We have a 20-something year old Kenmore gas range. The oven thermostat is *expletive deleted*it, and so is the oven insulation, but I really like the stovetop. (sealed burners, and it has a tiny "simmer" burner and a big "turbo" or "quick boil" burner in addition to two normal sized burners. A couple of weeks ago I pulled it out from the wall to clean under it, and ever since I pushed it back we've had an intermittent natural gas leak smell in the kitchen. I figured there's a small crack in the flexible line. I called the gas company and they sent someone out with a sniffer and said the flex line is fine but I need to replace it anyway because it's so old. It's leaking at one of the fittings at the stove itself, and maybe one or both of the left-side burner valves are leaking. He detected NG at both both of the left burners, but the NG inlet is also on the left side so it could just be seeping up from that.
We're using this as an excuse to shop for a new stove (one with a much better oven) but I don't want to be in too big a hurry for that.
I went to Home Depot and to Best Buy to look for a new flexible gas line. I took the old one with me; it's 2 feet long and has 5/8" flare fittings on both ends. Home Depot had a huge selection of flex hoses but none were even close to matching what I need. Best Buy sells appliances, and they sell cords for electric stoves but no hoses for gas stoves. They also charge about $250 to hook up a stove ($350 if it's propane), and that probably has a lot to do with them not selling the hoses 😡 When I do buy a new stove I'll have to install it myself anyway because the shutoff is directly under the stove in the basement instead of behind the stove where the installers want it, and I like it where it is because it's quickly accessible.
I haven't been to Menard's to look for a hose yet. I'll probably just buy a 3/4" x 36" NG hose from Amazon and plan on needing to buy adapters.
I'm assuming self-cleaning stoves are insulated better than regular ones since they heat up to about 600 degrees. So I'm looking for self-cleaning even tho' I may never use that feature. But the main contenders among the new stoves I'm looking at have "steam self cleaning" where you dump a cup of water in the bottom before running the clean cycle. Also they don't have a latch on the door so apparently it doesn't run hot enough to be an explosion hazard like old-fashioned self-cleaning ovens. I have no idea what that implies about the insulation or lack thereof.
This is the stove I'll probably get if (when) we get a new one. Wife has been wanting an air fryer even tho' she never cooks. I'd rather it was white, because appliances are supposed to be white damnit. But black and stainless is acceptable.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-5-0-cu-ft-freestanding-gas-convection-range-with-self-steam-cleaning-and-no-preheat-air-fry-stainless-steel/6488852.p?skuId=6488852
