PDA

View Full Version : Replacing Electric Stove with Gas



Matt Meiser
09-03-2010, 9:26 PM
As of last week our house is all natural gas (shop is still in-process, but that's another story.) One thing we planned for is getting a gas stove eventually so we now have the gas hookup behind the stove. Since gas stoves still need power for the electronics, what's a good approach to switching? I haven't pulled it out to check, but I'm assuming that by 1991 when our house was built the range receptacle was 4-wire. Is it as simple as buying a plug-in adapter that just uses one leg? Or should I replace the breaker and receptacle with 20A 120V parts and just abandon the unused leg? If I do that, what's the proper method of marking the abandoned leg, or should I cut it off right where it enters the boxes?

Tom Leftley
09-03-2010, 10:33 PM
My suggestion is to leave the 220 volt stove outlet there and install a new 110 volt supply for the gas electronics.

That way, you could switch back if necessary.

Why would you need a 20 amp outlet for a gas appliance rather than a normal 15 amp? Am I missing something?

Joe Pelonio
09-03-2010, 10:38 PM
I agree, someone in the future may want electric. The gas stoves have the basic electronic controls and heating coils for the oven and broiler. In some cases like our new one both may go on at the same time, so 20 amps may be appropriate. One tip, go for one where the burner grates are all flat and go all the way across, so pots can't tip and you can put a giant pot across 2-3 burners.

Matt Meiser
09-04-2010, 8:23 AM
If someone in the future wants electric then they can deal with it. :) Actually, that's why I thought maybe there's a plug in adapter since I'm not the first to switch I'm sure. If I put in a new breaker and receptacle, I figured on 20A just for the sake of getting a receptacle I could land 10ga wire on but I could use pig tails too if that's acceptable.

I would run a new circuit which would be an easy job through the basement but we have 0 open spaces in our panel. Most 220 circuits are eating up the equivalent of 4 120 spaces filling it fast and anything but the most basic Cutler Hammer breakers are next to impossible to find around here. If I switch this circuit to 110, I'll have room for 3 more future circuits.

Ronald Blue
09-04-2010, 8:41 AM
Usually in name brand breakers you can get half width breakers so you can add more circuits to an existing box. Besides an a/c unit what else do you have that would need 220 now? I take it you used to have an electric dryer and or water heater. I would probably eliminate the water heater circuit if so. What wire gauge is the old wire? If it were a 40 amp service probably 8, if 30 then 10 gauge. Certainly adequate if you want to convert to a 20 amp service but a little stiff to work with. Good luck.

Chris Kennedy
09-04-2010, 8:58 AM
We did exactly as you are describing a few years back. The outfit we had run the gas line installed a new 110V circuit and left the 220. They could have taken it off the 220 or taken it off the range hood. We opted for the range hood in case some future owner for some bizarre reason wanted an electric stove.

Cheers,

Chris

Al Willits
09-04-2010, 9:56 AM
Many now are going with a electric oven, gas top burner set up, best of both worlds and chances are all you'll have to do is run gas to the stove.

Al

Sam Layton
09-04-2010, 10:28 AM
Matt,

Al hit the nail on the head. Have you purchased your stove yet? Many new stoves are duel fuel, gas cook top, and electric oven. Our new stove is duel fuel. I have gas for the cook top, and electric for the oven.

When we purchased our new stove, most were that way. Everyone said electric is the best for ovens. It sounds as if you have not purchased your stove yet. I would suggest you find the stove you want before you modify your existing electric.

We went from all electric to gas and electric. We are very happy we went with the duel fuel.

Sam

Tom Winship
09-04-2010, 11:30 AM
I agree with Al and Matt. When we lived in Houston, we had gas C/T and electric oven(s). Now we do not have gas, would have to be butane and no plumping exists. So we deal with "hangover heat".

Matt Meiser
09-04-2010, 4:47 PM
The stove I'm looking at is all gas and requires 15A 120V according to the spec sheet.

It turns out someone does make an adapter, but its only sold in Canada.
http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/15752.17_4.jpg
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=905477&Ntt=905477&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=112214&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber

Charlie Reals
09-04-2010, 5:39 PM
Matt, I would hard wire it and gain circuits. Pigtail it off the #10 wire.

Pat Germain
09-05-2010, 10:13 AM
We went from all electric to gas and electric. We are very happy we went with the duel fuel.

Sam

Excellent point. For serious, accurate cooking, dual-fuel is the way to go. But a dual fuel range is much more expensive than a gas-only range. There's no doubt it's worth the extra cost. It's simply a matter of deciding if the dual fuel is withing budget. Newer all-gas ranges have convection capability, which helps.

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.

The range I have now is some electric GE turd. Supposedly, it's a higher end model. Right. That just means it has a lot of fancy timers. Overall, it's just a giant, EZ-Bake Oven. I hope to soon upgrade to a dual-fuel convection model.

And anyone wanting to go from a gas range back to all electric deserves the headaches of changing the outlet.

Matt Meiser
09-05-2010, 10:26 AM
The one we are looking at is a Maytag, which is the same basic stove as the Whirlpool my dad got for Christmas last year. He's been happy with it. The one we are looking at has a grate that spans between the burners to support larger pots which my dad really likes the idea of and the middle sized burners are larger than his.

I'd sworn off Whirlpool brands after their experiences with some 90's era Kenmore stuff and a Maytag dryer we had that was just post-merger but based on his experience I'm thinking of giving them another chance.

Chris Padilla
09-05-2010, 11:26 AM
I've sworn off Maytag but I'm thinking I was a bit too hasty. We had a Maytag refrigerator that we bought at the same time as our Maytag Neptune washer and gas dryer. The fridge was a pain...the w/d have been flawless (to a certain extent). However, I still don't think I could put any Maytag in my kitchen.

It might be worth $6 to subscribe to Consumers Reports for a month and review their findings on stoves.

We just replaced our old Whirlpool that was about 3-4 years old when we bought the house 11 years ago. It worked great...had to replace the lower oven element a couple years ago but that was about it.

We bought a very high end GE Profile: all electric, dual ovens, no knobs...all fancy electronics. I'm worried about the electronics but so far, this stove is working great, had great reviews on CR, and we're using the small pizza oven a lot...in fact, we've only turned on the lower (larger) oven once just to see that it worked.

My house was built in the early 70s and has the 3-wire receptacle. The wiring to the stove is aluminum and was protected with a 50 A breaker but the manual for the stove said it needed a 40 A so I swapped it out.

Art Mulder
09-05-2010, 2:35 PM
It turns out someone does make an adapter, but its only sold in Canada.

Hmm, I'd offer to pick it up and mail it to you, but I suspect you'd be violating some code if it isn't available there... Seems pricey also, for a bit of rubber and copper. Low demand item, I guess.

Charlie Reals
09-05-2010, 2:48 PM
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
09-05-2010, 5:09 PM
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
09-06-2010, 11:16 AM
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
09-07-2010, 2:26 PM
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
09-07-2010, 3:32 PM
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
09-07-2010, 3:50 PM
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
09-07-2010, 3:53 PM
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
09-07-2010, 8:40 PM
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
09-07-2010, 9:24 PM
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.
----------

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
09-09-2010, 5:51 PM
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. :o:rolleyes:

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
09-09-2010, 9:24 PM
low and behold, there it is. Someone thought ahead!

:p:p:p

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
09-09-2010, 10:09 PM
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
09-17-2010, 5:49 PM
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
10-29-2010, 1:51 PM
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
10-29-2010, 2:34 PM
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.

Matt Meiser
10-31-2010, 11:07 AM
Well the store manager has pretty much lost faith in them too and has asked me to come in Monday and they are just going to take care of it there. Then if we do get the check he asked that I spend it in his store. I won't buy Whirlpool again but I'd buy another appliance at Home Depot. The new management at our local store and I suspect from above has really turned this store around from a customer service point of view. From his accent I suspect they sent someone from corporate in.

Joe Pelonio
10-31-2010, 2:49 PM
We recently replace our lousy Kenmore (August) with the Whirlpool model
WFG371LV, and loved it. Burners light right away every time, oven warms up really fast, and the flat top is great for large pots. Then last week the oven refuse to light. :confused:

Called the dealer and he gave us the number for the local factory service people. He came out, and I watched as he adjusted the gap on the igniter. Simply bent it slightly with pliers. It's like a spark plug, and if not exactly right from the factory, the heating and cooling causes it to bend enough to make the gap too wide. He informed us that there are only 2 U.S. manufacturers now, making all of the brands, and that there's really no difference in quality until you get to the gourmet/professional stoves that cost $2,000. With the one-year warranty the repair cost nothing, and
if it happens again after it's up at least I know I can fix it myself.

Ed Breen
11-02-2010, 5:37 PM
Hey Matt,
We live in Oklahoma and suffer ice storms where the electricity goes for quite a while. Our heating system is gas and I have a gas log in the fireplace, teed that line. I had a 1927 gas stove which works rather well. We used to do all our cooking on it. I stuck it in so that when we have an ice storm we use the gas log for heat and the old gas stove to cook. Works well.