Method
Reading the rating plate
Two numbers off a metal tag decide whether the part is on the van or on order. Here is where the tag is on each kind of appliance, and what else to read off it.
Every appliance carries a metal or foil plate with its model and serial number. Those two numbers are the difference between a fault fixed on the first visit and a fault fixed on the second, because they decide which parts get loaded before the van leaves. Nothing else you can tell us over the phone is worth as much.
The plates are deliberately placed where they will not be seen in normal use, which is why almost nobody knows where theirs is. Here is where to look.
Ranges and rangetops
Open the oven door and look along the frame — the underside of the control panel above the door, or the front frame just inside the opening on either side. On some units the plate sits behind the kick panel at the bottom, or on the left side of the frame where the door hinge attaches.
On a rangetop with no oven, the plate is usually underneath: pull a drawer below the unit, or look up at the underside of the front rail. If the unit is in an island and nothing pulls out beneath it, a phone camera held under the front edge and pointed up will usually find it.
Wall ovens
Open the door and check the frame the same way, then check the top and the sides of the frame. On a double oven the plate is usually associated with the upper cavity and covers both. If the door frame yields nothing, the plate may be on the side of the chassis inside the cabinet, which is not visible without pulling the unit — in that case stop looking and tell us that, because it is useful information in itself.
Built-in refrigeration
Open the door and look at the top of the interior liner, on the ceiling of the compartment or just inside the top-left corner. On a column unit it may be behind the top drawer or behind the toe grille. Some units carry it on the back, which means it is unreadable in place; again, say so rather than emptying the fridge.
Dishwashers
Open the door and read the edge of the inner door panel — the strip that is hidden when the door is closed. It runs along the top edge or down one side.
Hoods
The plate is above the filters. Drop the baffle filters out and look up into the canopy. If the blower is a separate in-line or remote unit, that unit has its own plate and its own model number, and on a ventilation call it is often the one that matters.
What else to read while you are there
Model and serial are the two we need. Three more things are worth a photograph while the plate is in front of you.
Fuel type, on gas equipment. The plate normally states which gas the unit was set for and often the orifice sizing. Equipment that was converted from one fuel to the other should have been marked at the time of conversion. Both fuels are common in this part of Clay County, and a half-completed conversion produces exactly the ignition and flame-quality symptoms people call about.
Electrical rating. Amperage and voltage tell us what supply the appliance expects, which matters in older houses where the circuit behind a retrofitted kitchen is not always what the appliance assumes.
The date, if there is one. Serial formats vary and we will not guess at yours, but many plates carry an explicit manufacture date. Knowing whether an appliance is eight years old or twenty-eight changes which failures are likely and changes the honest advice about whether a large repair is worth doing.
The photograph is the point
Do not transcribe it. Photograph it. Model numbers on professional equipment are long, they mix letters and digits, and a single transposed character orders the wrong part. A picture of the plate sent when you book means the survey starts with the right parts already in the vehicle, and it costs you thirty seconds.
The service pages this survey belongs to.
- Professional range repairSealed burners, the spark system, the oven cavity and the door. A range is four separate systems in one cabinet, and each one fails in its own way.
- Built-in wall oven repairA wall oven is a sealed box inside a cabinet. The part is rarely the hard part — getting the machine out of the wall and back in square is.
- Built-in refrigeration repairColumns, French-door built-ins, undercounter drawers and wine storage. Airflow, defrost and door seal explain most of it before the sealed system does.
- Built-in dishwasher repairFill, wash, drain, dry. Four stages, and a dishwasher fault almost always belongs to exactly one of them once you have watched a cycle start.
- Ventilation and hood repairBlower, controls, lights and duct. A hood that fails to clear the air is usually failing at the duct, and no larger blower will fix that.
Reading a survey and recognising your own appliance in it is a good reason to call. What a visit costs.