A Different Kind of Pilot Light

I have a treat for you today.  I am going to share string of emails I exchanged with Jeff, a Tappan Talk reader.  Jeff also shared some great pictures of his new stove and some of his restoration activity.  Take a look at the very unusual standing pilot system. Also, notice the nice shot of the foot pedal on the base of the stove that opens the broiler.

"Hi, I love your wonderful blog on the old Tappan stoves.

I found a Tappan Deluxe in [Iowa]. Last Saturday I rented a van and drove from [Wisconsin] to [Iowa] and picked it up. It was in a 1950's brick, ranch style house. It was being sold by the daughter of the original owners. She thought it was a 1952 model.
I spent all day Sunday cleaning it. I have to say, after working on old cars, radios and outboard motors looking under the hood of an old stove is very depressing. Lots of rust and grease. But no matter the stove is hooked up and working.

A few interesting details. The tag on the back of the stove has a date of July 8, 1954 and was apparently sold by The Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company in Chicago. This stove is a CP model but there is no standing pilot in the oven. Instead the oven uses the top right burner pilot and is described a single point ignition on the oven control panel. It has amber burner rings, gold details, simmer burners and pyro-grates. It does not have the chrome window trim however. It has one last test to pass. I need to see if the oven thermostat is working. Cross your fingers!"

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"Wow, that stove is excellent. I'm curious if the tag on the back is indicating that the gas company sold the stove....or the date they hooked it up & inspected it.  Very interesting. Also, the standing pilot configuration is something I have never seen before. Just when we think we have seen everything, I get en email with something new :) I was amazed at how much of the "rust" actually washed away on the parts under the top of my stove. Pull out the burners & wash them and it will give you an idea if the rest if surface or not. Also, anything that does not touch a flame, can be touched up with black high heat paint - looks good and also keeps the rust in check. Well, worth the drive to pick her up!!! Tappan Talk"

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"Hello, Thanks for all the work you do to post reader's stories and pics. Your site is very informative and helpful. Now that you mention it, I believe you are right that the tag was probably from the gas company that hooked up the stove. The house that the stove was in is for sale and I looked up the info about the house. It was built in 1957 so I think the daughter's parents must have either bought the stove used or lived someplace near Chicago when it was purchased new. I wrote her today and asked for more details so maybe the date can be nailed down with more certainty. Thanks! Jeff"

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"Well I crossed my fingers but the oven on my Tappan Deluxe from [Iowa] was not happy. My oven has a very complicated safety/ignitor called a Bryant Type JSP Range-Lyter. It controls gas through 6 connections and there are 3 pilots involved in running the oven!! I wish my stove had the simple "push the red button" type safety. I had to remove the safety and send it off [for] a rebuild at $195. I included a pic of the part. Jeff"

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"Too bad that your safety needs to be rebuilt, but I suppose we are lucky that there are still folks available to do it. Tappan Talk"

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"Hello again, Here are some before and after pics of my Tappan Deluxe from [Iowa]. The oven safety was rebuilt [and] the safety is working ok and the oven is baking pizza! I took the top off and cleaned up all the grease and dirt, removed the surface rust, treated it with Rust Reformer and painted it with high heat black paint. I did the same to the front brackets that hold down the top. I'm really glad to know that things are clean and the rust is under control! I removed the oven burner, burner spud and holder and cleaned out the oven. I repainted the spud holder and cleaned up the gas lines. Gallons and gallons of black water have gone down the drain. I ordered some teflon insulated wire from www.bulkwire.com and some ceramic wire nuts from McMaster Carr and my last project is to rewire the burner control back-lighting.

Wow what a project! As you might be able to tell from the pics, the stove just fits into the space. There are only fractions of an inch of wiggle room. I live in an apartment building built in 1916 [Wisconsin]. The counter tops and cupboards in my kitchen are pretty horrible but the stove is working!

I took the Visiminder works to a clock shop to be reassembled after I got in over my head LOL. I will give you an update on that soon."

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"Thanks for the update! I'm anxious to get to your stove, as the pilot arrangement is so unusual. I do have instructions on adjusting the oven burner spud, if you ever need them. TT"

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Jeff, thanks for sharing your great photos & restoration info!

Found on A Porch

I enjoy getting emails from people telling either about their stove's history or how they found & bought their stove.  Here's an email I received from Granny Sue.

In 1976 I bought a Tappan stove (although not a deluxe model) and I loved that stove. Then we moved and were on LP gas. The price got so high for gas that an electric stove was a better deal so we got rid of the Tappan--not knowing what a treasure we had.

Since we would have gas again, I started looking for another Tappan, preferably a Tappan Deluxe. My son located one on a porch not far from where he lives with a for sale sign--$50. He checked it out, called me, and bought the stove on the spot. He has it at his house now and has plugged it in to see the if the lights work. All but one red burner light came on; we'll have to check into that.

This stove belonged to the same lady from the time it was new. She passed away and the granddaughter who now lives in her house wanted a new stove. The stove has all its parts--burner covers, knobs, drawers, etc and is in just beautiful condition. I do not know if the oven works properly, and after reading about the themostat issues people have had I'm a little worried about that, but the stove did work fine right up until it was put on the porch about 2 months ago.

If anyone has thermostat tips or info. on getting her red burner knob to light up again for Granny Sue, please comment. Also, I'd be interested to hear what features readers see in these stoves (rather than fill these posts with only my observations).......

June's Tappan Deluxe

These photos are of June's Tappan Deluxe with a model number of TV-6219. Her stove is original to her 1950's house and she is only the 3rd owner of the Tappan!  June sent the photos with a few questions.

She was hoping to discover what year her stove was manufactured; if the silver burner rings were original or if they once were glass; and what to use to clean the stove.

My response to her included the following observations.

I suspect the stove is a 1950's (or so) model. It has a knob turning on the back splash light instead of the earlier pull chain.

The stoves are amazingly easy to clean. If you look on my blog, you will find pages on how to clean the burners..how to removed the manifolds to clean...how to clean the broiler, etc.

I'm almost certain that the chrome rings are original to the stove. They were typical for your model. If a stove had glass rings, they would have little light bulbs behind the rings to light them up.

I like to use the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to clean my stove. Goof Off works really well to remove built up grease, ect. A straight edge razoe also is good just to scrape off gunk,

I am very curious about the switch on the far right side of the back splash. What does it  turn on? The oven? This is only the second stove I have seen with that feature.

Okay Tappan Talk readers, now it's your turn. What feature do you see on June's stove? What cleaning tips do you have?  Do you know what the switch on the back splash does?

Replacing Light Bulbs

Here's some handy information on the wattage of light bulbs to use in your Tappan Deluxe.

The bottom section includes instructions on replacing the burner lights, if you are lucky enough to have burner indication lights. The text in parenthesis says it applies only to 669 series, but in reality it also applies to 67, 667 and any earlier model that includes those lights.

Removing the manifold (the little section covering the burner knob areas) is easy.

Keeping it in the Family

Photos of another reader's Tappan Deluxe AV-669 model for you.

"Max" was discovered in blog reader Charles' grandmother's basement. It had been untouched for many years since his grandfather passed away. His grandfather had taken apart the thermostat and parts but never got around to replacing them.  Charles was able to replace the thermostat with a Robertshaw 2200 and get the stove hooked up in order to use it for Thanksgiving.

The Robertshaw 2200 is a non-CP thermostat, so Charles is now on the hunt for a Robershaw 2200-s that has both manual and automatic operation.

Max also has a replaced light fixture inside the oven, reconnected wiring to make the light on the top operable, and has newly functioning illuminated burner knobs (thanks to some creative soldering).

On the "to do" list is rewiring the clock. If anyone has tips on rewiring the clock, please comment.

This Tappan Deluxe will eventually be the focal point in a retro/modern kitchen in an renovated apartment in an old sweater factory that was a speakeasy during prohibition  (1931-33).

Charles - thanks for sharing your photos!

Joe's Tappan Deluxe Stove

One of Tappan Talk's readers emailed photos of his stove to share. Joe's stove is a model AV-669-16 named "Precious" :)  His stove has all of the bells and whistles - red glass back plates on the burner knobs, three chrome crisper drawers, and the "gold package" on the clock and handles.

He recently hunted down a replacement for the missing broiler handle trim piece in the photo.

You can see the sign on the far right side of the back splash indicating the stove is a CP stove. The clock has three knobs. The stove has a chrome base.  Note the burner cover trays stored in the side compartment doors.

Thanks for sharing!

Treats

Over this past long weekend, one on my blog readers dropped off some parts I had been missing for my Tappan Deluxe :) And one I wasn't missing, but really wanted.

The first photo is a shot of the orignal bracket that sat on the front corners of the top of the stove & held the top in place from underneath. Part of mine had rusted away.



This next photo is of the freshly painted replacement bracket. Looks much better.



One of my stove burner knobs was cracked in back and I kept meaning to order a new one. I now have a replacement.



And finally, I always thought it would be fun to have one of the pull out drawers with towel holders for the right side storage compartment. I spent the weekend cleaning up this vintage drawer...took the wheels off to clean them...and used Liquid Wrench to get them rolling again. Because all of the bodies of the Deluxe are the same, it's a pretty easy matter to install this on my stove, even though my stove did not have this part originally.







If you are looking for a vintage Tappan Deluxe parts, I have added Katy's contact information to the left sidebar (yellow shaded box). Shoot her an email and ask her is she has the part you need for sale/exchange.