Should it stay or should it go - GE Americana

[swestoyz]

Okay Gang -

Time for a VOTE!

This beautiful 1963 GE Americana could either stay, or go. I have a 1958 GE Speedster (like Greg's 40 inch pink GE, only 30 inch and in white) that I'd like to use as well, but I still need to put quite a bit of time and money into it.

I'm having an issue getting the right handle/door alignment for the lower oven, so I won't be baking any Totino's pizzas in there anytime soon. However, it is MINT and in beautiful shape.

But, it is coppertone.

So - should it stay, or should it go?

Ben

 

[swestoyz]

Here is the 1958 GE in question.

 

[mtn1584]

Definitely keep the coppertone GE Americana, I think the color goes well wtih your maple cabinets, and hardwood floors, and your countertops, the pink stove, although nice, will NOT match at all. By the way, you have a beautiful kitchen, and good taste.
Mike

 

[danemodsandy]

Ben:

I am not allowed to vote on this one, LOL.

I can say that the Americana I had in a rental house one time was a very nice range.

 

[rickr]

Hi Ben, The coppertone does go nice with your cabinets and so forth, but the white 1958 GE is a much cooler looking range imo. I guess, if the 58 needs all that much more work and $$$, you could always use the 63 coppertone, and see what else you can find one day....

There is always tomorrow! <:

Your kitchen is looking VERY nice these days....

 

[appnut]

I vote the Americana stay. It looks so nice in your kitchen with all the other colors and such. What happened to the lower oven door that resulted in its "problem"?

 

[tlee618]

My vote Ben is for the Americana if and only if you can get the oven door fixed!! That is one beautiful range. Just think of all the cooking you can do with that beauty.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Ooh... Tough one!

My first instinct was to say the 58 GE -- it's just so much more fabulous.

But... after reading what everyone else has said so far, I am tending to lean towards the Americana. It does seem to fit your kitchen a bit more.

Although seeing a picture of the '58 actually sitting in the kitchen might change my mind.

~Fred

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Keep them both!!

You can never have too many cool vintage stoves.....

 

[mattl]

Keep the Americana. I like both, but the copper-tone fits the kitchen for some reason. You could rotate, 6 month with one, and 6 with the other...

 

[alr2903]

Ben, hook up one in the basement till you decide, nothing like a extra oven at holiday time, or for that matter a oven not in the Air conditioning in the summertime. Is the americana the kind where the switch on the oven lets the little "door switch" operate the oven light. Beware of the americana, if you have a cat, they like to tap dance on those surface unit pushbuttons. alr2903

 

[112561]

Why couldn't you have made it an easier choice? The Americana has that massive luxury futuristic look, but the Speedster is no less desirable even in the smaller scale. I vote keep the Americana in the kitchen, and the Speedster in the basement.

 

[cadman]

I have to agree with the popular vote- the Speedster is the cooler of the two, but the Americana integrates better with the kitchen.

What's with the horizontal "glass" between the lower oven knobs? Don't tell me it's a viewing window?!

 

[autowasherfreak]

I love them both, I vote stay.

 

[cycla-fabric]

Ben,
I remember growing up with that same stove but in pink. My mother hated it for the following reasons. The sensi-temp for the front right burner never worked right and had to be replaced 3 times in the time we owned it. And when that control went out that burner doesn't work at all so you only have 3 burners. Second, your stove doesn't have a vent hood on it. Anything that you cook on the burners with the lid off will condense on the bottom of the upper oven and drip down on the stove. Also the steam and moisture will ride up and over the front of the upper oven. Which when cooking on all 4 makes a nice mess. Check to see what your largest pot is and put it on the back burner and check to see if it fits well and that you can you stir what your cooking in that pot if it is boiling with all the steam coming out, you can't see what is going on in the pot. And last, when you are cooking on all burners, you have to remove a front pot to get the back one out, which is a pain. Other than that it looks like a nice stove and the ovens performed very good. But since you don't have the vent hood I would put that downstairs and put the other stove in it's place as that stove would be easier to cook on. Just my opinion of living with that stove and glad to see it go.

Doug

 

[pulltostart]

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Both ranges are georgeous. NOTHING wrong with coppertone! And the '58 has to-die-for styling! We should all be so lucky as to have to make a choice like this. Definitely keep both (or call me if you decide to ditch the '58).

Lawrence

 

[gansky1]

That Americana is beautiful indeed - a difficult choice. The pink WILL definitely go nicely with the wood of the floor and cabinets, you've seen that firsthand here! I wouldn't be afraid of the work and time in the 58 GE, bring it up here for a weekend and we'll knock it out, I've clean hundreds of ranges over the years, it's not nearly as daunting a task as it might look.

You may have A-B them like choosing stereo speakers! (Advent?)

One way or another, theres another gorgeous appliance that cannot leave the midwest

 

[swestoyz]

I own a PANK GE range?

Nope!

The '58 is white. By luck I found the '58 years ago at a home recycle center. While it was completely fifthly and the larger burners was shot, it was in good pretty shape and too rare to pass up. What do you guys think - take Greg up on the offer to run her through the Spa in Omaha?

For now the Americana will live in the kitchen, until the '58 is done. I just LOVE the idea of A>B Greg! Too funny...

Ben

BTW - yes Cory, the window above the oven door is a viewing window, dubbed the 'skylight' by GE. More to come on that later.

 

[tomturbomatic]

That Skylight window in the oven made a regular broil element and reflector impossible so GE came up with a 5000 watt broil element (actually two 2500 watt elements) that looped from side to side instead of front to back with a porcelain reflector to protect the window which has three panes of glass, I believe. I would try to use both stoves, but then at one time I had 3 in my kitchen and each was exciting in its own way. One of them was an Americana which was a beauty, but you do have to baby them to keep them clean with all of those controls in the steam zone. The upper oven in Americana ranges was a fine baking oven. I regularly used it for pound cakes baked in Bundt pans.

 

[panthera]

Tough

If the Americana were avocado or harvest gold, there would be no question.
Coppertone, however, falls into that narrow spectrum of colors which, tho' not daisy yellow, PANK or turquoise, still has a right to be.

I'd keep both, restore the white '58, a far more interesting stove, (are my eyes getting old or does that picture really have a slightly pink cast to it?) and use both.

My grandmother's GE with those horizontal controls also caused a fire back in the 1960's, so I would seriously take that into account.

I'm curious, three: What is up with the lower oven door?

 

[turquoisedude]

If you can keep both...

Then do it! You will regret parting with either of them one day, that's a given! The Americana is my favourite GE range - I had hoped to score one in turquoise for my 'dream kitchen' but they are getting pretty hard to come by. I agree with others who have commented that the Coppertone would look MAHVELOUS in your kitchen! Could the door-alignment problem be because of a removable oven door?? Had a problem like that with my 59 Kelvinator and it turned out to be a screw that had fallen off and into the door-hinge slot...

 

[petek]

I'd keep the coppertone Americana in the kitchen as well although with the 58 being white won't really clash with the cabinetry etc.

 

[swestoyz]

The lower door

Oh yeah, I forgot. The lower door was missing the original handle when Don found it. It dawned on me, while moving it last night, why it was removed to begin with. Someone probably needed to squeeze it through a doorway and removing the handle was the only way to jettison it out of the original home.

With the original handle AWOL, I barrowed the handle from the '58. What I discovered was they changed the spacing for the door liner on the '63, and devised some strange loose bracket instead of having a permanent fixed spacer on the outer liner. So, I'm on the hunt now for a mid-60's GE that I can rob the parts off of it get this girl back to shape.

 

[passatdoc]

my parents have the 1972 Hotpoint version in Harvest Gold

Does anyone know the years of manufacture for the GE Americana and Hotpoint versions? Their 1972 Hotpoint is still their daily driver.

 

[passatdoc]

ps

The 1972 Hotpoint, while similar in design, varies in several ways:

1. The lower (main) oven had a large glass window in the door.

2. The lower oven is self cleaning, but because the lower door window is cracked, my parents clean it manually with Easy Off.

3. The unit has a fully-vented, two-speed exhaust fan with pull-out hood extension and removable metal filters (that can go in the dishwasher.

One of the ovens has a timed cook feature that we never used (and the manual has been thrown out) though the integrated clock and cooking timer/buzzer still works. Because my parents live alone and rarely cook for a crowd, the upper oven is the daily driver and the lower oven used only occasionally. The lower oven window has a crack in the glass, so we keep the usage to a minimum.

 

[circlew]

The '63 Americana is built on a totally different frame than the '58 Speedster. The Speedster is on the frame GE used from '57 until sometime in the 80's for most of their ranges. This style had the cabinet reveal at the sides, visible on Greg's pic of his Petal Pink 40". The Americana was built using the style with the dropped down cooktop, and the oven door covers the cabinet fully. This style, with some modifications, was also used for a number of years; some with the controls at the sides of cooktop, some not. It was used both for Hi-Lo and regular 30" models. This accounts for the difference in the handle mounting method between the two ranges. I'm surprised the handle from the '58 even fit on at all.

I say keep them both. The Americana with the Skylight window is not something you come across often, as I don't think the later ones had it. The '58 is probably the most practical of the two to use, but agree the Coppertone looks great in your kitchen.

 

[mtn1584]

Hay gansky

Show us another picture of your Kenmore 700, I love that machine, how did you accuire it, it is beautiful. By the way, you also have good taste, I love your kitchen.
Best of luck, Mike

 

[danemodsandy]

One Thing...

...I do want to point out about the Americana is that it does not (at least in the photo) have the optional vent hood that stacked on top of the unit. That's going to mean that you'll have to do without ventilation over the range, because you certainly can't build in a regular vent hood over it. Your only option would be to find an Americana vent hood somewhere.

I say all of this as the Speedster's biggest fan...

 

[passatdoc]

Hotpoint controls

The burner controls for my parents' 1972 Hotpoint High-Low are located to the right of the upper oven, as are both oven control dials. The only controls on the lower oven are the light switch and a manually operated heat shield lever for the self cleaning oven feature.

 

[norgeway]

AMERICANA!!!

Although if you have a cat...be careful, several houses have been burned by cats walking on the pushbuttons!