Over the years, I've
received hundreds of e-mail's,
phone calls, and letters from
people
asking questions about their
CHAMBERS range. A lot of them
ask
questions I've answered before,
but I'm always happy to answer
them
again.
There
is one question, though, that
keeps getting asked, but it is
ME that asks
it! When someone tells me
they want to
sell their CHAMBERS, I always
ask them:
"What's wrong with your
CHAMBERS that could POSSIBLY
persuade you to
want to get rid of it?"
I routinely post this
question to people who are
selling them on eBay and
Craigslist, also!
The
typical responses I get from my
innocent little question cover
the gamut. I've heard every
response conceivable, such as -
* "The
oven is too
small."
* "Why
doesn't it have electronic
ignition?"
* "I
don't know how
to use it."
*
"Is it safe?
My
local gas company
red-tagged it,
then told me it was
dangerous and MUST be
replaced!" (OR - "My
local
appliance repairman
said that a new stove
is much better than
'this old
thing'.")
*
"Why does it only
have three burners?"
* "It's
old -
surely the new ones are
better!"
* "I
want a modern
kitchen!"
Etc.,
etc.,
etc.....you get the idea. Most
people
want to get rid of them
because they don't understand
WHY the CHAMBERS
is so vastly superior to the
modern stuff on the market
today.
So,
for
those who don't know, or
haven't heard, I've
written the following, which
is what I typically send out
to those who
are thinking about selling
their CHAMBERS and opting for
an ordinary
range:
You
really should keep your
CHAMBERS
Range!
Here's why:
1. IT'S BETTER
BUILT AND
OUTPERFORMS ANYTHING YOU CAN
BUY TODAY! A CHAMBERS
is, in
essence, a wonderfully designed,
wonderfully built stove. Nothing
on
the residential market today is
built as well as as a vintage
CHAMBERS.
In fact, according to the
world-famous kitchen designer,
chef, lecturer
on kitchen architecture, and
1949 Chambers Model 90C Range
owner Angela Phelan,
your CHAMBERS is BETTER than ALL
of the modern ranges built for
home
use today in every way! Further,
she states that it is a BETTER
than
80% of the professional
stoves being manufactured today,
and is JUST
AS GOOD as the remaining 20%! I
recently spoke with a fellow who
is a
professional chef and is the
owner of several high-end
restaurants in
New York City - he has a 1950
Chambers Model 61C in his home,
and he
adamantly affirms Angela
Phelan's comments. How's
THAT for an
endorsement?
2. IT HAS FEATURES
THAT
ARE UNEQUALLED IN MODERN
RANGES! Your
CHAMBERS has
features that no other range
has, be it from the past or
from the present. Nothing
on the current market can do
what your CHAMBERS
can do! From the In-A-Top Griddle and
Broiler
(who wants to stoop to broil
steaks, chops, and chicken,
anyhow?), to the ingenious
Thermowell, to the patented
9,000-BTU Daisy
Burners on the top with their
super-uniform heat distribution,
all the
way to the
super-insulated Oven that cooks
with the gas turned OFF on
retained
heat, NOTHING on
the modern market today offers
the features your CHAMBERS does!
3. MOST OF THESE
VINTAGE CHAMBERS RANGES
DON'T HAVE
TO BE RESTORED BEFORE THEY
CAN BE USED.
Typically, all they need is
some basic repairs (if any),
and some TLC.
That's all, unless they've
been really abused or
damaged,
of course. Places for parts
and service are plentiful,
and can be found HERE.
4. MODERN STOVES
CAN'T BE REPAIRED, NOR ARE
THEY DESIGNED TO BE! All
that they can do is have
their broken parts
"replaced".
Incidentally
- after
18-24 months after
manufacture, the common
practice is to cease making
all parts for it. That means
in, say, 5 years, the few
parts that might
remain will be available only
at sky-high prices, and, in
10, you won't
be able to get them at all, in
most cases!
Your CHAMBERS was
designed to be REPAIRED if it
ever breaks,
and will be for another 50
years!
I
know of a lady in New Jersey
that bought a brand NEW Viking a
some time ago for FIVE
THOUSAND DOLLARS. It BROKE
with A YEAR, and the repair
estimate to fix it was ONE
THOUSAND DOLLARS! She was SO
MAD that she went out looking
for
a
50-year old CHAMBERS to replace
the stupid thing. "At least
I'll know I
can get parts for it!", she said.
5.
YOUR CHAMBERS IS
AN
INVESTMENT. Lastly,
consider your
CHAMBERS an investment
- not only do you SAVE
money at the outset (even
semi-decent stoves today run
about what it would cost you to
repair a
CHAMBERS with typical problems
for it's age), it will SAVE YOU
MONEY
for the rest of your life.
Here's how:
A. Your
Chambers SAVES GAS when it
cooks. Whether you're cooking
with the
gas turned off, on retained
heat, or use it like a simple,
ordinary
range,
your CHAMBERS is SUPER-EFFICIENT
with it's use of gas. Most users
report as much as a 1/3 drop in
gas consumption used for cooking
when
they switch to a CHAMBERS. With
the high cost of energy these
days,
this is as important to us as it
was to those who lived during
the Great
Depression, when
the basic Chambers you have was
designed.
B.
Keeping
your CHAMBERS insures
long-term savings as well.
For example,
if you go out and buy a
Whirlpool range
(blechhhhh!), you're going
to
spend around $600.00 for the
cheap, crummy one - you
know, the one that
you get because "it's
cheap", even though you KNOW
it's JUNK. If you
get a "good" range, plan on
spending around $1,500 to
$2,500 (nearly
the price it would cost to
have your CHAMBERS totally
restored, by the
way). Now, deep down,
you KNOW that
the Whirlpool is "junk",
but you buy it because you
can "trust" it to
serve you well, but can
you, really?
* Not
only will you NEVER be able to
get the oven to cook "right"
(because it
doesn't have the cast iron oven
floor yours does which makes
your
CHAMBERS bake SO
evenly, thoroughly, and
rapidly), in about 3-5 years,
at best 7 or so, it IS
going to start having problems.
The cheap parts
and construction methods (as
seen on the popular TV show,
"How It's
Made") are all going to start
taking their toll on
the life of your "superior,
modern range." Pretty soon,
things are
going to start to go
wrong, and when the electronics
that control it go bad, forget it!
* The flimsy
burners it comes with will begin
to flake and corrode.
* The
electronic ignition (which, by
the way, WON'T let you light
ANYTHING
during a power
outage on most
models), will start to get
finicky, before it gets to where
it won't
work at all.
* The
oven igniter will go out (they
cost about $125.00, PLUS labor
to
install around here!). Your
CHAMBERS, which works WITHOUT
electricity,
will work
for years and years and years -
because it is NON-electronic.
Instead, it's mechanical,
which means greater reliability
over the long term, and
repairs, should it break, are
relatively inexpensive.
* The racks
can start to warp. Your CHAMBERS
racks haven't, and never will.
They
may be bent, but that was caused
by abuse, not by faulty design
or
materials. Besides, they can be
repaired or replaced.
In
Other Words, that modern
"thing"
you bought just flat wears out
- the gas
valves don't turn like they
should and
many
can't be re-greased (like a
CHAMBERS can), so you've got to
get ANOTHER
one. Now, you're back to the
"replacement experts" - there
are few bona fide
REPAIRMEN left anymore.
* NOW
- after no
more than 10 years (if you're REALLY
fortunate),
you're going to have to replace
it, and, allowing for inflation,
you're probably going to spend
somewhere between $1,000 and
$4,000 to
replace the unit that you bought
to replace your CHAMBERS, while the
lucky person who got YOUR
Chambers, unless they've died,
will still be
using it!
Of course,
the process I've just outlined
will occur more rapidly the
second time around, because,
by then, NO ONE will be making gas ranges in the USA,
so your then-new Chinese or
Slobbovian-made range will
probably only
last 2 to 5 years, at best,
rather than 10 years the ones
today get to, if
you're lucky!
SO - over
the next 25 years, if you
get rid of your CHAMBERS,
you're going to spend AT
LEAST $4,000 for inferior
gas ranges that DO NOT
work as well as what you have, not
including repairs,
and that is
MORE than it would have cost to
have your CHAMBERS totally
restored by a
professional today, AND you'll
keep using your CHAMBERS for the
next
FIFTY years!
ANSWERS TO COMMON
EXCUSES PEOPLE GIVE FOR
REPLACING THEIR CHAMBERS
RANGE
1. OVEN SIZE - ISN'T
IT
REALLY "SMALL"?
In a word, NO.
The
Chambers Oven looks
deceptively small, but it is large
enough to
cook a 25-pound turkey. We do this
a lot in
ours with no problems. It will
also cook 40 pounds of
ribs.
How big
do you want it to be, anyhow?
The problem is it LOOKS
small from the outside,
but it really isn't.
The
other thing is that it was
designed to be used with the
most popular
roasters ever made, those
produced by the LISK
Manufacturing
Company. LISK
made millions of these roasters,
which, by the
way, also outperform anything
you can buy today, and CHAMBERS
designed their
Oven to accommodate them. If you
use the LISK roasters, you can
cook
huge meals in a CHAMBERS Oven,
no problem. They're available at
flea
markets, garage sales, and eBay.
Click HERE to
download an
original LISK sales brochure.
Actually,
the oven IS
capable of doing large
meals, you just have
to know HOW. We
cook 25-pound turkeys in ours
all the time...it will
cook up to 40 pounds of ribs,
etc. - how much bigger do you
need it to
be, anyway?
2. I DON'T KNOW HOW
TO USE IT.
Years ago,
"ladies" wouldn't read
an "Operation Manual", so
Alma Chambers conviced her father,
John, to disguise theirs as a cookbook.
Called the "Idle
Hour" Cookbook,
it contained all of the
information found in a standard Operational
Manual - how to care for, clean, and operate
the Chambers range. It also had detailed
instructions on how to cook with
the gas
turned OFF on retained heat in the
super-insulated
Oven and Thermowell.
Coupled with all of this valuable
information was a large
number of excellent recipes that demonstrated
how versatile and easy it is to cook "The
CHAMBERS way."
Chambers
produced a large variety
of literature for their
products. To see what is available
for your use today, simply
click HERE to
peruse
the list.
3. ISN'T MY CHAMBERS
DANGEROUS - AFTER ALL, IT'S "A
GAS STOVE", AND THEY'RE ALL
DANGEROUS, ESPECIALLY OLD ONES
- RIGHT?
I hear this a lot. Because their
Chambers is
designed to be lit manually,
many people think it is unsafe.
When
properly installed, calibrated,
and operated, it really isn't.
However, some people "feel"
safer if it
has an Oven Pilot Light and
Automatic Gas Supply Shutoff
System
installed. This is a simple DIY
project, or you can have it done
professionally. Contact me if
you need more information.
4. WHY DOES MY
CHAMBERS
ONLY HAVE THREE BURNERS - IS
THAT ENOUGH?
Well, yes, it is. Once you learn
to cook "The
CHAMBERS
Way", you'll never miss
that fourth burner. In fact, the
Thermowell
takes the place of THREE burners
all by itself! Add to that the
versatility of
the Griddle/Broiler, and you'll
find that a CHAMBERS cooks
PLENTY of
food - enough for a LARGE
family.
Thusfar,
I've answered all of the typical
complaints/concerns about
keeping and using a vintage
CHAMBERS range -
* The
CHAMBERS is built better than
modern ranges
(they warranteed their
porcelain for 25 years! Look
and see how long
modern range manufacturers
warrant THEIR products!).
* The cost
of replacing the CHAMBERS is
more than it
would take to repair what you
have.
* I've
demonstrated the the longevity
and SAVINGS
keeping your CHAMBERS will
bring to you.
* I've
outlined the fact that a
CHAMBERS has features you
can't get today, and it does
what a modern range will do
faster, more efficiently, and
more
economically.
* There's
nothing wrong with it that
cannot be fixed
at a reasonable price, PLUS
you get the FINEST range ever
built for the
home!
NOW
-
you tell me: what in the Earth would
make you want to
get rid of your CHAMBERS?
Are
you SURE you REALLY want to
cook on an inferior
product after all these years
of cooking on a CHAMBERS with
the gas
turned off?
Think about it...that's all I ask.
And - feel free
to contact me if you have any
questions about your CHAMBERS, or
why you should KEEP IT!
- Todd W. White
Updated 10/01/12 
