New project time! The '62 Flair range

[turquoisedude]

I guess this range was used pretty heavily over the course of its life in upstate New York and may have been neglected in more recent years.  

 

I am going on record to state that should this wind up as my 'daily driver' that I pledge to take better care of it and if there's any splattery, messy frying to be done, it'll be done in my Dormeyer Fri-Way skillet. Outdoors.  LOL 

 

Oh and before I forget - I have some observations about working on a Flair that may be useful to anyone else who may need to work on one.   

-When replacing the burner cover I found that getting the retaining springs back on was most easily done by first setting the cover in place and closing the burner drawer to just after the halfway point where the rear stops of the burner cover would contact the drawer unit.  At that point, if you lift the cover back out and flip it upside down, it's a HELL of a lot easier to stretch out and reattach the retaining springs.  You'll have to pull the cover forward enough to get the slides back into place, but if you do so gently, it should work.

- If you need to access the transformers for the Meat-Tender or the fluorescent worklight or if you want to check the connections for the burner drawer, all of the above can be accessed from the rear of the range through the access panel for the electrical hookup.   Note that the burner drawer will have to be slid all the way back in for easiest access to the connectors. 

[this post was last edited: 5/31/2015-16:01]

 

[combo52]

1962 Flair Range Restoration

YAY Great save Paul, now you will probably find a mint 30" Flare, LOL.

 

One important safety note for all electric ranges with sealed rod style surface elements, you should never run the element on high for more than a minute or so without a pot completely covering the element. Surface elements can fail violently if run for too long red hot, this can damage the range or cookware and injure people near the range.

 

[turquoisedude]

You're probably right, John!!  And it'll probably be in pink... LOL 

 

Thanks for the heads-up about the burners.   It's been a very long time since I used a Radiantube stove top!  The last time I cooked on one would have been in the late 80s, just before my father rented out our old farmhouse near Valcourt, QC.  That was also the stove I learned to cook on - my parent's original 1957 Super.  

 

[turquoisedude]

Time to start planning an installation!

If all goes well,  the Flair will be moving to a new home this August! 

 

I have a couple of concerns and questions about the installation, though.  In the current kitchen set-up, there is an older range hood that is fairly bulky.  In the current installation, the height from the floor to the bottom of the range hood is 59 inches - a Flair is 62 inches high, so that hood will have to go.  But, I'd love to have an exhaust fan of some kind and better still, one of the Flair hoods meant to fit on the range.  I don't have any specs for the special Flair hood - does anyone know how high they were?  I've only got a total of 64 inches to work with in the current range installation...   Also, where was the vent exhaust port on the Flair hoods?  Please say at the rear center... LOL

 

[philr]

Paul, the Frigidaire range hoods above these Flairs make for a total height of about 70"...

 

The exhaust port can be either at the top or at the back as the blower is reversible.

 

[turquoisedude]

EEP!   I guess I'll need to see if there may be something not quite as high available in current models...  I knew we should have bought the house in St-Valérin.... LOL 

 

[ladyearth]

does the GE vent come off the top?

of a prob 80's microwave on top... kind of unit like an Americana...? could that go on top of the Flair???
I wanna be able to use my Corning smooth top.....wish I could found a 30 inch Flair Imperial....Our is the 40 inch
Jean

 

[jetcone]

Nice work Paul

Whats that type of pot? Looks like early waterless aluminum by Lifetime but the handle is different which is SOOOO Canadian!

 

And isn't that weird there is a SPEED HEAT Switch on ebay right now!

 

 

 

[turquoisedude]

Jon, the pot is 'Lustreware' waterless - I don't know if they were uniquely Canadian, but that was the cookware we had when I was brat learning how to cook on the '57 Frigidaire Super range.  It must have been either popularly priced or available with trading stamps (Steinberg's had a program called "Pinky Stamps") because a lot of families with a Latvian family member had them! 

 

I'm not sure that having a Speed Heat element is really something I 'need' with this range.  It's going to be the daily driver and I don't mind if it has lost a few of the original bells and whistles.  

 

[rocky2]

Great Job Paul

Thanks for posting this and all the great photos. By the way, did you ever figure out what those parts in reply #35 were for?

 

[turquoisedude]

Parts unknown....

No, I never did find out what those two wooden blocks are for.  The cooktop went back into the cabinet without a hitch so they weren't essential for that, I guess!  They may have been intended for transport, but I can't find anything in the Frigidaire documentation to back that up.  Hopefully I won't find out the hard way when the range gets moved to our new home in August...