My old electric stove is nearly at the end of it’s life. I already have a capped gas line ready to use.
The old gas stoves could be lit with a match during power outages. Friends warned me some new gas stoves won’t work without electricity. :smack:
Is that really true? My main reason for switching to gas is because they aren’t effected by power outages. I’m tired of dragging out my coleman camp stove every time an ice storm knocks out my power.
Can I still buy a nice gas stove that can be lit with a match in a power outage?
Many gas stoves these days have electric igniters, which obviously won’t work if the electricity goes out. You can light the stove-top burners with a match easily enough, but lighting the oven is a different story. On many, getting to the igniter in the oven isn’t all that easy, and then the oven flame will go out as soon as the oven reaches its operating temperature (it’s expecting to cycle on and off to maintain temperature) so you have to either constantly re-light it (a pain) or crank the temperature up to full and run it with effectively no temperature regulation, which is horrible for cooking.
You can still buy gas stoves that use an old fashioned pilot light. They have the advantage of still working when the power goes out, and the disadvantage of wasting gas to keep the pilots going.
We bought a new range two years ago. The burners have electric ignition, but can be lit with a match / lighter if the ignitor isn’t functioning (as the switches for the gas feed to the burners are still physical / mechanical).
The oven, on the other hand, is completely electronically controlled, and dead in the water with no electricity.
I just realized that I don’t have a 120V plug behind my electric stove. The capped gas line hasn’t been used since the 1960’s. Gas stoves didn’t need electricity then.
I could plug into the receptacle behind the fridge if the stoves cord is long enough.
I’d really prefer a traditional stove with pilot light. But the new ones I’ve seen are very basic, cheap models. I want a self cleaning oven. No way would I do without that.
We installed a propane range and fireplace early in 2003, shortly before Hurricane Juan struck that September. We were without mains power for 8 days and very grateful that we didn’t have to fire up the old Coleman stove out on the deck.
I have a dual-fuel stove, so gas burners and electric ovens. If the power is off we would have to light it with a match and forgo any baking, but we would have turned our generator on long before resorting to that.
There’s a combo unit in my place currently. Can’t bake stuff in the oven, which is electric, but the stovetop is functional as long as you light it with a lighter (the clicky-flint is electric). It worked in the recent power outages we’ve had, thankfully, along with the gas water heater.
Obviously, there is a 220 hook up for your old electric range. An adaptor that converts this to a 120 plug is available for $12 or so at most appliance stores
The Gas Bastards don’t want to run a line down this street (which has a main at each end), so I’m stuck with electric unless I want to pipe in the propane (which is expensive).
This is my gas stove. Actually, I have at least nine of them. It can be lit with a match.
I was wondering how much energy a gas range would take, and if you could run one off a UPS. Apparently those electronic ignition systems use a glow bar that takes around 300 watts.
These ovens, however use electric spark ignition, and might use a lot less electricity. (I found that page through here, where there are some useful comments.) Also, the Manual (PDF) includes instructions for using both the stove and oven in a power outage. It says
So that’s not too bad. Even if using the oven were out, being able to cook on the stove top still leaves a lot of options.
ETA: Unfortunately, none of them seem to have self cleaning.
The load would not be a problem. What is a problem is the UPS runtime. Even at minimal load, all UPS units have a finite runtime, and for most consumer-grade units, you’re looking at 15-60 minutes.
Enough to keep the oven running long enough to bake some brownies, perhaps.
Your friends are just too dumb to light the thing with a match. As everyone else has said, the strikers are electric, so if you don’t have a match/lighter on hand you’re fucked when the lights go out.
Which is exactly the situation we found ourselves in the first time we lost power in our first house, during an ice storm. Neither of us smoked and I was used to lighting candles on the pilot light, so I had honestly never thought about it. Luckily, we were only a 10 minute walk from a convenience store.
I have a gas stove. It’s possible to light both the stove top and the oven, but the oven is much harder. It’s not impossible, but the place where you have to put the match is at the back, so you have to sit on the floor and lean your arm in.
I feel bad saying, “well, duh, it’s a valve that you the user provide the energy for opening,” but on the other hand, I recognize that lots of people don’t realize that gas can be ignited via a source of ignition. You know, the “inflammable means flammable?”-crowd.
On a serious note (i.e., the above is humor, not snark), gas is superior or cooking. That’s only my opinion, but it’s shared by a lot of people. You won’t regret the change.
I was worried these newer stoves had electronic gas valves that needed electricity to open/close. I looked at a few at home depot and the tags don’t mention using them without power.
Glad that’s not the case. I can live without an oven during a power outage. At least with working burners it’s possible to cook.
