Faber Stove...A Bad Experience....

.

Faber Hob GB 30 MT - 3 burners, 72 cms.

I wanted to start blogging from the new house with a happy post.  At least a 'Wordless Wednesday' or a 'Photo Friday' picture! But no...you are made to read this ranting post of mine now!

As you all now by now, we shifted to a new flat on 12th of this month.  We did the 'Gruhapravesh' in November, believing the assurance given by our builder that we could move in, in January! So we had ordered for the 'Modular kitchen' with Dynamics marketing, Annanagar, Chennai.  They supplied the material on 28th Oct. '12 and everything was fixed in the kitchen on time.  Very good service too!  We were very happy about their work. 

The builder had finished 95% of the work and we moved in on 12th of this month.  Still some minor work is going on!  The trouble started yesterday with our new stove!  Yesterday morning I was cooking and was on the phone, standing a few feet away from the stove.  Suddenly something hit my stomach and I heard some bursting sound.  I looked here and there and found small pieces, solid pieces of glasses near my feet and near the dining table which was around 4-5 ft. away.  Then I noticed the glass table of the stove had cracked like some design...Have a look!

All 4 sides of the glass top had cracks like this! You can see the tiny pieces of glass like we see on the shattered car windows...hardened glass!

This was the only vessel which was on the stove...no gas leak and the glass was cold when I touched it! I took this picture as soon as I noticed the disaster!

This happened at around 8.30 a.m. We waited till 10 and called the Dynamics Marketing people who had supplied this stove along with all the kitchen appliances to us.  Their man came within 2-3 hours ...but was saying that it is already 7 months since you had bought this stove....but we had started using it from 12th June, we said.  He said that he would ask the Faber people to come and have a look.

They came today morning and asked questions if I smelt gas when the glass burst.  I said 'no'.  The glass was cold and I had continued cooking and am continuing cooking!  He asked for the warranty card, which was reasonable.  My husband, while dismantling things, so many were there...the new stove, Faber chimney...new taps, sinks...you know how it is in a new house....had collected all the warranty cards and kept them in a bag and since our house is still in a mess, we couldn't locate it.  But we found the delivery challan of Dynamics marketing in which the name of the stove is mentioned and we told him.  But he was after the warranty card or we were asked to pay Rs.4000/- for a new glass top! I had used the stove from 12th to 27th June and they wanted us to shelve another Rs. 4000/- on that stove.  The stove costs Rs.8000/-.  We refused to pay and complained to Dynamics again.  We are still waiting for somebody to visit us! We are searching for the warranty card now!

I spoke about this to my friend in Bengaluru and she said that she had been using the same stove for the past 2 and a half years and the glass top was replaced(!) free of cost (!) twice...! I should have asked her before going in for this Faber Hob! I definitely wouldn't have bought this! I think this is a common problem with this stove.

This stove is an Italian make.

I should have checked the burner also before buying this stove.  They are not like our normal brass burners on which even small vessels can be kept and the flame would be within the base of the vessel.  In this burner the flame spreads around the base of the vessel and no flame comes in the middle of the burner.  This is useful for cooking with broad, big vessels.  But with this table top model, the burner will be like this, I was told! You can notice the cracks on the glass top here around the burner.

I am worried whether to wait for the Faber people/Dynamics Marketing to take action or should I stop using this stove now? I don't want to shelve another Rs.4000 on this! Will the glass collapse if I continue cooking on this, waiting for those people to do something?

Has any of you had this experience? The stove looks sleek, though!


P.S.: I still don't have the net connection in the new place.  I came to the old house to write this urgently! But will check the comments in my mobile! Waiting to read your opinion!

Airtel people are not capable of giving connection in our new flat.  All the new tenants are going in for BSNL now! Wish us luck please...I have heard that the connection is very slow!
.

Edited to add on 11.7.13:

I got the glass top replaced last evening and got the BSNL net connection also last evening!  We didn't pay anything for the replacement.  I got the warranty card also but it was useless since no stamp of the dealer was there! Same with Faber chimney...no stamped warranty card! We have to be alert all the time...a little lethargy will cost us a lot.  We didn't get the separate receipts for the gadgets.  The dealer gave us a chalan with the list of things he has fixed for the modular kitchen! This is an experience!

But the dealer and my husband spoke to many people in the Faber office and got the glass fixed! My blog friend SG (see in the comment section pl.)also had forwarded my post to the higher authorities.  I don't know which one worked.

I forgot to tell you one thing! I had got a normal 3 burner stove in the beginning.  It had come to the flat also.  But since many people said that this stove will look nice in the modular kitchen (this is the first  modular kitchen I am using!), we had changed it to  the new sink-in stove! The 3 burner stove was sleeping in the flat for a month before changing!  Time....!

Now, will acknowledge the comments of all the well-wishers shortly!

I think two comments in the Face book might be useful for people who are thinking of buying this stove:

Apitha Iyer Manni,you should stop using the stove and do what some blogger has suggested in her comments.The western burners are really bad .The flame goes to the side and takes a long time to heat. I replaced my Kaff hob with Padmini hob with indian brass burners which works very well.

Sandhya Hariharan mami, had i known u were going to buy faber, i would have told u not to buy... we had the same faber in our house and we were in the kitchen all the time. the consumption of gas is also very high and its not suitable for our kind of cooking. there was even an article in mangaiyar malar based on my experience.

Apita and Sandhya...thanks for the useful comments!  


Edited to add on 16.7.13:

Had been to Bangalore.  My friend had paid for the  glass tops both the times, when they broke,  because the warranty period had elapsed.  Now, she has kept the stove in the attic and has bought a new one with aluminium top.  She too is advising people not to buy the Faber glass top.  (Kaff is good, it seems.  The glass doesn't break. A neighbour is using it for the past 4 years!)  She too doesn't know the reason why it broke.  The dealer should tell us what to do and what not to do, when we opt for buying this glass top.  Then we can go for it if we can handle it. I used it only from 12th to 27th this month.  I didn't do much cooking too and I didn't had any guests!  Minimum cooking.  Now, if the glass breaks again, I will go in for some other brand and no more glass tops!



Edited to add on 11.12.14:  I think I should add this message now. 
I don't seem to have any problem now except I can't make a cup of chai in a small vessel.  As I said before, the flame goes out of the vessel.  Hope the company does something for this in the future!

.

I Am Going To Miss These Things...Part II

.
This will be the last post from my current house...sorry, I have to record my feelings here so that I can read this after some years about this house.  My airtel connection will be disconnected from this house by tomorrow, I think.  The new flat/complex will take time to get the airtel connection, I was told.  I can check my mails/comments from my mobile.

The first part of my rantings about this house is here! I will miss my flowers and garden mainly.  The flat area is full of crotons though I will keep some pots with flowers in my balcony where I get some sunlight.

More jasmine plants have started blooming this year around the house.  My whole house smells of their fragrance.  

I get nearly two trays full of jasmine flowers per day, during season!

Sometimes I make malas/strings out of these flowers and give to the nearby Ganesh temple.  Most of the time it is in our pooja room:

I string the flowers into malas if I had lot of spare time or else they will be placed like this! The whole house smells of jasmine!

 I will be missing the morning time of plucking flowers from around the house.  My cats give me company.  They love to run before me and play together:

Mother and daughter play 'catch me if you can'...around the house!

They sit and wait for me to finish plucking flowers from the terrace! They play and fight!

The buds!

Two types of jasmines are here with multiple petals. 

You have read about the madurai mall in my earlier post (part I) which are planted on the ground around the house.  I water the plants mostly in the evenings.  I try to wash them by spraying water on top of the plants also to remove the dust.  You must be remembering my earlier post about flowers...I have got vrukshi flowers (exora flowers) in many colours.  You can see them in my 'birds and butterflies' post, here.

I will miss the sounds of the small birds, I don't know the exact name of them, in the mornings and daytime too! I was not able to photograph them much.

I see the small birds sucking nectar from these flowers.  They prick the bottom of the flowers and drink unlike some birds who bend into the flower and drink! They make so much sound in the morning which I love!

I have got many pictures of this plant! I tried a lot to capture the small birds, but they are too fast to capture! They might be here too and might not be visible.  They are too tiny!

You can see the tiny bird sitting on the chain link!

I think these birds nested underneath the nithya malli plant.  I watched them teaching flying lesson to their young one, for a couple of days.  Just one baby unlike the bul bul birds who were having two or three babies at a time.  I didn't try to lift the plant to see the nest.  They might not come back again! I see a couple of this type of birds who have chutney green back and a bit plump belly and another couple who have black back, white belly and not so plump...but a bit flat belly! They always roam together...the green couple on one side of the house and the black couple on the other side of the house.  I don't see all the four together on one side at the same time!

A lone bul bul bird was seen until a few months back, now I don't hear its sound anymore, which was lovely to the ears!

My crows will miss me, I am sure!

Our cats gave birth to many kittens in this house...Koyla, Zorro, Jinju, Ammakkaari and Goalie! Koyla's kittens were 'Kari and Vari' means jet black and striped, Ammakkaari's ET, she had huge eyes like ET, the movie character and Nero and many others.  Both ET and Nero, ran away from home...jet black  beautiful kittens.  Naming them was fun!

Well...I think I will not bore you any more about my garden! These posts will be in my memory always.  I hope whoever comes to this house, maintain the plants for the sake of these birds at least.   I am planning to ask my gardener to visit once a week like he does now to do the extra gardening work.  He will come everyday to water the plants until some other people occupy this house.  Let us see what happens.  Hope for the best!

The only things I hate in this house are the road dust and this ditch, near the front gate of my house.  This is actually a storm water drain.  But people leave all sorts of dirty water into this.  This area has come under the corporation of Chennai now and drainage work has started.  Now, we have to clean the septic tanks often, which will not be there in the future.  I am happy that I am going away from this ditch.  On second thoughts, I think I will not post the picture of the ditch.  Let the good pictures of the flowers stay in our minds!

.

Nagercoil Vegetable Markets...A Heaven For The Rare Bird Now...Sparrows!

.

WELCOME PAIR: Sparrows searching for worms and insects among discarded vegetables at the APPTA market in Nagercoil.

I love Nagercoil! I wrote about Nagercoil cutting on plastic usage in these posts, here because of the efforts taken by the Nagercoil Collector. He had written what steps he had taken to implement it. A person who came from that place said that they are still following it!

Now, this article has made me to think of visiting this place, Nagercoil, soon.  I would love to visit this market where they respect this bird and facilitate their numbers to grow!

A haven for sparrows...this article came in The Hindu, yesterday! I was so happy reading the article...still some good people are there who just don't go after money and be selfish all the time.  These people are pampering the small birds to live among them, in so many ways.  Now, to some interesting parts of the article:

The first thing a customer will notice at a mega vegetable market here is the constant flutter of sparrows that have found a new and safe home here.

Quite surprisingly, this tiny species, which faces a threat elsewhere because of a host of factors, is thriving here.  Sparrows nest on wooden, bamboo and paper boxes and clay pots fixed on the walls and roofs of the shops and feed on seeds of coriander plants, worms and caterpillars emerging out of decayed vegetables and fruits.

It is estimated that about 400 pairs of sparrows have occupied the complex, in which the market run by Agriculture Products Producers and Traders’ Association (APPTA) is located.

Since 2007, when the initiative to help the sparrow population began, organisations like Rotary Club have supplied several boxes, but many more are needed.

Conversion of tiled-roof houses into concrete buildings, conversion of backyard wells — a traditional nesting site — into septic tanks, lack of feeding ground, proliferation of motor vehicles and noise pollution are some of the factors that have greatly reduced the sparrow population in Kanyakumari district. (Not only there, but all over the cities).

“Even though the sparrow population has survived these ravages, I can see that their breeding rate is not as high as in the past. Pesticides and insecticides also have a deadly impact on the species,” said Mr Davidson.

A regular watcher of sparrows will clearly notice that the sparrows living in the APPTA complex are slightly bigger in size than their cousins elsewhere. The constant supply of fodder in the form of worms and insects that accompany the loads of vegetables, fruits, banana leaves and green vegetables is cited as a reason for the presence of healthy sparrows.

“I am used to having sparrows in my shop even when I managed a shop in Vadasery market. When I shifted here, I put up a box and almost immediately a few birds moved in,” said B.T. Boopathy, an areca nut merchant. He regularly feeds the birds with millets.

So protective of these birds are these traders that many of them even avoid rolling down the shutters of their shop lest they disturb any nest. In this part of the State, the sparrow itself is referred to as adaikkalam kuruvi (sparrow of refuge) as it is believed that the bird seeks refuge in human habitations.

Also, an age-old belief that the sparrow is a symbol of prosperity has also encouraged the traders to grant asylum to these birds.

Yes, my mother also used to say that.  She used to throw some rice and wheat in the balcony.  We used to watch sparrows feed on them when we were small children.  I followed it later.  I used to throw some rice on the dining table before leaving for office for the sparrows to eat.  They had built a nest in the attic in some cardboard box.  We were worried most of the time, to switch on the fan lest the birds fly here and there inside the room! When I was in Bangalore, I used to throw some wheat in the balcony and made my children watch them (they were very small then!) so that I could finish some work peacefully!

I saw some sparrows at Rameshwaram and was so happy to hear their chirpings, after a long time! I took a photograph immediately...I know that I might not see them often hereafter, here, in Chennai...well, I saw a lone bird at Shastri Nagar, Adyar, a few months back, though!

What can we do to bring back the birds? They too are like us, living beings.

.

Edited to add, after a few hours: I read this article just now! Bird lovers might be interested to know!

I remembered about one more post of mine, about a village which pampers migratory birds.  The post is here.