RARE!!! Frigidaire Fold Back Surface Units!!

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we had something very similar...

...to these in toledo back in the 80s. we ended up redoing the kitchen and had nowhere to store the elements and threw them away! i can't believe i'm even admitting this. it haunted me back then and back then, i was still kinda stupid, but knew deep down that i shoulda kept them. i do have the instruction book that came with them, SOMEPLACE, but know not where it is.

these are gorgeous....and i love the old frigidaire crown. mine were not this brand.
 
Wonderful!

These are so cool!! I've seen them a couple of times before, but yours look to be in the very best condition. What an interesting idea of using counterspace when not cooking - I'm sure they came with built in wall oven, as well. And I love those Frigidaire wide-tube coils of that era. Find a place to put these and fire these babies up!!
 
Wow That is one cool piece! It looks fabulous too! What a find for sure!

Were these freestanding units, or where they built into a wall? Looks like you could go either way!
 
Saw them once

Kentuck Knob, a Frank Lloyd Wright house not far from Fallingwater has these. Thats the only place I'd ever seen them, and I thought they were so cool (even though I'm not a fan of cooking with electric!)
 
These were in the home of one of my classmates when I lived in Watertown, SD. This would have been 1964-67. They also had a TOL three-speed GE washer, which always impressed me.

Reflecting back on these burner units many years later, (having moved from Watertown in mid-'67 upon completion of the 2nd grade) I often wondered if I had somehow conjured them up in my mind, as I'd never seen them anywhere ever again.

And here's proof of their existence! Congratulations on your big, rare score. And they appear to be in great shape, too.
 
Those are the first of that design, a real score. I have the French door wall oven as pictured and a stainless steel cooktop of the mid 50s with speed heat and heat minder units at the front and two 5 heat units at the back, both of the finest junque shop provenance. I used them to prepare a Thanksgiving banquet in the early 80s. Years ago John found the single, 4 unit version with two fold down sections with two controls at either end in an inner city DC thrift store. He carried it out on his shoulder and some young dude remarked that it must be one hell of a boom box. One pair of units had the regular infinite control. The other pair consisted of a Speed heat and a Heat Minder unit.

Not that you are lacking for cooking facilities, but one of these with a dryer cord attached makes an excellent portable 220 volt cooktop, ready to plug into a dryer outlet. That 8" element would hold a 16 qt pressure canner easily and would have the power to get up a head of steam pronto.

I'm so happy for you.
 
Properly venting a pair of these requires either a pair of 30" hoods or a custom system which might not be in their favor. On the plus side, since the surface units would not extend as far to the front as they do in a traditional 4 unit cooktop, the performance of the ventilation system might be better, but you would be using twice the exhaust capacity if you were venting both pairs. That could pull a good deal of heated or cooled air outside.
 
Something else came to mind (it takes a while). While Frigidaire's literature does not give the height above the counter for the surface units in cooking position, they are, of necessity, higher than the countertop. While that is not something that most men would find objectionable, it is a consideration for shorter women who might find that the extra height under a pan would make constant stirring more tiring and looking inside an 8 quart or larger utensil difficult to do. I guess this would be another example of Frigidaire's more male-influenced design.
 
If doing a dream kitchen with these, I'd consider wall-mounting them so that when they were open, the burners would be at counter-height. Then I'd want granite counters on either side, so you have a place to set hot pots and pans. (Otherwise, with laminate counters you'd need trivets handy.)

It looks like there is a row of ventilation holes along the top back edge, visible when the burners are folded down. If you had an exhaust fan mounted somewhere nearby, like maybe in the basement, you could duct it to these units to exhaust cooking fumes, sort of a similar concept to JennAir cooktops that have a pop-up exhaust duct.

retropia++11-12-2010-11-59-27.jpg
 
They!

Are not made so you can wall mount them, they have to have a flat surface to rest on when they are opened, the higher than usual cooking platform wouldnt bother me, but you could use a lower counter for someone who was shorter.
 

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