The Saga and Ultimate Unification of a Double-Deck Oven
- Genesis of Ann Arbor
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Late last fall, the ovens in the Social Hall kitchen stopped working. All four of them, almost at once.
The stovetop range and a warming oven continued to limp along, but those alone were hardly going to cut it to host events around the holidays. (At least one of which was ultimately rescued by staff using residential ovens elsewhere in the building and schlepping food to the Social Hall.)
The failure was not unexpected. Most of the commercial kitchen equipment dates to 1994. Genesis' elaborate Reserve Investment Plan, which our board and staff had been developing for more than a year, had flagged the stand-alone double-deck convection oven (along with much of our major building equipment) as nearing the end of its useful life.
The “high funding level” version of the plan scheduled replacement in 2028, while anticipating that it was likely to fail even before that. The medium and low funding options currently under consideration by our congregations did not allocate funds for a proactive replacement.
No sooner was the ink dry on the task force’s final report that the ovens went cold.
On November 26, the Genesis Board authorized staff to “do all that is necessary to expeditiously replace the dead convection ovens.” Within the hour, Facilities Attendant Steven Kurz reported the purchase of a new double full size electric convection oven, at a low low cost of ten grand.
Replacing gas appliances with electric ones has been a core part of our goal to achieve carbon neutrality, budget permitting. For this, significant electrical work would be required, but preliminary conversations suggested the panel could handle it with less reconfiguration and expense than originally feared.
What was clear was that installation would require carefully‑timed coordination between delivery and electrical work. Holiday conflicts made scheduling particularly challenging.
Throughout December, Steven stayed in regular contact with the vendor (Webstaurant), the manufacturer (Garland & U.S. Range), the freight carrier, and the electrician (Gainsley Electric).
Webstaurant at first promised a delivery timeline of roughly two weeks, which would have been just in the nick of time for holiday events. Two weeks soon became more like three or four. Later, Steven was assured that the ovens would ship directly from the manufacturer on December 19.
Reality can unravel slowly. On the promised shipment date, when Steven called to confirm delivery, Webstaurant customer service let him know that “it would not be shipped to us directly nor would it be arriving today.” Instead, it seemed the oven would ship from a warehouse in Buffalo that very day, then take “a couple of days to get to the next warehouse and be sorted,” followed by another few days before delivery.
The vagueness was particularly unhelpful as that put delivery just about at Christmas. Steven let them know that if it wasn’t going to arrive by December 23, delivery would need to be pushed back until at least December 29. Meanwhile, Webstaurant customer service had been unable to reach the manufacturer at all, later learning Garland had already closed for the holidays.
Steven rang in the new year by calling the manufacturer directly. He first learned that the oven would not be shipping from New York at all, but from Canada. Then on January 2, he was informed that the unit had already cleared customs and was sitting in Detroit, awaiting final shipment. Delivery was then projected for January 6, prompting another round of rescheduling the electrical work.
The double‑deck oven eventually arrived. As two separate ovens.
It turned out that this “double‑deck” convection oven is delivered as two separate 550-pound units, which must be stacked and joined on site, a minor detail that neither staff was alerted to in advance by the vendor nor that appears plainly in the manufacturer’s specs, which only states that the units are “stackable,” not that they must be stacked.
Steven contacted the manufacturer and spoke with someone who had installed these units before. The recommendation was straightforward: rent the suitable kind of lift, take it slowly, and be extremely careful. So, staff rented a pallet jack and a lift material lift. Then, at risk to life and limb—or at least digit—Steven and Facilities Coordinator Mike Wolf operated this equipment to raise one stove on top of the other, and then connected them using the generously‑supplied brackets. No one was injured and neither oven was so much as scratched. A holiday miracle.
Of course, all the uncertainty around delivery had continued to push back scheduling the requisite electrical work, so the big plugin was somewhat anticlimactic, but by the middle of January, the double-deck oven was finally fired up.
Board members and others had been following the saga as it unfolded. Messages of appreciation poured in, praising Steven’s persistence and problem‑solving. St. Clare’s Senior Warden Barbara Beaton wrote:
If we don't have a Genesis MVP Award, we need to create one and give it to Steve straightaway. Thank you for all the incredible work, above and beyond, that you've done to make this happen. Should we have a christening or an oven naming ceremony?
Another board member quipped that replacing the aging range next should be “fun.” Nominations for the oven name are currently open.
A lot of work goes into maintaining our building, though typically not quite this much for a single appliance. Replacing just one appliance requires coordination among the board, staff, vendors, and contractors, and involves electrical systems, schedules, and budgets. It requires patience, adaptability, persistence, and an elevated sense of humor.
We are fortunate to have highly‑qualified staff who do this work, usually with little fanfare, and only occasionally with a forklift.