Electric stove

“ The electric stove is the most dependent on geography of all your kitchen implements. Because it consumes a large amount of electricity, the rate of this as a fuel will decide whether or not you can use the electricity-consuming stove. This decision, in turn, is affected by the rate of electricity for cooking in every different locality in the country. ”

“ ELECTRIC STOVES. Electric stoves for cooking have been perfected to such an extent that they are a great convenience, and in places where the cost of electricity does not greatly exceed that of gas they are used considerably. In appearance, electric stoves are very similar to gas stoves, as is shown in Fig. 9, which illustrates an electric stove of the usual type. The oven a is located at one side and contains a broiler pan b. ”

“ The stoves are usually prepared for 110 volts with two-wire service from street or 110-220 volts with three-wire service. In some stoves the cut-out box is built on the range directly back of the switches. This, then, can be easily opened if anything happens. In the stock stove an extra charge is made for voltage exceeding 220 or less than 110, because alterations have to be made.
The consumption of watts in the electric stove is a very vital question. Watts are the unit of electric power, just as you speak of 50 cubic feet of gas in measuring gas consumption. ”

“ After installing an electric stove, start with new utensils because they will not blacken on an electric stove, and so can be washed with the other dishes.
Fig. 21. Utensil with heating unit.
When ordinary household utensils are used, they should be of such shape that they stand flat, as they also should on a coal range. The most economical use of heat is secured when the area of heat is smaller than the area of the bottom of the kettle and is concentrated on the utensil. Care should be taken when stoves are installed, that they are properly grounded so that they cannot burn any one. ”

“ Something, no doubt, has been done in the direction of economy by the invention of new and improved forms of stoves, but a great preponderance of the heat generated in the fire of even the best stove goes up the chimney. The electric oven, as already invented, is perhaps the nearest approach to a really economical "cooker" that has yet been proposed; but even before the general adoption of such an apparatus there will be ample room for improvement in the cooking stove, first as regards insulation, and secondly in the distribution of the fuel around the objects to be heated. ”

“ Heating unit of electric stove.
The cooking of food on an open burner should be started [44] with high heat turned on so that the food may cook quickly. If a large amount of food is cooking, there will be so much radiation from the vessel that it may require all the current to keep it cooking. After food has started cooking, the switch can be turned to medium, and, later, to low, depending upon the amount of food and the temperature desired. Low will keep an ordinary pan of water boiling, once it has started. ”

“ In this case you can turn off the electricity and there will be no danger of leaving a burner turned on when not needed. The heating plate may crack if the current is turned on without anything cooking in a utensil on top of it.
4. Don’t remove burners unless repair is necessary. Boiling over of foods won’t hurt the burners. Use nothing but a light non-metallic brush to rid the burners of spillings. If you use old utensils that have become rich in food deposits, thoroughly scour before [73] using on the electric stove. The electric stove makes no deposit on utensils. ”

“ In many a kitchen in small villages and along the countryside where the distance is not too great to make electric connections from central plants, we may find installed the electric stove which with fireless cooker and scientific manipulation is found to be no more costly after the initial expense of installation than other forms of heating, and the dishwashing machine which reduces that part of the labor from three separate hours each day to forty solid minutes of one single morning. ”

“ The efficiency of an electric stove or electric iron, or, in fact, any electrically heated device, may be determined in a manner similar to the water heater. In the case of a stove, place a vessel filled with water on it and measure the heat imparted to the water in a given time, also the input to the heating element in the same time, from which data the efficiency may be calculated. ”

“ In the average household the use of a cooking box does not do away entirely with the smoke, soot, heat, ashes, and kitchen odors, because of the need of heating the food on a stove for five minutes to half an hour before it is put into the air-tight box. The use of gas-stoves does away with most of these nuisances, while electricity abolishes them altogether, besides removing the danger of fire, keeping the air clean and cool, and enabling one to cook in any part of the house at any desired minute.
Electric cooking is still in its infancy, but the child is growing rapidly. ”

“ It cracks when dropped. Never set it on a hot stove when empty or cold, as the heat of the stove will crack it as it will glass. When hot, do not set it on a cold marble or a metal table top, as sudden changes in temperature will crack it. With proper care, granite and enameled ware give good service.
Graniteware is proving desirable for making utensils for use on electric stoves, the conductivity of the glass coating being so low, that it conducts the heat to the top of the pan slowly so the food in it gets to cooking quicker than in utensils made of most of the other materials. ”

“ But the new appliances for the electric kitchenette are like toys, they are so fascinatingly contrived. You are crazy to have ice cream or whipped cream with which to employ the electric kitchen power unit which can perform all these miracles, and you are led into gustatorial and epicurean extravagances by cooking, boiling, baking and grilling at the same time on the new stove. A whole dinner can be cooked on the dining table with these new ranges even if you have no kitchenette! ”

“ The points in buying a gas range are for the most part the same as in purchasing an electric range. It must be of the best material, cast iron or sheet iron or a combination of the two, the ovens usually lined with steel, upon which is baked aluminum or a vitreous enamel. Enamels are more expensive but their sanitary value is great. Everything must be of the best quality, no seams or roughness can be allowed to catch food or odors, and the stove manufacturers must give you a guarantee of almost everlasting life. ”

“ And now, last and most important of all, the stove; for although we may do without a great many things which are nice and useful to have, without a stove it is impossible to cook well. It may be for gas, wood, or coal, but it must act well. Gas stoves are extremely simple, clean, and easy to use, there are no flues to get choked, and in towns where gas is cheap it is no doubt the easiest and pleasantest heat to use. To keep them clean and sweet they should be well washed inside and out with soda and water at least once a week and polished with a little Electric black lead. ”

“ When the stove is required for cook- ing purposes, the drier can be swung back out of the way by means of the wooden bracket made of lath and attached to the wall by a bent nail and piece of fence wire. An electric fan can be trained on the drier to hasten the drying process. It can be kept running at night when the kitchen stove is cold. ”

“ One of them does not retain the heat completely enough to call itself a fireless cooker oven yet does retain heat to a great degree and cooks well after a little time on the third heat or low heat. The other style guarantees a fireless system of cooking when the electricity is cut off.
Strange as it may seem, the largest and most elaborate and the most expensive stoves are not made with the retention-heat method because, no doubt, the persons that can pay about $1000 or even $700 for a stove have chefs and don’t really care whether they use more or less electricity. ”

“ The addition of small quantities of fuel at short intervals so long as continuous heat is needed, is far better than to let the fuel burn nearly out, and then add a larger quantity. The improper management of the drafts and dampers has also much to do with waste of fuel. As stoves are generally constructed, it is necessary for the heat to pass over the top, down the back, and under the bottom of the oven before escaping into the flue, in order to properly heat the oven for baking. In order to force the heat to make this circuit, the direct draft of the stove needs to be closed. ”

“ Then again, if you employ electricity, whether it is more costly or not, you do not have to put in so strenuous a flue system when building a house, but just a hood over the stove as a vent to carry off cooking odors and a special wiring system. You do away, too, with the draughts necessary for coal or wood types and all the contingent engineering niceties, which harass and wear you if they are not perfection.
The body of the stove should be built of non-rusting iron. Armco rust-resisting iron is often used in the best grades of stoves. ”

“ There is always some soot formed, even in the best-managed stoves, and the flame often carries ashes with it. These in time fill the narrow space about the oven and cut off or check the passage of the hot gases about the oven. When this happens and the oven damper is closed, the stove will smoke and not bake well. No stove should be allowed to get in this condition. The housewife can watch the accumulation of ashes in the stove and remove them before they become one-fourth inch thick. If this is not done, the oven will not heat well and some parts may be considerably cooler than others. ”

“ There is no soot or grime, no ashes, no wood or coal to carry; there are fewer steps; there is less watching of the range; practically none at all, because when a burner is turned to medium, for instance, you know that you have a certain degree of heat for just as long as the switch is in that position. Results are eminently satisfactory and there is a sufficient saving in the weights and the nutritive value of foods cooked, especially in the oven, to make the electric range indeed a most desirable and economical addition to any home. ”

“ Let us suppose that you are operating one of the small disc stoves and that the stove will carry 600 watts of current. If that stove is equipped with a single heat, you will be using the full 600 watts whenever the switch is on. If it is equipped with a three-heat switch, it can be adjusted to 600 watts at full, 300 at medium and 150 at low, which means a great saving in current for most small cooking operations. ”

“ A portable steel oven, covering two burners, for use on gas and oil stoves alike, adds to the convenience of the gas plate, and sells for $2. If a gas range is desired, an excellent one with a large oven, broiler, and all conveniences may be purchased for $18, one with a smaller oven for $15. It might be well to suggest in passing that a small oven is poor economy. Water backs, for both gas and coal ranges, are $3.50 each. Where gas is unobtainable a three-burner wickless oil-stove plate will be found to give very good satisfaction, and can be placed on the coal range or on a table or box. ”

“ It will be seen, when we say that the entire cooking for a small family having late dinners, bread baked, and much water heated, is done for something under £2 a quarter, that gas as a fuel is not so great an extravagance after all. The stove used has the oven lined with a non-conducting substance, which has the advantage of keeping the heat within instead of sending it into the kitchen, as stoves made only of iron plates are apt to do. ”

“ Its function is not that of a wick at all. It is rather the self-starter of the stove and its business is to light the oil and start the cooking. The stove is lighted by applying the match to the kindler which is saturated by oil (from its very position) and this ignition of the kindler furnishes sufficient heat to the surface of the oil to turn it into a gas. After the burner is started the heat automatically keeps the gas forming (vaporizing) as long as there is oil in the burner. So you can see that all the kindler does is start the gas ball rolling. ”

“ It is free from impurities which invite corrosion and rust and has proved a valuable material out of which to make a good stove body. On some stoves the tops are made of gray iron castings which, with the black body and its polished iron trimmings, make a very stately and harmonious article without sacrificing anything of practical utility.
The top of any stove is the place upon which are placed the utensils for frying, boiling, etc. This is true whether the fuel be coal, gas, electricity or what-not. ”

“ Owing largely to the strides made in the cycle trade enamelling is stoved by means of gas, and of this a plentiful supply is necessary. Enamelling stoves may really be described as hot-air cupboards or ovens, and for a stove which will answer most requirements—say one of 6 feet by 6 feet by 31/2 feet—six rows of atmospheric burners will be necessary to heat it, while it will be also advisable to fix pipes of 11/4 inch internal diameter from the gas meter to the stove. ”