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What is a "fuel sucking RV range" and how do I know if I have one?


Seeria

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Someone mentioned "fuel sucking RV range" in another thread. What does that mean? How do I know which ones are NOT fuel suckers?

 

We picked up our new 5ver and I have to say I cannot stand these oven/ranges. Horrible! Didn't see a single kitchen unit in the some 50 RVs we looked at over a month long period that had a decent range. Frankly, I'm ready to rip it out and put in my Coleman propane bbq again. Ugh!

Kind regards

~Laughter is as essential as the air we breathe~

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Why not rip out the stove/range you don't like and install a 24" or 30" residential propane stove? Folks do this type of modification with residential refrigerators all the time and I have seen mention in forums in the past of people installing a residential stove.

 

On the other hand we just consider the smaller stove/range with the very poor oven just one of the compromises we have made to enjoy the RV'ing life style. Things like not having the large walk in shower in a sticks and bricks.

 

However I have read reports that many people never miss the gas oven and just love the convection oven/microwave's. Personally we really have missed the gas oven in the RV we had w/o it. The convection oven just didn't work for us.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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If you think the stove and oven "suck" fuel what do you think about your trucks towing mileage? We use the oven and do not consider it a problem......other than lighting the pilot. Greg

Greg & Judy Bahnmiller
Class of 2007
2014 F350
2007 HitchHiker Champagne

Both sold 2/19, settled in Foley, AL after 12 years on the road

http://bahnmilleradventure.blogspot.com/

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First a disclaimer, I am not the cook in our rig! I did ask DW her opinion and she said she uses her portable NuWave induction cook top a lot, but when she does cook on the stove she likes her electric three burner top which she ordered in our new rig much better than any propane cook top we have had. Also she does not have a propane oven but a conduction/microwave which she says works much better and the space that would have been the oven is now her dish washer which she also loves. Best Wishes, Jay

2015 Continental Coach Elegance by Forks RV, 41'; 2015 FL M2 112, DD 13, by 2L Custom Trucks; Trailer Saver air hitch; '48 Navigoddess with a Rand McNally GPS

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However I have read reports that many people never miss the gas oven and just love the convection oven/microwave's. Personally we really have missed the gas oven in the RV we had w/o it. The convection oven just didn't work for us.

 

This absence of a "real" oven to bake is the only real disappointment for my wife has with RV living so far. She loves to bake ... and although she's slowly but steadily mastering however to work with the convection oven - clearly, it just ain't the same. In the big scheme of things ... if this is our only problem, we don't have any problems at all. Even though she knows that deep down inside - still, I've got a number of posts from several forums "booked marked" from folks talking about how much they hate trying to prepare true baked goods in the real ovens that some RVs have - just so that I can remind her that having a real oven in the RV may not provide her with what she really wishes she had (which is an honest to goodness residential electric oven).

The Spacenorman

2012 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 43' DFT

2012 Jeep Liberty

Our Travel Website: www.penquinhead.com​

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I guess I don't get the complaint about the standard RV gas range. I find it very satisfactory and I've used it daily for over eight years. I haven't noticed any difference in the taste of my spaghetti sauce, gumbo, etouffee, potato soup, jambalaya, chili, coubion, or any other dish than on my big household range when I lived in a sticks and bricks.

Everybody wanna hear the truth, but everybody tell a lie.  Everybody wanna go to Heaven, but nobody want to die.  Albert King

 

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I'm not sure just what the "fuel sucking" part of that comes from but I do know that RVs are getting away from standard ovens and moving mostly to convection ovens, partly due to the fact that the small, propane fueled ovens are not that easily baked with for most cooks. The main problem is that because the RV oven is very small, made of light weight materials and has little mass it also tends to not be very stable in temperature when in use and can make baking difficult. What we have learned over the years of using one is to add mass by placing a 12" square, unglazed tile in the bottom of the over to add a heat storage mass or Pam used to always place a pizza stone under her baking pans when she used ours. By doing this we found that the oven would bake much better and by using an oven thermometer we found the temperature swings as the burner cycled on and off to be far less wide.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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I have a "real" propane oven with a three-burner range top. I travel solo full time. I do a lot of cooking, wash dishes once a day, take a hot shower every night, and occasionally run my furnace. Most of the time, my propane tank will use about 10 gallons of fuel every other month. It costs me about $220 per year, which I think is pretty reasonable for heat, hot water, and cooking.

 

What does whoever told you about the "fuel-sucking" consider high propane use?

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Hopefully the OP will come back and add some clarification to the original posting. There have been some suggestions and comments added to this Topic which may or may not have any bearing on what the original poster had in mind when opening this topic.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our Beaver had a residential propane cooktop installed as OEM. Unlike the typical RV ones, this cooktop has easy to control burners with stable flames.

 

BTW, no cooktop can "suck fuel" any more than any other. When burned propane is going to have the same BTU value per unit volume regardless of what it is burned in.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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take a look at this http://www.andybaird.com/Eureka/pages/kitchen.htm#stove oven that will fit in most rv's and is larger. also available at camping world.

 

hope it is what you wanted.

If anyone has a link to the Magic Chef stove/oven referenced in the link in the quote above, please share it. I have done several searches on the internet and can't find one. Even going to the Magic Chef website I can't find one. In fact on the Magic Chef website they don't even show that they make a gas or elect stove/oven.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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We use the standard Wedgewood stove and oven all the time. We bake. Often. And we really don't find it to use a lot of fuel. Right now, the stove/oven is about all we're running the gas for and we've been on the same 30# tank of fuel all summer. I keep checking and there is always fuel still in there.

 

Since I do use that oven for baking bread, I have installed a thermometer in the back of it that stays there all the time and I pay attention to it. The temp gets set for 375 degrees when I'm baking bread and it takes it quite a long time to get up to temperature. I also put a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven to help with the heating characteristics of the oven, and that helped. My bread does not burn on the top and is not soggy on the bottom. Two loaves do pretty much fill up the oven, though. When I set the oven for 400 degrees for pizza, I plan on it being on for a good 20 to 25 minutes before the pizza ever goes in. I want the oven up to temperature and relatively stabilized before the food ever goes in. It works better that way for me. My wife has the biggest complaints when she turns the oven on for 5 minutes, sticks something in that is supposed to bake at 350 or 400 for 30 minutes and complains that it didn't bake. Well... it was probably only about 200 or 225 at 5 minutes after turning it on. Even when we had our nice home units in the stix n brix, the temp wasn't up to 400 in an instant.

 

Just our experoence.

 

ETA: I did find that our temperature knob is off by about 25 degrees. When I want 400 degrees, I have to set the knob at about 425. If I want 350, I have to set the knob at about 375. That's one of the reasons I got the oven thermometer that stays in the oven. Had I not done that, I wouldn't have known. When I do as I said above for my bread, I find that it's not much different than baking in a standard stix n brix oven. It takes the same amount of time for the internal temperature of the bread to reach 190 degrees, in my case right about 31 minutes... same as the stix n brix oven I used last summer to bake in. The preheating is painfully slow when you're in a hurry but it does make a difference.

 

Yes, I'd like to have a bigger oven and so would my wife. But we CAN make this one work for most of the things we need it to do.

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BrianT said it all. Adapt and overcome is the terminology. I also agree there is no such thing as a gas-sucking RV range/oven but one must remember these appliances are not/cannot be insulated as well as residential units. The output ID plate states the BTU per hour of the appliance. .

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

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I'm not sure why others have issues with the convection side of their combo microwave \ convection units. If using just convection it operates exactly like a residential unit. I have been baking in mine for 8+ years with no issues. Well there is one. A a 12 cup angel food cake pan used for a pound cake doesn't work well. But I just divide the recipe into loaf pans. It does depend on your rated watts and then adjust either the temp or time. I do not miss the gas oven. The cook top is fine.

Ron & Linda

Class of 2007
2000 Monaco Diplomat

2005 Honda Element

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" Theodore Roosevelt

"We can't control the wind, but we can adjust our sail"

"When man gave up his freedom to roam the earth, he gave up his soul for a conditioned ego that is bound by time and the fear of losing its attachments."

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regarding my original post re. the magic chef oven, i contacted Andy and got the following information:

 

Mike, my invoice from 2007 describes it as a "Magic Chef 22 range.” The label inside the cooktop says it’s model number CLY2220BLW. Hope this helps!

 

Andy

 

good luck,

 

mike

Happy Trails,

 

Florida Mike

EXPERTS AREN'T!! :D

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