How to upgrade to modern burners on a 1957 Fridgidaire Electrolux

[flamingogirl]

Hello all. Some time back I posted about my 1957 Sherwood Green Fridgidaire Cookmaster Range. I recently had it gone over by an appliance repairman to make sure it is safe. Received a great report. I would now like to switch out the burners to a modern type that heats and cools quickly. The previous owner removed the heat minders and re-wired the dial/controls for those 2 burners so unfortunately that feature is long gone. I have researched replacing the heat minders and they are far too expensive and hard to find. To be honest, I want the vintage look but would like to have the modern convenience of burners that heat and cool quickly.
Does anyone have info on retrofit to new burners and where to find the burners? I understand from the appliance repairman that it is somewhat simple. Maybe I could do it myself rather than hiring it out.

 

[norgeway]

Why?????

Would you WANT to take away the finest feature of a Frigidaire?????

 

[sel8207]

replacement burners

Assuming you would want to replace the frigidaire wide flat burner coil with a general electric cal rod burner, there is a post number 733073 giving information on a pamphlet in automatic ephemera that gives the replacement numbers for the frigidaire coils. Good luck. Les

 

[tomturbomatic]

You might still be able to find something made by Chromalox. I replaced the slow and warped front units on my Thrifty 30 with Chromalox double thin tube units for the 5 heat switches. Once I got things boiling, I could move them to the back original Radiantubes to finish. Those original units gave a whole new meaning to the term "slow cooker." I don't remember the Radiantubes on the 54 40" being as bad, but on the 54, I eventually replaced the front units with units made for 208 volt service so on 240, they were pumping out some wattage. The 6 inch unit was powerful enough that stir frying never saw juices in the pan when cooking vegetables, just food, oil and steam almost like "quick cooked in dragon fire."

 

[flamingogirl]

slow to heat and cool

Hans, my primary reason for wanting to "up-date" the burners on this beauty is because they are very slow to heat and slow to cool. This is not a collection so to speak for me, I am replacing a modern gas range in my 1980's generic home. I do a great deal of cooking and need the convenience of the "modern day" speed. Previous owners pulled out the speed heat features.

On that note, though, this Imperial Custom is lovely and will make a wonderful addition to my 1980's home turned mid century modern.

Any more suggestions on how to perform an upgrade on the burners would be greatly appreciated.

 

[norgeway]

I understand

The problem, you have been using gas, I have used both so I know where you are coming from, but I will say, no electric unit is going to be as responsive as a gas burner, Also it depends on the kind of cooking you do, for me, A Frigidaire provides the steady heat I like, BUT I never use a wok, or stir fry anything, most of my cooking depends on simmering, occasionally I fry chicken, but for ordinary everyday cooking, I prefer the Radiantubes, if you have always used gas, any electric range will take time to get used to, even Calrod units.

 

[norgeway]

It would be very easy

To put in Chromalox units,I believe they still make the replacement units for 3 wire switches.

 

[philr]

Before you do anything, you have to know what kind of modifications were done to the two front burners. I have seen some speed heat burners modified to work with infinite switches and 118 volts, others with infinite switches and 236 volts and I have seen one converted back to a 3 wire 236 volts burner and 5 heat switch. 

 

[sudsmaster]

I've got a circa '75 Compact 30 range with the wide flat burner coils. I like them, I think they are superior to the thin GE style burner coils, which I've also used. The Frigidaire ones do take a while to heat up and cool down, but it doesn't seem to me they take much longer than the GE style, and especially not any longer than older glass top ranges, which I don't care for either. The nice part about the Frigidaire design is that the heat setting dials, despite detentes, are infinitely adjustable, unlike the push button style GE burner controls. I once rented a flat with the GE push button style stove. What I didn't like was 1) The push buttons were impossible to clean and 2) They were located at the back of the range so you had to reach over hot burners and pots to get at them.

 

IMHO, the only way to get a fast electric range burner to heat and cool quickly is to get an induction cooktop. The radiant smooth top burners are probably somewhere in between, I suppose. But sort of hard to find.

 

 

 

[norgeway]

Re Frigidaire

Before 1960, only the Speed Heat and heat minder were infinite heat, the others are 5 position, like GEs, my 52 Thrifty 30 has five position heat adjustment, Simmer,Low, Med Lo , Med Hi and Hi.

 

[philr]

But unlike Rich's 1975 Compact 30, the 1957 Frigidaire burners (3 of them) were still 5 heat, 3 wire burners. The Speed Heat was a 118 Volt two-wire burner controlled by a special infinite switch that flashed the burner on 236 volts for a few seconds to make it warm-up faster. 

 

Frigidaire also used 7 heat 4 wire Chromalox burners in Canada (picture 1) on all 21" and some 30" models made in the 1960s. After 1966, they used two-wire plug-in burners with infinite switches on the less expensive models (pictures 2-3) while some very similar but more expensive models kept using the Radiantubes (picture 4).

 

Frigidaire also used regular 2 wire <span style="font-size: 12pt;">plug-in</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> burners on some rarely seen mid-1970s US-built ranges, the 1975 RES-37, an Electri-Clean 30" free standing range which had a control panel that looked like some 1974 and older models with a single 8" burner but with the new-for-1975 clock (pictures 5-6) and a fluorescent light like the previous "Custom Deluxe" ceramic top range had. That's a model I have never seen. I took the pictures from an owner's manual that a friend of mine has. </span>