Norge Model E 88 Stove

[tomturbomatic]

Hans, no, I don't have service manuals. I was going to see if I could find the range on Norge parts microfiche at our appliance parts dealer. If I can find the part number of the bake element, it could help in seeing if there was a substitution to a sealed rod type bake element.

I don't know if it would help with the rust you mentioned in your range's ovens, but I keep heavy duty foil on the floor of each vintage oven I use. It is safe as long as you keep it away from the element connection location and as long as you use it in ovens with sealed rod type elements. Foil protects the oven floor from spills and takes the heat stress off the porcelain under the bake element. Needless to say, if the oven is a self cleaner, I remove the foil before the cleaning.

 

[norgeway]

oven issues..

For some reason, Norge formed there oven liners with sharp ridges , these are almost like finger width depressions that run around the lining ,there are two of these, front and rear, the problem is I think, the expansion and contraction at these points is different than the rest of the oven as these formed ridges are the thinnest part of the lining, so then, the porcelian cracks off at these points,also since these are depressions rather than raised ridges, any spilled liquid naturally gets in them first, the result being rust, the big oven has 2 hairline cracks in the depressions and the small oven has a dime sized hole where a sheet metal screw holds the bake element as it is hinged on one side and tilts up to clean...if they had not had this bad design I believe there would be many more of them around, as in all other respects they are built like a tank.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hans, do you suppose that they tried to modify the liner of their gas ovens, which would have had openings along the perimeter, to serve in their electric ovens which did not need the openings? Except for the electric ovens that tried to use the concealed bake elements, the best design was a liner with one seam at the top. Porcelain technology was evolving, however, and I have seen many ovens from the early 50s where the porcelain along the sharp edge of the seam, even when at the top, has failed allowing rust to set up. You will recall that it was not until 1957 when porcelain finished appliances appeared with more squared corners instead of rounded ones because they figured out how to formulate the finish and adjust the process so that porcelain could deal with the stress. I think you are right about why the porcelain on the sharp edges in the ovens failed.

 

[norgeway]

Tom

You might be right, if you look at the pics you can see the grooves and just how different from other makes they are.