How did you find out about chambers stoves

[Warren Roche]

I first saw, that I'm aware of, a Chambers in an old house that a lady bought down the hill from me in Topanga Canyon. It was 1976 and the stove was a green tank-like hulk that she raved about. We became close friends and four years later I bought her house and the stove (a Model 90C) went with it. I used the house as rental until I sold it a couple of years ago. I took the stove out and put it in a carport where the parts that were kept clean rusted up pretty good, despite being covered. The greasy parts stayed good, kind of like being covered in Cosmolene (some of you old-timers will know this product). So when you buy an old greasy stove, take heart; grease is our friend. But I digress.
I had always threatened to restore the Green Guy, but am just now getting going. I few months ago we (the wife, five kids and I) bought and installed a white Model 90C. I almost had to twist my wife's arm to get her to accept the Chambers, but now she's a convert.
When the Green Guy is done we will put it in our house and move the White Knight to a new rental that I'm now building. Yes, yes, I know that the Chambers is too good for those scum, but perhaps I can bring a little light into the lives of those miserable wretches :-)

[pmisaber]

We live in a home built in the late 1920s. I began to think about vintage stoves after realizing that our current stove, a Modern Maid about 16 years old, while functional was not working so well and would eventually require replacement or repair. Like Chipper I heard an NPR program that specifically mentioned Chambers stoves. I looked at stoves manufactured by O'Keefe and Merrit as well as Wedgewood and Western Holly. The Chambers was the most interesting from the standpoint of features, but when my mother told me that my grandmother and great aunt had a Chambers in the 1940's I was hooked. My grandmother and great aunt were a fantastic team in the kitchen and made absolutely unbelievably delicious food. My grandfather kind of took their skills for granted and would, without much notice, invite people over for dinner. I will never have the skill or patience to replicate what they prepared, but the thought of cooking on a stove like the one they used is very appealing. When I visited my mother a couple of months ago I showed her pictures of the various models from one of the Chambers catalogs purchased from Sam (aka Stoveman - what a resource!!!) and she was able to tell me that their kitchen was equipped with an Imperial. My great aunt used to talk about that stove after they moved to another house. The Imperial didn't move when they did (no surprise given its size). It would have been fantastic if that stove had somehow stayed in the family. I was, after looking for several months and with a lot of help from folks on this forum, able to acquire a 1949 model BZ that seems to be in pretty good condition. With a bit of work on the kitchen, it will occupy a place of honor. It will remind me of some amazing people both family members and folks on this forum who have been very generous with their time.

Peter

[berlyn]

My good friend, Jamey's MIL passed away and Mrs. Gillespie didn't throw anything away!! Her house had such vintage items, Hubby & I were like in a candy store when we went over to take a look at Big Bertha. Jamey would bring me boxes of glasses, crochet items, etc.. and have me go through them and take what I wanted. She knows I love antiques & vintage things and have an 1880's cottage home that hubby and I have been restoring, updating but keeping historically accurate as possible. Jamey knew I was itching to start another remodeling project. She offered her MIL Chambers stove, but warned me of the shape. Jamey kept telling me, "it's free and the only investment would be your time and parts, if needed".
I never heard of Chambers and asked my Mom and she said her Mom had one and told me all about it. Mom & Jamey kept mentioning their unique features; Thermawell and the griddle/broiler. I did an internet search to see what they looked like. I had been looking at Viking & Wolfe stoves and thinking of going with one of those. Saw the Chambers and fell in love!! Found Todd's web page and have been here ever since!!

That's mine & [url="http://community.webshots.com/album/259218814eAzvEX"]Big Bertha's [/url] story........

Berlyn

<font color="#FFFFFF"><font size="1">[ December 18, 2005 06:29 PM: Message edited by: berlyn ]</font></font>

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ December 18, 2005 06:51 PM: Message edited by: berlyn ]</font>

[Todd W. White]

I saw a CHAMBERS range a few years ago at an estate sale - buttercup yellow. Thought it was neat, but couldn't afford it (at any price). To me, it was just a neat looking old stove that would be nice to have someday. That was my first encounter with a CHAMBERS, but that was all it was - a brief encounter.

I became better acquainted with the CHAMBERS products during the summer of 2003 when a man gave me a Chambers Model 90C. It seems that the elderly lady he and his wife check in on every week was having a problem with her old stove - it had "stopped working", she said. She had purchased it new, and had been cooking on it ever since, but, at her advanced age, she didn't really have the desire or energy to sink any time or money into her "old stove."

So, the couple helped get her a replacement, and she gave the man her old CHAMBERS. Circumstances brought us together, and he ended up giving it to me. He seemed to sense that we'd give it a good home...

Well, after a LOT of clean up (the lady had let it get really grungy and greasy), some detective work to fix the problem with the top burner pilot light, and LOTS of elbow grease, I got the old girl up and running again. (Click HERE to go to a page talking about how to clean your CHAMBERS)

Even though I really didn't know much about the CHAMBERS stoves when I got it, I was, quite literally, amazed at the thing! The CHAMBERS is so elegantly simple, yet extremely advanced in it's concept, design, and construction that even today, when the "super-colossal" stoves that sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the appliance departments of the BEST stores in town are weighed in the balance with the CHAMBERS, they are always found wanting.....

When I first got on the Internet to see what I could find about the CHAMBERS products, I was stunned to discover that there was no single website that was devoted exclusively to them and their owners (at least, if there IS one, I can't find it)! So, I stumbled through the web trying to find the good from the bad, the real from the fake, and the true from the false (when it comes to the CHAMBERS ranges, there is a LOT of false information being spouted out there). Along the way since I began my love affair with my Model 90C, I have (and am) learning a lot about the CHAMBERS ranges.

I'm grateful that this site has been helpful to others - when I started with our CHAMBERS, there wasn't anything like it.

[Deathbyinches]

Hello! I was told about this site and I've spent all afternoon lost in ChambersLand. It's not a bad place to be.
I first met my Chambers stove back in the early 70s when my elderly neighbor started bringing us pies and cakes. He and his wife were in their 80s then. He was home alone most of the time because his wife still worked as secretary to the even older owner of Hunt's Department Store here in Fort Smith.
Mr. Simmons was on his last legs but he could still wobble across the street with the most delicious goodies. So I guess I met what my stove could do before I actually laid eyes on it.
By 1980 Mr. Simmons was dead and his wife sold their house to my father and moved to Texas. My father and mother had separated and finally found true love by owning houses directly across the street from each other. Dad bought the Simmons house and acquired the 1937 Model B Chambers stove that had been in the Simmons house since it was new.
My father was so impressed he started buying Chambers stoves at local auctions, and I teased him about having the heaviest hobby in town. He died in 1983 and my wife and I moved into the Simmons house and became the owner of the Chambers stove. I sold the other 5 stoves and kept "Mr. Simmons".
In 1985 we found that the Simmons house had slowly moved off its poorly built foundation and was beyond repair. So we moved to another house 2 blocks away and took Mr. Simmons with us.
In 1991 my mother gave me the family home and moved to an apartment so we moved Mr. Simmons one last time and he and we now live directly across the street from where he first arrived as a baby in 1937.
Mr. Simmons is now 68 years old and has never retired. He is a little cranky, but except for clogged pilot lights, he cooks up a storm and is still quite handsome. Our kids have never known another stove and we forget he's special, he's just out stove and we assume he will always be our stove.
I just learned a great tip, the easiest way to clean your Chambers stove is by using Photoshop on the picture. I just removed a ton of cooking gunk in just 30 seconds! Long live Chambers stoves and long live Mr. Simmons!

[treatmaker]

Hello and welcome to a fellow B owner! A wonderful story on your acqusition. You're going to love this site chatting with all the chambers stove geeks. We have a lot of knowledge, great recipes and wonderful stories.

Treatmaker

[new chambers guy]

Our modern Magic Chef oven went on the fritz and we were looking at a repair that started at $90 for parts only. That's steep for us.

About the same time my office ran an online auction as a fundraiser. One of my co-workers had bought a new house and in the basement was this old stove. She put it up for the auction with a photo she found online somewhere. I figured if I could get it cheap enough I'd save on the repair cost and come out ahead. My wife and I went out to the house to check it out, but she wasn't impressed - it was a bit dirty and lately had only been used as a secondary oven for holiday meals. By the time the auction was wrapping up, she was desperate to begin baking again so I sniped the bid at $15 and picked it up in our van the next night. By that time I had hit the websites and knew that I was getting a diamond in the rough.

Once it was home, cleaned, installed and calibrated wifey was okay with it and now the previous unit sits in a corner waiting for the used appliance guy while "The Leviathan" provides ample warmth to keep me comfortable while I prepare breakfast for the family on weekends.

Even after buying the cookbook and manual, I am still ahead on that $90 repair bill! Just gotta fix the spring on the oven door so it isn't so heavy.

[lowracer]

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ March 09, 2006 10:46 PM: Message edited by: lowracer ]</font>

[cyepez64]

It sounds like many of us fell in love with these stoves sort of by accident. That is definitely my story. My husband and I were house-hunting and since we tend to prefer old houses I noticed that a couple of the kitchens had these beautiful vintage stoves. I remember thinking how much more gracefully designed they were than modern stoves. We did buy an older home (late 1940's) and while browsing at an antiques store I saw a later model Chambers (1960's?). Since our kitchen was a rather bland 80's style and we had to make some major repairs anyhow, we decided what the heck - we would add some vintage style. I did a Google search on vintage stoves and read up on the various models courtesy of the many restoration companies. We both thought the Chambers B was very attractive, would fit our 40s era house and I loved the "cook with the gas turned off" idea. I learned a lot from Todd's earlier Chambers Lovers website. I hunted E-bay for a while but was afraid to buy a stove long distance based on photos. Somehow our realtor learned we were interested in a Chambers and it turned out he had another client who had recently remodeled a kitchen, removing a Model B in the process. The stove was sitting in her garage, only a few miles from us. It was in pretty good shape so we bought it.

Now here is where our ignorance about these stoves really shows! I had no idea they weighed so much! Instead of renting a utility trailer, my husband and I actually tried to load this behemoth into the back of his truck using only a heavy duty appliance dolly. I still laugh when I think of the two of us straining like a couple of idiots to lift that darn stove into the vehicle. We are lucky we didn't hurt ourselves or drop the stove and smash everything.

Second admission of ignorance and foolishness - once home I wanted to clean the stove, so I eagerly disassembled the unit without taking any pictures, bagging and labelling any screws, or making any drawings. Doh! It all turned out okay in the end however. Putting it back together was sort of like a giant puzzle and was the best part.

Oh, and I decided to name her Pearl, after my grandmother.

[txnative]

I just discovered this site this evening, and man was I excited!!!! I searched the web a couple of years ago, and didn't find much. This is like Chambers Wonderland! Anyway, here is my story

I can't recall when I first noticed the Chambers stoves, but I have had the passion for a while. I bought my stove in 1986. At that time, some real clean models were going for $300, but that was much more than I could afford. My mom happened on a Chambers at an estate sale. It was the last day of the sale, and curious enough the stove had not been for sale. Mom inquired about it, and gave me a call. I rushed over and fell in love with the boy, grease and all. Well knowing what the stoves were going for, I held my breath when I asked the price. The ladies asked how much was I willing to pay. I squeaked out $75, thinking they would probably laugh. Instead they replied that they were thinking $50, and they would split the difference - $65. I was ecstatic!

It took lots of brawn to get my new stove in our split level house on the hill. But fortunately, he was in perfect working order - just very dirty.

I wanted to know more about my new treasure so I wrote to an address I found for a Chambers Corporation in Oxford, MS. I included some pictures, and asked for any information they could provide. They put me in touch with Macy's in Houston. Macy's identified my stove as a Model B. Not sure now, it looks very similar to the Model A shown on this site, and there is not a tag on the thermowell. Anyway, I picked up the service manual, cook book, and a nifty custom stainless steel cover for the griddle. We have been very happy together. My only complaints are the small oven and the heat put out by the pilot lights. But those are minor gripes in comparison to the beauty and functionality of this stove.

I hope to become a frequent visitor to this site. I feel elated to have this forum to help me continue my journey.