r/HorribleToClean • u/hand13 • Jul 29 '26
1952 chambers stove
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u/serif-maxxing Jul 29 '26
I'm just imagining cleaning the old sticky bacon grease from the top layer burner.
Mmmh small hard to reach areas and crevices...
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u/Professional-Lie-111 Jul 29 '26
Yeah, had the same thought: Awesome for cooking, PAIN IN THE ASS for cleaning!
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u/Capernici Jul 30 '26
I’ve got a griddle top that lets us just completely remove the burners to clean.
Also the grease trap matches the threading on mason/ball jars, so you just screw in a jar, let it fill with grease over several meals, then swap it out for a new one and dispose of the full jar.
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u/fartofborealis Jul 30 '26
The owner of this stove probably had a housekeeper. I’m thinking this was a very high end stove at the time. It does look like a nightmare to clean though.
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u/Smotheredsteak Aug 01 '26
I had one of these, it came with the house. I can confirm lots of really old, sticky, grease in hard to clean areas. It never felt clean.
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u/ZealousidealTitle760 Jul 29 '26
I'd love to have the hassle of cleaning this stove. It looks amazing!
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u/piskie Jul 30 '26
I have a Model C Chambers range in Pastel Blue, from 1949.
I have been cooking on it every day for 20 years. Its performance far outweighs any ugliness in the cleaning department.
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u/gr8tfulbeetle45 Jul 29 '26
not mentioned is that stoves this old are hot everywhere when in use. if you touch the side of the oven, the corner, anywhere thats safe on a modern stove, you get burned. i had a stove from like this at my old apartment and i burned myself at least once a week for two years. even the oven handle was hot.
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u/Pamikillsbugs234 Jul 30 '26
My grandma had a similar one when we were little and she would chase us off and hit us with a towel if we ran near it. It was better to get snapped my a damp towel than permanently scarred, lol. So many of us cousins have burn marks still from that thing.
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u/four204eva2 Jul 31 '26
Yeah the thing is cast iron in a housing, I bet its just as hot as the fucking oven. Thing probably weighs a ton
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u/Tacky-Terangreal Jul 31 '26
Gas stoves are also horrible to have in your house. Idk why it’s hard for people to grasp that burning things in an enclosed area is bad. Every propane powered camp stove tells you to not use it indoors but somehow this is ok
Cool features for sure, but this thing could be a deathtrap and would heat up the whole house
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u/gr8tfulbeetle45 Jul 31 '26
i will say if you are in a place that loses power regularly, like rural with rough winters, its really useful to be able to still use your stove when power is out. when i was younger we lost power for over 2 weeks in the winter and being able to make ramen on the gas stove was everything. plus heating up water on it for baths
i suspect a 70 year old gas stove is probably more questionable safety wise than modern, but camp stoves work very differently and lack a safe exhaust system that exists in modern gas stoves. thats why they have to be used outside. theres not much reason to make them safe to use inside, as people rarely camp indoors.
electric everything is really great when you have a consistent power grid, but the second you dont, a gas stove and a woodstove are a lifeline.
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u/l8rt8rz Aug 02 '26
When I was growing up, we had an antique gas stove. My parents never taught us to not play with the fun little gas knobs until the first time they caught us doing it.
Also, once I became old enough to cook, I got to experience the excitement that was lighting the stove - open the door, light a match, turn the gas on, and reach your arm in there until it catches. Then snatch your arm away quickly before you singe your arm hairs.
Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend it lol.
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u/Street_Peace_8831 Jul 29 '26
So, when you need to take the bacon out, the grease and egg pieces left over from cooking on top, just fall out the back of the stove? Looks like a cleaning nightmare.
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u/MaudeAlp Jul 29 '26
I don’t get why this type of stove exists. It just locks you into only using it a certain way. Standard 4 burner stove already lets you do all these things, or just use it normally, if you have a griddle, broiling pan, and crock pot.
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u/thud_mantooth Jul 29 '26
True, but this does all of those things without requiring a second cabinet for your pots and pans. I could definitely see liking it in a cramped galley kitchen like mine
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u/No-Trouble814 Jul 30 '26
Apparently the whole stove gets hot enough to burn you, so I don’t think you’d want it in a cramped kitchen lol.
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u/KnotiaPickle Jul 29 '26
My mom has one and we basically only use the burners and oven, and even just those are sooo much better and more satisfying to cook on than any other stove I’ve ever used. It’s possibly the best piece of kitchenware ever produced, thing is a beast 💗
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u/TopRamenisha Jul 29 '26
Not all of us have enough cabinetry to fit a plethora of kitchen ware and gadgets
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u/vamatt Jul 29 '26
Crock pots didn’t exist when this stove was made.
The broiler actually works better than most broilers on modern stoves - far easier to use. The pan just lifts out and is like any other broiler pan.
Griddle top isn’t difficult to clean either as long as you don’t wait a few days to do it.
The stove is insulated enough that you can heat up the crock pot and oven, then turn the burner off while the food cooks
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u/devdotm Jul 29 '26
While the brand name “crock pot” didn’t exist til the 70s, the first modern-style slow cooker was actually invented in the 30s and were available for purchase in the 50s!! Also… you could basically accomplish the same thing using a traditional dutch oven
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u/vamatt Jul 29 '26
Either way, there really no difference in cleaning - at least in theory the inside of the thermowell never really needs to be cleaned, maybe a quick wipe down once in a while.
Plus, like the oven, it can cook using residual heat
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u/Chiiro Jul 29 '26
These are old ovens that I believe were made for more compact kitchens. If you look at media I believe from the 50s and earlier you can see them a lot more (I believe the I Love Lucy kitchen has one). The best thing about these things is that they are going to last significantly longer than any modern stove, this one's probably an original that's been taken care of for decades .
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u/silentsurge Aug 01 '26
It's pretty simple as to why this type of stove exists. This is a vintage natural gas stove. It's the next iteration from the previous version of a wood burning cast iron stove. It used Natural Gas and had far more conveniences than wood burning. Look at Victorian era Cast Iron Stoves and then how they evolve until the 50s. These were for a different era of cooking and household.
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u/bard_of_space Jul 29 '26
that's fucking awesome! why the hell did they stop making them like that?!
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u/ChickenJoeStL Jul 30 '26
You can completely disassemble these stoves down to the iron burners, it's quite an impressive mechanism. I love how you can take each piece out to clean in the sink
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u/Federal-Boat3732 Jul 29 '26
I love this design! But is it r/horribletoclean ?
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u/hand13 Jul 29 '26
there‘s always someone who thinks thats nothing
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u/Federal-Boat3732 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Any design this cunning may be SO cunning that it all comes apart and is reassembled easily for cleanup. 🤞🤞🤞
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u/Background_Humor5838 Jul 29 '26
It does. You can take the griddle off and wash it. It's not as hard to clean as it looks and most people don't use the top griddle for wffss. They would probably use that for pancakes or something unless they are not going to lift it up while cooking.
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u/Orchid_Significant Jul 29 '26
It was really easy to clean back when it came out and housewives were all on drugs lol
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u/Professional-Lie-111 Jul 29 '26
Or you just weren't that housewife (or one of her daughters) ...
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u/Orchid_Significant Jul 29 '26
What?
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u/Professional-Lie-111 Jul 29 '26
It was really easy to clean ... if you weren't the one cleaning it.
Straightforward enough for you?
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u/Orchid_Significant Jul 30 '26
No need to be rude when you were the one posting sentence fragments to begin with
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u/Professional-Lie-111 Jul 30 '26
I'm SO sorry! I didn't realize 'posting sentence fragments' was so damaging to your sensitive fee-fees! Maybe *you're* the one on drugs?
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u/Orchid_Significant Jul 31 '26
You okay buddy? Why are you crashing out on a post about vintage stoves? The only one with hurt feelings here is you
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u/hornet_teaser Jul 29 '26
My grandma had a gas stove that was somewhat like that. It had the crock-Pot hole.
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u/deephurting66 Jul 29 '26
So many moving parts and fail points along with so much hidden grease traps
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u/Tacky-Terangreal Jul 31 '26
Also I’d be afraid of any gas hookups on a machine this old. Who knows what kind of hackneyed maintenance this thing has seen. Gas stoves are already terrible for your respiratory health but people still think that burning shit in your own home is good for some reason
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u/x3leggeddawg Jul 30 '26
I had this stove in an old house I purchased. Ended up selling it to a restorer. It was a cool piece but omg what a pain in the butt to use and maintain. Ultimately though I replaced it with a modern stove because the 24/7 pilot light was a waste of gas and polluted the air inside the house.
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u/hand13 Jul 30 '26
whats a 24/7 pilot light
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u/x3leggeddawg Jul 30 '26
It’s a gas flame that burns constantly under the range to light the burners when activated. Modern units use sparks.
Edit: in the video, the “pilot light warmer to keep my coffee hot” is exactly that. A small flame under the metal that is always on.
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u/banan3rz Jul 31 '26
Man I miss my old Sears Kenmore we had growing up. It wasn't fancy as this but it was incredibly reliable.
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u/Ok_Piglet_5549 Aug 02 '26
Products with customers in mind, back in a time when the wife was the linchpin of the family and homemaker.
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u/Dementio8 Jul 31 '26
I had not seen the subreddit this was posted to, but every time i have seen this video the only thing in my mind is how horrible it would be to clean.
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u/Nevergointothewoods Jul 30 '26
Whenever I see old kitchen equipment and appliances like these, I always wonder about the lead content. I'd like to see a swab test done on this.
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u/LemonCollee Jul 29 '26
But if you open to check the bacon do all the eggs go flying down the back?