Wolf Ovens Class Action Says Porcelain Interior Chips During Normal Use

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A Pennsylvania man says the blue porcelain interiors of Wolf ovens are poorly suited for their intended use.

Plaintiff Barry Garfinkle claims defendant Wolf Appliance Inc. has been charging a premium price for ovens whose interiors are too fragile to stand up to normal residential use. Garfinkle alleges that ordinary use of the oven, including running the oven’s self-cleaning cycle, causes the porcelain interior to chip and crack.

Wolf is a manufacturer of high-end kitchen appliances, according to this Wolf ovens class action lawsuit. Garfinkle says Wolf ovens compete with similar products from Viking, and they retail for a premium price of around $5,000 to $17,000.

Garfinkle says Wolf hypes the cobalt-blue porcelain interior of its ovens as one of its premium selling points. Promotional materials from the Wolf website describe the porcelain interior as part of “Wolf’s signature aesthetics [that] enhance the oven’s interior, creating a bold cooking backdrop.”

Wolf further promotes its product as being extraordinarily durable. Garfinkle quotes ad copy from the Wolf website claiming that its appliances are “designed to last a minimum of 20 years under far heavier use than any home cook will ever subject them to.”

On top of its claims of reliability, Wolf offers what it calls “the best warranty and service in the cooking business.” The Wolf full two-year warranty purportedly covers the cost of parts and labor to repair or replace “any part of the product that proves to be defective in materials or workmanship.”

But according to Garfinkle, Wolf ovens don’t live up to the company’s promises of durability. And when that happens, he claims, the company fails to honor its own warranty.

Garfinkle says that in May 2012, he purchased a 30-inch E Series Wolf double oven. After a little more than a year of what he describes as normal, household use, he says he noticed the oven’s porcelain interior began to chip after running the oven’ self-clean cycle.

Wolf replaced Garfinkle’s double oven twice to remedy the defect, in January 2014 and again in February 2015. He says his current Wolf oven has the same defect as the others. Garfinkle can’t use the oven’s self-cleaning cycle without damaging the oven’s porcelain interior, he claims.

In his Wolf ovens class action lawsuit, Garfinkle quotes several other owners of Wolf ovens who reported similar damage in various online consumer forums. One owner reports that after cleaning the oven, the porcelain surface wore off the floor of the oven completely down to the substrate.

Garfinkle seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons in the U.S. who purchased a residential Wolf oven with a porcelain interior.

He is asking the court to award statutory, compensatory and punitive damages and an order barring Wolf from continuing to market the allegedly defective Wolf ovens until the problem complained of is remedied.

Garfinkle’s attorneys are Mark S. Reich, Samuel H. Rudman and Vincent M. Serra of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP.

The Wolf Ovens Defective Interior Class Action Lawsuit is Barry Garfinkle v. Wolf Appliance Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-03753, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.