Heavily Insulated

I recently received a request from Katy for cooking tips when using a Tappan oven.  This is a topic that I don't think we have touched on previously.  The Tappan Deluxe models (and probably other models too) have what is described in Tappan Materials as a "heavily insulated" oven.

They actually talk a little bit about it in some of the Owners' Manuals. I have included one of the pages below.

The Manuals actually include pages of cooking and baking times (watch for manuals on Ebay - they come up frequently and sell for ballpark $10-15.)

Adjusting Top Burners

Quite a few folks have been asking for any info. available on adjusting the top burners. Here is the info. I have from an old late 1940's manual.  It will most likely apply to the Tappan Deluxe models. I'm not certain about other models.

If this information is helpful to you (especially those converting from gas to propane), please leave a comment to help others working on the same issue. 

I received the following email from Charlie. Any advice readers can offer him regarding restoring the burners would be appreciated.

"Attached are some photos of the stove.  We just purchased it off of Craigslist for $140.  The guy we bought it from put it together from 2 stoves that he got off of Craigslist - one in Ohio and one in Illinois.  Both of those had issues with dents and wear, so he used one for parts to fix the other.  He never finished getting it working though and his wife had a change of heart and decided for a more modern stove.  Now I have to get it working with no knowledge of how to go about doing it (I tried calling appliance repairmen in the area, but none knew anything about older stoves).   I'm going to start by getting the burners cleaned and as you can see, I have some parts missing on the right side burners, so I will try to figure out how to replace those.

Any advice that anyone can give to me on what to do or who to call or where to get parts, I will gladly take.
Thanks again,
Charlie"

My advice to Charlie was.....

It might be worth your while to look for complete replacement burner - it might be difficult to get a old replacement burner top that will tightly fit (i.e. no gas leaks) your existing burner. You have the "contro-lo-eat burner" in front.

You might contact this seller on Ebay:  I have purchased parts from him in the past, as have some of Tappan Talk readers and his prices have been reasonable.

This is another resource (I purchase insulation and an oven light socket from them)

Tappan Deluxe Wall Oven

I received the following photo from Andrew. I've also included our email exchange.  Watch for a follow up post on a similar wall oven......



"Hi,

I came across your site while attempting to learn more about the oven shown in the attached photograph. I found the photo in a bin full of vintage photographs at an antique store, so I know little about the background. I can tell you that it appears to have been taken at a trade show in the late 1950's. The company that took the image was Chicago Photographers, once located at 26 E. Huron St. in Chicago, and the file number (if it should ever be handy) is #23463-5.

I don't know the model # (it is a Deluxe), and haven't found any examples online yet that match. Perhaps you know?

Andrew"

"Wow, thanks for sharing the photo.  Would you mind if I posted it on my blog for readers to see?  It's interesting to me that the oven appears to have the same handles w. a crest as a mid-50's Deluxe model.  Behind the men to the left must be the built in cooktop. I wonder is those are some of the Tappan executive. 

Very interesting!

TappanTalk"

"Hi TT,

Sure, go ahead and use the photo on your blog. I sent it to you in the hope that you'd share it with your followers.

I suppose the trade show might have been earlier than I'm guessing - I was going by the woman's dress which looks more late 50's than mid. But the guy on the left has on a wild tie more typical of the early to mid 50's. And the guy on the right looks like Dick Clark era stuff. So I was really just taking a stab at the date. Any idea what model it is?

I wonder if there's any information out there on the dates that Tappan participated in a trade show in Chicago. 

Andrew"

"Great, thanks. It may take a few weeks before I post, as I have a bit of a backlog in reader's stove pics to post first. [that turned out to be an understatement]

My guess is that if this was a trade show, this was an early prototype model that showed the future of Tappan products.  This would explain the older Deluxe handles.  It would also explain the round clock, etc.  If you hit the "mid-century" label on the side of my blog, you will see late 50's -early 60's versions of this type of model.  They have slim oven handles and elongated clocks.

If you look at my Feb 2nd post, that shows an ad for new Tappan wall ovens.  It has one similar (except the handles) to yours.  If you look close, the cabinets even have the same hardware as your photo.  We know that one is from a 1955 magazine.  I believe your's is just a tad earlier (because of the handles).  Of course, it's all just conjecture.

It would be fun to see if the Chicago show could be tracked down (one reader traced his stove to a state fair exhibit).  I keep hoping a Tappan employee old timer will find the blog.....

TT"

Andrew, thanks for sharing this great photo!

Thermostat Mystery

Connie and Tom sent me this email about their Tappan Deluxe...

"We are looking for an age for our Tappan Deluxe. HDV 64 -3 Serial number  254710.  My husband grabbed this almost 20 years ago  “free for taking”.  It is my prized possession…I absolutely love it!  We we’re so happy to find your blog…we have searched for years for info On these old stoves! Thanks for any input you can give us!"

The things I noticed about the stove: The model is a later version of the Deluxe...early 1950's. Probably '52 - '54. The broiler foot pedal was a later option. The stove has Telechron clock which is a little unusual for the later models which seems to have the time control clock. The clock also has chrome knobs...which is a nice feature :) It's also a little unusual for this model to be a non-CP (without a standing pilot). These later stoves seems to almost be made to order because there is so much variance in the features. The stove has those very nice chrome burner knob backs...those are special!

Connie and I exchanged a few emails about her oven not working properly. We originally discussed the possibility that their thermostat needed work, and then I received this update:

"Just wanted to let you know… I told you our Tappan oven was not working….not getting hot. We had the oven pulled out, so we took everything apart, Tom wanted To make sure that is was the oven control before we sent it away to be rebuilt. After taking the burners completely out and cleaning them, they did not work right either! If you got one burner lit, and lit another, the first one would go out! So Tom checked the gas line, low pressure! He went down and tried to light the hot water tank… It had low gas pressure. We called the gas company. Our meter was broke, they replaced it. While we have the “old girl” pulled out he is replacing the flexible gas line, then I should be BAKING Christmas cookies!!"

A good reminder to start with the basics when addressing stove problems. And, yes, I am that far behind in posting reader's stove pictures (those Christmas cookies she baked are long gone, I am sure).  Be patient, I have many more reader's stoves to share....





Connie and Tom - Thanks for sharing your photos and info.!

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!

Tappan Deluxe on the Small Screen

I received an email from Jeff with a Tappan Deluxe sighting in the wild....

"A new show on HGTV called Cash & Cari has a Tappan Deluxe in the first episode. Sounds like it gets damaged however.

When: Saturday January 01 at 2pm eastern on HGTV

Also in this episode... Cari agrees to pay thousands for the contents of an entire home. But will she uncover enough treasures to justify the monumental cleanup? A rare vintage stove gets banged up on the way to the warehouse. And, back at the shop, a hopeful collector comes in with an Impressionist painting. But is it a real Degas?

There is also a photo gallery for the episode and there is a picture of the Tappan Deluxe."

I don't have cable, but if anyone watches this episode I hope they post a comment!

A Vintage Replacement

Maureen sent me a couple of emails about her new Tappan Deluxe. Along with the email info, she included photos of vintage Magic Chef she previously owned. Both stoves seem to be a good fit for her 1920's Tudor style house.

"I found Tappan Talk today as I was waiting for the delivery of the Tappan I purchased.

[...]The Tappan I have is model TV63X16 serial number 203049. It has red rings around the knobs, I wonder if these are supposed to light up. The clock doesn't work, but it looks cool. It is not a CP model so the oven has to be lit each time.

It was built in Mansfield, OH.  I bought it yesterday from a used appliance dealer in the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland, OH. I think he got it from an estate sale.

The stove is a replacement for a 1948 Magic Chef which I had since 1976. It finally needed a new thermostat and I am hoping that my money was better spent in getting this Tappan. It now is in the kitchen of our 1929 house - not a bungalow. There are plenty of beautiful bungalows in our neighborhood.  Our is more of an English shingle covered tudor (I guess). We've been here since 1986 but are still not finished.

The Tappan has a pull chain for the top light, which works. The oven light works, too. The oven is enamel.  There is on wire shelf in the left storage space, and no shelves or racks in the right storage space. It has red glass rings behind the control knobs, but they do no light up.  I don't think they were ever intended to light up - I took off the manifold covers and there is no sign of wiring, a switch or a light. I guess it is a 60 series - so it must be late 40s or early 50s.

I think my Grandmother had one like this - I kind of remember it. I need to look through old family photos to verify.(That would have been in the early 1950s.)"

Maureen also sent me a follow-up email with some VERY interesting info. that she discovered (and agreed to let me post).  Watch for this in an upcoming post :)

Thanks Maureen for sharing your photos.....and the upcoming surprise!

Gleaming

Joe dropped this email to me about his shiny Tappan Deluxe...

"I took some pictures of my tappan for you. I bought this in 2006 from the granddaughter of the original owner. It was in good shape but needed a major cleaning. Over the last 4 years, I found the burner covers and the oven racks on ebay, ordered new burner knobs and replaced all of the bulbs. The only thing I have left to do is to rebuild the thermostat, find a pair of pyrex burner trivits and rebuild the clock again. I have attempted to rebuild the clock two times already out of parts I found on ebay, but it dosen't keep time very well. I think the problem is in the coil, because the telechron rotor works fine and the gears turn easily. The inside of the oven is almost spotless as is the porcelan finish on the exterior. We have the stove in our basement kitchen and it works better and is alot easier to clean than the new stove upstairs.
Thanks, Joe"

If anyone has Telechron clock repair advice for Joe, I'm sure he'd be happy to hear it. Check out the Tappan Chef salt & pepper shakers in the top of the stove. And if you peek in the pull out cutlery drawer on the open right storage area, I think I spot the same set of solid white Roman arch shakers that Katie showed us a few months ago.

Also, does anyone have any ideas for reproduction versions of the pyroglass plates that fit on the burner grates of some of the Tappan Deluxes? There certainly are quite a few stove owners looking for them.

Thanks, Joe for the photos. Your stove looks great in that kitchen!

Center of Attention

I received the following email from Joe M.  We met Joe's Tappan Deluxe, Precious,  last year. At that time, Precious was sitting in Joe's garage. Joe is a commercial designer, so I was excited to see the new kitchen design with Precious as the centerpiece.

"Dear Tappan Talk,

Now that I have been able to move my stove Precious into place I am ready to seriously address some of her operational issues. My Tappan is a 1950 AV669-16 previously posted in your blog and although her knobs are working (glowing red) I found the cove lights do not work nor does the clock. I want to remove the cove containing these components but am wondering if the electrical components will cleanly “unplug” from the stove body in the removal process. Do you have any information? Also I have found your blog extremely helpful regarding my oven pilot light. This will not stay lighted but I found references to this problem under both Thermocouple and Thermostat and will re-address this with a qualified stove technician and hope to fix this as well as regulate the thermostat. Fingers crossed I won’t have to have it re-built!"

And then a quick update from Joe...

"...I have been tweeking the kitchen still further, switched-out the clock for one with a chrome (plastic) frame w/black face & white numbers & this weekend I bought a stainless steel shelf from IKEA to hang below the clock instead of the Victorian one I currently have. I’m trying to add a more commercial look/feel to the stove area to compliment Precious.

My kitchen guy has now added upper cabinets to which I am adding lights as well & with these cheap base cabinets, the kick bases are all the same as the cabinet finish….white…so I’m getting 20’ of black vinyl cove to glue to the kick base. The black will look more authentic and also help diffuse the differences in white between the floor and cabinet. I’ll send pics of this too when I finish."

This kitchen looks like it's out of the pages of a magazine. Thanks for sharing them Joe!

Is It A Standard?

Karen sent me these photos along with this email ...

"I'm glad to discover your blog. I have a Tappan stove,

The label on the stove says it is model number ZCKV 2662 Lot #2. Serial # H13088. Based on the description of the stove, which I found online, I think it is the 1953 Model 60. A previous repair guy told me it was the Standard model and so not worth saving, like a Deluxe. It came with the house I bought 8 years ago. The previous owner had bought it, fixed it up and installed it. The back lights up like a jukebox. There is a light in the oven, a clock that moves but doesn't keep time and recipies on the backsplash."

This stove looks a lot like a Deluxe, except the clock on the backsplash is rectangular, the door handles are more streamlined, the burner knobs and manifold panels are chrome. It has a pull out utensils drawer and towel holders in the right storage area, but I've never seen a blue drawer before. Finally, the thermostat knob is larger than a typical Deluxe.  1953 sounds like it might be about right.

Any other observations?

Is It a Tappan?

I have another mystery for you.  Mindy sent me photos of this cute stove asking if it is a Tappan.

I don't know.

The stove says "Deluxe" on the back splash. It has some features similar to a Tappan....and some that aren't.

The owners, Mindy and her husband, believe the stove is original to their 1951 house.  They tell me the stove appears to be propane. Other than the back splash, they haven't been able to find any with writing on the stove. What do you think?









Thanks for the photos, Mindy! Tappan or not, it's a great looking vintage stove.