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cadman

cadman

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Sep 7, 2004
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Cedar Falls, IA
Thought some of you guys might like to see this... This 126 pg 3-ring cookbook turned up on that auction site recently but what it was wasn't stressed in the title. And to uninitiated eyes, appears as any other cookbook. A glance at the cover tells you what it really is...Tappan's recipe book for their first free-standing MICROWAVE cooking center.

Inside on the warranty card the magnetron number is recorded along with serial number, but unfortunately no installation date. From what I can tell, the model 7715 (referred to in newspaper ads simply as the Tappan Cooking Center) debuted in 1964/65 exactly the same time as the much-publicized Fabulous 400 came out.

The microwave controls are similar to the built-in Tappan of 10 years earlier including the browning element and the 10-sec delay has me thinking this uses the same technology, now packaged where the storage drawer would be below the conventional oven. I'm guessing there's a waveguide routed through the backsplash but it's hard to say. The "small" magnetron hadn't hit the market yet.

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A very smart looking unit! To the best of my knowledge, this was the first break from a true "built-in" microwave offered. The vacuum tube rectifiers, difficult cooling and expensive magnetron still wouldn't be affordable to the masses until '67 when the countertop Amana's would come out. -C

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Very interesting. How big was the magnetron, is there a pic anywhere. Notice on the diagram it says along the right side "electronic power is fed into the oven from lower right side". It looks like the underside of the upper oven is actually angled downward towards the back where the appliance outlet is, must be some space in there?
 
Upon further inspection, that magnetron has to be mounted in the unit's base for cooling purposes and then wave-guided up behind the timer. The twin stirrers is rather curious. If they operated at different speeds or were mounted at different angles, you could probably manage some very even heating.

Amana got clever in the early 80's around the RRL-era and changed to an asymmetrical stirrer design that improved even-ness while retaining a single stirrer.
 
Greg, my guess would be around 800 Watts cooking power, that was the wattage of the Raytheon single-magnetron equivalent of the era (and Tappan sourced their parts from Raytheon).

My mother relates a tale of my grandma planning to buy a microwave when she remodeled her kitchen in the 60's, but the salesman talked her out of it. This would have been pre-countertop Amana and the new oven/stove she bought was a Tappan..so this could have been what she was considering. I'll have to investigate.
 
Probably Short-Lived:

I can't imagine these were any huge sellers, because they would have had to be expensive. Given that a TOL 40-inch range was over $500 at the time, I would not be surprised if the list price here was $1000 or so. That would be equal to around $7400 today, which is a whopping price for a kitchen appliance of any kind. Even at $750, you're still talking the equivalent of over $5500.

I have long thought that one of the major factors in the success of the Amana Radarange RR-1 was: By making it a countertop unit, Amana got the cost down to a point where people could actually start seeing their way clear to wanting one; my understanding is the first machines were around $400. That was still like $2700 today, but more copable.

For my money, the Radarange was one of the most brilliant consumer design introductions of the 20th Century. It dealt with several problems - cost, size and installation requirements - that had relegated all previous designs to luxury niche status. It demanded little - plug it in and turn a dial - and gave much. And it was of phenomenal quality; consumers' affection for microwaves wouldn't have taken off the way it did if Radaranges had been trouble-prone.

I admire Tappan for making this attempt to popularize the microwave oven; they'd basically been in the game for ten years at this point, to lackluster results. But they didn't quiiiiiiite have it right - that wouldn't happen until Amana developed the "killer app" of a plug-in countertop unit.
 
My cousins-- more money than they knew what to do with and too far inland to buy a yacht-- had one of the first residential microwaves. Forgot the brand, not that brands mean much.

The entire installation was taller than I was in my teens. Might call it 4 standard kitchen cabinet heights, if there even is such thing. Two full-featured analog ovens would fit in the same space. Tubes; it had to 'warm up' before it would 'hot up'.

They put a cup of cold water in it for a minute. By how it came out I'd estimate the power between 600-800W. I believe the price-- in 1960 dollars-- was $900. Same as my first Betamax in 1977.

You know how that "first" thing works. Same as the first cellphone, "the brick". But less than the gran coupe of firsts, the flatscreen TV at $4000.
 
A little off topic but...

I looooooove that coral boomerang Formica!!! Is it original or is it that boomerang coral that Formica briefly brought out a few years ago and then dropped before I could get some? I would do just about anything to get my hands on that today. Currently trying to decide on countertop for my kitchen. Looks like Wilsonart has some nice boomies but no coral or true turquoise like the discontinued Formica.

Fun discussion about the microwaves. I love my RR 9. Use it everyday constantly. Never had a better microwave.
 
A little off topic but...

I looooooove that coral boomerang Formica!!! Is it original or is it that boomerang coral that Formica briefly brought out a few years ago and then dropped before I could get some? I would do just about anything to get my hands on that today. Currently trying to decide on countertop for my kitchen. Looks like Wilsonart has some nice boomies.

Fun discussion about the microwaves. I love my RR 9. Use it everyday constantly. Never had a better microwave.
 

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