Forget your hankering for a modern Gaggenau or Viking, what could be better than vintage?? We found Dream Stoves when we were googling for stove pics and were almost immediately sold. These old stoves are beautiful and so well made that they last, last, last.
Dream Stoves specializes in stoves from the 20's throught the 50's. They sell small stoves, unrestored stoves and whole kitchens. They have info on antique appliances and forums as well. This is a great resource.
As for price: "our current pricing ranges from $ 2,500 - $ 15,000." Dream Stoves is in northern California, but they restore, sell and ship stoves nationwide. All of the stoves on their site are sold on a first come, first served basis, and the work looks primo.
Trust me, if I had a bigger apartment, AND if I had the kind of money theses cost AND if I didn't already have a vintage stove that's original equipment to my apartment, I would all over one of these like white on rice.
This seems to be stove/oven week...
I'm just going to link into yesterday's post with the comments I had about old stoves:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/110305/good-questions/good-questions-who-buys-vintage-stoves-004838#comments
I don't know if these can be retrofit or what, but if the older models work like mine... they don't have the internal thermometers and great insulation that newer models have... which give better regulation of consistent temperature.
God, these antigue designs are seductive, though, arent they? When I lived in Ireland in college, my GF at the time came from a farm and her ma had a big iron stove from the 19th century... peat burning. That was antique!
My stove's heat source is VERY difficult to set... it's either extremely high or extremely low, and if I fiddle trying to keep it low, the light goes out and I have to re-light the pilot with a match. Does anyone have an older model with similar problems? Like I said before, with vigilance and a little extra effort, I've never had a real issue with successful baking.
Again, my point yesterday about having an old oven... Depending on how you live... if you cook, cook, cook the week away, you'll know what to look for... If you just make coffee and order in everything else... Why would you want to replace a beauty like the one from yesterday or one of the above?
I cook cook cook, and I still can't bear to replace the 1909 Magic Chef bachelor stove I have. It's just so durn CUTE.
And it has a very small profile.
The stove top is no problem -- it's gas, and gas is just a pipe that you light. No technological innovation required. The oven is alot trickier, although it doesn't heat up my place like paul reports. Mine has no temperature regulation either (other than more or less flame that you manually adjust) so it can get hellish pretty quickly. Just inside the oven tho.
Great for roasting a chicken, but requiring a watchful eye and sixth sense for baking.
Mine came from a neighbor's backyard!
O salvage...
wish I knew a place to replace one of the double cast iron burners tho. A place in S.F. told me it would be $200 to make a new one, and that was a couple years ago.
The iron works places tell me there's a foundry in Michigan...meanwhile, I wish I still went to flea markets alot because I need to spot one in a heap somewhere.
craigslist is also fantastic for retro stoves -- there's so much renovation going on in Brownstone Brooklyn right now that people are throwing this stuff out, or selling them cheap . . .
for example
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/clt/108806780.html
cute!
I still think we should have and AT cooking club... as per the following post:
http://apartmenttherapy.com/ny/102605/the-kitchen/the-kitchen-chow-magazine-004666
Any takers out there?
I think AGA deserves a spot in this thing.
http://www.aga-ranges.com/models/four_oven.cfm
/s.
No one can make a stove come back to life like Dream Stoves can. It is amazing to see these stoves look like they did on the show room floor when they first came out. The customer service is great and the product will bring warmth to your home. For anyone looking to buy a refirbished stove or any stove really this is the place to go through. You wont regret it.