How did you find out about chambers stoves

Two years ago, I suggested to a client, that we incorporate a vintage stove into his house re-model. We looked [superficially] at some website info but lost interest when told there was a two year wait time for every stove we found interesting, Chambers was not something of interest at that time. Only a few months ago when it became apparant that we would be purchasing an oven for our own home did I return to the sites and stumble upon the Chambers site and, as well as you know, I became a Chambers geek immediately. After just ten days of having Francis Bavier Chambers [yup, finally came up with a suitable name] in the kitchen, I can't understand how we got along without her ! Chambers Kick !

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ March 09, 2006 10:44 PM: Message edited by: lowracer ]</font>

Wife said she always wanted one since seeing the neighbors years ago. Don't know what happened to that range (it was a green low back probably 61C) and the neighbor is gone. The neighbor's comment was that it was a hunny.

We will be remodeling our kitchen next year, that is if we don't have to borrow the money. The focal point of our new kitchen will be Matty the Chambers cooking with the gas off.

It's the standard of the world. What company's product used that slogan?

Ron

My 1936 Magic Chef's oven door broke and the oven wasn't heating right. I needed an upgrade and the models at the Great Indoor's, well I just didn't like them. I got depressed, asked my bible study group to pray, I prayed and the next day I looked on Craig's List in Cleveland and low and behold there was this vintage stove called a Chambers. I had never heard of one, but it looked good, it was close, my dad got a good look at it and the rest is history.

I love watching the Food Network cooking channel. One of the shows (30 Minute meals with Rachel Ray) has a Chambers. I loved the broiler and had never seen a stove like this. Started doing research, found out what it was, and started watching ebay. I live in So.CA, so had to wait a while before I was lucky enough to find a peach in L.A. So now "Granny Ida" lives in my 1890's Victorian home, and my love of cooking has grown exponentially since I got her.

Gwen

I was looking for a new dishwasher on ebay, under major appliances nearest to me. I saw this red "stove" and I HAD to have it. I stayed up until 6:00 in the morning doing Chambers research. I got great advice from this board about price and condition. I made my offer and she came home this Sunday!

My initial opinion of a Chambers was, I'm afraid, a bit far from the mark.

I heard a story about a vintage store restorer on NPR, and immediately was fascinated by the old stoves. I searched every vintage stove web site I could find, and read any article. I had no particular favorites, but I have to admit that the first time I saw a Chambers, I thought it was a bit odd looking compared to the same vintage O'Keefe and Merrits or Western Hollys. I really wanted one of the O'Keefe double oven stoves.

Then I found out about the many things that make a Chambers unique - thermowell, thermobaker, retained heat, funky broiler, and I was hooked... Who cares about a second oven when I can use a thermobaker! Much cooler.

Suddenly the little duckling grew into a swan.

I started haunting this site and eBay, and now I have Daisy. She's so pretty, despite her obvious issues. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but some of us need to see things more than once, I guess.

Hey guys,

I don't know if this was ever a topic and if it was sorry to repeat. I'm just curious on how all of us got hooked on Chambers stoves, how you found out about them.

I first knew about them 20 years ago. My mom had a friend who owned one and always raved about it. When my mom saw the stove she told me all about it. You see, I loved to cook and bake and started in my pre-teen years and could spend hours in the kitchenware department looking at all the gadgets. So my mom's description of that stove was shelved in my memory and when I finally had my own home the hunt began....

What a terrific topic - thank you, Treatmaker!!

Gosh, I really had to think to remember how I wandered down Chambers lane...

About a year-and-a-half ago, I wanted a vintage stove for my next house so I started watching e-Bay for vintage stoves to figure out which one would suit me. My mom had a 1950's stainless steel (I think it was a G&S or an O&M, but can't remember) behemoth back in the 1970's that I was rather fond of with a griddle in the middle and two ovens. I first thought I wanted something like that. But then I found someone just wanting to get rid of a 1920's Detroit Jewel and had it listed for $5. I bought it, and had my first painful lesson on shipping costs. The seller said that someone who knew stoves would be the best person to buy it and after I got it, I saw why they said that - it arrived in a box, in pieces!! They were planning to restore it, but once they had it totally in parts, they changed their minds. It's a beautiful stove with near perfect cream/green porcelain, and one day I will go out to the garage and attempt to reassemble it. I think I can now, but at that time, there wasn't even a hope of a chance. So I put it all back in boxes and went back to my e-Bay stove search....

Like everyone else, I was also intrigued by the 6-burner double-oven stoves and thought one would be perfect, but thought that the price was prohibitive. I'm glad I didn't buy one, though, because I got a chance to see one in person months later and was surprised that it was alot smaller than I had expected... While surfing e-Bay for Magic Chef's, I found a regular 3-burner 1930's model that was restored and gorgeous. I then saw an ad in a local paper for an old Magic Chef and it was listed as a double oven. So I went to see it, hoping it would be "the" double-oven stove. Turns out if was the same 1930's 3-burner single oven model that I had been admiring... But, the price was fair and the stove was in terrific shape, nearly perfect, so I took it anyway, thinking I might use it, if not for the main house, then maybe for a vacation home one-of-these-days. I also signed up with TOAC and started getting their newsletters and started looking for vendor resources for my Magic Chef restoration.

Well, e-Bay is addictive and I wasn't quite satisfied with my Magic Chef, so I kept watching the stoves. I came across unusual stoves I had never seen before called "Chambers". I saw one of Todd's reprimands to an e-Bay seller asking them why they were selling their treasure (bless him!!!) and to check out the Chambers Lover's website, so of course, I did!! I read about the Thermowell and broiler and the triple insulation, and I was convinced, THAT is the stove I wanted!!! But, there's very few in California, and I knew that if I had another stove shipped, my husband would divorce me. THEN, I got a new issue of "The Old Appliance Club" and there was an ad in there by a lady in northern California who had a Model B she was GIVING away. Well, I'm never first for the good stuff, so my expectations were low when I sent her an e-mail. I was sooo excited when she wrote back and said she still had it. It was a Thursday, so I made her PROMISE she would wait for me to get there on Saturday, and to not give it away before then. She was nice, and did. So I rented a trailer and we made our trek up north. My husband wasn't impressed with The Elvia, but was a good egg about it. I, however, was thrilled to get my Ugly Duckling - she was exactly what I wanted!

Yes, I still have the Magic Chef and the Detroit-Jewel-in-a-box in my garage. I rather like them both so don't know what I'll do with them yet (one gets very attached to old stoves). But the Chambers is exactly what I was looking for and I'm now done with my search for the Perfect Stove.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ December 08, 2005 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Tura Heckler ]</font>

Well, as we were planning to build a home a couple of years ago I was doing lots of searching and trying to find as much "salvage" as possible to try to make the house as environmental as possible (you know reduce, reuse, recycle, etc). I have a friend who collects Wedgewoods each time he goes to California, so I thought a vintage stove would be a great piece of salvage to include. I started surfing the web and came across this web site (http://www.vintagestoves.com/stove/continental37/) and really wanted an aqua Western Holly. I looked and looked and looked, but I think all Western Hollys were initially white and I sure didn't want to pay for a refurbished one (if I recall correctly the initial one I saw was selling for $8,000!).
Then, I got an issue of Natural Home magazine that featured a kitchen with a yellow 90C and I really liked how this looked. So, I started investigating Chambers and decided I loved the B's (I must admit that I went just for looks and only began appreciating the thermowell and cooking with the gas off after I started using it). I found a yellow one through a wanted ad I placed with antiquestoves.com. I had a friend of mine pick it up from Missouri in his llama trailer (more about this when I get around to contributing to the virtual convention). I spent a lot of time cleaning it right away and then it sat under the carport for a year and a half until it got installed in our new house this past summer. Cooking is now so much more enjoyable (and I'm sure my concoctions are even tastier!).
The End.
annnnt

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 :-)

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

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 & Big Bertha's 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>

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

hi txnative, this is a great site full of wonderful people with incredible experience, insight, resources and knowledge. i'm still a newbie here, just a member for a few months but, without this site and the guidance from members, my Chambers purchase probably never would have happened ! there is one thing however....berlyn, are you listening....?... seems like texas has cornered the Chambers market !!! how come so many texans are in love with Chambers ??? you guys were way ahead of the curve !!!

asfan,
Yes I'm listening!! We are a BIG state with lots and lots of smart people, with a few exceptions.
I remember when I joined, we had just a few members. It's wonderful too see it expand and see such a wealth of knowledge, sources, growth of members and love for these ol' Chambers!!

But now ya'll know why, I only keep the pilot on for the T-well and not the top burners. It's hot here!! In south Texas we have 2 seasons, summer and super hot summer!! We have heat issues down here!!

I'm trying Ms. V's Irish Oatmeal and getting it in the T-well ready for the AM. I'm going to serve with mandarin oranges on the side for Grandson and I.


Berlyn

<font color="#FFFFFF"><font size="1">[ January 06, 2006 10:37 PM: Message edited by: berlyn ]</font></font>

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ January 06, 2006 10:38 PM: Message edited by: berlyn ]</font>

Well I finally went to Dallas and picked up my 100. dollar Freedom Red Chambers. Sitting in someone's garage for a very long time, but it was mostly just dirty and not a lot of grease. THANK GOODNESS. It needs a few parts but overall she is really pretty. My Aunt Ruby had a yellow Chambers that my Mom cooked on when she was growing up.. so maybe I will call my "new" stove Aunt Ruby..cuz that's how I found out about Chambers stoves. AND thanks to that guy in DAllas who didn't know what he had!!!!

Kim,

Congrats on your red chambers. Ms Ruby is a perfect name! Hope to see a lot of you on the site.

Treatmaker

More Texas Chambers lovers lore - I was chatting with my next door neighbor over the Christmas holiday. She is in her 70's and a very elegant lady in the old Southern tradition. Found out she used to own a Chambers stove as well but she thought she ought to get herself something "more modern". She was very excited when she found out we were restoring one, and says she regrets ever selling hers. Her new stove never measured up to the Chambers.

I have a copper C model. I inherited it from my grandmother, and she had it when I was born so I grew up with it. I have many happy memories of my grandmother all around this stove, as she taught my sister and I to bake and we had a lot of Saturday afternoon bread baking sessions with our stove! Most family holiday dinners were prepared on our stove, but I have to admit I have no memory specifically of cooking with the heat off. It may have happened, I just don't recall discussing this feature. I hope to find some more of the accessories. We have at least the soup pot for the well, but I would love to have a thermobaker. There may be more accessories, but the stove has been wrapped and in storage since my father moved out of Gram's house, as the place we now live in has electric (yuck), and it is wrapped up to prevent chipping. I hope to get cooking again soon. It's great that these stove's are getting recognized, as I was getting pretty sick of people who rave about vintage stove's saying "Chambers? Never heard of it, I've got a Wedgewood."

Not that there is anything WRONG with a Wedgewood...it just ISN'T a Chambers and will never growup to be one !

Hello,

My wife was the one that wanted a Vintage stove to replace clunker. She too likes Rachel Ray and was intrigued by her's. When she asked if I would buy her one and I said, "sure honey.... whatever you want".... I never dreamed that she would actually find one....

The next day she shows me these websites with fully restored stoves.... I said for that price, I would rather buy land... LOL!!

Than she starts finding eBay stoves but they are in exotic places like California and New York.... I live in St. Louis so going to get them is out of the question... Pretty soon she finds one in Kansas City.... since we travel through there on our way to Wichita, Kansas, I couldn't convince her it was too far away...

We went over and picked up our Chambers over the weekend, rented a trailer and brought her home. Stoveman tells me that she is a 1947 Model B... I found this website and started to read and learn... I scoured over Berlyn's pictures and also Lowracer's.

While I am waiting on the New Owner's Kit/Service Manual/Cookbook, I started the frame off restoration. Now if I can figure out how to get the top off, I will be sending it to Wichita for Chrome....

In the meantime, we decided to name our little project "Addie" after my wife's grandmother... When she lived with us she used to completely dissassemble my range about once a month.... since she had early alsheimer's she couldn't remember how to put it back together... I would come in and find it in pieces in the kitchen...

We used to laugh and wonder why Grandma was so intent on cleaning our oven.... When we started cleaning our Chambers, we figured out what 60 years of grease and grime looked like... Addie seemed to be appropriate....

Oh well, enough rambling... I am looking forward to the day that we can start using this... and I thank God that Rachel Ray doesn't drive a Rolls Royce.... eh?

Dennis and Terri

My father remarried after my Mom passed and when I went to visit their home, I spotted this old stove in her contemporary kitchen. She told me that her mom at gotten it over 40 years ago from a neighbor and had prepared many a meal for the family on it. That day my Dad and his wife were roasting a lamb, had all kinds of things cooking on the old Chambers. The name "Chambers" stuck because my own Mom's maiden name was Chambers! (It originally was a Greek name but was changed to Chambers when they came over to Ellis Island) I felt some odd connection to the stove at that point. In December 2005, Pete (who loves cast iron and old stuff in all forms) met the stove after hearing me babble about it all the time said...WE MUST HAVE ONE OF THOSE! In January 2006 he found one on ebay and the story continues...

We were looking to buy a house, and one of the first places we seriously considered had an old gas stove (a tappan i think).

We didn't end up buying that house, but it really got me thinking about antique stoves, so i started looking around to see what there was. I really like the 50's aesthetic in general, and spent hours on antiquegasstoves.com.

I really liked the western holly's with the porthole oven, but living in northern california, i never saw one anywhere near here. All of them were in LA it seemed. I then started looking at wedgewood and o'keefe and merritt stoves, and also at chambers. There were lots of OKM's around, but i was picky about which models i wanted. With chambers, there are really only a couple ways it can look, but with the other ones, there are probably 15 or 20 models between them, each slightly different.

At any rate, i started to swing towards chambers stoves, i am something of an efficiency nut, and the idea of 'cooking with the gas off' was nice, and i really like the concept of the thermowell. Plus the interesting knobs and broiler! I was sold.

And how i got this particular one:

My roommate was moving to San Francisco, and he never paid me for the uhaul from when we moved into the place where we were at the time.. Co-incidentally, i found a chambers for sale in a SF basement. The only drawback was that it was a B model, and i really wanted a 'C'. But it was cheap ($100) and i hadn't seen any other chambers in the area, so i said i'd come see.

So we moved him up there, and on the way back we picked up the stove. It was quite an ordeal getting it out of the basement with 3 men. These things are HEAVY! I almost gave up, but i had already paid the man, and i don't think he would have reimbursed me. [img]smile.gif[/img]

-tmk

I am so glad to be here. Reading over the previous posts I see so may things in common with my own search. My stove hunt began the day my neighbor/home inspector clicked on his little tape recorder and began , "What we have here is a 1910 American Craftsman bungalow. . . "

I fell in love with the neighborhood, the house (charming, but the worst on the street) and the street (which dead-ends at the lake) in that order. With those 3 little words, american craftsman bungalow, i suddenly had a design philosophy to guide our homemaking efforts. We had a recycled house which was originally built with many salvaged materials, and happily the kitchen is still pretty much original.

Why did I want an old stove? My mother brought me "Bungalow Kitchens" by Jane Powell, and I just loved the way they look. Actually, I saw/cut out and article from country home or something like that two years ago that had an article about a woman who had found pink W&H appliances on a treelawn and had eventually done the whole kitchen in pink and chrome. O MY GOD it was beautiful. (Sometimes I cry over good deals because that deal has already been gotten, and not by me. Not jealousy, just appreciation and like a sense of loss. So I was very sad over this article. Once we got the house, I reasoned to my dear husband that there is no space for a countertop next to the stove, so hadn't we better get a nice wide old stove that would have room for a little prep? Wheedling,sure, but I didn't want him to go hiding my Jane Powell books again if I cited instead her arguments in her article "Avoiding Cognitive Dissonance: Kitchen Design.") Did I mention I was preganant and preparing to move at this time? Right, so I was seriously into "virtual nesting" and started my stove hunt on ebay. I'm in Ohio, there's not much of a market here for older stoves?so said every yellow pages listing I rang up. Also, this is a practical matter of having a functioning stove to feed my family on, so the california auctions of okeefe and merrits were out of the question. Now that we can almost move into our house, it's getting urgent and I scanned the classifieds for a lead, still just looking for an older stove. I had ruled out the high-leg styles for dh's sake, and I actually had decided against the chambers based (ignorance!) on the aesthetics, that I wanted something more streamlined, classically deco than this funny one i'd see on ebay sometimes with the teardrop-shaped handles. Somewhere in here too I watched rachel ray with my granny-who watches food network all day long though she hsn't prepared a meal in >5 years, and finally took notice of the in-a-top broiler feature.

But it wasn't until I sought Sam's advice last week about the wisdom of purchasing a grimy Universal of uncertain functionality (no pun intended) that I went back and looked again at some closed chambers auctions. that's when I saw the reference to this website, in one of Todd's consciousness-raising "questions". I had laughed before seeing a seller's surly "not everyones a stove expert" (sic) to what MUST have been one of his comments. So then I came here, stayed up all night, maxed out work deadlines, neglected my 2 year old all in an effort to solidify my decision that this is definitely the stove for us. the thumb-latches and the conservation philosophy alone would do it! But now i am so eager to start calling around anew to try and rustle one up, becaue I am pretty confident that I can fix whatever might be wrong now that I have you (boo hoo, sniff, hooray!) Plus, this ha sall the markings of a life-quest about it. i will never run out of reasons to go to flea markets, and neither will my mother--though her threshhold is far lower than mine. Even if I were to find and posess every possible chambers accoutrement, i could continue to troll local venues for you fine people.

It's been very nice to read the posts in this thred especially. Except I'm getting that anxious, missed-a-deal feeling reading posts from people within a half-days' drive of here. Not to mention the B model complete with the original spice jars that I passed on in cincinnati. That's just horrible. I think they auctioned it 3 times before it went. O well. I used to post quite a bit to my crunchy mamas yahooo group, so I hope I can adapt to the post style here and be a good community member. But right now I need ADVICE so I'm off to post a new topic. Happy to be here!!

What a great topic!! I am new here and I would love to share my Chambers story with all of you.
My grandmother had this beautiful big stove in her kitchen. She was known for her cooking and loved her stove. As a small child of 4 or 5, I remember this gleaming white stove with the shinny pretty handles. This has always been my most vivid memory of my grandmother's house. I am 60 years old and all my life never saw a stove like it anywere. I had no idea what it was. A few years ago when we remodeled the kitchen, I looked at atique stoves online hopeing to find one that looked like my grandmothers. No luck! The mystery continued. Then one day while watching PBS, I saw a local show where they were touring one of Austin's older homes. In the kitchen was a stove just like my grandmothers. I about fell off the sofa. Luckly they talked breifly about the stove so I was able to get the name Chambers. Since then I read about them and wanted one till now. Just last week I saw an ad on Craig's list. I was lucky enough to get a Chambers Model B for free and it looks exactly like the one in Grandma's kitchen. Except for one thing. When I saw the stove in person, it looked so small. Because I was 5 years old in my memory, Grandma's stove was very big!!! Thanks for reading my story!

I, too, discovered Chambers ranges by accident. A friend of mine's mother had a red Chambers high back and it was stored in the shop. I really liked the looks of that stove. I tried to buy it but it had too much sintimental value for him to even think of parting with it. This was maybe 10 years ago.

Leaping forward to a couple of months ago -

I was shopping for a good used stove for my fish camp. My wife lets me make my own decisions, as long as I spend my own money. I was looking for a stove to fill a 36" opening (I know the chambers is wider) and remembered the red stove. I saw an ad for a Chambers in the local shopping guide for $250. That was too expensive for me, but I called the lady and she told me where it was on the front porch. Wife and I were visiting friends in the Ozarks and I kind of detoured by the stove to take a look. It was a low back white, but it was a Chambers. I told her I was thinking about buying it and she was not impressed but she didn't fuss too much. I could not get the stove out of my mind. I thought it looked really good and sturdy.

After the weekend trip I thought about the Chambers, and by then there was a new issue out and it was still listed. I called the lady and she still had it. I made an appointment to check it out. I knew nothing. I checked out the stove the oven door handle was broken off, it had a grill but it didn't look like it fit very well I could see the broiler burner but there was nothing under it. I knew enough to know that parts were missing. I was rapidly becoming disappointed. I wanted to look in the oven, but I could not get it open. I finally realized if I could force the pin down the oven would open.

Finally, got in the oven and saw that the thermostat capilliary bulb was hanging loose on the inside. I knew that was expensive - that was what was wrong with my 1963 Magic Chef, and that one was obsolete.

I started to leave and she said if I would give a hundred for it I could have it. I realized it was heavy and said I would get back with her and she said she would get some help to load it and would check to see what she had to go with it. I was a sucker and took it.

I got home and hauled it around in my truck for two days until one of my sons came in from off shore and got one of his buddys to help. I then started doing research and realized how expensive the thermostat was.

The only thing I knew was to start cleaning. I knew how to clean grease. I ordered a service manual, waited and cleaned. Went to see my friend with the red chambers to see what it was supposed to look like - what was missing. I tried to buy his red stove.

He told me that his grandfather had bought a yellow one and he thought that his uncle had put it in storage in the barn. He was going to check with uncle when he had a chance Uncle is kind of hard to get along with. His reputation is not good.

Then I bought a grill pan on ebay.

And cleaned out more grease.

I drove by the Uncle's house - he was mowing the yard, so I stopped in because he looked like he was ready for a break. Yes, he said, he had the stove, and, yes he would sell it. It was working when he took it out and used his tractor with the big hay forks on the front to pick the stove up and moved it, dropping it managing to bend, chip, or break every panel on it except the back and oven door of a YELLOW Chambers!.

I gave him $50.00 for it.

I now had the parts I needed to get mine going, everything except a timer.

I can appreciate how well it is built, and look forward to getting her painted and operating and cooking on her.

She will be called "Aunt Essie" my mothers oldest sister the oldest of ten kids, and did the cooking for the whole bunch. She had one daughter that died when she was eleven. So she was every one in the family's adopted mother, and cooked for all comers every Sunday. She could cook for one or fifty and make it look easy. She would have died for a stove like the Chambers.

So, In honor of Aunt Essie, I hope I can make her proud - that lady could cook! My mother was a good cook, but she could not hold a candle to Aunt Essie.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 15, 2006 09:32 PM: Message edited by: Todd W. White ]</font>

First off, I guess I need to name my stove!

It was my grandmother's. She always loved red, and my grandfather special ordered her C model sometime in the 50s. I never thought much of the stove growing up in the 70s and 80s, but got nostalgic when we headed up to Tulsa to move her to a retirement home. Something told me I had to keep this red stove with so much history in the family.

We rented a Uhaul to bring it down to San Antonio. It stayed in my kitchen without being hooked up for a couple of years. I had to move cabinets to make room for the full 37" (and get that checkerboard tile put in so it was just like Grandma's house.

I haven't utilized my Chambers as much as I should have. Finding this message board has inspired me to really learn how to "cook with the gas turned off." When we moved my grandmother to my mom's house in Plano, I mentioned baking potatoes in the deep well. She got really nostalgic about HER red stove--I'm glad I was able to keep it in the family. It will stay a part of my life as long as I can keep it going. No kids here, but maybe I can get my niece to show an interest in 30 years or so.

I can't wait to get my service manual and cookbook soon! Here's to many wonderful Chambers memories for me AND all of you!

Like many of you on here, I had never seen or heard of Chambers ranges. They aren't too common here in California, certainly not as common as Wedgewood or O'Keefe & Merrit stoves (or even Occidental, DeVille or Spark brands).

Anyway, our nasty modern stove that came with the house was finally too dead to use. I had been waiting for that day practically since we bought the place more than 10 years ago. Since I love old things I was thinking of something along the lines of the 50's O'Keefe & Merrit that my mother had when I was growing up in the 60's. It was a beautiful stove with a fold down top, chromed cast iron griddle in the middle, salt & pepper shakers on either side of the clock, etc. My mother wiped that stove down with white vinegar every night & it shined. After my father died she decided she couldn't keep up the house by herself, so we moved to a rented house. She also decided that the stove was too big to haul with us & so one of my older brothers hauled it to the dump (no one wanted them back in '68!). As a side note, Mom still regrets the loss of that stove. I couldn't tell you how many new stoves she has had since then, but none of them have lasted well or worked as well as that old OKM. Sorry to be so long winded. . .you are probably wondering how the Chambers gets in to the picture!

Well, I started looking on Craigslist for a 'new old' stove in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lots & lots of choices along the lines of what I was looking for, at lots & lots of different prices from free to outrageous. My partner wasn't too thrilled with the idea of an old stove--"what will we do if it breaks? Where will we get parts?"--etc, etc. As I kept an eye on Craigslist I noticed a couple of these strange looking stoves called Chambers. Most of the ads I saw mentioned the 'soup well' & that they are HEAVY. I was intrigued by the way they looked enough to get on google & try to find more information about them. Google brought me to Todd's chamberstoves.net site , which answered lots of my questions and made me want one of my very own.

Back to Craigslist. . .where, eventually, I saw a nice high back B listed. The owner had listed it for $250.00 or best offer. I emailed her, we exchanged numbers. Eventually, I convinced my still resistant better half to have a look at it on a rainy March Sunday. It turned out that the range originally belonged to the listers Grandparents. Her Grandmother wasn't much of a cook, but had purchased this B new back in the 40's. She lived in Pittsburgh & when she passed away her Granddaughter decided she wanted the range. Her parents arranged to have it shipped out to her. Unfortunately she was never able to get it hooked up. After having stored it in a couple of garages in San Francisco for the last 3 years she decided she couldn't keep it any longer as she was moving to Los Angeles & didn't want to move it yet again. When we went to see it, outside of some grime from sitting in the garage it looked to be in very good shape. The only obvious problems were a broken service door spring, broken timer & a missing 'leg' on the percolator grate & wear to the chrome on the ridges of the top. The enamel on the body was in great shape, it had the large pot with the top insert & double boiler insert (I don't think the top insert or little double boiler have ever been used, either!) & even the lights worked (though they need to be rewired). The owner made it very clear she was open to offers. She was clearly pretty attached to her Grandma's range & was more concerned that it go to a good home than anything else. I wanted it, my partner was another story. We left telling the owner we would talk about it & get back to her.

Well. . .after some back & forth I had to write & tell her we weren't taking her Chambers. She wrote back & asked if we would reconsider if the price was FREE. That was enough to convince my partner, so I quickly wrote back & told her we would be taking it.

Since as we all know, these are heavy babies & our kitchen is on the 2nd floor I had to start calling around for movers. At least the range was in the same city so it was a local move. Luckily, when I described it to the movers none of the companies flinched too much. When the day arrived we met the movers & removed what we could to lighten the range for the trip. I ended up with 4 guys & they were all needed to pick it up & carefully carry it up the stairs. They did a great job & didn't damage anything, including the mahogany bannister that I spent MONTHS refinishing. I had a set of furniture sliders & asked the movers to put them under the legs of the stove so I could move it away from the wall by myself to work on it. Once they were paid & gone I started working on a quick clean of my new Chambers.

Luckily, the range is in good shape & I was able to get it hooked up that very day. After a run to the hardware store to get an additional fitting for the gas I hooked him up & tested for leaks. Everything was looking good. And it was. Outside of some little things that still need 'improving' we have been happily cooking on my 1947 15-B since that day. I don't think I could go back to cooking on anything else without feeling I was taking a big step down.

I decided to name my range Elmer after my father. Unlike most men of his generation (he was born in 1918), he didn't think cooking was 'woman's work' and loved to cook when the weekend came along. He was also very good at it. He even did all the grocery shopping, something my mother was glad to give up to him. While he died when I was only 6, I can still remember his cooking & I think that was why I have loved to cook since I was a kid. It must be in the genes since of their 6 children--5 boys & 1 girl--5 of us like to cook & 3 of us are quite accomplished at it.

--Danny

My Granny had a 1927 high leg chambers, cream and green. IT was beautiful. It got a small hole in the oven floor in 1990 and she sold it cause she didnt cook any more.
My Momma had a white deluxe back 195o c model.Both my Aunts that lived in town near us had c models all gas. And my Grandmother in law had a 40s electric she traded up for SOMETHING MODERN in 1980 and regreted it till she died !!!!
When i left home my husband wouldnt let me have one ,we were moving army those years. When my Moma died our baby sister got the range and Moma didnt raise us to fight lol.
Today I went to look at what I was told was a c white like Moms itwas NOT. It is a beautiful
BZ snow white perfect condition Not a mark on her. It is a her . Her tall back made her look more slender then moms c with the lower back. Anyway it is a one family range and came with a nice fold down cover which will protect her and give ME three more feet of counter. there is a nice triplet pan set in the well. lol
We took 4 large men and a highgrade dolly and wrapped her in a memoryfom mattress. She is in my kitchen now all we need is to find out how to adjust from natural gas to propane. I paid 550 dallors i have know idea if that is a fair price or not, when the man gave me the price and my new husband who did not grow up with these raised his eyebrow i circled a stove add for a no good gas range at Lowes for 798 and left it next to His Plate.You cant can on those skinny skinny grates and he loves a griddle!! I dont expect this range to wear out. I alredy told my son, the cook, it is his when i am threw with it. thats my storey and im sticking too it. There just isnt any excuse to buy anything else. so did i pay too much ?

You need the following pieces of literature, as a minumum:

1. BZ Service Manual - tells you how to set it up & calibrate it.

2. The "Idle Hour" Cookbook - teaches you how to care for your "new" CHAMBERS and how to cook with the gas turned OFF.

Either I or Sam the Stoveman have these for sale.

Let us know how we can help.

I am an avid cook and always dreamed of buyng a vintage stove due to the look, quality and mainly burner output and consistent oven temp. My 12 year old piece of junk which we bougth new started going bad, oven thermostat shot, front burner not ignighting (electronic ignition) only to finally ignight and poof what a flame! Anyways, living in an old, old house (1700's) my husband said pick the stove you will die using because I am not moving another one in this house! He then promptly bid on a Roper on e-bay. Gorgreous stove but it didn't feel "right". Being an info junky I started doing research and lo and behold I am a Chambers fan. Luckily we were outbid on the Roper and our quest began. We picked one up in NewYork and another in our own State PA. I was going to part them together but the 2cnd one being almost mint there was no need. We converted our good friends and they now own the one from NewYork. I am assimilated. By the way, we haven't gotten pretty girl in yet. My husband is threatening to rename it after we pull off this feat. I cannot post the name on this board!

I bought a house built in 1939, and it had a 90C in it. I had never heard of a Chambers before. It's interesting--ANYONE coming into my house from the kitchen door comments on the range. Men seem fascinated by it--guess it's all that chrome, as in the John Prine song.

Tell me about it! I could not figure out which stove to keep, both being in great shape. Do I keep the black top or the chrome top? Well, being a mother of two teen boys our house is overrun with young men. Every single one of them cam in the back door, my front door, walking past the two stoves on the covered back porch. Each one of them, and I mean each one, said "chrome wow!". Must be the car thing! Instinctual.(I thought companies marketed towards the women, huh.)