Gas stove replacement: Any reason to buy new?

[jeffg]

Looking to replace a gas stove/oven combo with another (gas stove/electric oven combo is also ok), but no matter where we look the current designs are virtually identical: thin and/or cheesy looking grates, sealed burners (dealbreaker #1 for us), plastic backpanels directly on the stovetop (dealbreaker #2) etc. So we're wondering if buying vintage will solve most or all of these problems. Or, if you know of a manufacturer who's making retro-style stoves we'd appreciate the info. Thanks!

 

[hydralique]

First question I’d ask is what size you can accommodate. If there is some flex in this then you’re more likely to find something old that suits.

If it doesn’t look like there is much good old vintage stuff around then it’s worth looking for a non-vintage but used Wolf or Viking. As an architect I’ve designed many kitchens around these and owners are usually happy, plus you can get parts for them. It’s not unusual for people to remodel a 20 year old kitchen and get rid of a perfectly good Wolf or Viking because they want a different configuration. On a personal basis I’m not overly fond of their sometimes clunky look (why does Viking have to use logos big enough to read at 50 feet?), but they do have a lot of features like high output burners.

Stay away from off-brand high-end clones, parts availability can be bad. I once had a client who bought a house with a fairly new 48" range branded DeLonghi, I don’t think they actually made it though. It had a chronic problem with the springs holding the oven door shut, they’d break and only one local appliance repair company would deal with it. They had to order parts from out of state and it usually took several weeks to get them during which time the oven wasn’t really useable.

 

[washman]

Here is a company that makes old school stoves

Brown stove works

Brown Stove Works - Quality Cooking Appliances

Discover our American-made cooking appliances since 1935. Explore our wide range of electric and gas ranges, wall ovens, and built-in cooktops. We are the leading stove range manufacturer in the United States, committed to quality and exceptional customer service for over 8 decades.

www.brownstoveworksinc.com

 

[jeffg]

Thanks. I know the market is always great for used appliances, it's one of the reasons we're leaning toward them. The stove is standard 30" width.

The Brown site had a few interesting models.. Open burners etc, but no all-stainless models that we could find (black is dealkiller #3 for us, it's mainly why we're ditching our current stove

Thanks again!

 

[wayupnorth]

20 plus years ago I had Brown gas cooktop and wall oven (in avacado). They worked fine and if I had to ever replace my Whirlpool, I would look at them. Plain old school, no electronic crap to mess up.

 

[nmassman44]

Well here are a few pics of my GE gas stove.
1st photo is the burners off and out of the cooktop. This design makes clean up a beeze. The burners are just two pieces, easy to keep clean too. They are "keyed" so they only go into where they belong.
Pic #2 is the burners out and the grates. The grates are heavy cast iron. Nothing flimsy here.
Pic #3 is cooktop back together
Pic#4 is the stove
Pic#5 is the oven. Its 5 cu ft and convection. Always spot on for temps. It also uses the broiler to add heat during bake like an electric oven. The knobs are heavy feeling and marked so one just looks down onto it for settings. The control panel is well thought out and I have not had any issues.

 

[appnut]

Mike, that is one BEAUTIFUL gas range!!!

 

[whirlcool]

Here is the Maytag gas/convection oven we bought back in 2008. It cooks nicely and we love the convection portion of the stove. But there are two things we don't like.
Number one, the grates have gaps so large a 1 or 1.5 qt saucepan can fall through the grates if not placed exactly right on the burners.

The self cleaning cycle will try to burn the house down. The last time we used that feature it was 40F outside. We had the windows and doors open and 1 hour into the self cleaning cycle the room temp hit 90F. We shut it down immediately. But the cleaning worked, the oven was clean. I think the problem with this stove is that it doesn't have insulation between the oven and the exterior walls of the oven. But when used for baking it holds the temp perfectly fine.

 

[brib68]

Vintage stoves

While trying to find info on Western Holly gas ovens (the porthole-windowed oven in Dr. Masters' kitchen on 'Masters of Sex') I stumbled upon dreamstoves.com who sell vintage ranges including Western Holly, O'Keefe & Merritt and others. IIRC, they are in the Sacramento area.

No experience with them and only a passing knowledge, but you might check them out.

For more recent used gas stoves, you might run into problems with the ignitors and other such modern features. We've run into that in two houses. The last was a Kitchen Aid, the first I can't remember, but Magic Chef sticks in my mind. We never spent the money on service calls--we just kept one of those long lighters on hand to light the errant burners.

 

[jeffg]

Thanks all for the pics and suggestions. These stoves are similar to what we're finding most everywhere. If they had open burners, something other than black/dark colors on the stovetop and better grates they'd be perfect.

We did find what we're looking for, but so far only in brands like Viking. New they run $3-4K, ridiculous for a gas stove imo and it probably won't happen. Vintage would run 10-30% of that.

 

[whirlcool]

If we had to do it all over again, we'd probably go vintage too. Vintage stoves just seem to be made better and are certainly heavier duty.

 

[jeffg]

From what we can tell only a handful of 30" gas ranges are still being made with open burners. They fall at the two extremes of pricing, very low-end residential units (Frigidaire, Summit etc) and absurdly expensive commercial units (Capital, Blue Star etc). Nothing in between. It's making vintage even more attractive.

For anyone else who's looking for this type of gas range, here's the list of current (mostly) 30" models we found so far. The numbers after the model#'s are BTU ratings/configurations for the stovetop burners:

American Range ARROB430 25k (x1) 18k (x2) 12k (x1)
Capital CGSR304N 23k (x4)
Blue Star RCS304BV1 15K (x4)
Wolf GR304 15k (x4)
FiveStar TPN2607 14k (x4) + center simmer
Viking VGIC5304B (discontinued in 2013) 18k (x1) 15k (x3)

 

[davey7]

My personal Experience

I've had three gas ranges as "an adult" (i.e. in my own apartments).

First was a crummy brown in my first apartment, pilots always going out, junky quality (rental unit stove, essentially), tinny, despite not being exactly new.

Second almost new Kenmore. Nothing special, self cleaning was fun, sealed burners (very similar to the above ranges, but in white).

Third, O'Keefe & Merritt, hands down the winner, especially the oven - baking is so much better and it holds the heat better and more accurately than either of the two others. And it's eminently fixable.

My mom has a newish Frigidaire slide-in gas range, it's OK, much like the Kenmore. We had an 80's Kenmore in almond in their old apartment, also nothing special, but rugged and better than the Brown by far (replaced a 50's vintage Sears iirc which was on it's last legs).

 

[mtn1584]

Beautiful GE Gas Range!!!!

I love your range, I really do Mike, now go bake a pie, let it cool, cover with plenty of whipped topping, and then pie yourself!!!! LOL..... NO ONE IS GOING TO BUY GE APPLIANCES ANYMORE!!!! I would think from this site anyway, they are beautiful, BUT they are now Electrosux
Mike
Sorry

 

[mtn1584]

@ Mike

just kidding, don't be angry with me!
Mike

 

[jeffg]

Davey, do you recall the model or series (or approx. year) for that O'Keefe & Merritt? The more we look at them the more we like, especially since gorgeous vintage units are around $400.

BTW while browsing we stumbled on this.. Haven't seen one in this condition in many years and was almost blinded by the chrome. Ok so it's overpriced by an ungodly amount. Looking is free, and it's a real time capsule imo.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261165875321?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D261165875321%26_rdc%3D1

 

[nmassman44]

Well they are not Electrolux just yet. The model GE gas range that I have is a step below a GE Profile. It has everything I could possibly want in a gas range and granted my PowerBoil burner is 17,000 btu's, honestly its plenty of power for what I need it to do. It does boil water rather fast and it goes very low as well. For myself I prefer a "sealed burner" as it makes cleanup much easier in case I get a spillover and it stay on the top, not dripping down into the subtop where I have to get to it after cooking is done. Many people I know of that had electric coil burners where there is a subtop to catch the mess, dont bother cleaning it until they get the famous...whats that smell in my kitchen? thing going on.
The other thing is that these uber high end gas ranges like Viking, Wolf and the like put out too much heat and one needs to make sure the vent hood can handle the heat and that the walls can as well. Plus alot of them the repair rates are downright dismal and my thinking is I dont need to spend $4k+ to get something that is nice to look at, but doesnt cook any better than my $1k range, and I get better results too!
The thing is if you want vintage, then I say why not get vintage. I for one, used an older gas stove from the 40's some time ago and thought it was OK. Would I go out and buy something like that for my home though...ummm nope. But thats me.

 

[wayupnorth]

I would love to have a vintage 30" model, especially one with the center simmer burners. But finding one near here in somewhat decent condition is slim to none.

 

[jeffg]

Mike, the advantages of sealed burners imo are easily outnumbered by their disadvantages, which I think is why they're rarely if ever seen in restaurants and other commercial businesses. Open burners allow natural airflow into the flame, which allows it to burn hotter and produce more focused heat. Also tests consistently show they're more energy efficient than sealed burners, because of the hotter temps.

Some manufacturers are now using so-called hybrid burners, which are open, but the bottom air intakes are a lot smaller than traditional open burners. Sounds like a good compromise imo.