What do you think of this Thermador? Supportable?

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k5carrillo

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2013
Messages
14
Location
McMinnville, OR
We have been making do for years with a piece of junk early 90s GE range that we were given used many years ago. I have been wanting to go to a vintage electric for some time, especially one with two ovens. This one is not too far away and it has been posted long enough the guy might come down a little.

I have been reading on these forums for some time, but Thermador is not as frequently discussed as some of the other brands. I am perfectly capable of doing repairs to mechanical and electrical items, but.....would this just be foolhardy?? It appears to be in good physical shape, but I have not yet gone to see it. He did tell me that the ovens do not currently function.

What are your thoughts?

 
I know you will get good information here.  I CAN see why this one would catch your eye.  That is a very nice looking vintage stove.
 
I have the 6-burner, no-thermal-well sister to this model.  The body, the backsplash, and the control panel are identical.  Unfortunately, I have not yet had a chance to hook it up.  However, I will point out that the plaque clearly states that it is made by L&H (Lindemann & Hoverson).  So this is really an L&H unit, and you might get as much or more information from L&H owners.

 

My unit is shockingly heavy, much heavier than a similar-sized 40″ Frigidaire.  I’m not sure what they did to add to add weight to it.  It’s really nice that both ovens are full-sized.  And the burners are the heavy TK elements that are similar to (or that same as?) Frigidaire radiantubes.  I love those elements, but some do not.
 
One word of caution about the surface unit controls on this range. You see how they are clumped together? These early infinite heat switches ran off a clockwork movement that was in the middle of the switches. You want to be sure that it is working. I don't know how successful you will be in finding a replacement motor or service for that motor if anything goes wrong. It is an unusual mechanism that gave a nice feature earlier than most, but in a unique way. I don't even know if there is space in the cluster to replace the switch assembly with modern ones that do not need the clock. I do not know that this would ever become a problem, but I have seen one that went bad sitting in an appliance repair shop.

At least this one does not have the bake elements concealed under the oven floor like my aunt's Thermador. That set up eventually caused the destruction of the oven floor which necessitated replacement of an otherwise fine range.
 
There was a Gray porcelain model like this for sale in SFO area a while back, I was very tempted. It's a beautiful range.

While I don't know much about the L&H ranges, Tom's points are good ones to check before buying. It may not affect your decision to give it a go, but may affect what you're willing to pay.
 
Was the infinite switch on this model introduced by L&H?  Their units have the same cluster of switches.  As I mentioned, my version of this stove was definitely made by L&H.
 
As far as the ovens not functioning, there are things to check. I would start with the clock.The two knobs, top and bottom, should be turned to close the blue and red windows. You will have to see which one does that. Usually, one of the knobs would turn one way to set the hours to cook and then could be turned the other way to set the stop time. One knob might just be for setting the clock time; it varied. Then there is that knob with the wing in the middle. That is the one that will trip you up. Generally that knob had three positions, ON, SET and MANual. The way it worked was that once the clock was set for the hours to cook and the stop time, that knob was turned to the SET position which cocked the timer. When the clock turned the oven ON, the knob clicked to the ON position and the oven operated until the time ran out on the clock's STOP dial. IF THE WINGED DIAL WAS NOT RETURNED TO THE MANUAL POSITION, THE OVEN WOULD NOT WORK. I don't know which of your ovens can be clock-controlled, but that is why I would start with the clock. I do not see markings for ON, SET and MAN near the winged knob, but maybe there are faint traces you can see up close. You will need to remove the control panel's rear panel and examine the wiring to see whether the wiring for one or both ovens goes through the clock. It is probably the right hand oven that is clock controlled since it would be the main oven on single oven ranges, but maybe it's the left one.

Next, I would see if the broilers both heat. If they do, great. If they don't, using a bright light, check the broil units for broken wires. There are going to be two different runs of coil through the broiler: the finer perimeter coils which provide top heat during baking and the heavier ones in the body of the unit which provide broiling heat.

Check the bake elements for broken wires. They might plug out or there might be screws that hold the terminals to wires at the back of the oven. I have never explored and old Thermador. Open coil heating elements had a shorter life than sealed rod elements and sometimes did have wires break, although this range does not look like it had heavy use. If the elements look to be intact, then check the wiring to the thermostats from the terminal block where the cord attaches to the range and then from the thermostats to each of the oven elements. It is possible that this range might have had a rodent visitor who chewed through a wire. The nice thing about open coil heaters is that the wires can be restrung. The wattage will be on the element's frame someplace should you need to do that.

There are probably enough C-7 lamps in the control panel for a small Christmas tree. Each of the surface units has a light for its window. I remember setting the left rear element on my aunt's to 40 once and it lit up red. The control started at HI then went 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and LO. Those were percentages of heat from 100% on HI.

Given that you are in the NW hydropower area, you might be able to call around and find some old time service person who is familiar with these ranges of the early 50s.
 
Early infinite heat..

That switch mechanism was made by Tuttle and Kift, especially for their Monotube units, I would think it would be simple to replace it with 4 infinite heat switches if it didn't work, but it should really be an easy fix .
 
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