Using a 1951 O’Keefe & Merritt Gas Range with No Pilot

[waternai]

Hello, everybody!

After many years with a very nice, but very modern, Frigidaire gas range, I am the proud new owner of a 1951 O’Keefe & Merritt gas range with Grillevator, glass-door oven, broiler, four double-flame burners, chrome griddle, clock with oven timer, kitchen timer, light, and salt and pepper shakers. It is a beauty that was refurbished this millennium, though I haven’t yet gotten the clocks and timers to work. I found this delightful forum when I was researching my new old stove.

It is wonderful to have a vintage stove again. I have had stoves with pilots before, but with the oven pilot , the Grillevator pilot , the left stove pilot , the right stove pilot , and the griddle pilot , this range puts out some heat! This will be wonderfully cozy in the winter, but right now it is fighting with my air conditioner. I had seen mentions from people who turned off the gas to the pilots on the stove and simply used a long lighter to light the burners. I would leave the pilots on for the oven and Grillevator (I don’t think that’s ever not going to be fun to say), but I would like to turn off the stove pilots for the summer in order to save on both gas and cooling. Is this safe and possible to do? I know the oven and Grillevator have a safety so that they will not let gas to the burner without the pilot being lit. And it’s my understanding that there is a screw that will turn off the gas to the stove pilots (obviously, one doesn’t just blow out the flame). I welcome any suggestions and advice you all have.

 

[combo52]

Pilots On An Older Gas Range

Hi Beautiful Old Range, I have worked on several of these ranges, but being a West Coast brand we have not seen many of these in the East, We see more Calorics, Hardwick, Magic Chef and Tappan.

 

Yes it is easy to turn off the top pilots and a good idea as it saves the damage the vapors from burning gas do to your range [ and your lungs ], Just close the little pilot adjustment screws completely and then use a hand held lighter for the top burners.

 

Unfortunately you can not turn off the oven and grillevator pilots and still use these easily without going through a tedious relighting procedure.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Beautiful Stove!

That stove was the one in Lorelai & Rory's kitchen for the first few years of the Gilmore Girls. I remember the first summer that we had air conditioning, my parents tried shutting off the 2 surface pilots on our Crown stove which had no oven pilot. At the end of the summer when the pilots were relighted, they decided the hassle was not worth it, back in the days of matches, so they remained on until the range was replaced with an electric one about 3 years later.  

 

[ea56]

My paternal grandma had this same model O’Keefe and Merritt stove.  I also had one like this in an apartment I rented in the 1973.  I don’t recall either one throwing off a lot of heat when not in use, but then when I was younger I didn’t really pay attention to something like this.  All I was concerned with was whether or not they worked when I turned on the burners or the oven.

 

I helped my landlady’s handy man move that O’Keefe and Merritt stove up the stairs to my apt.  I was at the bottom and he was at the top.  The handy man was about 50, which to me at age 22 seemed ancient.  That stove weighed a ton!  Half way up the flight of stairs he told me that he’d recently recovered from a heart attack, which just about gave me one too!  All I could think of then was lets get this bit*h up the stairs before he has another heart attack and this stove crushes me like an ant.

 

Eddie

[this post was last edited: 8/14/2020-18:41]

 

[rp2813]

My sister has a Wedgewood of similar vintage.  It puts out a lot of heat with five stovetop pilots (I think) and two more for the ovens. 

 

During our current heat wave, which looks like it could continue for the next ten days (that would be epic and I'm skeptical), I haven't even been using the gas burners on my stove for anything even though there are no standing pilots.  The collateral heat generated by gas burners is more than I want my AC system to have to correct.  I'm using the smooth top electric side, annoying as that may be, until the weather gets back to normal.

 

[waternai]

Thanks, everybody!

Thank you for your kind words and helpful comments. I really enjoyed reading all your old-stove stories.

John, you must have seen some wonderful stoves in your career. Any favorites?
I’m pleased to hear that was correct about the screw for the pilots and that it will be easy to turn off the ones for the stovetop. I’ve ordered a lovely arc lighter to sit on the counter. After spending hours cleaning under the chrome stovetop, I saw in a video that the burners and their pipes come out. This weekend, I’m going to remove those so I can more thoroughly clean in all the nooks and crannies. I will turn the pilots off then.

Tomturbomatic, I had completely forgotten about Lorelai and Rory’s stove. It fits perfectly with the small town.
I don’t blame your parents for deciding it was too much of a hassle to fiddle with matches, especially if they had to do that for the oven, too. Did the oven normally light from the stove pilot?

Eddie, that sounds like a harrowing move, even if the handyman were not just coming off of a heart attack. The weight of these stoves is no joke.

RP2813, I had a similar stove back in the day, and I believe it was a Wedgewood, too. How does your sister like hers?
I’ve never liked cooking on electric, but with this heat, I can understand why you might choose to use the flat top. Sometimes tough decisions must be made.

 

[rp2813]

Lanai, my sister will never part with her Wedgewood.  She loves her stove!  I think the O'Keefe & Merritts are nicer looking, but really I prefer gas ranges that are about ten years newer.

 

[sudsmaster]

Between '63 and '69 I lived with my family in SF in rental flats and apartments. Wedgewood gas ranges were the norm there. So I got to appreciate them, although often they were in poor state of maintenance. The pilots often were an issue, sometimes blowing out. I remember one incident when I was about 11 trying to get the pilot set properly. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was turning the meter screw under the pilot all the way out. Suddenly the screw dropped out. Unfortunately the pilot was still lit and a huge flame engulfed the area under the burners and above the oven with a roar. My siblings were freaking out, but I kept my cool, took a big breath, and blew out the flame. Then we found the main gas valve to the range and shut that off. After that we got the landlord to fix the pilot, LOL.

 

I have a Frigidaire Gas-On-Glass 36" cooktop in the main kitchen here now. There's a big Nutone island hood over it, and I usually get that going before lighting a burner. It seems to reduce the heat into the kitchen quite a bit as well as any fumes.

 

I very much dislike electric burners. But there's a Frigidaire Compact 20 in the patio kitchen that works OK. For steaks and chicken I often use a propane rotisserie grill that sits just outside the enclosed patio, in a covered area.

 

I'm not totally opposed to cooking with electric. I use the Instapot for making bone broth and brown rice. An electric kettle for tea. And, of course, a microwave for frozen entrees and reheating stuff.

 

In storage have a Modern Maid slide in gas range that I got with the intention of replacing the Compact 30 in the patio kitchen. That was maybe 10 years ago. It's still waiting, LOL. I'd have to run a gas line to that location, and then since I don't use the Compact 30 much at all, what's the point?

 

Also have a used Tappan electric range out in the workshop. I've used  the oven in that to cure powder coated car parts. Works well for that, although the inside of the oven is now more colorful than originally designed ;-).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[helicaldrive]

Stunningly

gorgeous range. Enjoy!

If only they still made them like that today.

 

[cornutt]

My maternal grandmother had a 1950s Roper four-burner gas range. It had an individual pilot for each burner, plus one for the oven. And to add to that, a Servel gas fridge. The kitchen was small and it never needed heat in the winter. In the summer, the kitchen's door to the (covered) back porch stayed open pretty much 24/7; otherwise the kitchen was unbearable.

 

[tomturbomatic]

WaterNai,
The oven was a match lit style with the hole for the flash tube in the front of the oven floor. Matches were more difficult to use than one of the long flash stick igniters available nowadays. Generally, the porcelain in an oven without a pilot shows less destruction because it is not subjected to the moisture and destructive byproducts of combustion.

 

[sarahperdue]

Roper Range

I once bought a Roper range at auction just for the design award winning sunburst broiler pan. I didn’t know the pan was significant at the time, I just thought it was gorgeous. I paid ten and consigned the stove back to the auction house. The auctioneer sold it for fifteen, and I came out three dollars ahead after fees.

Sarah