Nice PHILCO range..

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Nice range, but

Unless you need to heat the kitchen, the Jiffy Griddle is not an accessory you will want to use. There are more efficient ways to heat a griddle than 3000 watts of indirect heat without thermostatic control.
 
RE Jiffy Griddle..

How they ever talked anyone into that I will never know!!!What a silly idea !LOL...But I still think they were a well built good looking range.
 
They probably had to do something different than the GE/Hotpoint plug in griddles... you know, different and new must be better (lol). But they are beautiful stoves (other than the griddle). The color panel stoves were neat, you could select your color, I have seen yellow and copper or terracotta, but had previously only seen the blue in a period advertisement.
 
RE Jiffy Griddle..

Well, Philco already had the broil Under Glass feature, all this was was a heavy piece of Pyrex that hung under the broiler which was an open coil unit, it was supposed to keep down smoking while broiling, so someone at Philco came up with the bright idea of putting the whole outfit on slides , the broiler element slid out about a foot and an aluminum griddle was made to set on top of it, this meant the oven door had to be open about a foot, you turned on the broiler and it heated the griddle, now just how you were supposed to regulate this monstrosity, ive never known!!The wierd part was , they had copper bus bars that slid in porcelian tracks behind the oven that connected the broiler, so when you pulled it out, they slid up from behind the oven, I always wondered if one ever shorted to ground, just how much fireworks you would have seen!!LOL, But one thing is for sure, Those Philcos sure were well built good looking ranges.
 
Re Griddles on stoves..

My 55 Norge has a plug in griddle, controlled by an infinite heat switch, it works great.Here is a bottom view of it.

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And here is a photo of a range that I had seen, although the elements are not pulled out, you can see them at the top of the oven, and the aluminum griddle in the left compartment, it rested on top of the elements. Not only would temperature regulation be an issue, but also any grease splattering would be all over the front of the range and the floor, you have a super hot heating element and griddle sticking out about a foot or more from the front of the range!

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I smell disaster..

I think I understand about the griddle now, though it sounds like one of those horrible appliances that's either off or on, no thermostat, like early electric irons.

However, the broil under glass concept sounds like a disaster. As far as I know, even vintage Pyrex came with the warning not to use in a broiler, or at temps over 400. What kept the sheet of Pyrex from overheating and exploding while broiling?

If you've never seen overheated Pyrex explode, it's rather fascinating. My birth mother blew up a Pyrex lasagna pan she was baking potatoes in when she decided to "speed things up" and turn the oven to 550. It sounded like a gunshot, and the oven door actually bounced a bit from the impact. Inside the oven were millions of sparkling jewel like fragments, that couldn't be identified at all as to what they were originally part of, they were that small.
 
A Great Griddle Arrangement:

Since you showed me yours, I'll show you mine.

This is the optional griddle accessory for my GE J 370 range, courtesy of John combo52, who was able to supply several HTF parts for the range.

It sits on top of the Sensi-Temp burner; there are little cleats on the bottom that hold it in the correct position on the coils. The Coil Select switch has a "Grill" setting that heats only the outer coil on the burner, to make the griddle's temperature even.

This arrangement has several advantages:

1) It does not take up any real estate on the rangetop when not in use.
2) It's completely immersible, so that it can be thoroughly cleaned.
3) Its temperature control is very exact, thanks to the Sensi-Temp feature.
4) It takes very little storage space.

It's so nifty that I'm not sure I would like the twin-burner GE griddle as well, even though I would take a 40-inch range with that feature on in a heartbeat if the right range came along and if I had the space.

As I've said, this griddle was an optional, extra-cost accessory on the J 370. I have no idea if my range ever had one before I got it, or not. If it did, it and the broiler pan were long gone when I took delivery from John oldskool and Tim polkanut.

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Took a couple of photos of the Jiffy Griddle...

To show the way it sets up from the oven to the griddle.

Photo 1, the broiler elements in the oven.

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That Philco..

Is even more beautiful in person! Absolutely stunning and like new! As for the Norge griddle, oh yes, I use it all the time, I have never really tried to clean it up like new, that grease is burned on for many years before I got it, but yes it does get used a lot, I dont fry bacon or anything like that because of the mess, but pancakes, potato cakes, salmon patties etc..oh yeah, strangely enough, it holds an exact temperature without a thermostatic control, if you turn that thumb wheel to bake, then its perfect for pancakes, I only wish the old Norge was in as good a shape as that Philco!, it was well used when I got it out of a basement in Ronoake Virginia at an estate sale.
 
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