Estate sale find: 1977 GE Electric range in Avocado

[drh4683]

I've still been on the search for my all Avocado appliances. As common as this color is (or was) you'd think they would be quite plentiful still. I don't run into them much on Chicago craigslist when it comes to finding this color. Granted, they are all 30+ years old now and it's also been a long wait trying to find units that are reasonably clean and in good shape.

I picked up this November-1977 GE electric range at an estate sale this weekend (same house that the '71 Maytags came from, posted in the Imperial forum). This range here is pretty clean. It came with the manuals and the broiler pan which appears unused down in the drawer and a handful of service repair receipts from 1978. I don't think the oven part ever got used, the cook top shows some usage on the elements and a slight amount of oily haze on and behind the control glass. I didn't get a chance to test it, but I did hook up one of the legs to 120V to see if the clock and lights work. The clock seems to be toast unfortunately. I'm going to take it apart and see whats going on. I don't know if the motor burns out on these, or if they get seized due to dried out/tacky oil.
I'm not surprised though as these seem to be the weak point on all of these old ranges. I saw a website for generaltimerepairs.com out in Iowa, maybe you guys have dealt with them before. They seem like a good resource for the old mechanical timer/clocks should I need a replacement.

Otherwise, this range is perhaps a little newer than I initially wanted, but it's still a nice looking and clean piece that will go well in my mostly original 1964 kitchen. In a perfect world, I'd like the range and the oven to be of the same vintage, preferably from the same home so I can say they are "a matched set" so to speak. Unfortunately the Avocado fridge that was in the home with this range was long gone from what I was told. So I'm still on the hunt for the avocado fridge and also a built-in kitchenaid suburba in avocado as well.

 

[drh4683]

Close up

 

[drh4683]

Inside the oven

 

[drh4683]

The console lit up

 

[danemodsandy]

Pease Keep Us Posted....

....On your experiences with the clock/timer.

I'm looking for a TOL GE 30" slide-in range with P*7 self-cleaning, and one of the things that keeps me away from units of this vintage - besides the Ye Olde Fayke Woode Graine - is the mechanical digital clock unit. My understanding is that it's more complex mechanically than earlier analog units, and less available new or rebuilt. The former analog unit was made for so long it's relatively easy to get rebuilt or to find NOS. So, I'll be very interested to hear if you have success getting this unit back to health.

P.S.: That oven is INCREDIBLE - like showroom new. Granny was not a baker, that's fer damn sure. Congrats.

 

[pulltostart]

What a BEAUTIFUL range!  Congratulations on a nice find.

 

lawrence

 

[lordkenmore]

Nice find. That clean oven is spectacular!

Good luck with the clock. That digital style is interesting, and it would be nice if it worked. But (speaking for myself, using my particular view and biases), I could live with a non-working clock. With this stove, I find that it's still an interesting touch, and it'll always be right twice a day! But then, I never use stove clocks, anyway.

 

[lordkenmore]

Ye Olde Fayke Woode Graine

is something that's puzzled me. Particularly when it was used on stoves, or other cooking gadgets. I guess my sense is that an inflammable material (real wood) is not something I'd happily associate with something that gets hot!

 

[frigilux]

Nice! Frankly, I wouldn't exchange a self-cleaning oven for a period-correct '64 model, but that's me. Congrats. Damn, man, that oven looks showroom-new.

 

[gansky1]

That is a very nice range - one of GE's finest. We dragged home a similar, a bit newer?, GE from the Habitat store over New Years and played with it for a while. As much as I like these ranges the harvest gold and lack of space mandated that it move on so I don't have it any more but would have had to been dragged away from this one too. Good find!

 

[chuffle]

Beautiful!!!

I have such a warm spot for kitchen appliances that are avocado...comes from being a kid when avocado (and brown and orange) was in style.

I drool when I look at that control panel! And - a real range light, something that looks so cool in the evening. I like to use my range's light as a night light during those long winter evenings, something that my parents always did with their old 1959 Norge.

Fantastic find!

Joe

 

[drh4683]

Thanks guys! Well, my kitchen being from 1964 has its drawbacks. Sadly none of the original appliances are still in and the countertops got changed out in 1990 with plain white laminate (boring!). Fortunately, the wood cabinets were left alone and I have the original light fixtures still. That being said, I at least don't have to ever feel guilty by playing switch-a-roo with appliances every now and then if I find something I like. If my kitchen were completely original, I wouldn't touch a thing as thats the kind of person I am (anything original must never be modified!). Thats the OCD in me.

For me, I have to get the clock going. Non working things bother me, even if its some feature I won't even use. Another OCD thing...
We had an old roper gas range that my parents bought new in 1988. I have fond memories of the clock buzzer as a kid as that range had the electro-mechanical clock. My mom used that timer for everything. I distinctively remember the mechanical sounds of the the leaf switches engaging to activate the buzzer about 5 seconds or so before it was set to go off. As soon as I'd hear that clicking noise and then the premature hum of the coil, I'd get up before it even sounded as I knew what was about to happen. Being the kid I was always ordered to go turn it off. GE made pretty much all of those timers, and this one has the same sound which is great! Its funny thing things we remember as kids...

 

[appnut]

Doug, I am pea green with envy.  GE Ranges are some of the best "modern" bakers. 

 

[combo52]

GE Range

This is a great range and it is not that difficult to get the clock repaired. Question,  if you are going for a 1964 kitchen, Avocado did not make its appearance till 1966 at the earliest. Why not do a 1964 color?.

 

[danemodsandy]

John:

The big deal with a range clock on this model is that the self-cleaning feature really kind of depends on it. While it is possible to run a cleaning cycle manually, having the clock set to turn off the cycle is a safety feature I personally would not want to do without. A self-cleaner gets up to 900 degrees F, and that kind of heat is something I wouldn't want to forget and leave on too long.

Ye Olde Fayke Woode Graine was just the fashion of the times; it was absolutely everywhere. In the early '70s, there were even toothbrushes with a little YOFWG inset in the handle!

No, it didn't make any sense, but then fashions seldom do when you look back on them in later years.

 

[moparguy]

My daily driver is a 1988 GE gas stove... I think made by Roper? It has the same clock and timer... and the same "warning" ticking sound just before the timer goes off! I also like the "night lights" of the panel light... just right when you are done cooking to be an inviting light showing off the beautiful oven control panel!

 

[lordkenmore]

I guess a clock does make real sense for self cleaning. That thought did not occur to me earlier--but then almost every stove I've ever used has NOT been self cleaning. My clock vision was limited to the thought of people using it to work the oven manually when they are out...something I'd never do. (I may be paranoid, but I don't like leaving cooking appliances alone while they work.)

 

[lordkenmore]

"No, it didn't make any sense, but then fashions seldom do when you look back on them in later years."

And sometimes they don't make sense when current!

My favorite comment about fashion was Oscar Wilde's. While not precisely about "sense," I think he had a good point: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

 

[danemodsandy]

John:

I've used the automatic oven feature on a few ranges, just for fun, without problems.

It can be a little challenging to come up with a menu that will cook properly when everything is baked for the same length of time, at the same temperature, but it's kind of nifty to come home and find - for instance - meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and baked apples all ready!

If you REALLY want to get all Suzy Homemaker, bake everything in matching Corning Ware pieces, which can go right to the table (using those terrific Corning Ware buffet cradles, of course), in style.

Of course, every menu item tastes faintly of every other, but you can't have everything.