Corning "Counter That Cooks" in VA

[veg-o-matic]

In lovely Avocado!

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/hsh/241508025.html

 

[petek]

Neat and it doesn't even look like the glass is damaged or stained

 

[laundromat]

Isn't this one of the models that uses only Corningware cookware,not regular metal pots and pans?

 

[gansky1]

I had an aunt in MN that bought one of these ranges - one of the best looking in it's day - and she hated it, cursed it constantly. Painfully slow to heat, change temps, etc.

Didn't they also make a micro-thermal version of this range too?

 

[toggleswitch]

I had seen a more TOL verison of this in NYC where electric cooking is an anomaly.

It had a plastic (or was it glass?) see-thru control panel with a back-lit control knob indicator that spun around so that the number of the heat setting selected was always at the top in the neon-lit area.

At the time, pyrolytic self-cleaning was a fabulous "un-heard" of feature. [Remember, gas self-cleaning came WAY later.]

Cooking took place only in Corning brand sqaure pots which were ridcuulously slow to heat as stated above. Pasta for this Italian-American family was in a "standard" 5 qt/5L metal pot that had to be held down to keep the bottom flat and in contact wiht the hot surface, or the vessel would be slow to heat and revolve on its own.

Memories!

 

[gadgetgary]

A Warning.......

Just found out this morning that my neighbor had a kitchen fire last night(I was home and heard absolutely nothing). Seems she was cooking french fries on the smoothtop, and turned the burner off and went into the living room to enjoy her dinner and TV. After a few minutes, she heard some crackling and the pan was on fire. It burned the backsplash of her stove, as well as the range hood. Scorched her cabinets. And when her husband lifted the burning pan to the sink, it caught her kitchen curtains on fire.

What a mess. I viewed the damage just a while ago.

Guess you have to realize that the smoothtop continues to heat even after you turn the control to OFF. The burners take longer to heat, and take a while to cool down.

Guess she won't be making french fries via stovetop anytime in the near future.

 

[toggleswitch]

Self-imposed rule of safety, especially for new-to-electic gas converts like me. IMHO, there should be nothing on the stove unless it is actually coking. Period. Full-stop.

Maybe one of these (in the link) would help the frying-challenged. Methinks your neighbor needs a thermostatically controlled, deep fryer, frying pan or at least this electric DW-safe pot.

I guess she did not realize that if oil is smoking, it is too hot, and approaching the flash-point of self-ignition.

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/... DINING&cm_pla=KITCHEN ELECTRICS&cm_ite=K6412

 

[veg-o-matic]

QUOTE:"At the time, pyrolytic self-cleaning was a fabulous "un-heard" of feature."

Huh? Didn't self cleaning predate this range by about 10 years? I'd have to go check my Consumer Reports, but it wasn't that long after electric self-cleaning that the gas version appeared.

veg

 

[toggleswitch]

Careful dear your slip is showing...

"un-heard" of feature.

Yes actually GAS self-clean at the time I saw this range was still quite rare in the homes in that area. So seeng one, especially electric, was a treat for me, then.

 

[exploder321]

According to my appliance "collage", there is a GE range pictured on there from 1964 and thats when gen first invented it..

 

[toggleswitch]

Yes the P-7.

So when did the gas one come out? And was Caloric the first gas self-cleaner?

 

[exploder321]

Looking through my stuff the first i see was in the mid-late 1970s and it was a Caloric... But not 100% sure

 

[veg-o-matic]

Careful dear your slip is showing...

Well then, if self cleaning had been around for 10 years already, how does is qualify as "a fabulous "un-heard" of feature"?

Hey--at least my slip is clean and paid for!

veg

 

[dalangdon]

frying

If the good Lord meant for us to fry at home he would have given us fireproof skin. Frying scares me, and has scared me ever since I burned my arm in a restaurant accident in the 8th grade. It was my sorry lot in life to have to dump the fryer oil every Friday afternoon, and a big spash of it hit my bare arm (yes, I should have been wearing long sleeves). It hurt like hell, but I couldn't put the big thing of oil down until it was all dumped. It's only been in the last 10 years that the scar finally went away.

I can handle skillet fried chicken, but no immersible frying for me

 

[gansky1]

For smoothtop cooking, magnetic induction is awesome!! It's making a slow comeback, manufacturers need to promote it a little better and find a way to get it into a free-standing range to nab some of that market share as well.

I've seen broken and cracked glass tops, small grease fires - even my mother has a few browned pot-holders and kitchen towels from not realizing the burner/cooking surface is still hot and dropping them on the stove.

 

[exploder321]

People just use a Fry dady of Fryer Gizmo (like a FryRight)....

 

[jetcone]

Amen to Magnetic Induction

no fires there!!

zzzzt zzzzzt zzzzt zzzzzt.................

 

[JerseyMike]

One of my cousins had the built in version of the Corning Smoothtop. She absolutely hated it. An excellent cook, who was equally adept at cooking with either gas or electricity, she couldn't wait to get rid of it. (The ironic part is that she was the one who chose it when she and her husband built their house!)

Mike

 

[dalangdon]

Fry Daddy!

Part two of my phobia against frying came in college. I worked at the University cable TV station. Tuesday night was "hospital night" where we showed a variety of programs glorifying the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (billed as either "Iowa's Tertiary Healthcare Center!", or "The largest teaching hospital in the free world!" I assume that last slogan has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It remains one huge, and very excellent, hospital though)

Anyway, one of the regular features was about some unfortunate toddler from Storm Lake who pulled a fully-loaded fry daddy onto herself by the cord and had suffered horrendous burns. She was transported by helicopter to Iowa City and presumably made a full recovery, but that was little consolation to me as I petulantly rubbed my hot-oil scar.

I know this has very little to do with the whole Corning cook top, but the whole Fry Daddy reference opened up a whole new can of worms ;-)

 

[exploder321]

Fry Dadys-No, FryRyte or T-Fal Fryer with lid

I couldn;t right off hand recall another fryer... BTW, its FryRyte....Great Grams had one from 1950 and if i had low cholesterol, i would have kept it... But i don't... I like fryers with locking lids and lots of saftey things built in.. I worked for 2 months at Taco Hell. I hated frying there.. I wouldn't touch it unless forced....

I have a catologe with hotpoints induction cooktops from 1978 and they look pretty nifty, but i bet they where a pain..

 

[panthera]

Induction is great

And over here in Europe no more expensive than a good MOL conventional smooth top. I am not hysterical, but:
My parents' medications have left them forgetful. Every week, when I am in the 'States, I find the old stove on and a burner hot, hot, hot. Of course there are dish towels, pot-holders and all sorts of cooking oils, etc. next to the stove.
Told my brother, hoping he'd watch out a bit when I am back here in Europe.
So he runs to "mummy" and says I say they are "losing" it.
So now we have had a couple of close calls and parents who are furious with me - and refusing to even think about alternatives: (This they remember with crystal clarity!)
The fire alarms I bought over the summer will NOT have their batteries replaced and the fire-extinguisher I bought for next to the stove...well, anyway.
So does anyone have any good ideas how to solve this problem?
I could strangle my brother...but it is only a question of time until we have a fire.
Yes, the situation extends to other aspects of the house and living, too - but the grease fire comments really got me going here.
Sorry.

 

[chromacolor]

My mom had a built in Corning top and hated it. Even a splash of water on it while it was on would cause a burned brown stain. Corning even had a special cleaner for the top and my mom kept a case of it. My parents had a new house built which we moved into in 1979 and mom had nothing but bad luck with ALL of the appliances. They would have been 1978-1979 era. It was like that house was cursed. In the kitchen she had the Corning top which she hated. The built in Amana double oven was fine. However the Avacado green Amana fridge wasn't. It broke down at least once a year. Also a POS Maytag dishwasher that broke down and leaked at every oppertunity. In her laundry room she had a new Harvest Gold Speed Queen pair. That washer was pure junk. It went thru 2 motors and a timer in the first year. Even our furnace and air were crap. I think the builders put in an undersized furnace. That house was always cold in the winter, and when the compressor went out in the Fedders Central air unit the first summer we were in there, wasn't a joy. They sold that house and moved to the country. When they bought a house in town again in 1985, that place came with 60's Frigidaire appliances, which are STILL going. Also the house came with a 60's Maytag set and they are still going strong as well.....

 

[appnut]

I am looking forward to someone coming up with a free-standing induction range that isn't one of those "designer brands". I've hard somehwere engineers are working on a 2nd generation induction technology, one that will work with more metals. Hope so!!

 

[dalangdon]

Keven, check out this link. It looks like it might be a good solution for your problem with your folks. It's pricey, but it could also be resued on other stoves for other situations.

http://www.save-on-security.com/Stove Guard.htm

 

[exploder321]

Post it notes

We have tons of post it notes all over like:
Did you turn the oven off?
Did you unplug the toaster?
Did you turn off the stove?
Did you remove all utenisals from the stovetop and surronding areas
Now we also have:
Did you turn off the circut braker for the microwave?

 

[panthera]

Thanks Dan,

That is not so pricey when you consider the grief it could prevent. Looks like something I could have wired in when they are at the doctor's...
I appreciate the help. Brother dearest has continued his "it takes two to tango sales pitch" and has pretty much succeeded (he came at me over the table at the last court ordered mediation resulting from the crash just before I returned to Europe). Now I am not to make any changes or do any further work on the house. They are not ill just recovering and I am trying to make the place a nursing home so I can take control of the family.
So now we won't have grab bars in the bathtub, the water heater which runs at 140°F won't get split into two, one for the bath at 110° and one for the dishwasher, washer at 140°...
The rail on the stairs is pulling out of the studs cause of the loading, nope. Level the front steps with a ramp? Nope.
How about automatic lighting for the walk in the back (-40° winters with high winds, ice and snow where they live). Under no conditions - they know I was just trying to have high power run out so I could have a "sauna" in the garden...
It is very scary. Brother thinks he is "supporting" folks and I am controlling jerk. But he refuses to talk to doctors, rehab, safety specialist, etc. And he is winning, big time.
Sorry for the long rant...but any solution like Dan's, that is - something which increases safety but doesn't look like it or can't be de-installed (like the water temperature limiter I installed just before I left in the bath...taken off, cause "unnecessary) would be a big help.