advice for cooktop/drop-in stove

[chris clark]

The PO of my 65 Safari removed the oven and put a microwave in the hole. He never trimmed it out and made it look professional, so I'm going to do it. Can't decide whether to use the slide-in cooktop or drop-in, but am thinking about whichever I use, dropping it below the new countertop I'm installing and lowering it enough to hinge the countertop over it. This would provide much more cabinet space when stove is not being used. Has anyone done this before? Any suggestions on brand of cooktop? 2 or 3 burner?

[JimGolden]

That would get you some more space. Just have to be careful of the potential fire hazard. Personally, I use the cook top about 10:1 over the oven though.

My unit has the Magic Chef 4-burner. It's pretty nice. It has a stainless steel backsplash that folds out over and covers the top, so it in effect does give you more counter space. You might just try getting hold of one of those. I'm sure you could find one cheap. There's really not a lot to go wrong with them, so even an old one could be spruced up. Mine is 30 years old and still looks new on the inside. The outside would too with a good cleaning.

Anyway, Magic Chef is the brand I'm most familiar with. Not to say there aren't twenty others.

Good luck,

[mandolindave]

There is a thread on stove preferences somewhere on the forum. I was advised to just put in a range and not an oven. The installer said that
the oven takes up a lot of space and I will just end up using it as a bread box. I have never fired up the stove, but it's nice to know that I could make a TV dinner if I wanted to.

[davidz71]

Hunter Hampton from www.airstreamlist.com replaced her stove/oven with a cooktop and drawers. I remember her posting that she never used the oven so changed over to just a cooktop. Check out her yahoo site and somewhere she names the type of cooktop she put in.

[AYRSTRM2]

I never really understand the "no oven" crowd. We have used our oven on many occasions, to make corn bread, french fries to go with burgers on the grill, and of course, Biscuits! Also have made cinnamon rolls. It gets more use when the weather is rainy or cold, but we certainly use ours and I recommend having one.

[Alumatube]

Yay, John! We LOVE our oven for chocolate chip cookies, orange breakfast rolls and other delicacies. (The first thing we *almost* used the oven in our SOB for was to powdercoat a small part for my racecar at a friend's house in Iowa, but he got his shop oven working before we could do it.) We were chagrined to find out our new-to-us 310 only had a cooktop--I guess the original microwave was also a convection model? Was that possible in 1984? The PO had put a cheapie micro in its spot. There is a huge drawer where the oven would otherwise go. Nice for storage, sad for cookie lovers.

Oh--can anyone vouch for the new 1/2 time ovens (basically a convection microwave) for making cookies?

Susan

[davidz71]

John and Susan,
I'm with you on the use of the oven. I have used mine for biscuits, dinner rolls, lasagna, King Ranch casserole, pizza and other things you really can't cook to satisfaction in a microwave.