The Fantastic Fantabulous Frigidaire Flair! (cat not included)
Sooner or later, I had to write an ode to my obsession of the last 3 years......the 44 (or so) year old oven in my kitchen. I absolutely LOVE it. I have never been so attached to an appliance in my entire life. In fact I have a closer relationship to it than I have to most people, which, when you look at it, is kind of sad statement on my relationships with people, but I digress.
Actually, when I first moved in with my future husband four years ago, I hated that oven. He lived in a 40 plus year old house, and everything in it was 40 plus years old too. Stepping into this house is like stepping back in time. The spirits of progress, home maintenance and remodeling have never stopped here; as though an overpass were built over us on the spirit superhighway.
As a professional pastry chef, I felt it was a punishment bestowed on me to have to deal with a "substandard" kitchen in my personal life, and I was stuck with an old beat up oven that had probably never been cleaned in it's entire 40 years. Not only that, but it was almost completely useless. It had four burners, but only one worked. It was a double oven, but only the small one worked. Even worse, I couldn't get a lot of normal sized baking dishes in the small oven......never mind a Thanksgiving turkey. Because of this hindrance, the first year I lived here, we tried smoking a turkey, but we couldn't find rolling papers that big. No! I kid! We used our outdoor smoker, but you know, if you're going to smoke a turkey, you need to do it slowly over a couple of days. It's not something you can pull off in under 6 hours. Needless to say, we ate smoked turkey leather that year.
I finally had really just had it with that piece of crap oven and I was frustrated beyond belief. How could I perform my housewifely duties with substandard equipment? I kept pushing my husband about remodeling, but he always deflected the topic when I brought it up. Later, after I took over the family bookkeeping, I discovered that a remodel was WAY OFF into the future, if ever. Ok fine. Forget the remodel. How about a new oven, at least!!!??? Something that works?? Something I could cook dinner on? One small problem....when the kitchen was built 40 plus years ago, it was built around the oven, since it was so "state of the art" at the time. It was the "oven of the future!" If I got a NEW, as in, built after the year 2000, oven, I would have to cut the cabinet that my Flair was sitting on out..... and I would lose cabinet space, and also, the new oven would look horrifically out of place in my old, 1960's kitchen. Frigidaire Flairs came with an optional base cabinet that they sat on if you didn't build a kitchen to accommodate them....in my case, the kitchen was built for it, meaning that we had our own custom built cabinets sitting underneath. What to do?
On a whim I decided to search eBay to see if MAYBE someone was trying to get rid of an old Flair that at least worked better than the one I had. What luck! Not one Flair, but many Flairs were up for sale! There was a beautiful one in Michigan that I missed out on, and another hindrance was that many people refused to ship the ovens because of the hassle, stating "local pickup only".....much to my chagrin. Finally, I saw a listing from a guy in Kansas City who was actually willing to ship to the winning bidder. The Flair he was offering was in perfect working condition except for the clock (which is pretty normal....hardly any clocks work on old Flairs). I won the auction for a final price of $200.....the shipping was $250, but totally worth it! My husband installed the "new" old Flair and we took the old old Flair to the dump.....it was beyond repair unfortunately, although we salvaged some parts from it, for future repair purposes.
Now that I had a WORKING Flair oven, I fell in love! I love the fact that it's a double oven. I love that the ovens are at eye level, and I can see right into them. I love the "speed heat" burner and the "heat minder" burner. Although the stovetop can slide inside and be out of sight, I never slide it in, because I use it so much. My Flair fits right in with my old kitchen since that's the kitchen I will have to live with for some time to come.
You'd think that since I finally possessed a working oven, the story would end there. Not so fast. My Flair still needs work. I'd love for the clock to work, and the timer. The Flair also came with some neato optional features, like the "Kant Slide Griddle", the rotisserie, the "Broiler Grill" and a meat probe. The meat probe wasn't optional, but seems to be missing from almost any Flair owner's inventory. I got a Kant Slide Griddle, but I am still hunting for the Broiler Grill, the meat probe and the HOLY GRAIL, the rotisserie attachment! I KNOW there's someone out there with a Flair, in good condition, and has all those accessories too! I'm just waiting........for you to give them up.
I love my old crappy 1960's kitchen. I love my Flair! I'm a chef that knows how to "make do", as well as "make dough".
For other Flair owners, here's a couple of links you might find fun and useful:
Frigidaire Flair Forums and Tech Talk Manual Download!
Dan Langdon's Flair Page!
Actually, when I first moved in with my future husband four years ago, I hated that oven. He lived in a 40 plus year old house, and everything in it was 40 plus years old too. Stepping into this house is like stepping back in time. The spirits of progress, home maintenance and remodeling have never stopped here; as though an overpass were built over us on the spirit superhighway.
As a professional pastry chef, I felt it was a punishment bestowed on me to have to deal with a "substandard" kitchen in my personal life, and I was stuck with an old beat up oven that had probably never been cleaned in it's entire 40 years. Not only that, but it was almost completely useless. It had four burners, but only one worked. It was a double oven, but only the small one worked. Even worse, I couldn't get a lot of normal sized baking dishes in the small oven......never mind a Thanksgiving turkey. Because of this hindrance, the first year I lived here, we tried smoking a turkey, but we couldn't find rolling papers that big. No! I kid! We used our outdoor smoker, but you know, if you're going to smoke a turkey, you need to do it slowly over a couple of days. It's not something you can pull off in under 6 hours. Needless to say, we ate smoked turkey leather that year.
I finally had really just had it with that piece of crap oven and I was frustrated beyond belief. How could I perform my housewifely duties with substandard equipment? I kept pushing my husband about remodeling, but he always deflected the topic when I brought it up. Later, after I took over the family bookkeeping, I discovered that a remodel was WAY OFF into the future, if ever. Ok fine. Forget the remodel. How about a new oven, at least!!!??? Something that works?? Something I could cook dinner on? One small problem....when the kitchen was built 40 plus years ago, it was built around the oven, since it was so "state of the art" at the time. It was the "oven of the future!" If I got a NEW, as in, built after the year 2000, oven, I would have to cut the cabinet that my Flair was sitting on out..... and I would lose cabinet space, and also, the new oven would look horrifically out of place in my old, 1960's kitchen. Frigidaire Flairs came with an optional base cabinet that they sat on if you didn't build a kitchen to accommodate them....in my case, the kitchen was built for it, meaning that we had our own custom built cabinets sitting underneath. What to do?
On a whim I decided to search eBay to see if MAYBE someone was trying to get rid of an old Flair that at least worked better than the one I had. What luck! Not one Flair, but many Flairs were up for sale! There was a beautiful one in Michigan that I missed out on, and another hindrance was that many people refused to ship the ovens because of the hassle, stating "local pickup only".....much to my chagrin. Finally, I saw a listing from a guy in Kansas City who was actually willing to ship to the winning bidder. The Flair he was offering was in perfect working condition except for the clock (which is pretty normal....hardly any clocks work on old Flairs). I won the auction for a final price of $200.....the shipping was $250, but totally worth it! My husband installed the "new" old Flair and we took the old old Flair to the dump.....it was beyond repair unfortunately, although we salvaged some parts from it, for future repair purposes.
Now that I had a WORKING Flair oven, I fell in love! I love the fact that it's a double oven. I love that the ovens are at eye level, and I can see right into them. I love the "speed heat" burner and the "heat minder" burner. Although the stovetop can slide inside and be out of sight, I never slide it in, because I use it so much. My Flair fits right in with my old kitchen since that's the kitchen I will have to live with for some time to come.
You'd think that since I finally possessed a working oven, the story would end there. Not so fast. My Flair still needs work. I'd love for the clock to work, and the timer. The Flair also came with some neato optional features, like the "Kant Slide Griddle", the rotisserie, the "Broiler Grill" and a meat probe. The meat probe wasn't optional, but seems to be missing from almost any Flair owner's inventory. I got a Kant Slide Griddle, but I am still hunting for the Broiler Grill, the meat probe and the HOLY GRAIL, the rotisserie attachment! I KNOW there's someone out there with a Flair, in good condition, and has all those accessories too! I'm just waiting........for you to give them up.
I love my old crappy 1960's kitchen. I love my Flair! I'm a chef that knows how to "make do", as well as "make dough".
Frigidaire Flair Forums and Tech Talk Manual Download!
Dan Langdon's Flair Page!
Comments
This article had you cooking on gas,as usual-or not!
My first post. A long one I am afraid.
I keep hoping for the Appliance Gods to drop a Flair into my kitchen but so far, no such luck. I am being an exceedingly, (one might say excessively), good boy in hopes Santa has some NOS Flairs at the back of the warehouse. Fingers crossed.
I am sending a friend your blog address. She is a new pastry chef at Marche Provisions, a chi-chi store/deli that is part of a mini upscale empire, Marche, Cafe Marche and Provisions, all in one location.
http://www.5stmarket.com/stores/specialty_foods/102/
She gave up work in Hollywood doing score copying for TV and Film. Her hubby transferred his postal job to support her. She's loving it. Of course she's in her twenties so the hours haven't ground her down.
She and her husband run the local MeetIn.com group, both sing in the local master chorale and they just bought a house. Oh, to be young!
We remodeled our home in Northern California with a fifties gas stove and then later a twenties gas stove, (with cabriolet legs!). The first came with a heater on one side, (the side next to the cabinets), and all the bells and whistle, griddle, center simmer burners, cover, fold down spice shelf, salt and pepper shakers... the older one came with a trash burner also on the wrong side. It was much smaller. The young woman who bought our place, (can you spell dot com?) had no intention of using, "that old thing". Both of those stove, (professionally restored), cooked wonderfully.
When we remodeled here in Eugene, Sara wanted a glass top stove. I wanted to use the gas line that had been brought in a few years before for the furnace and water heater. She got the glass top and I learned how to use a razor to scrape off the boil over foam I was constantly getting because the damn thing had no "feel". She bakes a lot, bread mostly, and the convection oven she likes.
Now in my little fifties bungalow I have the cheap stove that came with the place. Don't worry, we're still friends. Only two burners work and the oven runs hot. No cold. No hot. I keep putting off replacing it in hopes of a Flair or at least something with good looks. http://www.vintagestoves.com/stove/project/ Got a few thousand dollars you can front me?
Electric ovens don't age as well as gas. There are so many fewer and less delicate parts on an old gas stove. Even when you add auto start burners and better thermostats they are still simple. That and the ubiquity of gas hook ups explains the paucity of vintage electric stoves. All the vintage stove dealers I have found only sell gas stoves.
Thanks for your blog. It was a delight. I shall return!
gabh an latha,
Richard Dietzel
Eugene, OR
About your clock, I'd suggest you contacting this eBay seller
http://cgi.ebay.com/STOVE-CLOCK-RANGE-TIMER-GE-JENN-AIR-OVEN-REPAIR-712024_W0QQitemZ200217922329QQihZ010QQcategoryZ43566QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Here's the link to the seller's email and phone number in case the auction link would not work:
Please email info@generaltimerepairs.com or call 712-792-1248 with information off your particular unit label before bidding (see picture for label).
The seller had the exact same Jenn Air clock listed last year when I was searching for a clock for my 1960 Frigidaire range (not a Flair). I sent them a picture of my Frigidaire clock (made by GE) and they had the exact same one. Yours is a bit newer than mine but I'd take a chance asking them about it. I paid about 125$ for mine but that included the shipping to Canada.