Princess electric range/oven replacement

I have a Prairie 36 Coastal Cruiser equipped with a Princess electric 3 burner range/oven and I'm not happy with it's performance. I'm thinking of replacing it with a two burner induction cook top and convection microwave. I think this will use less electricity and perform better as well as being much cheaper than replacing with propane. All I need to do is find a close fit for the space the current Princess occupies. I can finish it off I think to look good there. Have any of you tried this and/or what do you think of this idea?

Kevin

Greetings,
Mr. t. We had a Princess 3 burner electric on our vessel when purchased. NEVER worked well. Changed over to gas and found on removal of the Princess that it was a 220v unit wired with 110v. Still prefer gas.

We replaced our 3 burner Princess electric which had heating coils with the exact same size 3 burner Princess electric with the ceramic top. We love it. It heats FAST, heat is easily controlled, oven is great and the top is so easy to clean. Burnt on spills are removed with a razor blade in seconds (recommended by the mfg). Removal of the old and installation of the new was a 30 minute job. Even the mounting screws were in the same place as the old.

Hmmm

I love our princess electric stove/oven.

Works great!

We use the oven for dinner when not bbq'ing and it works great as well

I Love My Queen. My Queen loves our mostly original 1977 Tolly's orig Princess stove/oven. Therefore I love our Princess too. Hope that didn't come out wrong - LOL

Kevin, did I miss that fact that you have a 36' Prairie? There's so few around, I usually jump on that!

I find that we use the microwave (countertop model) and cook top a lot more than the oven, so I can't argue with your logic. Still, we do use the oven once in a while, and I've found nothing about it not to like.

The Princess works great, it's simple and easily repaired. I have the manuals if you need them.

What's it not doing for you? Did you know that one of the burners is low-power only? If you put the element back wrong, it can be frustrating!

As for power use, electricity is more or less 100% efficient. If you use less electricity, you generally speaking get less heat. I've found the Princess strikes a good balance. I can boil water, or get a double-wide skillet hot, pretty quickly. But it doesn't consume all of my 30A circuit, allowing other things to run, too.

Still, if you go with a custom re-build, I'd love to see it! A flat cooktop would be nice.

CaptTom said:

Kevin, did I miss that fact that you have a 36' Prairie? There's so few around, I usually jump on that!

I find that we use the microwave (countertop model) and cook top a lot more than the oven, so I can't argue with your logic. Still, we do use the oven once in a while, and I've found nothing about it not to like.

The Princess works great, it's simple and easily repaired. I have the manuals if you need them.

What's it not doing for you? Did you know that one of the burners is low-power only? If you put the element back wrong, it can be frustrating!

As for power use, electricity is more or less 100% efficient. If you use less electricity, you generally speaking get less heat. I've found the Princess strikes a good balance. I can boil water, or get a double-wide skillet hot, pretty quickly. But it doesn't consume all of my 30A circuit, allowing other things to run, too.

Still, if you go with a custom re-build, I'd love to see it! A flat cooktop would be nice.

Click to expand...

What I bolded in paragraph above is a nice feature we enjoy too. Matter o' fact, for safety reasons - I make sure to keep our amp draw at 20 or below in a 30 amp system. This low amp procedure still allows the Princess as well as some other items to run at same time.

Note: If the Princess has foldable top over burners there is a pressure switch that can get stuck so that burners do not function. Top is meant to be fully open. See plan book to find yours. On 1977 model ours is on right hand rear corner area of the liftable lid. It's under the cook top with three burner elements.

I liveaboard 90% of the year and have a electric princess range, I use it everyday and have never had a problem. If you can't trouble shoot it find a genuine electrician who can, I doubt you'll have a problem with it if it's working correctly.


Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

We removed ours and replaced with a Kenyon two burner smooth surface range with a fisher paykal drawer dishwasher below. For an oven, we have a sharp convection microwave above the refrigerator. We were replacing the counter anyway so didn't need to worry about the cut out in that regard.

Good luck.

Thanks everyone for the replies. One burner on the range is not working. I traced it to a bad dial/switch. It also had a bad switch on the left hand side that controls power to either the range top or the oven which I fixed. My main gripe is that it doesn't seem that the burners or oven get very hot. Takes a long time to fry bacon or heat water etc. I may have to look and see if it is wired wrong such as 110v/220v. It is also possible I may have replaced the coils back in the wrong spots but don't know how to tell the difference. The dial that is bad is the leftmost one. Probably the only one that'll really get hot huh? lol.

Kevin

Interesting side note. I just replaced a gas princes for a customer that wanted an electric range. They were almost impossible to buy new, ended up with a gimbaled model and a conversion kit. Fisheres Supply finally came through with the range.

tallswede said:

My main gripe is that it doesn't seem that the burners or oven get very hot. Takes a long time to fry bacon or heat water etc. I may have to look and see if it is wired wrong such as 110v/220v. It is also possible I may have replaced the coils back in the wrong spots but don't know how to tell the difference.

Click to expand...

I'm told the resistance value is stamped on the bottom of each element.

I didn't know that, but I figured out one front burner was only getting warm, and the other hot. When I saw in the manual about the back burner being warm-only, I realized what I'd done. I'd bet you did the same. You are most definitely not alone.

The switch you replaced basically powers EITHER the oven, OR the top left burner. You can't run both at the same time. In other words, if you messed with that switch, and now can't use the top left burner, I'd go back and look at the switch again. Here's the wiring diagram:

Tallswede, I am in the process of replacing my Princess three burner stove/oven with an induction range and a convection microwave. You might want to Google Summit Induction Cooktops. They haves three burner cook top that is 20" wide. I think it a great solution that will provide more storage space below the counter. Also the microwave I am considering is combined vent hood unit that will be installed over the cooktop.

hmason said:

We replaced our 3 burner Princess electric which had heating coils with the exact same size 3 burner Princess electric with the ceramic top. We love it. It heats FAST, heat is easily controlled, oven is great and the top is so easy to clean. Burnt on spills are removed with a razor blade in seconds (recommended by the mfg). Removal of the old and installation of the new was a 30 minute job. Even the mounting screws were in the same place as the old.

Click to expand...

Hey Howard,

You post caught my attention. Where can I get a replacement like yours??

"It is also possible I may have replaced the coils back in the wrong spots but don't know how to tell the difference."

If you purchased a heating coil at a dirt house store it could be 240V as most house units are.

The coil should be nice RED when on for 3-4 min.

FF said:

"It is also possible I may have replaced the coils back in the wrong spots but don't know how to tell the difference."

If you purchased a heating coil at a dirt house store it could be 240V as most house units are.

The coil should be nice RED when on for 3-4 min.

Click to expand...

Look under the coil on the flat supporting brackets. The two front burners are 1100W and the back burner is 550W. Sorry the 240V will not work as they will not heat properly. If you need parts, contact Sure Marine in Seattle WA.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Hey Howard,

You post caught my attention. Where can I get a replacement like yours??

Click to expand...

It's made by Whale Seaward. Google Princess 3347. Great unit.

Wow, thanks for all the great response! I did look at the burner coils and they are stamped and sure enough I had the low watt burner in the wrong place. My left burner switch is messed up. I checked with multimeter and no juice to the coil. I will double check but I'm pretty sure it's bad because it definitely doesn't feel right when you twist it. Again thanks for all the help. I will get an oven thermometer and test it to make sure it's doing what it is supposed to do. I may be able to postpone replacement after all. I do want to know how the induction top/convection microwave McGillicudy is working on as I think that would be a great upgrade.

Kevin

tallswede said:

Wow, thanks for all the great response! I did look at the burner coils and they are stamped and sure enough I had the low watt burner in the wrong place. My left burner switch is messed up. I checked with multimeter and no juice to the coil. I will double check but I'm pretty sure it's bad because it definitely doesn't feel right when you twist it. Again thanks for all the help. I will get an oven thermometer and test it to make sure it's doing what it is supposed to do. I may be able to postpone replacement after all. I do want to know how the induction top/convection microwave McGillicudy is working on as I think that would be a great upgrade.

Kevin

Click to expand...

On the left of the panel is a switch for burners/oven. Make sure it is in burners position.

hmason said:

It's made by Whale Seaward. Google Princess 3347. Great unit.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I guess they don't make these stoves anymore. The only used one I can find is at Sexton's in Portland OR, but it is 240V, not 110V......

The only feature I wish was different is the cook top be level with the top of the stove. Like the one we now have with the coils, you can't put a full size fry pan on one burner.

I have a 1971 Princess oven with 3 burners and the lift up top.
The door springs are unusual, they wind around the door hinge rod and are left hand and right hand wound springs.
Does anyone have a source for those door springs? One broke due to rust. I replaced with a spring, but it unwinds as the door lowers, so it can not function well. Both springs need to wind up as the door comes down.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. As to your door situation...Sorry, nothing springs to mind...

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. As to your door situation...Sorry, nothing springs to mind...

Click to expand...

HaHa, you funny guy

Maybe someone will come up with a source. I did braze the spring, but it broke in another spot. I think rust weakened the brittle spring metal. So if in rough water, the door can flop open, so I have to tie it shut.

Some pics




I replaced this with a store bought spring, but it is wound wrong way


New spring


Other side spring is ok. Of course the side that is not broke, you can buy them springs.

We are looking to do the same switch out from electric range to induction cooktop and convection microwave down the road. No problems with the setup right now, but never have used the oven so figured we could gain some storage space. Very interested on experience on the convection microwave if anyone has used as an oven replacement.

...and it looks like i may have a market when i decide to pull the stove

KneeDeep said:

We are looking to do the same switch out from electric range to induction cooktop and convection microwave down the road. No problems with the setup right now, but never have used the oven so figured we could gain some storage space. Very interested on experience on the convection microwave if anyone has used as an oven replacement.

...and it looks like i may have a market when i decide to pull the stove

Click to expand...

We've had a convection microwave as our oven for awhile now. A couple of years? I think. It works great. Browns like a regular oven. There was one time I was cooking a frozen lasagna and it was taking forever. I was taking it to a party on land and ended up finishing cooking it in the oven there. I'm not sure what it was about that dish. Perhaps it was so large that it wasn't spinning. I can't recall now but it seems likely. I mostly cook fresh versus heating frozen on the boat (since the freezer is tiny and not very cold) and I haven't had any other issues like that.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. As to your door situation...Sorry, nothing springs to mind...

Click to expand...

Maybe some one will "spring" OJ... so he can keep slapping his head forever!

sdowney717 said:

Some pics

I replaced this with a store bought spring, but it is wound wrong way


New spring


Other side spring is ok. Of course the side that is not broke, you can buy them springs.

Click to expand...

Our P - Stove's oven door also has slight case of "drop-foot" on right side. Bungee cord works OK, when needed. Will be interesting to see if anyone finds source for a new replacement set of Princess Marine Stove springs. I imagine with the thousands of these stoves made there must be a stock of OEM parts sitting on some shelf. I'll contact Hopcar and lead him to this site... to see if he has a lead on P-Stove oven door spring replacement.

Art

For Princess ovens, there are earlier model designs, like mine from 1971.
Then there are later model designs that use a spring as found on your home stove. That is what I was told, but I can't verify this and if they switched door spring design no idea when they did that.

For mine, the door tension is adjusted by driving out the pins, then turning those slotted collars that fit on the lower door rod.

sdowney717 said:

For Princess ovens, there are earlier model designs, like mine from 1971.
Then there are later model designs that use a spring as found on your home stove. That is what I was told, but I can't verify this and if they switched door spring design no idea when they did that.

For mine, the door tension is adjusted by driving out the pins, then turning those slotted collars that fit on the lower door rod.

Click to expand...

sd

Our Princess is a 1977ish model. I found a 1977 mechanical schematic on-line years ago and am not certain if it is for our year stove. I also do not know when Princess Stove oven doors changed in design. Oven door does not look just as yours regarding springs. Perhaps our oven door is just like yours?? Do you have 1971 schematic to share?

Thanks, Art


PS: Tried to post schematic but too many bites for TF post. Could send via email. Anyone can PM me your email address and I will send my schematic as attachment.