Range upgrade

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sudsmaster

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Joined
Dec 23, 2004
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Location
SF Bay Area, California
This home I acquired some 24 years ago has a regular kitchen, and another kitchen inside an attached enclosed patio.

The patio kitchen came with a nearly pristine Frigidaire Compact 30 slide in range. It works fine, although I'm not sure of the little clock/timer. I have never used the oven part, just occasionally the burners, and not for quite a few years.

I confess I do not like electric burners. Electric ovens are OK, but sort of a PITA with current electricity restrictions in our state. (I signed up for lower rates by reducing electricity consumption between the hours of 5-8 pm M-F).

Over the years I have acquired three candidates to replace the Compact 30. As I recall, I even had a plumber install a gas line extension to the area under the house closest to the patio kitchen range location. But I'll have to crawl under the house to refresh my memory on that ;-).

Anyway, the candidates to replace the Compact 30 are:

1) Gas GE Profile 30 inch slide-in, with ceramic type top and gas burners. White.

2) Gas Kitchenaid Superba, with convection, 30 inch slide-in. Gas burners. White.

3) Modern Maid 30 inch slide in gas range, with "Electro Pilot" feature (which I assume means it has spark type igniters). Sort of a brown.

I haven't tested any of these ranges, yet.

Offhand, I am wondering if anyone has any opinions about these ranges. The Modern Maid is probably the oldest. The Kitchenaid Superba is probably the most functional, since it came out of a home next door as they remodeled, and I'm told it worked fine. Don't know about the KA Superba or the Modern Maid functionality.

One reason why I want to replace the Compact 30 is because currently the main house kitchen, which was probably built with a gas range in mind in 1941, was remodeled in the 60's, and converted to an electric GE P*7 wall oven and a Corning electric cooktop on a nearby counter. I replaced the Corning cooktop with a Frigidaire Gallery "Gas on Glass" cooktop about 20 years ago. It works well enough, and saves on electricity as well.

So, anybody have a favorite among the three gas range choices listed above? GE, KA Superba, or Modern Maid?

And no, I don't want to get rid of the Compact 30. It might find its way into the workshop (where I also have a Tappan electric range I have used for baking powder coating onto car parts).
 
Rich, I no longer trust anything made by GE.  My guess is that even though it's a Profile series, build quality could be inferior to the KA or MM.

 

It's a toss-up between 2 and 3.  Convection has its advantages, and I would imagine the KA has spark ignition burners even if they don't hype it.  If the MM doesn't have convection and depending on the current theme on your patio, it could have an advantage if the brown would look better than white.
 
Thanks, Ralph.

There isn't any overwhelming decor in the patio: it has a red brick floor, jade green cabinetry and walls, yellow Formica countertops, dark red window trim... The fridge is a stainless KA top freezer but far enough away from the range area that it won't clash.

So I'm guessing the lean is toward the KA Superba. Before I go to the trouble of installing it, I might check with the neighbors to confirm that it worked for them before they removed it and gave it to me.

The KA does have what looks like chipped porcelain at the very rear where it meets the counter in back of it, but this won't be a BFD for me.

I suppose I should test drive the selected range before going through with the full install.
 
Bob,

I don't know the age of the GE Profile range. I couldn't see any info inside the oven. It's possible there is some info under the burners, but when I looked I didn't want to clear the top of stuff being stored there at the time.

Is there a certain range of dates when the GE Profile gas ranges are better?
 
Bob,

Went out and got the info.

According to GE's website, the month and year of mfg is contained in the first two letters of the serial number.

Which is GH2012690.

This means it was made in April of 2005, or 1993, or 1981. I suspect it was made in '93. What do you think?

The model number is JGSP321GER2UG. I was able to download the owner's manual for that, and here's a link:

https://www.geappliances.com/content/older-pdfs/49-8410.PDF
 
Best Of 3 Available Used Gas Ranges

Its a toss-up between the GE and the KA, the MM is a distant last place, but actual condition may be the most important factor here.

 

The GE is a 1993, it was a Roper design and the same as many Kenmore's as well, GE had improved the Roper design somewhat but finally scraped the entire design a few years later.

 

If one was buying a NEW range now GE is the clear leader by a country mile in either gas or electric.

 

John L.
 
OK, looks like I'll probably go with the KA, after I:

1) Confirm we actually did install a gas line to that part of the crawl space.

2) I figure out the best way to extend the gas line to the range nook (perhaps into an adjacent cabinet?)

3) Confirm that the range selected actually works OK before installation.
 
China Pride Under American nameplate?

The sticker on the side of the oven door clearly states “MFG in the U.S.A.

My BOL 2018 GE Electric Range was made in Mexico, but the company is still located in Louisville, Kentucky. And by the way it is an excellent electric stove, maybe the best I’ve ever used, save the 1939 Westinghouse Champion Electric range that I had in a rented duplex in 1983.

I’d go with the GE if it was my decision to make.

Eddie
 
OK, after some searching and groveling, I found the model and serial numbers for the KA Superba range. With that I was able to find a manual online for it, and that document is dated 2004. So that *might* be the age of this appliance.

The serial number, I *think* works out to 2000.

Oh, and the label on the back of the range is in English and French. No Chinese.
 
John,

 

Thanks for the confirmation of the 2000 mfg date.

 

It will give me a basis to ask the previous owner (next door) how well it worked. They bought the place a couple years ago and tossed out the range, which I rescued from the curb. Whether they used it much, I don't know, but I can always ask. What is sort of bizarre is the chipped enamel at the rear of the cooktop surround. It's mostly blocked by the full width burner gratings, but I might inquire as to its cause. And then try to touch it up a bit. This could be tricky since any touch up paint would have to withstand relatively high heat. The main portion of the top is a ceramic glass piece, labeled Schott Ceradur, with a trademark.

 

This is basically what it looks like, minus the superfluous backsplash...

sudsmaster-2021091000151601806_1.jpg
 
Canadian Built WP-KA Ranges

KA sold a lot of these nicely featured ranges ranges for about 10 years, there were both all gas versions and smooth-top electric models. WP closed the plant in Canada over 10 years ago and moved all their better range production back to the US.

 

We have a lot of experience with these ranges, there are some good points about these ranges and a lot of problems.

 

 Weak points were the capacitance touch controls could be problematic and difficult and expensive to fix.

 

More minor problems, door hinges, lots of broken inner door glass, failure of the epoxy coating on the edges of the cook-top trim, door lock problems, uneven baking, weak broiling [ gas models ]

 

Overall the Roper-GE range might be a little better but personally I would not have any of these three gas ranges as my main stove in my home but for your purposes any might work, I would keep the electric Frigidaire compact 30 we had one of these in our house in West Virginia when we bought it from 1965 and it baked wonderfully and the cook-top was better than any gas range I ever used, but I am much more of an electric range type guy as I cook every day.

 

John L.
 
John, I will remind you California has a tiered electric usage/billing system. And as user progress through the 3 or 4 tiers, the KWH price becomes even more outrageously expensive. And I don't blame Rich for trying to keep his usage down a best as possible. My sister & BIL do the same thing with their gas range, gas clothes dryer, and their house also has gas heat.
 
Electric rates--off topic, but will add it anyway

Yesterday it was cool in the morning 62 when I got up. So I decided to clean the oven, high heat, only about the second time in seven years, as I usually use the steam clean function but had a puddle of grease that had burned on where a meatloaf spilled over .

I was so happy that I could shut off the kitchen and enjoy cool weather and get that oven clean. Then about noon when the cleaning was complete it dawned on me. I just did this electric intense usage on peak times which will take me to tier 2 for sure. So I saved on not having AC on, which it usually doesn't come on until about 2 or so in the afternoon, but I screwed myself with a clean oven.

Just one more month and we will be into winter rates, and I won't have to worry so much about time of day usage. If I had waited until after 7PM that job would only have cost me about half as much, and wouldn't have put me in the higher tier for the rest of the month.

So in a long way around to get back on topic, I can understand wanting to see how you can conserve electric usage any way you can.
 
Bob,

I live in California in an all electric home. In the 27 years we’ve lived here we’ve never gone above tier 2, and thats usually only for the last 4-5 days in the billing period.

BTW, about 5 years ago when they changed the TOU hours for the lower rates to 4pm to 9pm everyday from 1pm to 5pm M-F, with the lower rate all day Sat and Sun, we went to the flat rate 24/7, and our bills hardly increased at all, plus we aren’t confined to when we could use the dryer or the electric heat. Before we would freeze from 1 to 5 M-F because it was too expensive to turn on the heat on cold days.

Yes, electricity is expensive, but the small number of KWH’s we use to cook and bake with our electric range in minimal. I know this for a fact, because with the SMART meter I can check the next day to see just how many KWH’s were used not only for the day , but hour by hour. What I’ve learned is that the electric dryer and electric hydronic baseboard heaters are the highest electric consuming appliances we have. I bake all of our bread, rolls and desserts and cook dinner at least 350 nights a years and still the electricity used for this purpose is minimal.

I feel that the choice between gas and electric stoves for cooking and baking is a personal preference. You either like one or the other and the amount of KWH’s used doesn’t make a bit of difference for those of us that prefer electric stoves. I’ve used both gas and electric since I learned to cook, and given a choice I’ll take electric every time.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 9/10/2021-11:54]
 
Eddie, thank you. I'm very well aware of all of what you have described, you have shared this information before. I have a smart meter and I keep track of cumulative hours used daily. At some point years ago, I was able to track usage by hour, but that went away about 8-10 years ago. In the last 8 days, my daily usage has ranged from 48.5 kwh to 69.1 kwh for the day. That high amount was due to our very first 100 degree day this summer, have had one of the "coolest" summers this year. In 2011, a record hot summer, we had 90+ days that had temperatures 100 degrees or above. My most recent bill was a 31 day billing cycle and my average daily usage was 51 kwh/day.
 
Wow Bob, 51 KWH per day is a lot! But you guys in Texas have to use AC, in Northern California most of us don’t need to use AC. In the summer months we average 12-13 KWH per day and in the winter months we average btwn 31-35 KWH per day, and thats with the electric heat being used. We are very careful with our electric use. Lights are never left on in rooms that are unoccupied and we have LED bulbs in most of the lamps and fixtures.

One thing is for sure, the electric rates are gonna continue to rise.

Eddie
 
Eddie, as a point of interest, my billing period during the huge Texas freeze in February, I used 1806 kwh for the billing cycle of 30 days. My bill was $215 and change.
 
Bob our highest bill in 27 years was for 1-22-21 to 2-22-21, 32 billing days total KWH 1202.7 or an average of 37.58 per day and the charges were $365.27. Our baseline usage or tier 1 was 492.9 KWH, the tier 2 usage was 709.9 KWH. You’re luck yto have such low rates in Texas.

Eddie
 
I used 35Kw yesterday as opposed to 16kw so far today, and 25 on Wednesday. Yesterday's oven cleaning put me at 4.46 peek demand. We have had some 100+ weeks the end of August and first week of Sept, things are cooler now, but expected to step back to the triples next week. I used 46kw with a Peek of 5.37 on the 105 day looking back at smart meter history.
 
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