No, I’m not planning to buy or restore one, but I’m curious whether anyone here has ever cooked with one, grew up with one or otherwise has insight to share. If you’ve used a Flair range, what were their primary good or not-so-good qualities? Did they cook better than standard kitchen ranges?
For those who’ve never heard of the Flair, here’s what they look like:
http://www.danlangdon.com/flair.htm
They could be installed as a unit (as pictured above) or the ovens and roll-out drawer could be mounted on existing kitchen cabinets. Frigidaire introduced Flair models in 1960 and manufactured them for 10 years or so.
One of the Flair’s notable advantages was the fact that the ovens were not only at eye-level, but the doors slid upwards rather than down, allowing access to the food without having to bend or stand to the side. As far as disadvantages, I’ve never used one so I can only guess. In nearly all models that I’ve seen, the roll-out cooktop is slightly lower than countertop-level, so frying or sautéing could become a chore for a very tall person. And I’m not really won over by the whole early 60s look (the hypocycloid design on the oven doors and some of the color selections–in addition to white, I’ve also seen pink and aquamarine). Still, it was an interesting experiment and I hope that some Dopers will be able to share recollections or perspectives on them.