Whirlpool RF396PCX, RF396PXX User Manual

Electronic
MEALTIMER’”
clock with oven
controls and
minute timer

Surface unit

Model and se

Anti-tip bracket
Removable

storage drawer

ceramic

Automatic oven

Bake element

SELF-CLEANING DE=JE@LE’”

ELECTRIC RANGES

RF396PXX RF396PCX

Contents

Important Safety
Instructions.
Using Your Range

Using the surface units
The electronic oven controls
Setting the clock
Using the electronic Minute

Timer
Using the Oven-Off button

Using the oven .............

Using the electronic

MEALTIMER’” control
Theovenvent
The storage drawer
Optional door panel

Caring for Your Range.

Control panel and knobs
Cooktop
Using the Self-Cleaning cycle

Cleaning tips ...............

The oven light
If You Need Service

Or Assistance ..............

Whirlpool Cooking Product
Warranty

01990 Whirlpool Corporation

................

...........

............

...................

..............

...................

..............

....................

.........

pat

......

......

......

....

.....

.....

Page

11
15
16
16
17
17
17
19
24
25

26
28

Thank you for buying a Whirlpool
appliance. Please complete and
mail the Owner Registration Card
provided with this product. Then
complete the form below. Have this
information ready if you need service or
call with a question.

8

l

9
9

Copy model and serial numbers
from plate (behind the oven door on
the frame) and purchase date from
sales slip.

l

Keep this book, the Cooking Guide
and sales slip together in a handy
place.

Model Number

Serial Number

Purchase Dale

Service Company Phone Number

You are responsible for:

l

Installing and leveling the range on a
floor strong enough to hold its weight,
and where it is protected from the
elements. (See the Installation
Instructions.)

l

Making sure the range is not used by
anyone unable to operate it properly.

l

Properly maintaining the range.

l

Using the range only for jobs
expected of a home range.

l

Making sure the range is secured by a
properly installed anti-tip bracket, with
rear leveling leg positioned under
bracket.

Important Safety Instructions

To reduce the risk of fire, electrical shock,

injury to persons, or damage when using the
range, follow basic precautions, including

the following:

l

Read all instructions before using
the range.

l

Install or locate the range only in
accordance with the provided
Installation Instructions. It is rec­ommended that the range be in­stalled by a qualified installer. The
range must be properly connected

to electrical supply and grounded.

l

To reduce the risk of tipping of the
appliance, the appliance must be
secured by a properly installed
anti-tip bracket. To check if the
bracket is installed properly,
remove the storage drawer (see
page 16) and verify that the anti-tip
bracket is engaged.

l

Do not use the range for warming
or heating the room. Persons could
be burned or injured, or a fire could
start.

l

Do not leave children alone or
unattended in area where the
range is in use. They should never
be allowed to sit or stand on any
part of the range. They could be
burned or injured.

l

Do not wear loose or hanging gar-

ments when using the range. They
could ignite if they touch a hot sur­face unit or heating element and
you could be burned.

l

Do not repair or replace any part of
the range unless specifically rec­ommended in this manual. All
other servicing should be referred
to a qualified technician.

l

Do not store flammable materials

in or near the range. They could
explode or burn.

l

Do not use water on grease fires.
Never pick up a flaming pan.
Smother flaming pan on cooktop
by covering with a well-fitted lid,
cookie sheet or flat tray. Flaming
grease outside of pan can be
extinguished with baking soda or,
if available, a multipurpose dry

chemical or foam-type extinguisher.

l

Use only dry potholders. Moist or
damp potholders on hot surfaces
may result in burns from steam. Do
not let potholder touch hot heating
elements. Do not use a towel or
bulky cloth for a potholder. They
could catch on fire.

l

Select a pan with a flat bottom that
is about the same size as the sur­face unit. If pan is smaller than the
surface unit, some of the heating
element will be exposed and may
result in the igniting of clothing or
potholders. Correct pan size also
improves cooking efficiency.

l

Never leave surface units
unattended at high heat settings.
A boil-over could result and cause
smoking and greasy spill-overs

that may ignite.

l

Check to be sure glass cooking
utensils are safe for use on the
cooktop. Only certain types of
glass, glass-ceramic, ceramic,
earthenware or other glazed uten­sils are suitable for cooktops with­out breaking due to the sudden
change in temperature.

l

Turn pan handles inward, but not
over other surface units. This will
help reduce the chance of burns,
igniting of flammable materials,
and spills due to bumping of the pan.

Important Safety Instructions
Continued

l

Use care when opening oven door.
Let hot air or steam escape before
removing or replacing food.

l

Do not heat unopened containers.
They could explode. The hot con­tents could cause burns and con­tainer particles could cause injury.

l

Keep range vents unobstructed.

l

Always position oven racks in
desired location while oven is cool.
If rack must be moved while oven
is hot, do not let potholder contact
hot heating element in oven.

l

Do not clean door seal. It is essen­tial for a good seal. Care should be
taken not to rub, damage, or move
the seal. Clean only parts recom­mended in this Use and Care
Guide.

l

Do not use oven cleaners. No com­mercial oven cleaner or oven liner
protective coating of any kind
should be used in or around any
part of the oven.

l

Before self-cleaning the oven,
remove broiler pan, broiler grid,
oven racks and other utensils. Do
not use your oven to clean mis­cellaneous parts.

l

Do not cook on broken cooktop.

If cooktop should break, cleaning
solutions and spill-overs may
penetrate the broken cooktop and
create a risk of electric shock.
Contact a qualified technician
immediately.

l

Clean cooktop with care. Some
cleaners can produce noxious

- SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS -

fumes if applied to a hot surface.
If a wet paper towel is used to
wipe spills on a hot cooking area,
be careful to avoid steam burns.

l

Do not store things children might
want above the range. Children
could be burned or injured while
climbing on it.

l

Do not touch surface units, areas
near surface units, heating ele­ments or interior surfaces of oven.
Surface units and heating ele­ments may be hot even though
they are dark in color. Areas near
surface units and interior surfaces
of an oven become hot enough to
cause burns. During and after use,
do not touch, or let clothing or
other flammable materials contact
surface units, areas near elements,

heating units or interior surfaces of
oven until they have had sufficient
time to cool. Other surfaces of the

range may become hot enough to
cause burns; such as, the oven
vent opening, the surface near the
vent opening, the cooktop, the
oven door and window.

. FOR YOUR SAFETY.

DO NOT STORE OR USE
GASOLINE OR OTHER
FLAMMABLE VAPORS AND

LIQUIDS IN THE VICINITY OF
THIS OR ANY OTHER
APPLIANCE. THE FUMES

CAN CREATE A FIRE

HAZARD OR EXPLOSION.

Using Your Range

. .

3

!

II’;

Using the surface units

Control knobs must be pushed
in before turning them to a setting.

They can be set anywhere between

HI and OFF.
Surface unit markers
The solid dot in the surface unit marker

shows which surface unit is turned on
by that knob.

Surface unit indicator lights
One of the Surface Unit Indicator Lights

on the control panel will glow when a
surface unit is on.

Hot surface indicator lights

The Hot Surface Indicator Lights on
the cooktop surface will glow when the
surface units are turned on. The Indica­tor Lights will continue to glow as long
as the surface units are too hot to touch,

even after they are turned off.

Burn and Fire Hazard

Be sure all control knobs are

turned to OFF and all indicator

lights are OFF when you are not
cooking. Someone could be
burned or a fire could start if a
surface unit is accidentally
left ON.

NOTE: The surface elements may
smoke slightly and emit a burning odor
during the first few hours of use. This is
normal. It is caused by the insulation
material of the new ceramic cooktop
elements and will not occur again.

5

Using Your Range

Continued

Until you get used to the set­tings, use the following as a guide.
For best results, start cooking at the
high settings; then turn the control knob
down to continue cooking.

Use HI

bring liquids to a boil.

Use MED-HI to hold a rapid boil; to

fry chicken or pancakes.

Use MED

icing; to cook large amounts of
vegetables.

Use MED-LO to keep food cooking

after startrng it on a higher setting.

Use LO to keep food warm until

ready to serve. Set the heat higher or

lower within the LO band to keep food

at the temperature you want.
Using the ceramic cooktop

Cooking on the ceramic cooktop is
almost the same as cooking on conven­tional surface units. There are, however,
a few differences:

l

The ceramic cooktop will take slightly
longer to heat up than a regular
surface unit. It will also take longer to
cool down. Turn off the unit a few min­utes before you are finished cooking.

l

The surface unit will glow red when it
is turned on. You will see the element
cycling on (glowing red) and off to
maintain the proper temperature set­ting you have selected.

l

Do not use the ceramic cooktop for
canning.

l

Sliding metal pans on the ceramic
cooktop surface could leave marks. If

they are not heated, metal marks

can be removed using a special cook­top polishing creme. Other marks may
be permanent. See pages 17 and 18
for cleaning and caring suggestions.
Wiping off the cooktop before and
after each use will help keep the
surface free from stains and provide
the most even heating.

to start foods cooking; to

for gravy, puddings and

l Using a pan with a nicked or

scratched bottom could damage
the ceramic cooktop.

l Heating a soiled pan can leave a

stain on the cooktop and cause
scratches.

Cookware

Pans should be the same size or

slightly larger than the surface unit to

prevent boil-overs and hot handles.

Use only flat-bottomed utensils on

the cooktop. Flat bottoms allow

maximum contact between the pans

and surface units for fast, even cooking.

Pans without flat bottoms and specialty
items with rounded or ridged bottoms
(woks, ridged bottom canners or tea
kettles) will cause uneven heating and

poor cooking results.

To check your cookware for flatness,
place a straight-edge across the bottom
of each piece. Move the straight-edge
around. If light shows anywhere
between the pan and the straight-edge,
the pan is not flat. Do not use it.

See the Cooking Guide for additional
cookware information.

The electronic oven controls

There are three parts in the oven control

section:

-The digital display.

-The command buttons.

-The Set Knob.
Instructions for each oven control are

covered on the following pages. Read
them carefully.

When you first plug in the range, the

display will show four flashing 8’s. If,

after you set the clock (page 8) the dis­play again shows four flashing 8’s; your

electricity was off for a while. Reset
the clock.

6

Digital display/clock
When you are not using the oven, this is

an accurate digital clock. When using
the oven or Minute Timer, the display
will show the time, temperature Settings
and what command buttons have been
pressed.

When showing the time of day, the

display will show the hour and minutes.

When using the Minute Timer, the
display shows minutes and seconds in
the following sequence:

l

For settings from 1-59 seconds, each
second will show in the display.

. For settings from l-10 minutes, the

display will increase in 10 second
increments.

l

For settings from lo-99 minutes, the
display will increase in 1 minute
increments.

When using the Bake Hours and/or
Stop Time, the display shows hours and
minutes.

The small display will show “Err” if
two commands that can not be used
together are entered, such as Bake
and Broil.

Command buttons
The command buttons tell the oven

what to do and in what order. A few
examples:

-Time Of Day tells the oven you are

going to set the clock.

-Oven-Off tells the oven to turn off.

Each command button (except Oven­Off and Self-Clean) has its own light.
The light comes on when you touch the
command buttons.

Set Knob
Once you’ve pushed a command but-

ton to tell the oven what you want it to
do, you’ll use the Set Knob to set a tem­perature or time. Turning the Set Knob
clockwise increases the number on the
display. Turning the Set Knob counter­clockwise decreases the number on the
display.

7

Using Your Range
Continued

Setting the clock

1. Push the Time Of Day button. The
TIME light will show in the display.

2. While pushing the Time Of Day

button, turn the Set Knob until the
correct time shows in the display.

3. Release the Time Of Day button.

Using the electronic Minute Timer

The Minute Timer does not start or stop

the oven. It works like a kitchen timer. It
can be set in minutes and seconds up

to 99 minutes. You will hear four beeps

when the set time is up.

Push the Min/Sec Timer button.
The TIMER light will come on and

the display will show “0:OO:’

Turn the Set Knob until the desired
time shows in the display. The

Minute Timer will begin counting

down 2 seconds after the time is set.

When time is up, “End” will show in
the large display and you will hear
four beeps.

8

To cancel the Minute Timer:

l

Push the Min/Sec Timer button and
turn the Set Knob until “0:OO” shows
in the display.

or

l

Quickly push the Min/Sec Timer
button twice.

Using the Oven-Off button

The Oven-Off button will cancel any
command button except tar
Set Timer button. When the Oven-Off
button is pushed, “Off” will show in the
large display The display will then show
the time of day or, if Minute Timer is
also being used, the time remainrng.

tire Iviirr/

Using the oven

Baking

1. Position the rack(s) properly before
turning on the oven. To change
rack position, lift rack at front and
pull out.

The rack(s) should be placed so the
top of the food will be centered in the
oven. Always leave at least 1% to 2
inches (4-5 cm) between the sides of
the pan and the oven walls and other
pans. For more information, see the
Cooking Guide.

2. Push the Bake button. “350°F” will
show in the small display to indicate
the preset temperature and the PRE­BAKE and ON lights will come on.

9