KGCS166GSS2 KitchenAid Cooktop - Overview

popped off the old knobs and put on the new ones in less than a minute

Went to a local appliance parts store and could find only black knobs--there were two kinds--one $3 each, the other $8 each. Both kinds looked AWFUL so I went on line and found partselect.com which had suitable knobs at a very reasonable price, ordered them and they were shipped the next day. Who could ask for anything more? The service was terrific.

Since removing the burner valve would disable the cooktop, I ordered the valve first. Unfortunately the valve could not be removed because the screw that hold it in place was frozen to the valve and manifold. I finally had to cut the screw off with a hacksaw. Since the screw is a special screw, substitutions did not work, so I had to order the screw and pay shipping a second time. These screws should be included with the valve. Anyway, the hacksaw did some slight damage to the manifold so that the screw did not seal off properly. I had to use a Dremel tool to smooth the surface and then use fiberglass to coat the surface to seal any scratches or potential leaks. I screwed the screw in after applying the fiberglass resin to the manifold surface while the resin was still pliable. This seemed to seal the manifold off so that there is no leak, but it does make me nervous. Because of having to reorder for the additional part, the range top took almost a week to repair and could not be used during that time all because the screw was not included with the burner valve. Also a screw with a larger head would have allowed a larger wrench to be used and the screw could have been removed easily. The screw head was so small that it rounded off from the wrench making it more difficult to remove.