Our old, (t)rusty oven after 30 years of service
Well, we persevered for probably a decade but, finally, I ordered a new oven…
When our house-to-be was built 30 years ago (see here for other 30-year-old stuff in Chez Snail), it was equipped with an oven and hob, because it was illegal back then not to supply a fitted kitchen having supplied the walls, roof, floors and general utilities*. I replaced the hob a long time ago as it was grim, but the oven… well, it still worked even though it did a good job of also heating the kitchen and in its last few years probably didn’t come anything close to its maximum temperature of 200°C. For a fan oven, its temperature distribution was, shall we say, uneven.
So, a shiny new oven arrives but what to do with the old one? Well, salvage some bits off it, of course! I decided that the electrics (heating elements, thermostat, fan motor) all deserved a good long rest, and that they could stay wrapped inside their metal shell for now. There were two pieces of glass that might prove useful for a cloche or the like, so I extracted them using that thing on a penknife you use for getting boy scouts out of horses’ hooves.
Glass from the past
Also, there was some wire that the Snail said would be useful for knitted things, and there were a couple of control knobs that might be handy. A little haul but the rest was going to be recycled so all, in all, not bad.
All that remains…
… and we have a new shiny oven to cook yummy things in!
oOo
* No, it wasn’t.
writinghouse 
Was the glass ‘smoked’ when it was new, or is that the accretion of decades of roasted and baked loveliness? If the latter, I feel it should perhaps be preserved for DNA testing to see what people ate in the year 30 B.C. (before Covid, obvs…)
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It’s hard to know, but I suspect the smoking occurred behind the bike sheds during breaktime. B.C=Before Covid = Genius!! 🙂
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It has been somewhat tinted ever since we acquired it, but there is grime too… which progressively became impossible to remove in situ. I’m hoping that being able to give it a good soak will sort that out.
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My mother’s solution to anything oven-related was a bath of diluted ammonia. Funny how the rest of the family seemed to find outside jobs to do the day that oven-cleaning happened…
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Wow, I bet that kept your noses nice and clear though!
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I still hate the smell to this day. However, it WAS very efficient at getting rid of the baked on residue. She’d put a glass dish of the hell-brew inside the oven overnight with the door closed (thank heavens), and next morning take it and all the other bits out and give them a brisk rub off in a sink of hot soapy water. Worked a treat.
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We also saved the glass off our old cooker. It makes a remarkably strong craft board. Himself uses it when skiving (thinning) down the edges of leather.
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Oh, that is a good use – still got to clean it up first, which I think will take a while! 🙂
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I expect the back of the bike shed is a good place to practice skiving too…
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😁😂
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I hope you are enjoying the new oven and all the lovely things that come out of it. Did you launch it properly with a bottle of champagne? And enjoy thinking of things to make with the bits you salvaged.
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It’s so nice to have an oven that does what it says it’s going to do – heat up to the temperature set and in a time that is commensurate with how long days are! No champagne just yummy cakes. 🙂
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Often it is only when you get a new appliance that you realise what a dud the old one was. Enjoy the cakes!
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It’s all part of that adaptability that makes us Humans, well, human… 🙂
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Weirdly, I replaced my 25 year old cooker a couple of months back (obviously, not as hardy as your one was!) – the oven hadn’t worked for ages (I used a little electric one instead) but the gas hobs worked great – until they didn’t! Lol
We didn’t get much off of our old one, either – but I missed a good one, with the glass – never thought of using it for a cloche! D’oh!
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The glass was a pain to extract so I am hoping to find a good use for it at some stage. I have a tendency to keep things “just in case” and then end up with a pile of junk that’s in the way – but I think the glass may get used in the garden or Limery.
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