Top THESE Kitchens!

[toggleswitch2]

A telephone? In the kitchen? We're living like Rockefell

Whooowie, look at those kitchens.

Sandy: my mom's 1955 house still has one that she absolutely adores!

 

[panthera]

I had one of those fans right over my gas stove top

in a very nice trailer I lived in way back when.

After carefully disassembling and cleaning the entire mechanism, including the louvres which had stuck half-open through years of greasy ick, it worked great.

Best exhaust fan I ever used, period.

But - how many people have the time and resources to clean the entire mechanism every few weeks? That is what it took to keep it going tip-top.

Without fat filters to grab and hold the worst of the ick, there is just no way for these things to stay at peak efficiency for very long without serious cleaning.

Much quieter than a loud vent-hood and much more effective, all in all. Yes, placement is everything - whoever designed that kitchen really paid attention to detail. Little things like putting that exhaust fan exactly where it was needed.

Today, I'd try building some sort of frame with one of those large grease catchers you find in even cheaper range hoods - the kind you pull out and run through the dishwasher every evening. That would probably grant a sufficient solution while maintaining the advantages.

 

[westingman123]

The house my parents built had that exactly set-up, fan in the ceiling (with a pull chain, though). It was efficient, I must say. My Mama, being Mrs. Clean, took it apart regularly. I can still remember her muttering as she went up the ladder. Our next door neighbors had the same fan, wall mounted over the range. Much easier access.

 

[norgeway]

Only thing better!!!!

Would be if it was pink or at least had pink appliances,get rid of that vulgar dishwasher and fridge,that stove is a good one, but Id rather have a Norge Westinghouse or Frigidaire, the fan is great though,I have a new one in the box I found at the goodwill for 10 dollars,I am going to install it I just haven't done it yet, metal cabinets are SO MUCH BETTER than wood,they have tons of room in them and are much easier to clean than old wood ones,I have Lyon cabinets in my laundry,and if I find a set, ill have Youngstown in the kitchen.

 

[panthera]

I have the impression,

she built the kitchen more to satisfy her personal needs than our aesthetics. It just so happens that many elements of it are pleasing to us.

I certainly would be happy to go completely retro in my kitchen, back to 1953 but there is no way I'd eliminate the microwave. Some things require a sense of balance.

 

[danemodsandy]

Here Is...

...A Nutone fan like the one we had, except that ours was yellow and chrome, not all-chrome; the surround was yellow and the centre grille (which removed for cleaning) was chrome. It operated with a pull chain; if you tugged on the chain, it opened the outside shutter for the fan and turned it on. If you tugged it again, it closed the shutter and turned the fan off. There was a little slot the chain (a ball-type chain) fit into; that locked it into the closed position.

The installation was in the wall, about six inches above the backguard of our range. That put it at exactly the level of rising steam or floating oil spatters. It was a very powerful fan, so anything near it was sucked towards the unit and out. I've seen installations where wall fans were mounted very high in the wall, and I've seen ceiling units, and I can see where those would be way less efficient than what we had. I have missed that Nutone fan ever since we moved out of that house - it was the best kitchen ventilation setup I've ever used.

 

[danemodsandy]

P.S.:

This is close to the range we had. The one in the pic is one model below ours; it's the single-oven model (note the single round oven vent cover on the backguard). Ours was the double-oven model, with two vent covers on the backguard, and three knobs below the clock/timer. At least 300 pounds of solid steel and porcelain.

Sigh.

 

[westingman123]

Okay Sandy,

that's almost to die for. The deep well looks oh-so-much like my Westy Commander range. I swear, I'm gonna take a class to figure out how to post some pictures. This
Thanksgiving seems to have been hard on vintage clocks; the clock in my Westy finally quit completely. Matt's Frigidaire clock conked out, too. By the way, LOVE the sink with drainboards, I've been watching for one of those for years.

 

[danemodsandy]

William:

It was almost to die for, though my mother's take on it was that she wanted to die of embarrassment. She considered it a dated, obsolete blight on that kitchen, which she had designed herself in 1959 to replace the former kitchen which had been heavily damaged in a fire caused by the furnace's vent piping. Everything about the new kitchen (including a 1959 GE Combination bottom-freezer fridge) was new except the range; the insurance company would not pop for a new one, because the old one was still just fine after cleaning. Over the years, knobs snapped and burners conked out; Mom would not put one thin dime into repairs, because she was bound and determined to get That Thing out of there. It took her until 1973 or so, when she finally got a new Sears LK smooth-top. And then they moved out of that house the next year...

Go figya.

 

[gansky1]

Just look at all those blades, Peter!

"Why would you change the exhaust fan Jeff...it is from the period and those type of fans can work really well."

"They are from hell."

Hee hee. So am I! I've been saving this since July 4th!

 

[westingman123]

...and now you know why my Mama was muttering under her breath. That's a lot of blades to wipe clean of greasy kitchen exhaust. I'll say it again, though, it was effective.

 

[charbee]

NuTone fan...

We managed to snag a "new-never-installed" NuTone in-wall fan from 1957 for our kitchen (found the date of 17January1957 stamped on the inside of the housing). It's got an electric timer-dial control instead of a pull-chain, and the louver on the outside housing snaps shut strongly when it's off. Since the kitchen is pretty much "on hold" while we work on other projects, the fan is still in its box, but I was able to hook it up for a moment to see how well it did its job, and as Hazel would say, "It's a doozy!" The outer housing got bimped sometime in its life, but it will be too far off the ground when installed to notice from the outside. That grille is still perfect, and that's what matters. Upped three pics of it to our album.

http://automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/00ShowCollectionGETD.cgi?dir=/COLLECTIONS/CHARBEE/

 

[westingman123]

That's a Beauty!

 

[qsd-dan]

NuTone fan..

"That's a Beauty!"

X2

Love that early DE606 dryer too!

 

[cadman]

For those that tire of cleaning grease from the blades- There IS an optional metal mesh filter designed for the majority of the round Nutone vent-fans. In fact, I even spotted replacements at H*me Depot last year.