Traulsen fridge/Franklin range- refurbishing?

[erinas]

My husband and I are about to buy a house that was used as a group home about six years ago. The house was also used for fire department practice, and I don't know if they actually hosed the place down or if the pipes burst, but there's quite a bit of water damage. It has a huge commercial Traulsen stainless refrigerator/freezer and a Franklin 6 burner range. The range has a lot of rust on it. I understand that stainless doesn't rust, so could it be from the burners? I also have read that they don't make Franklins anymore. Can anybody tell me about these appliances, if they can be refurbished and where, if it's worth it, and if they're worth selling? The fridge seems okay, as does the stainless diswhasher, but could water have just made these things garbage?

 

[jock]

Commercial equipment is almost always repairable and usually worth it compared to the cost of replacing. That said, your equipment needs to be evaluated to determine whether it is worth the expense; especially if you plan to just use it in a "residential" setting as compared to commercial. The cost to repair and maintain commercial equipment can be quite high. Fridge compressors are noisy and generate a lot of heat. Commercial stoves/ranges are usually not insulated and are very hot on the outside (and dangerous for small children and others inexperienced around this kind of equipment.) The range needs a commercial hood to exhaust all that heat (but it probably has one in place already.) Yet another piece of equipment to maintain.

Of cource, I am assuming you do not plan to open a commercial kitchen since you described this as a house.

I would start by ckecking the yellow pages under "Restaurant Equipment - Service and Repair". Get the equipment evaluated and go from there.

Incidentally, Stanless Steel is not rust proof, only rust resistent. Time and negelct will allow SS to start rusting. Depending on the extent of the corrosion it can be brought back to its original condition with some emery paper and elbow grease.

Jock

 

[erinas]

Thanks for the reply. That's actually quite helpful. It seems too much for us on the one hand, but on the other hand with everyone buying Viking stoves and whatnot, we don't want to get rid of something we'll wish we had later. Maybe it's worth it to repair and resell...And it does also have a commercial hood.

 

[jock]

Yeah, the Viking and Wolfe stoves people buy are residential versions of the ones used in commecial kitchens. These are usually insulated, they often have self ceaning ovens which the commercial stoves don't and they don't put out as much heat on the range top; a burner on the commercial range will put out 30,000BTU while the residential equivalent is about half that. They have electronic pilots unlike the commercial stoves which have open pilot flames. Lots of differences.

Jock

 

[edenbell]

I too have a Franklin Chef commercial range. It has 6 burners and a side grill. We are now remodeling our house and I just don'ts a black porcelain top, and a grey body. The storage shelf under the grill has some rust spots and the porcelian top won't come clean. It also doesn't shine in places.

I would interested in knowing if there is a market for this type of range so that I could sell it and get a residential model that is insulated. This Franklin heats the kitchen tremendously in the summer when I use it.

Any advice is appreciated.

Eden