> We have Prestige stainless steel saucepans (circa 1980) with a lifetime
> guarantee, unfortunatly the knobs have disintegrated. Prestige went bust
> and the name was taken over by another company who do not now use the
> right kind to replace them.
Tough. If they took over the liability to honour the guarantee, and have
been foolish enough to divest themselves of the ability to repair, then
they'll just have to replace. In this case that means they owe you a new
complete pan for every broken knob.
Check first, though, what the "life" in "lifetime guarantee" means.
It could be the life of the pan, and if the pan is dead (for example
because it cannot be healed), then the guarantee has expired. :-(
> We cannot find anyone who even stocks any kind
> of knob nowadays.... not even usually mentioned GoGS. I resorted to using
> knobs from old kitchen unit doors but they are not a good fit. Anyone else
> had this problem?
The door handles are a poor fit because they're flat and the lids are
domed (no, not doomed, dome-shaped). Perhaps what you need is some
kind of annular gasket, cut out of something like a cork tile.
Alternatively, use something which doesn't look like it's designed to
be a good fit. I've been known to use wine corks.
Our pans are by Judge and about 8 years old. When the knobs started falling
off I went back to the shop where they promply ordered new ones for me. They
even got me a whole lid free for the smallest pot that didn't come with a
lid at all originally! This link will show you the sort of pots we have -
the ones with transparent lids - http://makeashorterlink.com/?T28A42A0B - I
don't know if those sort of knobs will fit your somewhat older Prestige
pans, of course, but they do have the right sort of curved gaskets. I'd
imagine you could buy some from Judge, since they obviously have enough
spare ones to send out to people like me.
ally
On a nearly entirely unrelated topic, our bath has a mixer/shower tap on
which the tap-workings (not the handles, the threaded bit inside)
stopped working properly. As we didn't install them I had no idea who
made them, but then spotted a similar one in Homebase and noted the
manufacturer. I found them on their website and phoned them up, asking
if they knew where I could buy a replacement (as standard replacements
have the same fitting on one end, but the tap end is usually a weird
proprietary size so you have to buy new non-matching handles). Anyway,
they asked for my address and to my surprise, not one but two
replacement parts arrived in the post the next day. Free. So kudos for
excellent after-sales service to Bristan.
I find that most companies are very helpful. Eleven years ago I needed a
spring for a Regency armchair, they sent me two free. Last year they said
that they were still free but that postage would be £3.50. Recently I
contacted Osram as two of their long life light bulbs failed after a few
weeks rather than the expected 12,000 hours. They sent replacements but said
that they could not check the ones that I had sent back as Royal Mail had
smashed them despite my careful packing.
Derek.