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Thread Number: 34598
The Endangered GE Double Oven Story... |
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| Post# 518970 5/18/2011 at 22:54 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
Back on March 19th I went to a local estate sale like I always do on the weekends. My big collections are vintage TV's, but have recently been bit by the vintage appliance bug now that I finally have my own home. In this house, I saw a beautiful set of early 1970's GE coppertone kitchen appliances; a side by side fridge and a double oven. The house was on the market at the time of the sale and of course the appliances "were not for sale, so don't even think about touching them". Im good friends with captainmoody, and just last night I had a discussion with him about that estate sale. I then decided I should really go after those appliances as theres just might be a chance the house is either A: still on the market, or B: the house is sold and the kitchen is being gutted. After a quick websearch on the address, I find out the house sold on April 7th. Assuming it didn't close until 30 days later, I figured I still had a chance those old appliances were still sitting in that kitchen just waiting to be replaced. Consider it was an upper middle class suburb of Chicago, theres no way an old dated house was going to stay that way for long. The house was only 7 miles from me, so what the heck, I'll take a drive and see. I figured I could go up to the front door and peek through which would give me a perfect view of the kitchen. If I saw the appliances, my intention was to leave a note with my name and number mentioning that I was at an estate sale for the home and noticed the old kitchen appliances and that I'd be very interested in them should they be looking to remodel.
Well I get to the house and it looks totally vacant, no window treatments or anything. Being anxious, I couldn't wait to peek through the front door to see if those nice old appliances were still in there. Upon walking up the steps, I peek into the glass and my gut just sank; the whole interior of the house was gutted right down to the studs, no trace of the appliances in sight. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so bummed out, a perfectly mint set of appliances are junked when they could have been mine if I acted sooner is all that kept running through my mind. So I walked around the rest of the house, looked in the back windows to see other parts of the house thinking I have a slight chance that the appliances are still in there. No such luck. I didn't give up just yet. There are glass block windows in the garage, so i tried to look through those the best I could to see if I could see something in that garage. Remember, the house is unoccupied and is going through a complete interior overhaul. Ok, now I actually see something looking through that distorted glass block window. Its about 6:30pm, it a nice orange sunset shining into the window helping me see whats in the garage. I see something...it looks like a wiring diagram on the back of something...then I move to the next glass block and move my head around until I could clearly see something. IT WAS THE BACK OF THE STOVE! IT'S STILL IN EXISTENCE! Now Im anxious, and now I decided to get a little bold. I had to somehow get inside the house if I could (nothing crazy, no I wasn't going to forcefully break in or do property damage!) but I thought just what if a door was unlocked... I could just peacefully walk in, take a look, then walk out knowing Im not waisting my time and leave a note on the front door... I checked the front door, locked. I checked the back door...locked. I checked the garage side door...locked. DARN. I walked back around the house but when I looked at the garage side door, I could see a slight gap in the door frame like it wasn't fully closed. Hmmm. I went back to the door and even though the knob was locked, it wasn't latched shut all the way. I simply pushed the door and there you have it. Easy access directly into the garage; effortless. Upon opening the door, I see nothing but piles of construction debris, the old cabinets, insulation etc, and there it is: That mint coppertone GE Americana double oven just sitting all by itself covered in drywall dust. But wheres the fridge? Not in the garage, yes, i got even bolder and walked into the house to look in the basement just to make sure it didn't get moved down there. No sign of it anywhere. Ok I thought to myself, probably one of the guys doing the home repairs got the fridge for free and is using it as the garage beer fridge. I went back to check out the range. Completely mint, like the day it was made. Opened it up and checked those date codes. Built in February of '73. Its got the vent hood on top, I had a tape measure on my key chain so I was able to see how high it was... 71". Dang, my cabinets are only 66-1/2" to the bottom so this beauty wouldn't even fit in my kitchen without some serious cabinet modification (which I won't do). So naturally I had to take a few pictures of the oven, then carefully left and closed the door exactly to how it was. I still left my note and carefully tucked it into the door frame where it would be virtually impossible for wind to blow it away yet be easily noticeable by whoever came up to the front door: Most likely the contractors the next morning. I still wanted to save that stove and have it for my collection but also kept my fingers crossed that if I got a call, I could inquire about the fridge and possibly buy it off whoever took it. I left that nice polite letter and offered "good money" for the "old brown stove and refrigerator that were originally in the kitchen". Didn't want the letter to make it sound like I was a junk collector looking to take it for scrap value only. Figured if whoever saw the letter realized someone wanted them for their intended use and appreciate them, that they'd call back with the realization that they could make a few bucks instead of letting the scrapper haul them away and get nothing out of it. Well here we are, its one day later and nobody called. I even went back to the house just to see if my letter was still in the door and sure enough it was not there. I looked in the window and I could note the progress on the work from yesterday so I know someone is at the house. I even went back in the garage to see if my note was set on the oven. nope. That thing can go the curb tomorrow morning for all I know. I guess the bottom line is, I need to go to this house during the day and hope to talk to whoever is working there and find out whats up with those appliances if I can either have them or buy them or what. It'll be tough though. I work during the day too... If that oven could talk it was screaming to me "please save me!!!!!!" and all I could do was walk away and hope I can get a return phone call. Im not a thief though. I may have trespassed into a vacant house, but Im not a thief. (being a thief would especially be a bad idea in this case as I did leave a paper trail behind...) "Hey Joe, stove is gone"... "Oh wait, I wonder if that guy who left the letter about it stole it" Nothing like being so close to something, yet be so far... Is there hope? Heres the fridge and stove at the estate sale last March in their original habitat: 
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| Post# 518971 , Reply# 1 5/18/2011 at 22:55 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 518972 , Reply# 2 5/18/2011 at 22:56 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 518973 , Reply# 3 5/18/2011 at 22:58 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 518974 , Reply# 4 5/18/2011 at 23:01 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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Post# 518975 , Reply# 5 5/18/2011 at 23:01 (4,747 days old) by rp2813  (Sannazay) |
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| Post# 518976 , Reply# 6 5/18/2011 at 23:02 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 518977 , Reply# 7 5/18/2011 at 23:04 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 518979 , Reply# 8 5/18/2011 at 23:06 (4,747 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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Post# 519030 , Reply# 9 5/19/2011 at 07:20 (4,747 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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GE AMERICANA RANGE Doug beautiful range well worth saving, I hope you get it. The range can be shortened by 4 or 5 "by removing the range hood that was a factory option on this model so you may be able to fit it into your kitchen yet. You may be lucky that you did not find the refrigerator as a GE SXS of this age will use at least four times as much power to run as a new SXS, could be $20-$30 bucks per month. They also didn't hold food as well as later refrigerators and they put out enough heat to heat your kitchen and will run 70% of the time at room temps over 70 degrees. | ||
| Post# 519046 , Reply# 10 5/19/2011 at 09:06 (4,747 days old) by captainmoody () | ||
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Maybe they will call you today? Keep us posted Doug! | ||
| Post# 519407 , Reply# 12 5/20/2011 at 22:13 (4,746 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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Well I never heard back from the guy and I placed that letter in his mailbox on Tuesday. I figured what the heck, I'll leave one more letter this morning on my way to work, but this time I put it in the mail box so the contractor who is working at the house doesn't see it first and put it off to the side only to forget about it.
Well around 5pm today I got a phone call and it was the guy who owned the house. He goes "sure I still have it" and he goes on to tell me it was on CRAIGSLIST with the fridge right after he bought the house but never relisted once the fridge sold. He was selling them as a matched pair but I guess someone else really wanted the fridge and he sold it. So I suppose I should be glad the fridge got saved at least. Granted they might be "energy hogs" but I really do like those solid GE SxS fridges. As for the stove, the guy told me its mine for $50.00. He said he'll be at the house next Friday, so we agreed around 6pm and I'll pick it up. So it looks like this nice old stove gets to live on afterall. | ||
| Post# 519411 , Reply# 13 5/20/2011 at 22:20 (4,746 days old) by drh4683 (Chicago western suburbs) | ||
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| Post# 519419 , Reply# 14 5/20/2011 at 22:57 (4,745 days old) by retropia () | ||
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Congrats! If you are not able to get it to fit in your kitchen, I'm sure you will find it a good home. It looks like an excellent range. | ||
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Post# 519526 , Reply# 15 5/21/2011 at 14:20 (4,745 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 519545 , Reply# 16 5/21/2011 at 16:42 (4,745 days old) by 112561 (River Park, in Port St. Lucie, Florida) |
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Post# 519576 , Reply# 17 5/21/2011 at 19:28 (4,745 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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I'm happy for you. | ||
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Post# 519591 , Reply# 18 5/21/2011 at 21:52 (4,745 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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A true General Electric Classic Masterpiece. My Parents had a later version of this stove in their apartment from 1978 to 1994, when my Dad retired. I remember first seeing this stove in Macy's basement back in 1969, but the model hadn't changed much over 10 years. It still had those snazzy slim lozenge-shaped buttons for the Sensi-Temp unit and the lights. Ours didn't have that nice chrome trim that you see on yours on the lower oven door and window, but it was essentially the same model. It had a rotisserie in the top oven that we used all the time and a meat probe in the bottom oven. I loved that particular style of control knob and still have a few odd ones in my collection. Even the cooking surface was very useable despite the oven hanging over the back burners. What a great stove; I hope you get it! And thank you , THANK YOU, for the great detailed pictures of the range. | ||
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Post# 519718 , Reply# 21 5/22/2011 at 12:37 (4,744 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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GE AMERICANA RANGE Congratulations on your new range Doug. You diffidently got the better and more useful of the two appliances. This range is actually much more energy efficient than a new electric range as the lower oven is better insulated than almost any new S Cleaning oven and it cleans both ovens at the same time at the cost of only one.
If you really want a matching GE SXS get a new smooth door SXS and put the GE SXS handles and lower kick plate on it from one of your vinatge and have an auto body shop paint the front of the new one to match the range. | ||
| Post# 520141 , Reply# 26 5/24/2011 at 08:10 (4,742 days old) by 3beltwesty () | ||
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Here using all burners and both ovens was a rare thing too; but did happen a few times over the years during holidays when we had relatives visting. The double oven here is plumbed in with #6 AWG wire, sort of beefy. | ||
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Post# 520142 , Reply# 27 5/24/2011 at 08:30 (4,742 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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GE AMERICANA RANGE VENTILATION SYSTEM Power draw during SC cycle, you will notice I you look at the specs in an earlier post by 3BW that the SC oven only uses around 2200 watts when in the clean mode, less than broiling or pre-heating in bake mode.
I see no safety concern in using this range without the ventilation system installed on the range, if it is removed and installed using good sense and proper regard for safety. Many range fires occur in ventilation systems and hoods and the range is probably safer without a grease filled vent system. That said if you can use the vent system and modify the cabinets I would do so. But the grease spread all over the kitchen is less of a hazard than having it concerted inside metal ducts with a fan blowing air through them. I do however prefer to have my cooking appliances vented to the outside, my current kitchen has three vents going outside.
3BW I have 4 GE 950MH combination ranges in my collection, I am going to part out two of the HI-LO ranges if you need any parts for your HP. I also have at least 3 extra complete power packs from ranges that I stripped years ago. Get in touch if you need any parts.
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| Post# 520266 , Reply# 29 5/24/2011 at 20:50 (4,742 days old) by A440 () | ||
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What an awesome find Doug! Such a well built, great looking unit! It looks mint from the pictures. Too bad about the Side by Side. I love that period of GE refrigerators! Brent
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| Post# 798638 , Reply# 30 12/11/2014 at 18:52 (3,445 days old) by BarnesBA () | ||
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J797 for cheap I have an avocado J797 (I think) that I am replacing and planning to let HD haul it away when they deliver my new one....anyone want it? Two owner's manuals too ;-) | ||
| Post# 798640 , Reply# 31 12/11/2014 at 19:12 (3,445 days old) by danemodsandy (The Bramford, Apt. 7-E) | ||
If You....
....Get to the point that there are no other takers, would you be willing to talk about a few parts off the J 797? It uses some parts in common with the Model J 757, one of which I'm trying to restore.
Hopefully your range will be snapped up by someone who will preserve the whole thing, but if not, I could use the oven door handle, the little base pieces on the oven door handle, the chrome trim at the sides of the cooktop, and the burner units. Again, I hope someone will take your whole range. But if it has to go to HD, a few parts off it aren't going to make any difference, and those parts will live on, even if the whole range doesn't. Hope I haven't offended you.... | ||
| Post# 798662 , Reply# 32 12/11/2014 at 21:50 (3,445 days old) by g3bill ( San Fernando Valley, So. Cali.) | ||
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