Cooker not working properly

-donegal-girlie

Hi,

Me and my boyfriend recently moved into a new apartment. On the first night we tried to cook some food in the oven but it seemed to be taking a long long time to heat up. We decided to put the food in anyway and hope it would fully heat up and start to cook the food - however an hour later the frozen chips and chicken were still only luke warm and half frozen. Also one of the rings doesn't work ( we don't really mind about that though)
Called the estate agent to say there was a problem with the cooker, he came to the apartment to have a look at it, declared he didn't know much about cookers because he had never used one, but that it was an older cooker that took longer to heat up, that he would ask a few people that knew more about cookers and get back to us.
We haven't heard anything since. Surely this couldn't be true? Does anyone have advice as to what we should do? I don't have a clue myself, and my boyfriend doesn't want to push it at all... I for one am not living off microwave food for the next year though.
Hope someone can help :P

StillWaters

As well as the knob with the degrees, is there another knob for oven functions? Is there a timer button that needs to be reset. I think you may need to get someone who knows how to use an oven and has used a few (mammy?) to have a look.

-donegal-girlie

I dont think i need the mammy to look at it .. I know how to use an oven :P Its a simple oven, a knob to put on the oven, and four knobs for the rings. No timer on it either.
Its just not heating properly - the estate agent doesn't seem keen on doing anything to fix it .. so i was wondering did anyone have advice really.

StillWaters

Didn't mean to insult, when you said you didn't have a clue, I thought you meant about how to use an oven. If its as basic as that, sounds like the element has gone.

The Agent needs to liaise with the LL to get this sorted, its not acceptable to be without your oven for more than a week, never mind a year

-donegal-girlie

Oh i know you didn't mean to insult Yeah i meant i didn't have a clue what to do about the landlord, sorry about the confusion . Oh thanks il give the estate agent a ring, and mention it might be the element, and that its still not working properly :P Thanks a million

odds_on

Put it in writing, (Keep a copy) and give the Landlord/estate agent 7 days to sort it out, otherwise they could be in breach of the landlord's obligations. You must give them "reasonable" time to fix the problem.
Failure to fix the problem (either repair or a different cooker, as the landlord wishes) and you can make a claim with the PRTB.

The_Conductor

Personally I'd suggest contacting the letting agent and offering to have it repaired and to recoup the cost from the next month's rent. If they are so disorganised that they can't get an oven sorted in a reasonable timeframe, it might be a satisfactory solution all round. Google 'Dublin oven repairs' you'll find literally loads of tradesmen killing each other for this sort of work.

From a long term perspective- you would probably be better off getting a new cooker/oven they're not that expensive, and if you're already down a ring and the element in the oven is gone, sounds like getting it repaired at all might be an ongoing exercise that would rapidly cost more than a new unit.

Also- google the exact make and model of the cooker/oven and see other people's experiences and/or expectations for this unit. Also check for safety recalls etc (a number of cooker/oven combo units have been recalled on the Irish market in the past few years).......