Push-button controls on Electric ranges--the Evolvement?

[daveamkrayoguy]

Yes, when did they first exactly appear (1950-when?) and what makes besides General Electric have them?

And while free-standing ranges with them met their demise, how long had GE stuck it out at least putting them on their countertop cook-tops, as I remember the disappointment of seeing those getting regular knobs?

Also, was the reason just futuristic kitsch? I mean, why couldn't a typical range control panel house as many settings as conventional knobs? (Well, that can clearly be because of lack of space--and the lot of needed wiring being involved!)

Easy to see the discontinuation of them was attributed to the idea of them being hard to clean, accidentally being turned on, and not as incidentally cut off, as you wouldn't want an unattended range to start a fire...

And lastly, going back to the wide range of settings denied, how did this design presumably last as long as it did, potentially requiring a lot of switching to obtain the appropriate current-settings needed often during cooking if the only settings offered were:

-- WARM -- LOW -- 2 -- 3 -- HI -- ????

--And why were they designated as such? The numbers "2" and "3", that is? (Resembling a military "hupp, two, three"?) A Philco electric range, that I saw here, made me think of this & how the "2" and "3" are replaced by a "medium " and "simmer", I think...

A predictably novel, and easily short-lived design, but among the quick obsolescence of what seemed to be the eqivaent of the "touchpad" of its time, I would like to know some more...

-- Dave

 

[norgeway]

GE introduced them in 1948

Hotpoint followed suit, then a bunch of other makes followed most if not all using GE built switches, many had 7 heats instead of 5,The ones that lit up different colors were my favorites.they were made thru the early 70s when the gubermint decided to make push and turn switches the standard for so called safety

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hotoint called them "Recipe Heats" and they were damn close to what recipes called for. Yes, they were more modern than knobs, but saved a lot of "fiddling" around with heat settings. There were advantages to infinite controls and fixed heats so I won't way one is better than the other, but once you learned to read recipes, and grew accustomed to the controls and your cookware, both were easy to use.

 

[norgeway]

I truthfully prefer

Pushbuttons, its exactly right, once you know what they will do its so simple, for instance a 4 qt Mirro Matic pressure cooker started on high and switched to low will be regulated perfectly, third heat will maintain 10 pounds in a canner.

 

[ea56]

I Haven’t Used an Electric Stove with Pushbutton Controls

in many years. But I prefer an electric stove for the same reasons stated by both Tom and Hans, the defined control of the heat that you get by selecting numeric settings for the heat level. I know that 8 on my GE stove is best for browning ground meat, sauteing onions and starting mushrooms. That 5 is best for browning chicken, pork chops, hamburgers. That 6 will maintain a boil for macaroni and pasta without it boiling over and 3 will maintain a steady simmer for potaotes, without boiling over and the simmer setting cooks rice perfectly every time. I never have to worry about a low flame blowing out when cooking rice or any other food that requires the lowest heat possible. And electric stoves are much cleaner too.

Lots of people feel very strongly that gas provides superior control and good cooks never want an electric stove. I don’t mean to be immodest, but I’ve been cooking for over 55 years and I’ve used both gas and electric,and I’ve never had any complaints about my cooking. For my money I’ll take an electric coil top stove any day, I’ll pass on gas. Ditto for smoothtop electric and those terrible disc burner electric stoves, that aren’t sold anymore, thankfully.

Eddie

 

[ozzie908]

@ Eddie

I am with you on electric cook tops they are so much easier to use, Having been a caterer with 6 burners and a huge oven in gas and steam ovens in electric along with gas deep fat fryers I have at home a brand new kitchen to my design of course its something I always wanted and I went with Induction smooth top hob its the 2nd induction hob I have had in 8 years and I will never go back to gas as its so much quicker and a wipe over when done and I don't have to spend hours cleaning it unlike the gas range I had in my commercial kitchen oh it was a hateful job on a Sunday after service myself and my trusty wash up we cleaned it every week the steam oven had a self clean setting I hate to think how much power it used there were 4 x fans each with an element wrapped around it ah happy days

Austin

 

[foraloysius]

Push button Magic 1948

 

[norgeway]

That was

The first!

 

[turquoisedude]

It wasn't such a short-lived design for GE. They featured 5-heat pushbutton range surface unit controls well into the 60s. Ironically, GE's Canadian made ranges adopted infinite-heat dial controls in the early 60s and had phased them out completely by 1966.

 

I guess the pushbutton concept was seen as new and innovative; that whole 'your modern kitchen willwork for you' idea that was heavily marketed in the 50s and 60s was likely behind it.

 

Our family had a 5-heat pushbutton GE cooktop in our country home when I was a brat and I liked it better than the infinite-heat units on the Baycrest (Canadian Westinghouse-built) range we had in the city house.  And yes, the Wonder Kitchen surface units are 'push and pray' but I do just fine with them.