"Off brand" stoves


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Thread Number: 88895 / Tag: Ranges, Stoves, Ovens
"Off brand" stoves

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Post# 1134621 11/26/2021 at 15:34 (880 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes I've always thought "off brand" stoves were interesting. Around here they don't/didn't seem very common. I remember a lot of 70s and 80s mobile homes tended to have Magic Chef ranges. Typically in the 80s they were almond, very BOL, no oven window, no clock and said "The Energy Engineered Range" on the back splash. I very rarely saw Magic Chef ranges in an actual conventional house, so they must have had a contract with mobile home mfrs. Once I did see a fairly MOL self cleaning one at a house with solid element burners though and an electronic timer/clock. I've seen a few Suburban cooktops and wall ovens on here but never in my area. I have seen small RV type 3 burner ranges with ovens in RVs and campers. I am assuming they're the same company. Of course you also had Sunray/Glenwood ranges which always make me laugh at the stories I've heard about how cheap they were. I have even seen some branded Whirlpool. Never saw too many of these outside of efficiency motels on the beach. I remember Sears circa 2000 sold a very BOL electric 30" range that was branded Galaxy. It was white and black with front controls and no oven window. Possibly made by Frigidaire would be my guess. I also just remembered that I recently saw some knife sharpeners for sale with the Magic Chef name on them. Mostly I see that name on microwave ovens and little dorm fridges lately. I have noticed at Home Depot that their appliance department still has the Magic Chef name on the signage above the appliances, but I don't think they sell any large appliances under that name. Once when we were on vacation our room had a Dixie electric 20" range. I wasn't aware of the history of the Dixie brand, but from what I've seen online they didn't make many electric ranges. I called it a fancy apartment range back then, because it had rear controls and a convenience outlet (I think a clock too, maybe). And I had never seen a 20" range with front controls, so I thought that was really fancy. LOL One of my friend's houses got remodeled after a fire about 10 years ago. They ended up with a Tappan branded range which was also odd. I knew the history of the Tappan brand but had not seen a new one newer since at least the 90s. I could tell it was a rebranded Frigidaire/Kenmore but I never knew they were part of FD. I'm guessing a lot of the old gas range brands like Hardwick, Caloric, etc just weren't that popular here in FL, because I don't think I've ever seen any of these around here. Most older stuff in my area seems to be GE/Hotpoint, Whirlpool or Kenmore. Some Frigidaire too. So to me anything other than those 4 is sort of an "off brand," even though they aren't really, and there are lots of very good ranges under other brands.

Post# 1134636 , Reply# 1 11/26/2021 at 17:59 (880 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Back in the day before the Interstates, smaller appliance manufacturers had local areas where they dominated---those are long gone, and these smaller guys surviving were the "off brand" makers. Magic Chef/American Stove was out of St. Louis, so had a big position there; but there were two other manufacturers around which you saw in that area---Peerless/Premier from Belleville, IL and Vernois out of Mt Vernon, IL. Vernois seemed to specialize in built-ins in the late 50s/early 60s, with an unusual thumbwheel for the cooktop control. You may still see them in suburban subdivisions in St. Louis. Peerless/Premier (which is still around) makes 20, 24 and 30 inch stoves, the 24" seems to be their unique item, gas and electric, with front controls. We had a friend with a Suburban built in gas oven/cooktop (in brushed stainless)...was quite a narrow oven (think it was only a 21") and cooktop (probably only 24")....she replaced it in 1978 for a Tappan Convectionaire.

Post# 1134642 , Reply# 2 11/26/2021 at 18:33 (880 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes 1 A friend lived in a beautiful condo/coop building near the Kennedy Center. His apartment had almond appliances and the 30" gas stove was a Frolic by Brown, a really real BOL POS. It did have a painted backsplash, but no controls on it. Brown stoves are about as appealing as a brown streak.

Post# 1134644 , Reply# 3 11/26/2021 at 18:38 (880 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 1 As a kid, Florence was quite popular here. Most were 1/2 gas and a kerosene side heater. Oven was in the middle so it got heat from the side heater. They had a lower bake burner and a separate burner on the top of the oven for broil, like todays gas stoves. Otherwise Kenmore, Hardwick, Magee, Quality and Enterprise were the big brands around here, mostly gas.

Post# 1134673 , Reply# 4 11/26/2021 at 21:51 (880 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Magic Chef was a somewhat popular brand of range in this area, at least for gas, though not so much for electric. I only knew of one of their electric models, and it belonged to my friend Glenna D. When my friends the Wilson's lived at their old house ( built around 1955), it had a Suburban built-in gas oven and cooktop. Never knew of anyone else with that brand. Sunray was the brand of gas range sold at the hardware store I worked at in '77, and I agree they were junky. My sister had a Dixie gas range in Avocado when she and her first husband lived in a late 60's model mobile home. It looked cheap. As for Florence, they were associated with Roper and Sears, so were a major manufacturer, with more units sold under those brands, rather than their own name.

Post# 1134675 , Reply# 5 11/26/2021 at 22:19 (880 days old) by neptunebob (Pittsburgh, PA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Pittsburgh had lots of gas ranges...* Caloric and Tappan were leading brands around here as well as Sears Kenmore if people had to replace the original stoves. Westinghouse and Kenmore were leading electric ranges. George Westinghouse founded Equitable Gas company so he had something to do with so many gas ranges in this area.

Post# 1134735 , Reply# 6 11/27/2021 at 19:30 (879 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes I did see pics of a house for sale here yesterday. It appeared to have a built in Suburban electric oven, yes, very narrow. The cooktop was a newer replacement. Lowes used to have some of those Premier ranges in the 20" on display, branded as Holiday. They do look really cheap. Premier does make some smooth top 20" electric ranges as well, in fact they may be the only manufacturer to do so, so they are popular in efficiency motels. Brown Stove Works is still in business too. I don't believe I have ever seen their ranges around. If I recall correctly, they and Premier's pricing seems extremely high. I think it has to do with them making ranges in odd sizes. Brown still makes a 36" range which isn't one you see much these days outside of professional styled ranges like Wolf, Viking, etc. And for that matter 40" seems to be a dead size these days outside of some insanely expensive Italian ranges. I believe Frigidaire was the last company to make them with their 40" Professional series and the 40" Kenmore Elite versions. Some years ago a member here had acquired an avocado Enterprise 30" electric range. It was unusual in that while it was 30", the oven was only 20" wide with an adjacent storage area. It looked really cheap, and I'm not sure if that one was related to the Enterprise ranges that I believe were in Canada? Funny I had made this thread, because I dropped by Habitat today and certainly saw an off brand range. There was a 20" electric range, a "WelBilt" brand. It looked 40s or 50s to me. It was somewhat "fancy," with an (ungrounded) convenience outlet on the front next to the controls, and it did have an oven window and I assume an oven light. Slide out crumb trays under the burners too. The price tag said "Antique Stove" and they wanted $600 for it! Good luck. If it's still there next time I go (I have no doubt it will at that price) I'll get a picture of it.

Post# 1134744 , Reply# 7 11/27/2021 at 21:30 (879 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Brown Stove* I believe they made stoves for Frigidaire in the late 90s early 00s as I had a bisque color basic gas 30" range back then that looked similar to the 30" on the Brown site. CLICK HERE TO GO TO bradfordwhite's LINK View Full Size

Post# 1134749 , Reply# 8 11/27/2021 at 22:07 (879 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Brown* I'm thinking they made them for Hotpoint too as some of the 20" Hotpoints looked very similar. I am not sure who makes their current 20" as they look different than Brown's. It would not surprise me if manufacturers farm out their 20" ranges and other oddball sizes to other companies. GE I know used to have Frigidaire make their 40" ranges when they still sold that size.

Post# 1135182 , Reply# 9 12/3/2021 at 16:25 (873 days old) by Davey7 (Chicago)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Ugh, I had a Brown range...* Oh, yes, I remember Brown well. I had one in my first adult apartment. It was a total POS full sized range, but junky - very tinny and the oven pilot would blow out at the drop of a hat... My downstairs neighbor growing up had put in a Magic Chef when they renovated their apartment in '55 and it was there until they moved in the mid-90s. Immediately removed of course. She swore by that thing! We had a Kenmore of similar vintage which was meh, we could take it or leave it. Was finally replaced with an almond Kenmore with electric ignition.

Post# 1135233 , Reply# 10 12/4/2021 at 01:12 (873 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c )
Checkrate/Likes 1 *RE Off brands,,* In North Carolina, at least in my hometown of Lenoir, Just about everything was electric, The very few gas ranges you saw were Hardwicks, Tappans or Magic Chef, The electric ranges were GE,Norge Philco Crosley Admiral Frigidaire Monarch and Westinghouse.My cousin bought a house in 1967 It had a stainless Enterprise cooktop and wall oven, They were off brands but She loved them, that oven baked beautifully, Occasionally you might see a Magic Chef Chateau electric or a Dixie, but not many.

Post# 1135245 , Reply# 11 12/4/2021 at 08:39 (872 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes 1 The trouble with some off brand stoves, especially electric stoves made by gas stove manufacturers, were things like no top heat during bake, no oven vent or one electric broiler element where the gas oven burner would be as the only oven heater. John had a customer with I think a Sunray electric that had no oven vent (gas stove manufacturer figured that with no draft needed for a burner why spend money on an oven vent) and when she cooked in the oven, condensation ran down the walls. That and often poor quality porcelain led to rusting of oven liners and other parts of the stoves.

Post# 1135248 , Reply# 12 12/4/2021 at 09:13 (872 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes I had heard of some Sunray made ranges that did have the upper broiler element, where the liner rusted around the screws and the element fell! I have also seen some (possibly Sunray?) stoves that were so cheap there was not even an 8" top element, all 6"!

Post# 1135249 , Reply# 13 12/4/2021 at 09:13 (872 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)
Checkrate/Likes I had heard of some Sunray made ranges that did have the upper broiler element, where the liner rusted around the screws and the element fell! I have also seen some (possibly Sunray?) stoves that were so cheap there was not even an 8" top element, all 6"!

Post# 1135293 , Reply# 14 12/4/2021 at 18:44 (872 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Magic Chef in trailers* 1974 mobile home had MC in harvest gold,propane with no electrical. 1982 camper my neighbor wrecked had a cute little propane MC range in SS that I salvaged along with the Dometic fridge and a bunch of other stuff :)

Post# 1135306 , Reply# 15 12/4/2021 at 20:34 (872 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.)
Checkrate/Likes 2 RV ranges View Full Size

Post# 1137197 , Reply# 16 12/25/2021 at 00:05 (852 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)
Checkrate/Likes 1 An apartment I house-sat at had a harvest gold set of appliances, a very tinny BOL Hotpoint dishwasher, a Hotpoint top-freezer fridge that clearly wasn't frost-free and a no-name gas range, that I think was even 20", though I can't really remember, maybe it was 30... Steps below a more filled-out Almond Hotpoint set in an apartment the tenants lived in before, even a washer and dryer behind a sliding partioning door I never got to see, but heard the washer of... -- Dave

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