Chambers range question???

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norgeway

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Who has one and what do you think of it, I am thinking about saving some cash and getting a Chambers, mainly because I love things that are different, I go back and forth from gas to electric, and the old Norge is working fine, and its never going away...I just think the whole Chambers concept looks great, how to the daisy burners work???the oven???the broiler/griddle???..really what I want to know is ,is it really as good as I have heard and read???
 
People who own them swear by them and say they will never use another range again. Mine is still undergoing restoration but I fixed one up for a friend to use as a spare in her garage. She loves it and now does a lot of her cooking out in the garage. The oven and deepwell are super well insulated so you can cook on retained heat - saves gas in the long run. You can basically preheat the oven, slide in a roast, leave the gas on for a couple of minutes per pound, and then turn it off and go spend the day looking for more thrift store finds. The roast will be done perfectly and will still be warm when you get back home.

 

Chambers designed their ovens specifically to be used with Lisk roasters which came in 6 sizes: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 -the biggest. The big no. 5 Lisk can hold a 25 lb turkey and fits in the oven at an angle with the oven racks removed. The smallest Lisk roaster holds two Cornish hens - barely.

 

One thing - Chambers are heavy! The average residential (38") Chambers weighs 465lbs. When moving, you can remove all of the burners and the heavy oven floor to reduce weight. It is also a good idea to remove the side panels (two small bolts) so that they don't get damaged.

 

Chambers were available in several colors including pastel blue, pastel green, pastel yellow, Freedom Red, black, pastel gray (rare), and copper. There are three common models: A (mid-1930s), B (1938-1949), and C (1949-mid1950s). The C was replaced by the MR-9-H, also called the Model D, which has updated Mid-Century styling but is currently not that popular (I bet it would be here on this forum).

 

Chambers are famous for their Thermowell but some models had a high BTU burner instead of the deepwell. Another favorite is having the broiler under the griddle on top of the stove - no bending down to slide open a drawer broiler. Some owners have two griddles: one to use and one polished up for show when company comes over. The griddles are made of aluminum and get dull with use. They also warp sometimes but are easily flattened with the use of a rubber mallet. The daisy burners work well but the Model D (and built-in stove tops of the same time period) changed to the "Plane of Flame" burner which several on the Chambers board say are even better. A few have replaced there daisy burners with the plane of flame burners.

 

Here are two Chambers forums you can check out:

 

Login Required | Chambers Rangers Discussion Board

Visit our forum at: chambersrangers.proboards.com
chambersrangers.proboards.com chambersrangers.proboards.com

 

Home | Chambers Commune

Visit our forum at: chamberscommune.proboards.com
chamberscommune.proboards.com chamberscommune.proboards.com

 

Here is a very good thread on the first forum about moving a Chambers:

 

Login Required | Chambers Rangers Discussion Board

Visit our forum at: chambersrangers.proboards.com
chambersrangers.proboards.com chambersrangers.proboards.com

 

Here is a page showing most of the various models that Chambers made. At the bottom is the Imperial, which is what I'm  restoring but mine is the next size up - 65" wide and weighs about 1000 lbs:

 

Models Of CHAMBERS Products

Use this page to help ID your CHAMBERS
www.chamberstoves.net

 

[this post was last edited: 10/27/2013-09:20]
 
Some later Chambers were electric - I've only seen built-ins, not sure if they made an electric stand alone range.

 

Forgot to mention above, the pots for the deepwell can cost you way more than you will probably pay for the stove. It is best to find a stove for sale that comes with pots already - a stove with pots is usually cheaper than buying things separately.

 

Some later Model Cs and Ds had a "Burner-With-A-Brain" that automatically regulated the burner at a specific temperature - great if it works but to my knowledge no one can repair them.
 
David covered the field pretty well...

and yes, they did have an electric range, in the Model D at least...but personally I have seen only one. Chambers also made electric separates, ie; the In-A-Wall oven and In-A-Top cooktop, to use the Chambers terminology... myself I prefer the electric oven Chambers for it's consistent temp control, we have one, as well as several gas cooktops and several stand alone ranges in the past, the Model C and Model D (gas). The Chambers electric oven has the same insulation and construction as the gas models, and it is equally heavy. After using a Chambers it's hard to accept anything lesser! No range today is made with such quality. And you do need 4 people to move one!
 
POF "Plane of Flame" burners

are indeed an improvement, I'm one of those who has changed out one of the daisy burners for a POF on one of my front burners. It puts out about 30% more heat for those jobs requiring fast heat-up or higher temps. Found on all later Chambers starting around 1960ish, and worth doing imo.
 
well.....

that modded cooktop is in VT 300 mi away but next time we're up will try to get pics.

The main difference is the POF burner design has 2 rows of gas orifice holes instead of a single row and about 1/3 more holes overall, plus each individual burner has a flat flange at the top above the orifices that causes the flame to project outward as opposed to straight up on the old type, so increases the effective diameter of heated area. This combination of changes works very well to improve overall burner efficiency.
 
I just bought a POF burner on ebay, hopefully it will arrive this week so I can take it to my friend in Nacogdoches to try on their stove. See link below. Lots of pics of the other burners of the forums I posted above.

 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
nobody....

at the moment. Some guy named Michael Lee bought the brand rights some years ago and announced grand intentions to bring back Chambers, but, huge surprise... never happened. To build them the way they were they'd be up there in price with those gorgeous La Cornue jobs, but it seems there is always a market for luxury goods, which never seem to suffer much in economic downturns. I'd love to see a proper US-made Chambers once again, but luckily we can still choose from the originals!
 
sel8207

There is a regular daisy burner listed on ebay now, so I downloaded the pics of it and of the POF from the link above, here they are. First, the Daisy burner:

[this post was last edited: 10/29/2013-21:32]

58limited++10-29-2013-21-15-4.jpg
 
Gansky1 replied to your Maytag Dutch Oven thread but I'm replying here since this is Chambers related information: The Chambers also has a heavy cast iron bottom and usually only takes about 10 minutes, sometimes15 minutes, to preheat. As I said earlier, mine is not in use yet, but I've heard that the ovens bake wonderfully. I've also heard that about the Dutch Oven as Gansky stated.

 

The Chambers oven is insulated with rock wool insulation and uses a damper system to close off the oven for heat retention when you turn off the gas. As I said before, you can turn off the gas, leave your roast inside, and go spend the afternoon doing other things. The food will be done when you get back. I don't know if the DO works like this or not.

 

On the Chambers forum one of the member's wives bakes a lot of bread for the Farmer's Market. Her preferences for bread baking are: 1. Old time wood burning oven - she thinks that is THE best way to make bread, 2. Chambers oven. Other members have posted that their baked goods turn out great.

 

I've never tried a Maytag DO but wouldn't turn one down if it came my way, seems like a neat stove. If you found one in great shape for $250.00, I'd say go for it, even if you decide later not to use it - whats one more stove? He He
 

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