I have been reading the posts regarding problems with the self-clean feature of the KitchenAide ranges, but I have had a slightly different, although perhaps related, problem.

My range was purchased in September, 2007 and is a Gas Slide-in model KGS1901PBL.

On Thanksgiving morning, when I went to put my turkey in the oven, the control panel flashed "err - comunications failure" and refused to turn on. (what/who does an oven communicate with???) I went to the User's Manual and all it suggested for any "err" message was to press "Stop" and it would clear. Well, it cleared, for about 10 seconds and then came back again. In a panic (I was having a crowd for dinner) I tossed my bird in the car and drove over to my sister's to bake it there.

When my son arrived later that morning, we threw the circuit breakers and the oven panel reset and began working again.

This Christmas weekend, I was again preparing a meal for a crowd (multiple range burners being used) when this same message reappeared. This time I wasn't even attempting to use the oven. Throwing the breakers would only fix the problem for a few minutes and it wasn't until the burners were turned off that the oven again became functional. It was then that I realized that I had also been using more than one burner on Thanksgiving morning when the problem first appeared. I can only guess that the control panel is overheating when multiple burners on the cooktop are being used.

The appliance store where I purchased this stove is sending a repairman next Thursday, but after reading the thread about the self-clean problems, I started a clean cycle to see if that would also be a problem. After 2 hours of the 2 1/2 hour cycle, it was putting out so much heat that my over-range microwave fan kicked on. I got very uncomfortable and turned it off. After cooling, I tested the oven and it does still work. I think I'll do another test cleaning before the repairman arrives.

As a side note, this range came from the factory with two of the burners configured for natural gas and the other two for LP gas - how did that get through QC?