Explosive Caloric Wall Oven

[whirlcool]

Well the oven has been working well again for the past few weeks. Now it is doing something new. It'll ignite the burner pretty quick. But after running about 15 minutes it turns itself off, it'll maintain 350F and then when the temp drops below that it won't relight. If they turn the oven to off wait 10 minutes it'll relight but after about 15 minutes it turns itself off again.

To me it sounds like a thermostat. I have read up on gas safety valves and it seems that they just fail, i.e. not go intermittent.

Personally, I think this oven just wants to be replaced.

 

[combo52]

NON RELIGHTING COLORIC GAS WALL OVEN

Could be a thermostat, but I would need more information. Instead of turning the oven off when it will not come back on why not trying turning the thermostat to a hotter setting, even 500F. If it comes back on then it is likely a bad thermostat, if it still does not come back on for 15 minutes it is more likely a bad gas valve, pressure regulator etc.

 

[retromania]

I've never seen a gas wall oven. Would love to see one.

 

[whirlcool]

There is a photo of one at the beginning of this thread.

We tried to bump up the temp from 350F to 450F after it fails. Nothing, still no relight. The only way to get it to relight is to turn it off for 10 min and then turn it back on again.

The gas valve for this model is NLA. The thermostat is still available.

This is the first gas wall oven I have seen. Most of them are electric.

 

[whirlcool]

OK, so my friends decided to replace the Caloric wall oven. They now have a new problem. The space it is located in is only 22 inches wide by 38 inches high. The cabinets will not allow for any modification of the opening.

The only oven they have found is a Summit brand oven. I've never heard of these. It looks like Summit is a specialty manufacturer in New York.

Any suggestions?

 

[luxflairguy]

Send your friends online to AJ Madison. Maytag, Frigidaire and GE all still make a gas oven that will fit the space. Summit is poor quality. Greg

 

[whirlcool]

Thanks for the warning about Summit.
We see GE 24 inch ovens, but will they fit in a 22 inch wide hole?

 

[combo52]

Replacing a Coloric Gas Wall Oven

Switch to electric. We have done dozens of these conversions over the years, they will be much happier in the long run.  

 

Just because one mistake was made is no reason to repeat it.

 

[danemodsandy]

AND!

You're much likelier to find self-cleaning at a reasonable price if you go electric.

 

[whirlcool]

I recommended that to the guy who owns the Caloric. He said that there is only a 117V outlet back there and a gas line. He doesn't want to have to run a 240V line into the cabinet. Isn't there a way to get 240V in there by swapping the wires at the box and the outlet itself?

I do see that some 24" ovens only require a 22" mounting hole.

 

[danemodsandy]

Allen:

Unless money is a serious issue, I would heartily recommend that your friends bite the bullet and do whatever's needed to get 220 in there.

Electric ovens are usually much, much better bakers than gas ones, and having self-cleaning is an amazing advantage if you've never had an oven with it.

Your friends will be happy with their new oven long after they've gotten over the expense, trust me.

 

[maytagbear]

My two cents------

Contemporary gas ovens have electrically controlled valves, so you (one) is/are SOL for baking/roasting/ broiling in a power failure. That said, any gas cooktop burner I know, can be lit with a match or a butane candle lighter.

I reluctantly agree about converting to an electric wall oven, mostly because of the greater choice. Allen, I urge you to urge your friends to keep their gas cooktop, especially in the case of prolonged power outages, after hurricanes and other disasters.

As for the baking/roasting ability? I have used both, quite successfully.

I repeat from: The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, by Marion Cunningham: "I've found no important differences between gas and electricity in baking- either can produce fine results as long as the oven is performing well."

Emphasis added by me.

Again, this is only my experience/opinion, those who have had poor results with gas baking either have had poor or poorly maintained ovens (rental much?) or perhaps don't know their elbows from a can of Crisco.

Incidentally, I have had lovely results from my 2011 gas Whirlpool, and better than adequate oven cleaning.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[mattl]

The 120 wiring that is in place won't supply the current necessary to operate an electric oven.  While technically it could be wired to supply 220, the current rating on a 14-2 wire is not such that you could power up the wall oven.  If the owner can't rewire then you are looking at gas. 

 

Regarding the 22" width, most wall ovens will overlap the sides a bit, if the dimensions of the opening match he should be OK.

 

[hydralique]

Remember that the advertised width of a wall oven is nominal, not actual, so you have to check installation guides to see what size hole is required. I'd be very surprised if that old Caloric is anything other than a standard 24" size. Actual appliance sizes do vary slightly by manufacturer but it's not much, and most likely the hole can be enlarged a tad if needed, though there is no way to tell how much enlargement can be done without removing the oven and looking at cabinet construction. The market for 24" wall ovens has been ossified for years and years as this is an old size that nobody uses in new construction today, but there are millions of old ones across the nation; it is not in the best interest of any manufacturer to make a 24" oven that won't fit old cabinets.

 

If this replacement were a part of a kitchen remodel with new cabinets it would be foolish to not convert to a 27" or 30" electric oven as there is a much better selection, but I can't imagine justifying the expense of electric conversion to keep a 24" oven when several manufacturers still make gas models that work just fine. Running wire for an electric conversion is just the tip of the iceberg, more than likely there will be drywall patching, paint matching and lots of other PITA considerations. You cannot convert a 120 v outlet to a 240 v outlet because the former needs only a hot, a neutral and a ground, while the latter requires all these plus an additional hot.

 

[whirlcool]

Money is not an issue with these friends of ours. Just the willingness to spend any is.

Their house is a typical mid century house and the wall the oven is in is a wood cabinet that sticks out slightly from the middle of the counter top. Plus it has electrical switches on one side of it. So any widening would be difficult at best.

I am afraid that once they see the price of new ovens they'll go back to trying to fix the Caloric again. They did say that tomorrow they are going to visit the independent dealer from whom they purchased the Caloric back in the mid 80's and see what they can do for him.

To tell you the truth if they buy a new oven, I think it would be best for the dealer to install it. The job is a little more than I wanted to handle.

 

[hydralique]

You have to make a distinction between widening the cabinet and enlarging the hole already in that cabinet. The front bezel of the oven is approximately 24" wide and covers the the hole behind it, while the cabinet itself must be wider than the bezel, thus there is always some room there. Usually if any hole widening is needed it is on the order of a quarter-inch or so and can be done with a jigsaw. The switches could complicate things, but shallow switchboxes are available. Basically, the old oven will have to come out to determine how much room there is for a new oven and what needs to be done to install it.

 

[whirlcool]

I was talking to this friend today and told him it may just be better to run a 240V line to the area where it will be needed for a new oven. He very firmly told me that he will not run an electrical line in there because it's an old house (1956) and there is no sense putting money into it. He said his wife doesn't use the oven enough to justify buying a new one.

OTOH, his wife is bitching pretty much about not having a oven that turns on and operates correctly each and every time it's used.

To even make matters more confusing they live in this house in Houston 3.5 days out of each week and live in their other house (a restored victorian) on Galveston Island the rest of the week.

So the equation here is how long will his wife have to bitch at him before he buys a new oven?

I told him that it's his decision to make and that's the end of my involvement in this mess.

 

[danemodsandy]

Eh Bien!

It always amazes me how often people with real money will get very tight over repairing their expensive toys.

Which is fine by me - how else would I have TOL appliances for next to nothing?

 

[norgeway]

If you could still...

Buy a gas oven with a modulating control like all gas ovens used to be, I would go gas, nothing bakes as good, but these newer off and on things dont cut it!

 

[whirlcool]

This friend does have some money spending issues. A few years ago he accidentally sat on his cell phone breaking the LCD screen. He continued to use it for three more years afterwards.

Once we were in a restaurant and when he flipped the phone open a few little bits of the screen fell on the table. I mentioned that he may consider buying a new phone.
His response "Hell, it rings when someone calls and I can make calls from it. Why would I need to buy a new phone?"

It always amazes me how often people with real money will get very tight over repairing their expensive toys.

You got that right! Sometimes they don't even bother with a repair and just use the broken toy until they can't squeeze any of the last little bit out of it.