Speed Eye

[retromania]

I don't this exactly warrants a thread of its own, but I didn't want to high-jack anyone's thread already in progress.

I have noticed in photos and ads for vintage electric stoves and ranges something called a speed eye. There's a sensor that sticks up, but how does it work? What were they good for? Anyone care to share their knowledge? Does anyone have memories of a family member using one way back when. Is anyone using one now? Wonder why they didn't last. Used too much electricity? Too dangerous? Just sort of a fad?

Do tell!

 

[supersuds]

I don't know the name for it, but our 1968 Philco had a thermostatically controlled eye, using a pop-up button thermostat made by Robertshaw. The idea was that it would maintain a set temperature, like an electric skillet. It didn't work for very long, and I seem to recall the temperature swing was more than ideal even when new. But I was just a little kid.

 

There have been threads about special high-wattage elements, which might have been called speed eyes, but I don't know if there was any pop-up button involved.

 

[norgeway]

There are two units...

Speed Heat,Which was Frigidaires name for it,,Super Corox was Westinghouses name, these units are 1250 watt 110 volt units that use 220 volts for 15 to 30 seconds and then switch back to 110 , by doing this the wattage is increased to around 5000 making the unit get red hot in less than 30 seconds, my 55 Norge gets red in about 20 seconds, the unit you describe with the thermostatic control sensor in the middle, is a totally different thing, its trade names are, Heat Minder,Frigidaire...Automatic Calrod ,GE...Meal Sentry, Norge...Super Matic, Hotpoint...and on many gas ranges it is known as The Burner with a Brain, it is basically a thermostatically controlled unit, now some of the guys on here swear by them...Iswear AT them..I have had several stoves with them and never have I seen one work correctly!!!!My Norge has one, and when I put it back in service Im going to take it off and install a regular switch, it is the early system made by Robertshaw with a regular capillary tube going to the sensor, but the later ones used a electronic sensor and responder control, ive had both, neither was worth beans!!As for the Speed Heat, great idea, but the controls were prone to fail because of the heavy current draw., this is MY humble opinion, I know some of the guys have different views..LOL!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thermostatic & Flasher units. Beautiful explanation Hans

The neatest name for the gas thermostatic burner was the Florence Governess which featured a picture of a woman dressed in garb that today we would recognize as a dominatrix. CU rated thermostatic controls in the mid to late 50s when they were appearing. Most had a lot of overshoot. It seems that you could not preheat an empty pan on them, but rather had to turn the unit on and almost immediately add the food, meat usually, to prevent it from overshooting, a syndrome not restricted to teenage boys. There were two major factors complicating good performance with these controls. First, they were meant for middle-weight aluminum pans and most cooks have long time favorite pans. Cast iron did not spread the heat sideways fast enough to cause the sensor to cut down the heat because cast iron needs to be heated s-l-o-w-l-y and these came on full blast. Secondly, the recommended settings were far too high for stainless steel. GE cautioned about needing to use settings 25-50 degrees lower with the SensiTemp unit and one step lower with the pushbuttons if you were using a stainless steel skillet. I do not know why the stainless steel surface is so much hotter than aluminum but it is. Even in stainless steel electric skillets, I find it necessary to use lower thermostatic settings than in the aluminum ones.

 

[retromania]

Ok

Y'all cleared it up for me. What I was thinking about was two different things. My uncles's 1963 Lady Kenmore 30" electric stove in brown had a thermostatically controled sensor sticking up in the middle of the front smaller eye. The old 40" Hotpoint which was in my first apt had a speed eye because like you said it got red hot withi a matter of seconds. Since the stove was so old and since I didn't really know that much about it, I was scared to use it and never turned it on except that one time when I was playing with the controls. That old stove also had a deep well cooker that was missing the lid. It had a funky button you could press that made the eye spring up. However, it was a little rusty and would not spring up flush with the surface of the stove so I could never have used it as an extra burner. Since it was missing the lid, I thought I would boil water in it for corn. It had a differnt burner. The heating element in the deep well was not a calrod unit. It had old-timey circular springs that got red hot in a matter of seconds. Seemed to be two rows of those spring things in a circle and only one set of them would get red so there was never any boiling corn in the deep well. The oven had the same type circular spring type heating elements and I liked the way it reached 350 in no time. It had a simple little screw in light bulb right on the front that cycled on and off as the oven maintained temperature. Amazing that that 1941 stove was right on 350. I bought an oven thermometer because due to its age I didn't know if it would even work. Come to think of it I don't know if that stove had a speed eye. That was long time ago and I may be getting that memory confused with the deep well heating element which seemed respond like a speed eye. Anyhow!

 

[norgeway]

First Speed unit..

As far as I know the 1050 Westinghouse was first with a extra fast unit, Westinghouse again introduced the Thermostatic unit in 53, if im wrong someone correct me.

 

[retromania]

No. You are probably right. I was remembering the coils in the deep well cooker that got red hot right away, but that didn't mean it was the same as a speed cooker. I remember the oven on that old 1941 Hotpoint would hum when it was heating up. It kind of scared me. I remember I had a copper baking dish that I cooked chicken in one night and after I took it out the oven had turned the copper a purple color. I finally got rid of that old stove after it shocked the fool out of me.

 

[tomturbomatic]

It was the heat that tinted the copper through speeded up oxidation. It would have been purple if exposed to a gas flame from the chemical reactions. Hotpoints never had a speed heat-type unit becase the Calrod elements were thinner so they heated quickly anyway. Not quite as fast as a "flasher" unit, but almost as fast and with a far simpler and cheaper control system. It is fun to hear about old stoves.

 

[retromania]

Tom'

What was the deal woth the spring looking heating element for the deep well. Wonder why the manufacturer didn't just put a regular calrod unit in the deep well!?!

 

[norgeway]

Before...

Calrod units, ALL units were open coil, Monarch used them longer than anyone else, When deep well cookers were first introduced, they all had the old fashioned unit, because no one had figured out that 4 surface units might be better than 3 and a well, the raisable ones did not come out until the late 40s early 50s, as did a deep well pressure cooker.

 

[retromania]

In an earlier post I said that the deep well on the old 1941 Hotpoint went up and down, but after you posted that the raisable deep well units didn't come out until the late 40's then I knew that didn't include the deep well on that old Hotpoint because remember seeing the manufacture date on it somewhere and it was July, 1941. I guess I was thinking about one of my Mom's old stoves. I remeber standing there playing with the deep well cooker and making the unit pop up. I am surprised I didn't get my fannie torn up. Mom was very tolerant of my facination with appliances. The only applinace I couldn't touch was her sewing machine. Another thing I remembered about that old Hotpoint is that the calrod units were more recessed and the surface of the stove got really hot like the eyes of the stove needed to be positioned a smidge higher than they were. They was no damage to the stove. It appeared that that was the way it was made. Cool old stove tho. I remember when I rented that studio apartment the landlady said they was an old stove in the cellar if I could get someone to help meget it up the steps I was welcome to use it. I persuaded my brother to help me and as we were going up the steps with it he said: 'I hate you! I hate you!' I was trying not to laugh because almost all the weight of the stove was on me since I was on the bottom and he just kept cussing: 'I can't believe I let you talk me into this!' I don't know if I could do that now. I would have to start lifting again. Oh and I was 25 at the time. That was part of it too!! LOLLL