During the winter months the cold can affect our vans greatly. We have a water barrel, water pump and a hose reel in the front section and these can all freeze in an ice cold van overnight when the temperature reaches -10c.

The water barrel is lagged with a hot water cylinder jacket to prevent it from freezing. We then wrap t-towels around the water pump to prevent this from freezing as does sometimes happen. When these freeze it means replacing the pressure switch on the pump which is an annoyance.

We put pipe insulation on the hose in the back of the van and wrap silver foil around it . The nozzle is then left on top of the dip tank overnight which keeps it warm.

During the day the cold weather can also cause the dip tank to cool down more than we would like. As the tank works much  better when it’s hot we lag the tank with insulation boards and again finish off with silver foil around the outside and underneath. We then place a thick dustsheet on top of the tank during the day.

We have managed to get through the last few bitterly cold winters relatively unscathed. Of course it always helps when the snow does not fall, that we cannot do anything about.

Unfortunately these middle panes of glass are not only slid into place and held there with metal plates but  they are also GLUED into place which mean there is no way of removing them! This would be fine if there was no way of dirt getting between this middle pane and the front of the door but that is not the case. Unfortunately there are small vent holes at the top of the door which allow for drips to run down between the 2 panes of glass.

Smeg have confirmed via email that there is no way of cleaning this area as it is not designed to be cleaned. We can only assume it is a design flaw. Not all of smeg doors have this  design build, there are many that we can clean fully it’s just a shame when a customer pays a lot of money for a nice Smeg range and then discover that it is impossible to clean inside the door fully and be able to view what is cooking.

Unfortunately the lady in question was some distance outside of  our catchment area so we referred her to another TAAOC member near to her.

The standard of oven cleaning has vastly improved over the last 10 years and people rightly so, expect a professional job to be carried out without the use of caustic aerosol products. Oven Ready never use caustic products inside a customers home. There are never any nasty smells left behind after we have cleaned a customers oven.

The oven was harder to clean than a standard domestic kitchen oven. For a start the oven was not the normal enamel. It was stainless steel on the INSIDE which meant it was very tough work to clean. We only normally come across stainless steel ovens on the inside when we very occasionally clean commercial ovens, such as the Nevada range. In addition the oven was slightly smaller and slightly trickier to dismantle all the removal parts. There was not a great deal of room to move in the boat which also meant a lot of jiggery pokery. The job was completed to a good standard, the only mishap being one of the rubber mats slipping into the water as I left the boat.

As most of us have West London roots it will be a great day for all of us to get together and cheer on the Bees in one of the most prestigous finals in world football.

In true Brentford tradition the team that we all know and love wont bother turning up and we will be left watching an under 15s five-a-side team putting in their flatest performance of the season and losing miserably to another team from oop norf.

Nevertheless, many beverages will be consumed and the result will long be forgotten within 20 paces of leaving the stadium and heading for Nando’s.

COYR.

I have lost count of the number of times a customer has asked me if I replace elements on these ranges. This is without doubt the most common problem. Nearly always a customer mentions the fact that they have just had to have the element replaced or they are about to have one replaced, once the range has been cleaned. If that is not the problem then the glass has shattered, or the attachments to hold the glass in place have snapped or the transfers have worn off the knobs. There is always something that has caused an issue. At £200 upwards to get a Britannia engineer to come out and fix a simple problem such as an element change and servicing at £180 these ranges are not cheap to maintain.

I have personally also found that when cleaning them, especially around the fascia panel area you cannot use any tpye of soap pastes as the paint lacquer can come off very easily and cause the fasica panel to look faded. The same applies to the painted extractor hoods made by Britannia. The enamel hob racks also looks very jaded over time and do not keep their shiny jet black look as you would expect.

At the steep prices charged and the pitfalls that come with them they would not be my cup of tea when looking for a new range oven to go in my kitchen.

I’ve spoken to other business owners that I know, not just oven cleaning companies, and they have all said the same, business really has been booming during January. Maybe the feel good factor is back and people are spending again enabling the economy to pick up. Well lets hope it is and it’s not just a false dawn.