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onedogedie

Vintage Stove Question - Circuspeanut?

onedogedie
11 years ago

Circuspeanut or any other vintage stove user -

What is the counter height that flanks your O'keefe & Merritt? Standard 36"? My stove is presently in pieces and I can't find that info anywhere on the web.

Comments (10)

  • deedles
    11 years ago

    I have a Chambers vintage stove and have standard counter height on either side. I top of the stove is just slightly lower than the counter top but just slightly. We did put those silicone slides under the legs which raises it a bit because it's so dang heavy.

    I would think one of the vintage stove website forums would be able to help you with exact dimensions for your stove....

  • burntfingers
    11 years ago

    Our O'Keefe & Merritt is 36" tall (and 29" wide...)

    HTH

    Burntfingers

  • onedogedie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    My OKM has the towel bars that can hold the vanishing shelf up. Periodically during the 8 years I've had this stove-in-waiting, I dither over this detail and today I thought to lower the counter on both sides to accommodate the bars. I trekked out with tape measure and visited my dismantled stove and was able to measure where the brackets are. The counter would have to be 32" high and I think that is just too low. I will have to remove the towel bars.

    Next question - does anyone have the other kind of vanishing shelf. What makes it stay up in shelf position without the towel bars?

  • Circus Peanut
    11 years ago

    hi there,
    Sorry, I've been really sick and offline recently, just caught your post.

    My OKM is 36 9/16" tall because we have it on a bit of plywood, and the countertop that flanks it is 36 1/16", so there's about a half-inch differential. We really like it this way.

    How wide is your OKM? Mine's 39.5" wide. It has the vanishing shelf with side bars that slide straight backwards out of the shelf into slots on the upper chassis, so no problem with any countertop clearances. It's possible to switch out the shelf top, but I'm not sure the towel-bar model has the same notches in top that mine does, for hooking on the brackets?

    Check out the seller Grapevinesally on eBay, she's been very helpful for me and has always got a bunch of white OKM top shelves for sale in various hinge configurations.

    Pics of my top slider brackets during installation:

    Notches for the bar hooks:

    Pic of side next to countertop:

  • onedogedie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Circuspeanut- I'm sorry you've been sick. It always sounds so wrong when I hear someone is ailing in the summer months.

    It is good to hear your OKM 39.5" width because that it what mine is. I always wonder when I see them listed as 40".

    Coincidence - I was just looking at Grapevinesally yesterday. She has a beautiful light/clock/s&p piece that is missing from my stove. Almost talked myself into buying it but I'm glad to see someone else is bidding on it.

    Your photos are very helpful. Thank you so much.

  • burntfingers
    11 years ago

    OneDog - sorry, when I sent you the measurements on my O'K & M, I didn't include the top. Because mine is always in the "up" position!

    I have the version with the "towel bars" (strange, I've never thought of them that way ). I keep it up because with the shelf folded down but not completely covering the burners, it makes it difficult to use the back burners with anything other than a really small pan/pot. The folded-down shelf cuts off a lot (almost all) of the room behind the burner grate, so the pan or pot can't be any bigger than the grate....

    Something to consider?

    Burntfingers

  • onedogedie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    burntfingers- I wouldn't have called them towel bars but that's how O'K & M marketed them or that's how rumors start - me saying that. I'm thinking of mounting them somehow, somewhere to the end of counter runs, for fun.

    Your point about the folded back shelf cutting off space is a good one! My latest thought is that I will take the vanishing shelf off and go for the streamlined look (after I determine how the stove looks without it). I have fantasies of a shelf over the stove, if not the O'K & M one, then specifically one like Segbrown's, but it causes too many 'design' problems and likely interferes with my ultimate goal of having every last bit of grease going up the hood so that I don't have to clean it from anywhere else.

  • Circus Peanut
    11 years ago

    It is true that that shelf gets pretty grimy, since it sits directly in the way between steam and hood. Luckily it does clean off very easily, being porcelain. We usually keep ours folded back, but it's true that this limits the space available on the two rear burners. When it's folded up, it limits the height of the pots you can use -- although almost all of ours except the really big stockpot or canner fit in there.

    We did remove the top chrome fin back from ours, the finish piece that goes behind the clock & timer, for similar reasons - it just got too greasy and I felt it detracted from our tile backsplash.

    Just as an aside -- we completely overhauled our Grillevator and put in a new safety for it; that thing is da bomb. We use it far more often than the outside grill now. Recommend! (Besides, who on earth doesn't get a little frisson of delight when they say the very word "Grillevator"?)

  • onedogedie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I had to look up photos of your style stove to see the fin you removed. I hadn't focused on that detail before. I admire all the elbow grease you put into your stove. I took my stove apart, with dreams of doing the full rehab but then time intervened and I realized (after a 2x failure at getting a tub refinished) that I wasn't sure the effort and money would be worth it in the end. In addition I am not a perfectionist so we will clean up the pieces, touch up the rust spots and put the thing back together. I balked at dismantling it to the point of replacing the insulation. The O'K&M is in better shape than my circa 1996 Whirlpool electric stove which is definitely not build to last.

    I am looking forward to using the Grillevator, if only to make sandwich melts. You will have to share your recipes and Grillevator success stories with me (and what size pans you can use in the oven). I have thought that the smaller oven would enforce good portion control. No more half size sheet pans of roasted potatoes, etc...

    The O'K&M is the perfect symbol of the type of cook I want to be -- the kind who got dinner on the table with little fanfare day in and day out, year after year. I'm a far cry from that these days. I have dreams of getting my kitchen done by Thanksgiving or Christmas and becoming the new me. I've had this stove for at least 8 years now, and probably dreamed of a functional kitchen for almost double that.

    I keep toying with the idea of putting a single induction unit by the O'K & M but I am stymied by the available selections, the cost of the units, and whether it would disrupt my 'work zone' next to the stove.

  • texasbookie
    9 years ago

    I just got my O'Keefe and Merritt - 1952 - same age as me. I live in an old 1913 house, built before extraction fans. I would love to get one of these from Laurelhurst but they seem to have gone out of business:

    Here is a link that might be useful: Laurelhurst

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