apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

From my experience I would say go for something more modern, or at least a newer replica.

I had an older range in my home and when a part needed to be replaced, it was a NIGHTMARE to try and find it! We ended up replacing the whole range after going without a working one for over a month.

While I miss the look and feel of my older range, I am glad to have something more reliable and safe.

Also, I failed to mention that cooking with these old tinker toys can be a pain because the temperatures of the oven always seem to be off.

From my point of view, why sacrifice practicality for aesthetic in an area of the home that should be the most practical.

Lisa, this article is helpful, and I wish I would have read it before buying my vintage oven! I ended up selling mine because it was just too small.
http://www.slate.com/id/2224335/

It sounds like the one you have in mind is plenty big, but examine it carefully for rust (though you can scrub that up), scratches, dings, etc. Make sure you know where to get replacement parts just in case. Um, that's all I've got. Good luck--I totally think vintage ovens are worth it.

Our apartment came with one of those big white vintage ovens with the broiler and griddle. The oven is terribly small. While I love the broiler and cleaning is fairly simple, I wouldn't buy one. The oven just doesn't offer enough room.

In my last apartment, I bought my dream turquoise vintage Wedgewood stove. It was my BABY, my most favorite piece of "furniture" in the house, and people absolutely loved it. Mine came needing a repair, but luckily, here in Los Angeles, we have a fabulous place called Antique Stove Heaven. They sell fab stoves in their showroom, and do home repairs for a great price. But, honestly, it would have been very hard to get to the bottom of the problem. The Gas Company could only tell me the problem, and another repair co I tried really didnt know what they were doing and charged me HUGE. So, my advice is to do research in your area and see what resources you will have to help you with questions and/or repairs. Yes, mine oven's temp was off, but I stuck a magnetic thermometer inside and it didn't present too much of a problem. I didn't have a problem with the oven size at all, and believe these stoves are made so much sturdier than many today. Good luck!

When we bought our house, we had a vintage oven. We ended up replacing it. The oven was tiny (though there were two of them, neither was large enough for a cookie sheet) and it was much less well-insulated than a more modern oven. In other words, I was heating my whole downstairs every time I used it. I loved the look, but I do lots of cooking, and it just wasn't a practical choice.

I had a vintage 1920's gas range in my first apartment in San Francisco. It was simple, large enough, and reliable enough. The oven was tricky to regulate, but once I got an oven thermometer, all was well. Two things about that range I loved - it was light weight, and the legs made it very easy to clean under. It had four burners in a horizontal row, and the space behind them stayed warm. It had a narrow shelf above the stove top portion. One of the knobs was missing, but I made do with a knob from the hardware store across the street. I learned to clean gas jets, but other than that, the thing was simple, beautiful ( yellow) and functional.

Love our 1924 stove. There are pros and cons of cooking and baking with it. The broiler can get so high, much higher than newer models, for the best steaks ever. The two butter warmers I use constantly for other things as well. The gas flame can get so high, love that.
It does need to be serviced every year or two. Consistent temps can be a challenge at times,other times they are spot on. My stove is like an old friend. I love it and its quirks. Alli411.com

ps. that's my stove in the picture :)

I cooked with a vintage stove in my last apartment. I loved it. Yes, the oven was small but a cookie sheet fit *just* perfectly inside, with no room on either side to spare. The range was awesome. Nothing like it. I had four burners, two on each side, but the best part was the wide center area, where you could place hot pans that came out of the oven without using trivets. The broiler, like Alli said, made excellent steaks. The temps were off, like most of the others are saying, but definitely get an oven thermomet ($5-10 at Target) so you know the exact temp. Mine even had an outlet on it, which made for a little extra "counter space."

I had a 1950s Maytag that was very similar to this one:
http://dreamstoves.com/theme/5/index.php?dir=products&pg=view1.php&pid=2783&cat=943&parent=0

Have a late 40s O'Keefe & Merrit- it's mostly great. Was purchased 'reconditioned' so was perfect for several years. After 18 months or so in storage it was a bit wacky temp wise, but it's not terribly hard to recalibrate. My one caveat would be: Do you bake alot? It IS a hassle with baked goods, though more cakes/breads than cookies- other than that, not a problem.

Am unaware of the tiny oven issues lamented above- seems plenty large to me. I have an oven on the right/storage on the left style, perhaps the above ones are the super narrow 'apartment' style? I'd probably avoid the rotisserie stuff unless it's in perfect working order.

When we renovated our kitchen 6 years ago, we put in a 1950s O'Keefe and Merritt stove with 1 oven, a grillevator (broiler), and a griddle. We love it! But here a few considerations for you:

1) Are you a serious cook? If so, you might appreciate things like a convection oven, larger oven size, and absolutely precise cooking temps. We're not serious cooks so these aren't issues for us. The grillevator functionality is better than the broiler in a new stove.

2) What services are available in your area? Like Amymj pointed out, make sure you have adequate resources for service. We live in LA and have many resources. We purchased our stove from a small dealer and they offer ongoing service very inexpensively. (In my experience, some dealers such as Antique Stove Heaven are quite expensive.) In 6 years, we have had only one or two small issues which did not require parts. Ours was NOT one of the meticulously restored stoves that sell for $3K up. I would expect the latter to have even fewer issues.

3) Are you okay with pilot lights? And heat? Our stove has 5 pilot lights. Yes, 5. Always lit. Throwing off heat. And vents from the oven inside. In the winter, the stove is like a wonderful, center-of-the-kitchen fireplace. Everyone wants to gather there. In the summer... not so much. When the gas went out I had a hard time figuring out how to re-light everything.... we have no owners manual. And the re-light switch in the grillevator was moved at some point (which I had forgotten) so I was pushing a button that was no longer connected. You have to lay on the floor with a flashlight to light the grillevator pilot! There is a small learning curve, like with any appliance.

4) Cleaning is definitely more work than, say, a solid surface cooktop, sealed burners or a self cleaning oven. But the stove is simple and everything comes apart easily so it is certainly not difficult to clean. (I like being able to take it apart to deep clean.) It is just more time consuming. It's not the quick "wipe and go" convenience of new models.

5) What do you really want? I admit that a big part of our decision was based on aesthetics. I love the look of the vintage stove. And I was pretty unimpressed with the look of "non commercial" stoves on the market -- they just look so cheap. Maybe they are better now? We were spending a lot of money in our kitchen and I could not see putting in something that looked like it came out of an apartment (we don't have room for a cooktop and wall oven). Since we don't cook a lot, it seemed ridiculous to spend thousands on a commercial or faux commercial model. (Side note: I did my due diligence and looked at the pseudo commercial models -- and hated them! So un-ergonomic. Opening and closing the low and heavy oven door would definitely have exasperated my back problems.)

Like modern stoves, not all vintage stoves are created equal. I own a Chambers, which I purchased from a salvage store for a [relative] song and then restored. It was a little bit of a project, but was mainly just cleaning, polishing, etc. Chambers is the Cadillac of stoves, and to buy a modern quality-equivalent would have been out of my price range. But! Since these babies are made to last, it's been well worth it. Plus, I love the vintage aesthetic.

Here's a good article from Slate about why "vintage stoves are better."

I grew up with a late 40's Wedgewood stove with 2 ovens, 2 broilers, a griddle, and 4 burners. My parents bought it new when they were married. It was very nice for Thanksgiving dinner, because of the two ovens. A large (20 pound) turkey fit fine.
Drawbacks: Cleaning it was a pain. It had pilot lights so it used gas all the time.
Pluses: Because of pilot lights, ovens were warm all the time, perfect for proofing bread dough.

I have a 5 burner gas cooktop with electronic ignitor and two electric convection ovens. Do I think these appliances make me a better cook than my mother? No.

I have a 40's era Tappan gas stove that came with my house. I love the look of it and I love the gas burners. I'm not a serious cook though so the fact that the oven is smaller and nowhere near accurate on temps doesn't bother me.

It is easy to clean and is in very good condition, so that makes it even simpler to take care of.

But when I say the temps are off, I mean it. Even a frozen pizza is tricky to cook, everything takes longer than expected, and nothing gets as crisp as I would like it. And its not consistently off either, like I can't just use 450 instead of 350 on everything.

I love the approx 50year old stove that came with the two family house I bought. It's definitely the best gas oven I've ever had access to--strong burners and a consistent oven. But that open pilot light worries me. It's difficult to relight and I worry that I'll be away for 3 weeks and it will go out and the house will be full of gas when I get home.
At some point I'll replace it, but I'll be sorry to see it go.

Echoing most of arroyo's comments. I have a vintage 50's stove that I bought at an estate sale. Yes, it sucks in the summer because it heats up the whole kitchen, but it is fabulous in the winter for warming up the kitchen. It has storage on the left and an oven on the right and fortunately, half bun pans fit that oven quite nicely, but do not fit the broiler (we have a separate baking sheet for that).

I'm a cook not a baker, so the draw for me was the 6 burners, not the oven. My sister, who is a baker, hates to come over and use my oven, unless she brings her oven thermometer (which I am too lazy to use). It roasts fabulously.

I deep clean my oven about once a year and though it seems daunting (rubber gloves! ammonia!) only takes about an hour with some serious elbow grease. The burner bibs and burner "racks" lift off and are cleaned weekly. They do fit in my dishwasher, if they are not too grody. Otherwise a good scrubbing with Barkeepers Friend and they are good to go.

I've had it installed for over 5 years and nothing has gone wrong with it so far (knocking on wood).

I would recommend buying a stove that has been hooked up and you can see working. We did purchase a less-vintage stove before this one, that had been stored in a garage and never did get it to work properly.

Old gas stoves are well made and powerful.
50's era stoves have safeties, won't fill your house with gas
50's era models also have thermostats that can be adjusted (or replaced with new, just like the safeties).
EVERYTHING comes apart, and so cleaning is not actually a huge problem.
The pilot lights will keep your cook top hot even when off and your whole house warm when running. In the summer you can bypass the safety and turn off the pilots, or retrofit with piezoelectric sparkers.
I think they're gorgeous, and well worth any small sacrifices.