained that both ovens were over-heating, and a new thermostat was required in each of them. Another appointment was required with another two week wait. Worse still, after that visit the door started scraping against the base of the oven. I was told it had been put on incorrectly. So someone had to come back a fourth time, by which time it was now 28 August, to fix it. Given I could have purchased a small car for the price of this item, you would have thought they could offer a better service.

I complained that a new (expensive) cooker should not need three new thermostats within three years. The service engineer who fixed it said that the usual repairs are to much older cookers and the thermostat should last a minimum of 5 years, if not more. So I complained to Lacanche to say the thermostats could not have been fit for purpose. The best they could do, after this series of disasters, was to offer 10% off the parts!

I wish I had bought a new car!