Meet Anna

[pulltostart]

Anna is the latest addition to Maplecrest Court.  She is a 1979 GE Model JB500G in Almond.  I purchased Anna from a family in Roswell, GA; the man selling the stove said that his mother (Anna) bought the stove new and he has lots of memories of meals prepared on this stove.

 

A friend brought Anna to Mobile on Tuesday (saving me the expense of shipping, thank you) and I've been cleaning and polishing until today, when I finally switched out my existing stove (Sadie).  Not certain yet what is going to happen to Sadie, but I think for right now I will store her in the dining room, which is basically vacant.  I can't bear to put her out in the workshop.

 

So the motivation for the switch was a search for a "vintage" 30" GE range, with self-cleaning oven, analog controls, a fluorescent work light, and preferably in white.  Anna fits all of the criteria except the white.  I decided that I could live with almond especially since there's no cohesive "style" about the kitchen (maybe some day).

 

The only bad I've found is that the light is burned out in the oven and that the neon indicator on the backsplasher for the surface units is also burned out.  The oven is easy enough to correct, the other I'll just live without.  The fit between the base cabinets is INCREDIBLY tight - I had to resort to using a handsaw again to trim off protruding wood.  But, she's in and ready to make coffee in the morning.

 

lawrence

 

[appnut]

TOL Lawence. Congratulations!!!

 

[luxflairguy]

DROOL! Great find!

 

[circlew]

Anna is very nice looking, especially to be 44! Hope she enjoys her new home in Mobile.

My mom's friend Jean C. had a slightly less fancy model in her 1980 double-wide; it had a Harvest Wheat door instead of Black glass.

 

[qsd-dan]

Looks like it came out of the box!

 

[DADoES]

 
Sweet!

 

[joeekaitis]

 

Anyone else hearing Disney’s GE Carousel of Progress theme?

 

[Marky_Mark]

Wow that’s fantastic. I love how the front right element is 7 “turns” wide in places. I don’t know what the power is but it looks like it means business. Glad you got it to fit. It looks great.

Mark

 

[repairguy]

Congrats on saving Anna.

 

[sudsmaster]

Congrats!

 

Anna looks very familiar. I *think* I had a similar stove at one of the rentals I lived in more than 25 years ago. Did GE make a similar range in gas? Either that, or the one I remember was electric.

 

 

[pulltostart]

Thanks for the nice comments!  Regarding the right front element, it's a 3-in-1 Power Saver unit.  It can be a 4" unit, or a 6" unit, or an 8" unit to fit the user's need(s).  I did forget to mention the most-obvious problem - that being the right end cap of the oven handle is missing and the handle is wrapped with black electrical tape.  Looks lovely.  Ir's not likely that a replacement can be found, short of finding a donor range.

 

No gas version of this one was produced, but GE did make some beautiful gas ranges when they introduced gas cooking appliances in the 1980's.

 

lawrence

 

[sudsmaster]

OK, so the range I used in a rental unit for a few years must have been electric. Cause that control panel looks VERY familiar.

 

 

[nmassman44]

My parents had the Hotpoint version of this range. I found that the front right element was used the most since it was the most versatile. That 3 in 1 element was very flexible. That said the Hotpoint range lasted from 1979 til 1995 and only had to replace the bottom heating element in all that time. I did like the range but hated the fact that the cooktop did not tilt up to make cleanup easy. If there was a boil over it would go into the reflector bowl and onto the subtop. The oven capacity was lacking in many ways. Compared to my LG range the oven was downright puny. But that said it did do what it was designed to do. My aunt had this same GE range and hers lasted from 1979 til 2004 or so. She did have a few issues with the self cleaning system and something about transformers if I recall correctly. The Hotpoint version was the first range that I had ever used that was self cleaning. One had to raise the shield that was in the door because if it wasn't raised the range would not lock the door. My mom used the self clean cycle a few times but she said that it was easier , and cheaper, to clean it by hand.
I learned how to cook on that stove when I was in my teens.

 

[tomturbomatic]

How wonderful with you! I understand the thrill. When I was still at Georgia State, I was working at Rich's in Housewares. Nathalie Dupree was opening a cooking school on the ground level of the downtown store, the same floor as Housewares and Major Appliances. She requested that the people who worked in Housewares come down to the cooking school for shakedown classes. We who worked at the North DeKalb Store were the first ones. We walked in and went to our stations based on which merchandise we sold. I went to our station and saw this beautiful GE range, J390001 and whispered a prayer that one day I could have that range in my kitchen. In less than 10 years John found one in really rough shape and harvest gold. It needed a lot of rehabilitation. Later, John found another one in white which was in my kitchen until we found the Amana Radarange ERP 383 with the Microwave-Thermal Combination oven. The GE now sits in my living room next to part of my Hundevard wall system. They are the only two ranges on the middle level of my house, but downstairs, there are 6 more ranges and two wall ovens.

 

[peteski50]

GE

Congrats real nice range
Best of Luck

 

[combo52]

Nice looking nearly top-of-the-line GE range

These were definitely the workhorse range, both for its reliability and its good performance, the only thing better from GE was their time maker range with the microwave capability in the maid oven.

GE did not makeThese were definitely the workhorse range, both for its reliability and its good performance, the only thing better from GE was there time maker range with the microwave capability in the main oven.

GE did not make gas ranges till the 90s gas ranges till the 1990s. They did sell some Tappan built gas ranges in the 80s. They were nice looking but they weren’t great ranges.

It would be interesting to know the wattage of that three size burner it’s probably around 2500 W.

John

 

[sarahperdue]

Beautiful

She's beautiful, Lawrence,

 

I know you'll cook many tasty meals on her. 

 

Sarah

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

The most perfect and best-selling range the other ranges could be, and hopefully you’ll get the non-working surface LED to work…

The electric range I’d buy if I were of appliances-buying age back then, even if I’d have still preferred gas…

You’ll have lots of great cooking with it, and even with no matter how many bells and whistles and other fancy gadgets added, General Electric made a fairly trouble-free range relatively easy to fix and easily well-stocked and replaceable parts…

Congratulations to you again, on this great find! (& Almond I think is a nice colour to have it in too!)

— Dave