Ranges...What was used most in your area..

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norgeway

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Apr 28, 2009
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mocksville n c
In the South east, where I grew up it was electric at least 10 to 1, in fact, I only knew of 3 gas stoves until I was grown, everyone used electric stoves, more GE and Hotpoint, then Frigidaire and Westinghouse.Most people in Lenoir were afraid of gas, why I dont know.
 
When I was growing up in the Chicago suburbs gas ruled and most everyone had it. Lots of Kenmore, Roper and Caloric stoves around the area. I don't think I saw an electric range until I was a teen.
 
In rural MN it was electric by a mile.  

When I was a child in the 1970s most people heated with oil and used electricity for ranges, water heaters and dryers.

Most of my family had Frigidaire ranges from either the 1950s or 1960s.  

My grandfather lived in a "triple fuel" trailer house from the late 1960s.  He had an oil furnace, propane stove, and an electric water heater!

I didn't cook on gas with any regularity until I moved into Minneapolis proper when I was 28 years old.  I still prefer electric.
 
Fountain Valley Ca 1965

Electric and our whole track had Thermador Appliances But the water heater was gas and so was the heat,the dryer 220? There was also a tone of Waste King and Gaffers & Sattler.

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Definitely electric for cooking and gas for heating in town here. Probably 3 to 1 Even as a kid I remember noticing them if I went to a friends house and they happened to have a gas stove because it looked sort of different. Electric heat and "all electric" homes appeared in Canada alongside the US. There's a few of those mid 60's all electric homes just up street but a couple I know for sure have retrofitted gas furnaces now. Plus they needed the aluminum wiring redone.
 
1967-1977: Kenmore, Frigidaire, Monarch, GE. I lived in a town of 2,000. Local dealers sold Frigidaire, Maytag, Monarch, GE. There was also a very popular Sears 'catalog store.' We had a 36" electric Kenmore in coppertone.
 
In our family Monarch gas stoves ruled, then Roper & Caloric.  My cousin Stella who lived at the other end of our block even had a Monarch wood/gas combo.  Those who had electric had either GE or Hotpoint.  Now it's anything goes.
 
Most everyone growing up in this neck of the woods had gas and kerosene ranges because most of the old homes had the kitchen in an ell on the back and the kerosene was the only way to heat them, as the oil furnace was in the main part of the house. Hardwick, Florence, Caloric and Kenmore were the big models. Although one aunt had a Magee electric and kerosene.
 
3 of my great-aunts had lp stoves for use in the summer because firing up their wood cook stoves would've made their houses unbearable.  Don't know what brands though.
 
Electric ranges ruled in both the 'burbs of Montreal and the Eastern Townships. There was a pretty wide variety of models - no surprise that there were lots of 'home-grown' ranges by Québec-based manufacturers like Bélanger, Roy, and L'Islet. But overall, I remember seeing LOTS of the Eaton Viking brand ranges (I'm not sure who made some of the 50s models but from the mid-60s until the 80s, the Viking ranges were Westinghouse re-badges).

In the city, the first range I remember was a '57 Frigidaire Super; it was replaced by a Baycrest (also a Westinghouse rebadge) in 1974. At the country house, we had a wood-electric Bélanger for a short time in one house, a scary Westinghouse in the next house and this got replaced by a second-hand GE built-in range and oven in 1978.
 
Gas ruled in Pittsburgh,

In fact, Duquesne light had a home economist and one of her orders was to try to get more 'electric load" by trying to get people to buy electric ranges. Caloric and Tappan and Kenmore were the big brands here, probably because Tappan was sold by the gas companies. Both Duquesne light and Equitable gas were founded by George Westinghouse so really, why would they want to compete with each other?
 
In our area, being very rural, electric was king. General Electric was the most common. If it was a home in town where there was gas service there was usually gas heat.
Out in the rural parts it was usually oil heat, but when our house was built in 1993 my mother opted for an all electric home
 
In my hometown, most houses built before the mid seventies had either oil or electric heating and wood heating. Since the mid-seventies, most have electric heating and wood. Having no gas means very few gas appliances and the few ones are bottled LP (mostly for cooktops and heating). Some older homes do have oil-fired water heaters but these are getting rarer. A lot of older rural homes used wood stoves for cooking but most of the remaining ones are either unused or used in case of power outages... Most of these had been replaced by electric ranges by the late seventies.

As for range brands, in my hometown, there was no big department stores selling appliances so there are not many store brands like those Paul already talked about. So we had a lot more Inglis than Kenmore, and other Canadian brands like Roy (Gibson), Enterprise (Monarch), McClary, L'Islet and Belanger. Other popular brands were GE, Hotpoint, Moffat, Tappan-Gurney, Westinghouse, Kelvinator and Frigidaire.
 
Electric

GE Ranges. My aunt had a GE range with push bottons. It was the first self cleaner I knew about.

My step-dad would not allow gas (LP) on the farm, too dangerous. We were oil/wood heat, electric hot water and cooking.
 

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