Should it stay or should it go - GE Americana

[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!

 

[swestoyz]

No Kitties here!

This Americana is a J794X1 - with it's sister being the J795X1. The only difference between the two is a built in vent hood. The 794 and 795 were the only models with the Skylight window.

Tom is spot on in regards to the broiler element for this particular model. I've never seen anything like it, and learned tonight that it is also used in conjunction with the regular element during the regular baking operation. I've included a scan from the service notes to help explain how cool this element is:

 

[swestoyz]

Page 2 from the Service Manual.

Look ma - there's Pyrex in your GE!

 

[swestoyz]

So, where are the lighted photos?

Oh, I thought you'd never ask!

 

[swestoyz]

Purdy.

Hum, what's in the oven?

 

[swestoyz]

Some Cornflower!

 

[swestoyz]

This oven is BEAUTIFUL! Love the dual lights.

 

[swestoyz]

Upper oven. Broiler and rotisserie!

 

[swestoyz]

Here is a live shot of the Skylight Window w/ broiler elements. Only GE or GM could pull something like this off...

 

[swestoyz]

So, I was wondering how you would know if one of the burners was on.

Turn one on, and the red dot on the backsplash turns on! I was wondering what that was for.