Replacing Electric Stove with Gas

[Charlie Reals]

I think most ranges have been so low-quality for so long, most people now have no idea how lousy they truly are. I know the difference because my previous house had a massive Wedgewood gas range from the 1940s. When cranked up, the burners could almost melt cast iron. On low, they provided very good low heat. Since the oven had a lot of mass, it cooked very evenly.

In order to get anywhere near the quality of a wedgewood made as late as 1960 you would have to look at a wolf commercial and even then I am not sure the quality is there. The old wedgewoods were easy to adjust and work on and if the thermocouple in the oven chose Thanksgiving or Christmas day to go out it could be made to work till replaced. That would be the thing Matt if you could find an old chrome top wedgewood in decent shape and clean it up. There are a million of them out there. All of the parts are also still available to fix them.

[Matt Meiser]

Well the Maytag will be delivered Friday or next Wednesday by The Home Depot. I hate to buy something like this from the big box, but the sales guy at the local place we usually buy from about 45 minutes from home didn't want to spend time on the phone with me--just wanted me to waste 2+ hours to drive down and look to see if they had something we liked and talk price.

Art, I had that thought--I've got family visiting this weekend and spending tonight at the casino in Windsor then coming back tomorrow. There's bound to be a HD close. Its expensive but cheaper than the materials for a new circuit much less an electrician.

Ultimately I want those three circuits I'll gain for a future basement remodel so we just ordered the breaker that will get us there.

[Dick Strauss]

Matt,
If you've got a three wire config just re-purpose the white wire to act as the neutral on a new 120V breaker and leave the black as the hot. Replace the outlet and cover plate and you are done.

If you've got the four wire config, keep the white
as the neutral and disconnect the red hot at both ends (but capped at both ends) and connect the black to the 120V breaker. Replace the outlet and cover plate and you are done.

Let me know if you want some help on Thursday or Friday and I'll swing by and take care of it for you!

Take care,
Dick

[Jerome Hanby]

If you've never had a gas oven, I'd be real tempted to leave the 240 volt circuit intact. I've never used one, but my wife has nothing good to say about gas ovens. She loves gas cook tops, but electric is the only game in town for her oven. As I understand it's hard to maintain even cooking tempreture in a gas oven. Seems like with modern feed back circuitry it would no longer be that big a deal, but I have no first hand experience...

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Draw off an underused circuit the stove won't use enough power to matter. Clock, sparkers, maybe one of those unbearably flawed computers they love to put in appliances. That's what a hundred watts all told?
Then use that 220 line for the shop.

[Pat Germain]

I hate to buy something like this from the big box, but the sales guy at the local place we usually buy from about 45 minutes from home didn't want to spend time on the phone with me--just wanted me to waste 2+ hours to drive down and look to see if they had something we liked and talk price.

You know, people like to bust on big box stores and say they put the independent dealers out of business. But your experience pretty much mirrors my experience many (certainly not all ) independent dealers. They just want me to walk in with my VISA taped to my forehead and walk out with whatever they want to sell. If HD helped to you buy what you wanted, there's nothing wrong with buying from HD.

[Pat Germain]

If you've never had a gas oven, I'd be real tempted to leave the 240 volt circuit intact. I've never used one, but my wife has nothing good to say about gas ovens. She loves gas cook tops, but electric is the only game in town for her oven. As I understand it's hard to maintain even cooking tempreture in a gas oven. Seems like with modern feed back circuitry it would no longer be that big a deal, but I have no first hand experience...

Newer gas ovens do a better job of maintaining a temperature. They still can't do as well as an electric oven, but close. Also, it appears Matt bought a good quality gas range which also helps. The typical range you find in homes today is of very poor quality and, not surprisingly, would have trouble maintaining an even temperature.

[Matt Meiser]

I know the one we bought uses electronics to maintain a temp. The main reason we selected it is that its obviously the 1/2 step up big brother of the stove my dad got for Christmas which both my mom (the baker in their household) and my dad (the cook in their household) like. Looking at them side by side in the store, its clear they are the same stove with different trim and larger burner on ours.

[Jim Becker]

Matt, I did this "conversion" back in 2003 and just reused the existing cable from the previous electric cook tops to supply the 120v power that our range requires for utility. (We didn't go dual fuel due to it adding a couple grand to the price of the range). The heavier wire wasn't as easy to terminate (#8 in this case), but it still worked out with the Leviton commercial grade receptacle I used that offered side-wiring. The only real reason I reused the cable is that access would have been extremely difficult in that area of a crawl space to re-cable.
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The gas oven issue very much is relative to the particular oven. Better quality gas ovens today have good temp regulation...almost on par with electric. Our DCS range is extremely even...and even has an infrared broiler included in the larger, commercial sized side. (dual oven) The one thing that electric ovens do offer that's not there in gas is self-cleaning....oh, well...

[Matt Meiser]

Note to self: before planning a project to install a 110 outlet behind the stove, next time pull it out to see the one that is already there.

So I pulled the stove out today to take a look thinking I'd work on the wiring this evening and low and behold, there it is. Someone thought ahead!

[Art Mulder]

low and behold, there it is. Someone thought ahead!

Say, how old is your house? I wonder if it is current code. Not around here, AFAIK.

Around here the code is that if you put in gas, then you MUST also put in a stove electric outlet. But the opposite is not true, darn it. Too bad, as it would make it far easier to convert later.

[Matt Meiser]

Built in 1991. Its a modular so the builder may have included one there as a standard. Since I haven't looked behind the stove since we painted the kitchen a year or so after moving in, I didn't remember it at all!

Stove is being delivered tomorrow and the contractor is supposed to be sending someone out to finish up the shop and some punch list items. I think I'll see if I can slip him $20 to hook up the gas line and leak-check it.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, HD tried to deliver me a stove back on the 10th. They opened the pristine box and found a crushed stove so the left with it. A call to the store netted me the option of a $50 refund for my inconvenience and a delivery this week or a full refund since Lowes could have delivered one over the weekend. Wednesday they brought another, removed the pristine box and found a scratch on the side. They gave me the option of another stove or a $75 credit. Since it goes against the cabinet, I took the $75 and we end up with 20% plus another $125 off "regular" price.

Haven't used the oven yet, but I love having the gas cooktop.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, yet again I regret a Maytag/Whirlpool purchase. The credit was supposed to come from Whirlpool in 2-4 weeks. I realized earlier this week that we hadn't seen it so I contacted Home Depot since there was no other contact info. Yesterday they contacted Whirlpool on my behalf and left me a message that it would be about 6 weeks from the delivery date since they were running behind and left me the number for Whirlpool. Since the day before was 6 weeks I called Whirlpool back. They said the check would be cut today and go in Monday's mail. Then this morning my original sales guy called to tell me he had an email about the issue when he got in this morning after being off a few days and and that he had called Whirlpool this morning--and that they told him they were cutting the check on Nov. 5 and that it would take 1-2 weeks to get to me (not sure what mail class that is.)

I'm seriously thinking of letting American Express sort the whole thing out.

[Chris Padilla]

Refunds always take an ungodly amount of time. They are QUICK to take your money and slow to give it back. I think the idea is that they hope you'll forget about it.

It is akin to getting your email address off some list. "Thank you for unsubscribing...it could take up to 2 weeks to get your name removed." I really wonder why it takes so long...should be nearly instant.