Saturday, February 18, 2012

A new stove!

As I had mentioned before, the kitchen range that came with the Cottage is in poor shape.  The burners function well, but the oven...well...it's scary.  So I undertook an extensive search for a replacement.  I started off looking at new stoves, but decided circuit boards belong in my computer, not my kitchen!  I've been wanting a vintage 50's era stove for many years. 

Originally I wanted an antique wood style stove, but figured insurance companies might not really prefer that (they did make ones with gas burners and a gas oven, as well as a "wood side" so we wouldn't have to over heat the house to cook in the summer).

So, I checked out all the great O'Keefe and Merritt stoves, the Wedgewoods, the Tappans.  I decided I really liked the mint green Chambers, and thought the griddle and Thermowell were pretty cool too. 

I found a 1951 Tappan Deluxe Doughboy with the great chrome oven and light up burner rings.  I was excited.  It even had the chrome crisper trays!  Then we remeasured the area we were going to remodel a bit to fit it, and found here was NO way it would fit :(

Then the stars aligned.  An unusual stove showed up on a nearby Craigslist.  A 30" 1950's stove!!  Anyone that has searched for vintage stoves knows it's rare to find a 30" stove that's from that era.  Typically they are 36"-40" or the smaller "apartment" stoves (21").  But, just listed only 2 hours away (one way) was an honest to goodness 30" stove!!  It's a farely rare maker too.  You'll find O'Keefe and Merritts, even Western Hollys and Magic Chefs, but search for a Floyd Wells Bengal, and there aren't many hits.  I have yet to locate another 30" gas Bengal in all my web searches (if you know of one, I'd love to hear about it).  All I've found are the larger wood/coal and gas combo stoves.

It doesn't have any of the typical bells and whistles of the era.  No bbq side, no thermowell or griddle.  There isn't even an oven light.  Just a cute little white and chrome stove.  Has a great cover for the burners though.  It's PERFECT!

Here it is (these are the listing photos, we haven't installed it yet):




Those two chrome "trim" pieces below the knobs are crumb trays, they pull right out for easy cleaning.


And the data plate:


It appears to be style AA-1.0.

We've got some work to do before we take out the old 30" Hotpoint and swap in this sweet little vintag beauty.  Two of the burner grates are cracked, so they will need to be fixed.  It needs a good, through cleaning.  All four of the burner knobs are cracked, so we'll need to replace or repair them (I prefer repair).  The biggest issue is it has been running on natural gas and we only have propane.  I've struck out with a local company to have it converted, but might have found a valve that can be switched from NG to LG with no orifice changes.  I'll be looking into that. 

In the mean time, we've still got the good ole Lopi to cook in and the Hotpoint has working burners.  I am not in a huge hurry to rush into converting it to propane, I'm just happy to finally have it!

This is a photo from when we bought the Cottage.  Look to the left, you can see the burners from the Hotpoint.  This is where the Bengal will be going:


And a more recent pic, excuse the dishes and mess, I was making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (in the toaster oven):


A few more pics:




6 comments:

  1. How much did you pay for this stove? I have one and can not find any information on it online.

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  2. This same stove?! I also cannot find ANY information about this model. I haven't even found another photo of one! I paid $60 and drove 2 hours each way for it. The people selling it wanted one with a bigger oven as they had a large family, it wasn't so much that they were selling a vintage stove.

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  3. hmm yes, the exact same one! My mother is planning on selling it, it has been in our lake house forever, and her mother used to use it all the time. Have no idea what to price it at though.

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  4. Price will depend a lot on where you live and vintage stoves without all the bells and whistles aren't going to bring as much as the feature filled ones. I love my stove, but it about as basic as it gets (I do wish it was set up for propane though, it's been a trial to find out how to convert it). Also, a lot of people are afraid of the oven (match lit)-I've heard of people having a hard time getting a service person to connect them. The original asking price for ours was $100. It's funny that yours is leaving a lake house and we bought ours for a lake house. Best of luck in finding a new owner for you stove, whomever buys it will be gettign a great and unique little stove!

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  5. I too am trying to sell the same stove.Serial number F13287.

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  6. I am selling this same stove, Serial Number F-19803. Perfect immaculate condition.

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