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

[norgeway]

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.

 

[whirlcool]

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.

 

[kenmore71]

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.

 

[xpanam]

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.

 

[norgeway]

Re Oil Heat,,

Same here, Oil heat Electric stove and water heater.

 

[petek]

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.

 

[frigilux]

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.

 

[polkanut]

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.

 

[norgeway]

Lots Of

Wood Electric Monarchs here, if I could find an electric Monarch in good shape I would have it in the kitchen.

 

[polkanut]

Here you go Hans, a nice Monarch electric range for sale in the Plymouth, WI area, but no asking price.  Plymouth is east of Fond du Lac, WI and north of Milwaukee.  It even has the deep well cooker, and matching salt & pepper shakers.

http://greenbay.craigslist.org/atq/4143260522.html

 

[wayupnorth]

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.

 

[polkanut]

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.

 

[turquoisedude]

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.

 

[firedome]

In the Northern 'burbs of Balto...

Bawlamer Merlin, that is... gas ruled, and most of the homes in our neighborhood seemed to have Magic Chef (we did) or Caloric if my memory serves.

 

[neptunebob]

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?

 

[xraytech]

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

 

[norgeway]

Re Hotpoint...

Hotpoint was sold by Duke Power so you could buy a range and pay for it on time thru an addition to your power bill.

 

[philr]

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.

 

[iheartmaytag]

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.

 

[paulg]

More on Chicago

I agree completely with Whirlcool. Lots of gas ranges. I didn't know anyone who had an electric range.
As far as gas ranges were concerned, there were lots of CROWN and UNIVERSAL. Both had factories in town.

 

[akronman]

Cleveland and Akron OH

In city and suburbia, gas for heat and hot water always, then personal preference for the stove and dryer, I've always seen plenty of both. Out in rural northeast OH areas, plenty of LP for heat and hot water, then usually electric cooking and dryer. I lived in an all-electric home, built 1960 in what was then rural. By 1970, gas lines came through the neighborhood and everyone went for it, everyone.

 

Pure middle class brands, Sears Kenmore sold well, GE, Frigidaire. I remember one Caloric stove, and maybe Hardwick?

 

 

[ptcruiser51]

Gas, via Public Service GAS and Electric!

I never saw an electric range (except on TV) until we moved from the 'hood to the 'burbs. In the tenement my mother had an ancient Prizer (on legs!) that was gas, as was our boiler (no one called them hot water heaters). Around the corner my aunt had a gas-on-coal Breeze because it was also used for heat. She had the same gas boiler. Our house had a coal furnace (no automatic stoker).

When we moved to the 'burbs in 1960, the developer cut corners wherever possible. He didn't go for the expense of having gas mains run, so everything was electric except for the oil-burner furnace. We did have Frigidaire countertop range (PANK) and matching wall oven. We had a 24' rec room with exactly TWO electric outlets!

Here in FL I'd have my Whirlpool Gold electric range flat-bedded out of here tonight if I could get gas service! Honest!

 

[circlew]

I only knew of a couple of gas ranges on my block when I was a kid, and both were LP in older houses. All the others were electric. Ours a Westinghouse, but lots of Frigidaire, GE and Hotpoint. Now I don't know anyone on the block that has a gas range. The opinion in this area has long been that a gas range is not "modern", and is something that "country" people would have. One of the neighbors with a gas range replaced it with a GE Mark 27 in 1972 when the house was re-wired.

 

[retromania]

Hotpoint

Even though we were a big Frigidaire family, Hotpoint electric ranges were by far the most widely used. And as I have mentioned in other posts, they were sold almost exclusively through Duke Power.

 

[kevin313]

Here in the Detroit area, you would see a lot of Frigidaire and Philco-Ford ranges growing up...people worked in the auto industry and I was told that Ford employees got discounts on Philco appliances.

Whirlpool and Gibson were also made in Michigan, although on the western side. Seems like most folks in my neighborhood had electric ranges, although the lady next door had a Caloric gas range and used to light her cigarettes from the front burner!

 

[jeffg]

Growing up in southern CA in the 1970s/80s natural gas was much less expensive than electricity, so everyone we knew had gas stoves and ovens. And central heat. And water heaters.

IMO electric rules for ovens. The even heat is great, but I've never been able to handle anything other than fire on a stovetop (including radiant, induction etc). At least in our (Italian) family electric was considered more irradiation or heating of food than cooking.

 

[rustyspaatz]

Electric

Our 1960s cheap tract home subdivision did not have gas.
People heated with oil.
Everything else was electric. A lot of 40" ranges.
Accept the Teasdale's. They had a purple house which was spotless.

They had two of those standing, 4' tall propane tanks right outside their home, near the kitchen.

 

[norgeway]

I have never understood..

Why people like electric ovens better than gas, to me, gas bakes far more accurately and evenly than electric, especially older ranges with a modulating control.

 

[jeffg]

gas bakes far more accurately and evenly than electric

First time I've heard that claim. Also it's impossible even theoretically Gas+convection is more even than electric without convection, but otherwise it's simply a matter of element vs. burner size: elements are larger and therefore heat more evenly.

 

[norgeway]

BUT>>

Electric heat is on and off, often with a fairly wide swing between temperatures, the element has to heat up, then it puts out radiant heat then when the thermostat is satisfied,it has to cool down, permitting the temperature to overshoot the dial setting, with a old modulating gas thermostat, as the temperature gets near the dial setting the flame decreases, then gradually increases as needed, resulting in a much more even steady temperature,plus, the gas oven heats mainly by convection, the electric by radiant and convection, thus the gas oven makes a much more delicate crust on baked goods,..I think most people think electric ranges bake better because they read it somewhere or someone told them so, I remember something that happened that I was a witness to, recently I got a BOL Magic Chef from my hometown, 1949 with a match lite oven, I have been around this stove since I was a kid, the Lady who owned it was a family friend, Her Brother and his wife were also great friends, Both ladies were great bakers, both made angel food cakes fairly often, and both had long ago started using Duncan Hines Angel Food cake mix,consistently the gas stove turned out cakes an inch or more taller than the GE that the Brothers wife had, also the gas oven made a much more delicate crust than the electric range did, both ladies used 3-b Kitchen Aid mixers they bought in the early 50s..This I saw, it is not a he said she said.mainly, my opinion is that gas is a more moist indirect type heat, I have used both, and while my old Norge bakes fine, it still is not as good as the gas ranges I have used.