Questions we are asked, answered straight

No. Meridian Appliance Works is an independent appliance repair company. We are not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Thermador or BSH Home Appliances, and we hold no manufacturer accreditation of any kind. We name the brand only to identify the appliances we work on.

EPA Section 608 certified for sealed-system refrigeration work. That is a federal requirement to open a sealed refrigeration system, so it is a legal permission rather than a manufacturer endorsement. It is the only certification we claim. We are also licensed and insured in the State of Florida.

Because an independent company that puts a manufacturer's mark in its trading name is implying a relationship it does not have. Our name is our own. The brand appears on this site only where it identifies the equipment we service.

Yes, on the reviews page and beside the work they describe. Each entry is one visit in the words of the person whose kitchen it was, and the score beside them is the arithmetic mean of exactly the set printed on that page. A star figure never appears on a page that does not show the reviews behind it.

There is no burner to fail. Freedom Induction is a single continuous surface with pan detection, and the electronics behind it are what respond. A dead area points at the coil boards underneath, at the cooling fan that keeps them within temperature, or at the touch control interface, and those are three separate diagnoses.

Usually one of four things, and they are separable on the day: the generator is not reaching temperature, the fill side is not delivering water, the level sensing is reporting incorrectly, or the door is no longer sealing a humid cavity. We reproduce the cycle and watch fill, heat and drain in sequence rather than replacing the generator on the strength of the symptom.

No, and please do not. A panel-ready column is installed flush into the cabinetry and comes forward on its rails; doing that with the doors loaded, or without releasing the anti-tip fixing, is how cabinetry and floors get damaged. We do it as part of the visit.

Rarely. Self-clean drives the cavity far above cooking temperature and that is the hardest thermal event the appliance ever experiences. Thermal cutouts and control electronics fail during or immediately after it more often than at any other time.

Because a model that stayed in production for years did not stay identical. Boards, valves, hinges and door assemblies were revised, and the serial is what tells the parts channel which revision is in your kitchen. Reading it off the data plate before we order is the difference between one visit and three.

Common wear items — hinges, springs, gaskets, thermistors, fan motors, capacitors — are usually quick. Control and inverter boards, sealed-system components and anything panel-specific take longer, and some parts for older equipment are discontinued outright. We put the expected wait in the written estimate rather than after you have approved it.

This site is about Thermador equipment. The three brands are BSH Home Appliances siblings and share parts channels and diagnostic conventions, so ask us — but do not read that as a claim of accreditation for any of them.