Electric stove question

[TC Chris]

I know we've got appliance fans here. The cottage has a late '40s Hotpoint (GE) pushbutton stove. The burners use two elements. I know they use various combinations of 240 and 120 VAC to get the various heat ranges. But does anybody know the sequence? Hi-2-3-Lo-Warm. High is both sets of coils at 240 because both glow red. 2 is outer ring at 240 (glowing) and inner ring--guessing here--at 120. But 3--maybe both rings at 120, and low is inner ring at 120, and Warm is both rings in series at 120?

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Post your question at automaticwasher.org and you will get an accurate answer, I myself am not sure as mine are 1957 and 1961 models, however you may be correct for the 8” burner.

[Motorola minion]

I can tell you first that an older range rated for 220-240 volts is usually a grounded 3-wire service. Those pushbuttons are often shown cryptically on a wiring diagram that only hard-core appliance techs can decipher

Three-wire 50-amp plugs are often used where a 4-wire is needed on older models, where it was OK to "ground" just to get 120v for timer motor and oven light.

A neutral conductor in the branch circuit and 4-wire receptacle/plug is technically required by the NEC if the range has oven light, timer, accessory outlets, etc. Ground conductors are not to carry operating current, no matter how small, for safety reasons I will not get into here.

Newer ranges and those served from sub-panels (main breaker is remote, usually at meter) will carry the neutral through but again, no heating elements are connected to neutral. The neutral is required to provide the 120 source for motors in residential dryers and lights/timers on ranges/cooktops/wallovens. The only exception to using neutral feeds for matrixing elements is commercial "steam tables" and other non-residential equipment that is wired with full neutrals via on-boardi breaker panels.

Having grown up around Hotpoint and GE ranges with same 5-setting "calrod" elements, I find the matrixing of dual elements for more heat ranges fascinating.

[TC Chris]

I can tell you first that an older range rated for 220-240 volts is usually a grounded 3-wire service. Those pushbuttons are often shown cryptically on a wiring diagram that only hard-core appliance techs can decipher

Three-wire 50-amp plugs are often used where a 4-wire is needed on older models, where it was OK to "ground" just to get 120v for timer motor and oven light.

A neutral conductor in the branch circuit and 4-wire receptacle/plug is technically required by the NEC if the range has oven light, timer, accessory outlets, etc. Ground conductors are not to carry operating current, no matter how small, for safety reasons I will not get into here.

This range has been sitting in the same place since it was purchased. When the cottage got remodeled, the ca. 1946 kitchen was not touched. (Imagine that; today a kitchen 5 years old is "dated" and an embarrassment to the homeowner). Yeah, it's 3-wire, and since this was a deluxe model it has lights in both ovens and a fluorescent tube above the burners and a timer, but I'm not worrying about meeting current codes right now. There is a bit of a learning curve for the various heat selections.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

In the '50s to '70s GE and Hotpoint also had TOL ranges and cooktops where 4", 6", and 8" separate coils were able to be selected on one of the 8" Carload burners for different pot sizes and heat ranges. On our "57 and '61 GE ranges the front the 8" burner has an Automatic Carload with center mounted sensor that is controlled by a slider instead of buttons and is temp controlled by a Thermistor. 2 types were made, one controlled by a fluid connected by a tube, one electrically controlled. The former type is far more dependable than the latter, which was used for a short time before reverting to the earlier type. I don't know the details, but I do know that parts for the Auto Calrod are like finding hen's teeth, so the in-op unit on our '61 is needing conversion to the 5 button type. I have the parts to do so, including the different and correct coil unit, just one more project languishing in the pipeline.

[Motorola minion]

This range has been sitting in the same place since it was purchased. When the cottage got remodeled, the ca. 1946 kitchen was not touched. (Imagine that; today a kitchen 5 years old is "dated" and an embarrassment to the homeowner). Yeah, it's 3-wire, and since this was a deluxe model it has lights in both ovens and a fluorescent tube above the burners and a timer, but I'm not worrying about meeting current codes right now. There is a bit of a learning curve for the various heat selections.

Chris Campbell

Just make sure the ground wire has not come loose anywhere. This was why my MIL was getting a shock just touching their old Tappan top/bottom oven range, the screw on the ground bus in the circuit breaker panel was loose!

[Firedome]

Bloody auto-correct changed "Cal-rod" to "Carload" twice, even despite my correcting it back! Hyphenated it this time to stymie it, so take that, you stupid spelling nanny !!I gotta learn how to turn that off...grrrr.

The Canadian-made ranges used to be mandated to have a fuse for each burner control circuit and there oven, so typically there would be 5 screw-in type glass fuses in a row on the top or back of the backsplash control panel... brilliant. Older ranges also had cool features like timer controlled accessory a/c outlets, a non-controlled a/c outlet, a plug in griddle-hotplate, rotisseries in the oven, light-up backsplashes, buttons that lit up different colors for each heat range, thermostatically controlled coils, selectable size coils, cast-iron heat sink plates for heat retention in the bottom of the oven, on and on, they were not like the gimmicky electronics-loaded and tinny, poorly made junk with a 5 year life expectancy that's typical of what's on sale now.

[19&41]

It went from a buyer's market to a seller's market, that's all. Folks settle, get less.

[electra225]

Roger, are you using a Google browser? The only thing the forum software will do is to underline mistakes and misspellings. It won't auto-correct them. If you are using a Google browser, that may explain the auto-correct situation. The forum software specifically does not recommend Google browsers. Bing, Firefox, Edge, almost anything but Google. I know on my phone I have a Google browser. I can't conduct business on my phone. I have to log in every time I try to get on the forum from my phone.

[Firedome]

Yep it's Google all right, I just need to get my arse in gear and figure out how to turn off that stupid feature. It just tried to turn arse into arsenal...LOL. Right now just too busy sitting on the beach, taking Daiquiri cruises on the "party barge" and drowning worms in Lake Champlain. The weather has been perfect, really the whole summer has been perfect so far, mid to high 80s, dry and sunny, so we're enjoying it before we return home on Monday. Haven't owed the lawns here and at home for 2 weeks... priorities!