fivernine
Active Member
The accident:
Jayne got her middle toe pretty well crunched by the decorative Corian stove cover in our 2008 Landmark Cape Cod. There is a peculiarity in the design that is not immediately obvious, so let me advise you to read this and watch out in working around the stove when the decorative top is in place.
What happened:</O
When we got back home from the Rally in Elkhart, Jayne was unloading the refrigerator of all the items that would go back to the house. She had a clothes basket sitting on the Corian top on the stove and was loading into it. The stove is just left of the refrigerator in the Cape Cod model. When the basket was full, she pulled it forward toward her and let it rotate downward off the stove top. When the weight concentrated on the outboard edge of the Corian cover (nearest to her), it caused it to rock upward at the rear. She couldn't see this because it was behind the basket. This unlocked the two puzzle ears on either side and allowed the top to slide forward, drop out from under the clothes basket and straight down on her middle toe—didn’t touch the others. The top weighs eight pounds and munched her pretty good: More than four weeks and still swollen.
<O
How it happened:
The problem is in the way the front half of the cover is supported. When resting horizontally on the side rails that are part of the counter, it is secure and locked by the two rectangular locking ears. But as you can see in the attached photos, the side rails end where the built-up front-edge treatment begins, leaving about 1-1/4” of cantilever or overhang at the front. It only takes about ten pounds on the front corner to start the cover rotating; a bit more and the ears no longer engage. The cover slides over and down the front corners of the stove and is free to drop.
<O
My fix:<O</O
Between us, we have twenty opportunities for toe alterations and I am half the population. Something had to be done before the next camping trip. I kluged a fix immediately from stuff lying around the garage. I used two ¼-20 wood nuts and two #10 x 1-1/2” hex washer-head screws. I found that the black stove end could be drilled and that behind the black outer surface, about ¾” behind, was a second piece of sheet metal. I drilled a 5/64” hole through both positioned 5/8” down from the top of the stove end, then enlarged the hole in the outer surface to 1/8” to help start the screw. The #10 screw slides through the ¼-20 threaded hole in the wood nut. I screwed the nut tight to the black surface, the screw engaging both layers of metal. The top of the wood nut is just about flush with the bottom of the edge treatment on the Corian cover and supports it well beyond the edge to prevent rotation. The cover is now stable for normal loads and does not rock forward.
<O</O
Permanent fix:<O</O
This is something the factory needs to redesign. There are several approaches to recutting the countertop that should be simple and economical and preclude further injuries. I don’t think I would call this a fluke of an accident—it is not difficult in hindsight to see how it could easily happen again on someone else’s stovetop. I also think that until the accident happened it was not readily foreseeable.
In any case, I want to point this out so you can avoid the injury.
--Rick
Jayne got her middle toe pretty well crunched by the decorative Corian stove cover in our 2008 Landmark Cape Cod. There is a peculiarity in the design that is not immediately obvious, so let me advise you to read this and watch out in working around the stove when the decorative top is in place.
What happened:</O
When we got back home from the Rally in Elkhart, Jayne was unloading the refrigerator of all the items that would go back to the house. She had a clothes basket sitting on the Corian top on the stove and was loading into it. The stove is just left of the refrigerator in the Cape Cod model. When the basket was full, she pulled it forward toward her and let it rotate downward off the stove top. When the weight concentrated on the outboard edge of the Corian cover (nearest to her), it caused it to rock upward at the rear. She couldn't see this because it was behind the basket. This unlocked the two puzzle ears on either side and allowed the top to slide forward, drop out from under the clothes basket and straight down on her middle toe—didn’t touch the others. The top weighs eight pounds and munched her pretty good: More than four weeks and still swollen.
<O
How it happened:
The problem is in the way the front half of the cover is supported. When resting horizontally on the side rails that are part of the counter, it is secure and locked by the two rectangular locking ears. But as you can see in the attached photos, the side rails end where the built-up front-edge treatment begins, leaving about 1-1/4” of cantilever or overhang at the front. It only takes about ten pounds on the front corner to start the cover rotating; a bit more and the ears no longer engage. The cover slides over and down the front corners of the stove and is free to drop.
<O
My fix:<O
</OBetween us, we have twenty opportunities for toe alterations and I am half the population. Something had to be done before the next camping trip. I kluged a fix immediately from stuff lying around the garage. I used two ¼-20 wood nuts and two #10 x 1-1/2” hex washer-head screws. I found that the black stove end could be drilled and that behind the black outer surface, about ¾” behind, was a second piece of sheet metal. I drilled a 5/64” hole through both positioned 5/8” down from the top of the stove end, then enlarged the hole in the outer surface to 1/8” to help start the screw. The #10 screw slides through the ¼-20 threaded hole in the wood nut. I screwed the nut tight to the black surface, the screw engaging both layers of metal. The top of the wood nut is just about flush with the bottom of the edge treatment on the Corian cover and supports it well beyond the edge to prevent rotation. The cover is now stable for normal loads and does not rock forward.
<O
</OPermanent fix:<O
</OThis is something the factory needs to redesign. There are several approaches to recutting the countertop that should be simple and economical and preclude further injuries. I don’t think I would call this a fluke of an accident—it is not difficult in hindsight to see how it could easily happen again on someone else’s stovetop. I also think that until the accident happened it was not readily foreseeable.
In any case, I want to point this out so you can avoid the injury.
--Rick
