Vintage Skelgas "Constellation" range for sale.

[polkanut]

You don't see Skelgas ranges for sale everyday, and from the pictures posted in the CL ad it looks to be in very good shape.  It has the burner knobs on the backsplash like Maytag's did.  Also has a griddle in the center as well.

http://wausau.craigslist.org/atq/2133010640.html

 

[tomturbomatic]

WOW! With the knob arrangement, it looks like Globe might have had something to do with it. I wonder where he get his prices; out of his head, out of a bottle, where?

 

[polkanut]

If it isn't worth $200, how much would you price it at? $50-100?  Just curious.

 

[westingman123]

prices, prices

Hey Tim, I think he was referring to the $1,000 "they sell for". That is a beauty, I'd FOR REAL think about switching to gas if it weren't so far and I wasn't so in love with Wilma Westinghouse.

 

[autowasherfreak]

That's a new brand for me.  But she's a beauty--are both sides ovens, guessing that's a griddle in the middle.

 

[polkanut]

Skelgas was an LP brand name around here for many years.  Their slogan was "Service Beyond The Gas Mains".  My dad's aunt & uncle had a Skelgas branded 30" LP range in their home in the 1950's.  When they moved to Milwaukee in 1961 the stove was sold to my dad's other aunt & uncle for their hunting cabin where it still is today. 
​
​We also had Shellane, Dri-Gas, Pyrofax, Co-OpTane, City Bottled Gas, and Wisconsin L-P Gas Co. propane brands according to my 1955 Wausau phone book.

 

[goatfarmer]

Nice range! I've seen a few Skelgas appliances over the years, but not many.

 

[kevin313]

Never heard of this brand - although in Detroit there were a few locally made gas stoves, although LP was never really big here. In the rural areas of Michigan, I still see a lot of those big LP tanks on the sides of houses (don't people call those tanks "pigs"??), so there may be some old LP stoves still out there in farm country.

What is the difference between a natural gas and LP stove? The size of the gas jets? Type of hook up?

 

[cornutt]

The difference between a natural gas and LP stove

A natural gas stove doesn't go "BOOM!" every time you light a burner. Seriously, the main difference is jetting: one type has more energy per unit volume than the other (I can never remember which is which), so to switch from one fuel to the other, you change the jets. I've heard that there are certain advantages to designing a burner for one type or the other, but I'll bet it's been decades since any manufacturer did that. We have LP gas (no natural gas service in the neighborhood) but we only use it for fireplaces and the grill.

 

[tomturbomatic]

LP gas is made from petroleum and has a higher BTU rating per volume than natural gas, at least according to the specs I have read for back up generators. Because it is made from petroleum, its price is far more dependent on oil prices than natural gas, not that they aren't all screwing us in every possible way, and then you have delivery charges. The flames are smaller than those of natural gas in a given burner.

There is a bottled gas business up in Laurel, MD called Poist, but I don't think that they have private label appliances like Skelgas, even though they have a showroom. When I saw the name of the stove yesterday, I suspected that it was a private label product. It is a beautiful stove and yes, I was referring to the seller's comparisons of prices over $1000. I guess that in the Skelgas service area, those stoves have achieved a coveted status.