ovrphil
Well-known member
Not everyone''s taste, I know ….but these do look clean.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/for/5128733852.html
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/for/5128733852.html
Older Amana Self Cleaning oven & refrigerator - $450 (Wauwatosa) -
- Thread starter ovrphil
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OMG! That is one of the VERY RARE Amana Radar Range Plus ranges with the microwave combination oven like mine. The top of the range performance is super. The broiler performance is meh. The oven bakes well and is very poorly insulated, but for combining microwaves with fast 240 volt cooking, this is a champ.
ovrphil
Well-known member
Tom -how long have you been using this and is it your daily driver? I had no idea it included a MW....appreciate the comment.
It's been my daily driver for a long time, between 10 and 15 years now. John and I found a coppertone one of these one afternoon and he said we had to grab it. In his shop, he had a white over-under Amana with the combination oven in white. He figured that he was not going to do anything with it so we never even took the coppertone one off the truck, we just swapped the lift-up cooktop from coppetone to the white one and switched the coppertone oven door without a window to the black glass one with a window. It was in immaculate condition.
One very special thing about this combination oven is that it has Amana's variable power control for the magnetron. It pulses in seconds at less than full power. The three dials on the right side of the control panel work with very good directions in the cookbook for micro-thermal combination cooking. There is the large power dial which allows the power to be dialed down to such short pulses that it is really possible to defrost meat without cooking the edges. For the two smaller dials, the top dial is the microwave timer and the lower dial is the delay timer so that if you put a pound cake that would normally bake for 80 minutes in the oven, you set the delay timer for 35 minutes, the microwave timer for 5 minutes and the power control for medium and lock the door. The cake bakes for 35 minutes with just heat at 25 degrees higher than the recipe calls for to enhance browning then the magnetron is energized and the cake starts rising. You can see it rise with every pulse of the magnetron. Within 5 minutes it is done so the baking time is cut in half! The outside of the cake stays shiny and the cake is very moist. John has a customer in Greenbelt who had one of these at the time and he very kindly borrowed her manuals for me to copy.
John told me that no microthermal ovens are made by US manufacturers now. The economic disaster eliminated the market and many people who had them because they were installed in the house when it was built did not use the feature so it was dropped.
The most dramatic thing is how fast it can cook frozen french fries. I turn on the broiler and pull the fries out of the freezer. I pour them into a Corningware skillet, put them in the oven, lock the door and set the microwave timer for 3 or 4 minutes. Then the bell chimes, I turn off the broiler, stir the fries, then give them another minute under the cooling broiler element and they are done all the way through and crispy on the outside.
One very special thing about this combination oven is that it has Amana's variable power control for the magnetron. It pulses in seconds at less than full power. The three dials on the right side of the control panel work with very good directions in the cookbook for micro-thermal combination cooking. There is the large power dial which allows the power to be dialed down to such short pulses that it is really possible to defrost meat without cooking the edges. For the two smaller dials, the top dial is the microwave timer and the lower dial is the delay timer so that if you put a pound cake that would normally bake for 80 minutes in the oven, you set the delay timer for 35 minutes, the microwave timer for 5 minutes and the power control for medium and lock the door. The cake bakes for 35 minutes with just heat at 25 degrees higher than the recipe calls for to enhance browning then the magnetron is energized and the cake starts rising. You can see it rise with every pulse of the magnetron. Within 5 minutes it is done so the baking time is cut in half! The outside of the cake stays shiny and the cake is very moist. John has a customer in Greenbelt who had one of these at the time and he very kindly borrowed her manuals for me to copy.
John told me that no microthermal ovens are made by US manufacturers now. The economic disaster eliminated the market and many people who had them because they were installed in the house when it was built did not use the feature so it was dropped.
The most dramatic thing is how fast it can cook frozen french fries. I turn on the broiler and pull the fries out of the freezer. I pour them into a Corningware skillet, put them in the oven, lock the door and set the microwave timer for 3 or 4 minutes. Then the bell chimes, I turn off the broiler, stir the fries, then give them another minute under the cooling broiler element and they are done all the way through and crispy on the outside.
Coloric-Amana Micro Electric Range
I have the identically featured Coloric version of this range at Smitties house and cook an evening meal on it 3-4 times a week for about 7 or 8 years now. And unlike at my house where I have three MWs, three full size SCOs and three cook-tops with 10 surface elements I only have this one range at Smitties house so it gets a lot of use.
I would rate the cook-top as very good, Jason had this range first and even added a Robertshaw automatic control to the RF 8" element which is wonderful.
The oven bakes very well and pre-heats quickly and I feel is very well insulated, certainly better insulated than any electric range you will buy today, the door seal is great and the outside of the range and door stay very cool. [ Ours does not the window that Tom's has so that might make it a lot better ].
The broiler intensity is just average for and electric oven and it does not have a way to broil at anything less than full 550F temperature, just like almost every vintage Frigidaire and Westinghouse range ever built so it is not the greatest broiler ever but it still works very well.
I would highly recommend this range to anyone that wants a great cooking experience, you will never find anything today at any price that will do what one of these stoves can do. Today for lunch I took two heavy dinner plates and put left over carrots, and a wild rice dish and some roasted pork tenderloin on the plates covered with a sauce, set both plates in the oven set the oven for 140F and used full MW power for 5 minutes and out came an evenly warmed lunch that was as good as the first time the food was served, [ it really helps to warm the plates when reheating food this way everything is more evenly heated and appealing].
The Amana ref also for sale it is just ok in my experience, both of these appliances are from about 1979-84.
I have the identically featured Coloric version of this range at Smitties house and cook an evening meal on it 3-4 times a week for about 7 or 8 years now. And unlike at my house where I have three MWs, three full size SCOs and three cook-tops with 10 surface elements I only have this one range at Smitties house so it gets a lot of use.
I would rate the cook-top as very good, Jason had this range first and even added a Robertshaw automatic control to the RF 8" element which is wonderful.
The oven bakes very well and pre-heats quickly and I feel is very well insulated, certainly better insulated than any electric range you will buy today, the door seal is great and the outside of the range and door stay very cool. [ Ours does not the window that Tom's has so that might make it a lot better ].
The broiler intensity is just average for and electric oven and it does not have a way to broil at anything less than full 550F temperature, just like almost every vintage Frigidaire and Westinghouse range ever built so it is not the greatest broiler ever but it still works very well.
I would highly recommend this range to anyone that wants a great cooking experience, you will never find anything today at any price that will do what one of these stoves can do. Today for lunch I took two heavy dinner plates and put left over carrots, and a wild rice dish and some roasted pork tenderloin on the plates covered with a sauce, set both plates in the oven set the oven for 140F and used full MW power for 5 minutes and out came an evenly warmed lunch that was as good as the first time the food was served, [ it really helps to warm the plates when reheating food this way everything is more evenly heated and appealing].
The Amana ref also for sale it is just ok in my experience, both of these appliances are from about 1979-84.
