Moffat Fiesta 24 cooker

[luke83g]

Hello - I have just acquired a Moffat Fiesta 24 electric cooker.

Its in working order, including the rotisserie !

I am looking for a replacement door handle (good luck with that!) and an element for the bottom warming drawer. Sadly the warming drawer element was removed before I got the oven and as such I don't know the size / shape of this element and would appreciate any help. I assume it will be 500w?

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations!

What a treasure. Have fun with it. It's so exciting to cook on a new, or new to us, range.

 

[petek]

Quite deluxe too

Must be a tie-in somewhere to Moffat Canada because that stove doesn't look like any British cooker I've seen.

 

[fisherpaykel]

Moffat Fiesta

Right you are Petek, were sold in Canada as both 24" and 30" sizes, I wish I had not let a 24" one slip through my hands a few years ago, Luke I have heard that a good appliance parts store should be able to have an element custom formed to the shape you need, hope that is the case for you in England.

 

[combo52]

Very neat find in great condition

Post more pictures when you get a chance love to see the inside views of the ovens, etc..

Post a picture of where the warming element goes. It shouldn’t be too hard to find something that will work since other than being around 500 W shouldn’t be that critical, you could probably do with 300 to 500 W and it would still work well.

Have fun with it, older ranges are actually quite practical things to collect. They can be used and they’re just as efficient as new ones for the most part maybe even more so in some cases.

John

 

[vacbear58]

Moffat

I have seen Moffat cookers in publications in the immediate pre and post WW2 publications. It is not clear to me where they might have been manufactured as the post war model looks decidedly old fashioned and like something from the 1930s.

Not much more is seen until the late 1950s when they start to appear in upmarket kitchens. These are generally 40 and 30 inch and are imports from Canada such as shown below. Note that the handles shown on the front of the 40inch cooker are for oven shelves which could be mechanically raised or lowered under the broiler

 

[vacbear58]

Eye Level

There was even a Flair/Tappen style unit

 

[vacbear58]

Mid 1960s

By the mid 1960s the range was consolidated into 30 and 24" models. The split level unit was also widely seen in upmarket kitchens although there was competition in the split level units from Creda, Tricity, English Electric and Jackson (also a Canadian import). In the Luxury floor standing range market they were up against Creda and GEC and New World (gas). Although not shown here here there were also gas models in both the floor standing and built in ovens.

 

[vacbear58]

Moffat

The resemblance to the cooker shown in the opening post can be seen here although still of Canadian manufacture as can be seen by the element in the bottom of the oven - apologies for the quality of the pictures which were taken from an ebay listing

 

[vacbear58]

Moffat

Towards the end of the 1960s the Moffat brand had been absorbed into the Thorn group and manufacture began in the UK. The main difference was in the ovens which now had the customary elements mounted on the sides of the oven, behind the oven walls. The 30 inch model had now been dropped in favour of the 24 inch model and later an additional 21 inch model based on the Tricity range, also part of the Thorn group. As regards the built in model, it had a styling update but also the grill (broiler) was moved to the lower compartment which had previously been simply a warming drawer.

As far as I can recall Moffat was the only UK brand to have a Roastmeter facility, even with UK production

 

[vacbear58]

Moffat

Now, back to the Moffat cooker in the original posting. This was the standard model, is approximately 50 years old. There was also a deluxe model, again with roastmeter.

From the specifications shown in the brochure below the warming drawer element is 400 watts . The advice from Fisherpaykel could be a good call although rather than domestic equipment suppliers, commercial catering suppliers might be better as they supply long elements for hot cupboards which can be bent into shape to suit the appliance they are to be fitted to. Suitable suppliers could be Commercial Catering Spares or First Choice Catering Spares.

Hopefully you can see the brackets where the old element was attached to work out the length of the element required. You may need to get inventive about how this might be connected.

[this post was last edited: 12/14/2023-17:23]

 

[vacbear58]

Moffat

In the mid 70s the top compartment was changed to have a full thermostatic control and a white ceramic hob option on the de luxe model.

Sadly, by 1980 the market for that style of cooker had declined significantly and there was a Jackson/Creda model which offered similar facilities at lower cost and smaller footprint. The built in oven range also suffered as it was a non standard size (27 inch Vs 24 inch) which meant specific housings needed to be made, not easy for kitchen manufacturers who were beginning to struggle against foreign competition. And there was a great deal more competition from other oven and cooker suppliers - offering similar or better features for less money.

Their last flourish was to offer a built in oven and hob with touch controls rather than rotary knobs but it was too little too late and the Moffat range was quietly discontinued

 

[luxflairguy]

Thank you for that look at English "cookers!" Always wanted to know more about them! Greg

 

[jamiel]

Any idea why the traditional UK design with the oven-side elements was established? Always have been curious about that.

 

[petek]

Interesting stuff there Al. Being as Canadian stoves are essentially similar and sometimes downright copies of US stoves under license or something they could be exported to the UK under favorable or no customs exicse taxes etc unlike American made appliances. Never heard of the Jackson company you mentioned. And doing a little googling I'm guessing the overseas appliance name was just sold off to Thorne without any appliances. Litton seemed to be involved with them somewhere in the 70s and then the whole Camco - GE-GSW, Moffat collaboration. Moffat named stoves are still sold I believe but they are just kind of run of the mill, nothing fancy 4 burner stoves, almost builders grade stuff it looks like. The halcyon days gone where you got timers, probes, special features and lights etc. PS.. now I remember in the 70s 80s Moffatt microwaves were Litton clones and were labeled Litton/Moffat. Had the on upper ovens as well iirc.

 

[luke83g]

Thanks everyone for the responses and enthusiasm- the cooker is proving to be reliable and a lovely appliance to have in my 1960s kitchen.

I did also want to ask about paintwork. The side panels are very easily removed, and after 50 years are showing signs of age. I wondered what would be the best way to paint these - what paint to use, best methods to apply etc. I was thinking of approaching a local car bodywork shop to see if they could paint them for me

 

[vacbear58]

Painting

I have had success with a car body shop in getting washing machines repainted but it might not work so well with an appliance which may get quite hot. With Christmas coming next week you may get a chance to give the oven a good work out and test how hot the side panels get - an infra red thermometer would be ideal to test this. You would not want to get them painted and then find the paint finish bubbles or gets tacky so check the paint finish will withstand the temperature first.

If the panels are not rusty it might be worth giving them a really good clean and then try going over then with a product called Autosol, easily available from Halfords. This is very slightly abrasive (its a metal polish) so try it in an inconspicious corner. I dont think it is as powerful as T-Cut but go lightly with it as it is abrasive

 

[luke83g]

Wel I’ve been using this for the last month and it’s been great! I have however managed to find my dream Tricity cooker locally so this will be put into storage. If any members are interested in taking this on now that it’s fully working (excluding the warming tray) please get in touch.

 

[vacbear58]

Tricity

Which Tricity did you get? Pictures please.

You do realise that Tricity and Moffat were part of the same group of companies and they may have been built in the same factory. The Moffat Fiesta 21 is based on the 21 inch Tricity cooker template