This Amana Gas Range, Model AGDS902SS seemed to fit the bill for us some six years ago. It was a gas stove top and oven, and had a down draft vent system, which was good because the previous Electric Range was down draft also. Our kitchen does not have a hood.
And so we spent a few bucks on this stainless and computerized appliance. We had it delivered, and I ran a new electrical service so we wouldn’t have a cord running to the wall outlet which was at chest height. I cut a new hole in the floor and ran the venting into the crawl space.
The house was already plumbed for Gas and all we needed was a three or so foot piece of flexible gas hose.
We love to cook, and gas is so much more pleasant to cook with, and we were in hog heaven, until a couple years later when the first burner igniter failed. Ordered the parts, and installed, and a couple weeks later a second burner failed. Hmmmm.
Fast forward another year, and we had an oven igniter fail. And by then the brushed stainess control panel was looking beat. Some stoves get a nice patina, but this is just tired looking.
Wife used oven cleaner on stainless pans for the burners, and over spray got on the aluminum trim pieces which destroyed the black coating.
Soon two more burners failed. And a second oven igniter failed. Knobs on the control panel had been falling off one, by one. Ordered replacement knobs, but turns out the problem was a plastic piece on the computer that was failing. They don’t sell the five or ten dollar plastic piece which screws on to the computer circuit board. Rather you have to spend over $200 to have buttons that work. I bought computer against my better judgement, and today went to install it.
To get to the computer module you have to take apart most of the stove top. And then it becomes very apparent that this stove is not sealed very well against cooking grease. I spent hours cleaning the gunk off, and still there’s a ton left baked on. I suppose one day this thing will end up in a metal recycling and then, finally the baked on gunk will forever get burned off.
Will all appliances I’ve ever worked on there are a lot of stamped sheet metal parts with very sharp edges. The first thing you should make sure you have on hand when working on an appliance such as this Amana is an economy sized box of bandaids.
After hours of removing and cleaning parts and installing larger sheet metal screws to replace all the stripped out from the factory screws, I got the computer reinstalled.
Now I needed to fix the wires going to the oven igniter. Both wires were frayed and had exposed wire in multiple places. The factory didn’t leave enough wire to cut off of 6inches, and so I had to order some replacement wiring. Factory wire is rated to 150 degrees Centigrade. I got replacement wired rated for 200 degrees Centigrade. Had to make a trip to Lowes for some ceramic wire nuts.
I have this identical stove and have had all of the problems that are mentioned. It is truly a piece of junk.
I’ve had identical problems with this range. I have not yet repaired mine, are there better downdraft gas range models I should consider? Thoughts?
I have not found a replacement for this thing. I originally had an electric Jenn Air I sure wish I’d kept. In the meantime I put in the computer and new igniter for the oven. This is a pos.
Steve
Hi all – what’s the easiest/quickest way to access the remove the control panel on this range? thanks
There is no easy way. You pretty much have to remove most of the panels for the top of the stove to get to the computer. It will take a couple hours to get to the guts, replace the computer, and put it back together, if you also take the time to clean stuff…
Like everyone says, you need to take apart the top of the stove to get to everything. It’s not that bad as everything comes in multiples of 2, 4 or 8 screws. You start to see the pattern as you go along. But here’s the sequence as I remember it:
1. Pull the stove out.
2. Remove the burners etc. that come out from the top of the stove. All of this is removable by hand.
3. Take the side decorative rails off. I think four screws on the outside of each and two screw on the inside.
4. Remove the black back vent once the rails are off. Can’t remember if there are screw on this or not.
5. Remove the screws that hold the internal decorative frame. I think it’s a total of eight screws and they are all in the center of the frame as you look down.
6. Pull the knobs and push buttons off the stainless steel cover. This will reveal four screws around (two on two knobs). The larger screw holds the stainless steel cover to the knobs, and the two smaller ones hold the controller/clock to the stainless steel cover. Remove these screws.
7. Once the frame is off, you will see a screw on black triangular plate that is at each end of the stainless steel cover. Remove these.
8. I believe there are four screws on the underside of the stainless steel cover. You need to open the oven door and look under and up.
9. I may have missed a few screws here and there, but this is the general procedure.
NOTE: What we found on ours was that the oven door was not closing properly. When we looked closer we notice that the oven door sheet metal panel that goes over the hinges was bent from the weight of the door itself. I took the door off and apart and straightened it, but you can see it is going to happen again. Yes it’s junk. The poor sheet metal prevented the door from closing which in turn allowed the heat to melt the controller. I may try putting some black screws in the side of the door edge where the metal has fatigued to prevent it from buckling. My suspicion is that this is what’s causing all of these controllers to fail.
Hi Folks,
Excellent and accurate analysis of this AMANA range…Control knobs/Ignitors/etc..
The Control panel (#31898501) is no longer available, but the good news is you can get your current panel refurbished like new for only $160 from
FixYourBoard.com