Finally got the double-oven range I've been hunting for two years

I've been running a 1984 Tappan for about six years now, bought it off an estate sale listing for less than the cost of dinner out. It has the single big oven plus a storage drawer, but the cooktop has that same deep cast center section, mine is a grill plate instead of a griddle. Heavy as a boat anchor and I love it. My son is 11 and it's the only stove he's allowed to use, which he treats like a promotion.

When I got mine the bake element was dead too, and honestly that repair is about as easy as appliance work gets. One thing I'd tell anyone doing it: pull the plug on the range before you touch the connector, not just flip the breaker, since those old cords and terminals can be crusty and you want zero power while your hands are in there.

The door gasket on mine was shot as well. I found a generic one that fit after measuring the old one three times, and the difference in how the oven holds temperture was bigger than I expected. Around here the salvage yards want stupid money for anything pre-2000, so if anyone else is hunting, try estate sale companies instead. A lot of them just want the appliance out of the house by Sunday afternoon.

For anyone still hunting, check with the small appliance repair shops in your area. Mine came from a guy who fixes washers and dryers out of his garage. He had a 1992 Hotpoint sitting out back that a landlord had pulled from a rental, and he let it go for basially parts money. All four burners worked, oven too, only the clock was dead. I never even bothered fixing the clock, just ignore it like I ignore the one in my truck that's stuck on 4:37 since 2015.

I've put maybe four years on it now. The porcelain chips if you bang a cast iron pot around, so I keep a trivet by the back burners. The door hinge springs wore out before anything electrical did, and that same repair guy had a bucket of salvaged hinges and matched a pair up in ten minutes.

One thing about the older ranges: my oven runs hot by about 25 degrees. I bought a cheap oven thermometer, checked it against the dial, and now just set everythign accordingly. Turns out my grandmother did the exact same thing with her range for forty years, so I figure I'm in good company.

Still hunting for one of these myself, so this thread gives me hope. I keep seeing double ovens but they're always stacked wall units, not the range style with the griddle in the middle. Question for those of you who found yours, how do you check the oven acutally heats even before you haul it home? The seller near me has no way to plug it in at their place and I don't want to buy somethig that burns everything on one side. First post here by the way, been lurking a while.