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HillerRange Stove

In looking for information on the stock stoves put in various model DE boats I went back to the old forums and pulled a couple posts that had really good information there over.
1. Unknown author
My HilleRange needed stovetop burners when I bought my boat (ever seen a basketball-sized ball of blue flame in the galley? – pretty exciting but very uncool!), which were readily obtained by ordering through a local RV parts dealer. My oven also wouldn’t light although the pilot light would. The RV guy talked me through the diagnosis and repair over the phone free of charge (my kind of guy). Its been a while since I did this, but here’s the deal as best I can remember: The sensing bulb from the mercury control valve was not located close enough to the pilot light, and the oven burner will not light until the sensing bulb is properly heated by the pilot light. There is a (difficult to access) set screw that allows a mechanically minded to move the pilot light closer to the pilot light but, in the case of my oven, the set screw is improperly located so that even moving the pilot all the way over did not do the trick. Mr RV said to take a large pair of channel lock pliers and bend the pilot assembly a tiny bit at a time until it is properly set. So, with faint heart and a death grip on the pliers, I did so, and danged if it doesn’t work correctly now. Now, please don’t you overdo it and ruin your pilot assembly and then get mad at me. I’m just telling you what worked for me. The previous owner of my boat never did get the oven to function, and I bet the previous owner of your’s didn’t either. BTW, I have the original owners manual, which includes the stove diagram and parts list for HilleRange Models 2121 and 3121, and would be willing to upload it to this website if ya’ll want it and the webmaster will walk me through the process.
The Hiller range, Brown Brute was made by the predecessor of Seaward who now makes the Hillerange. Don’t try and buy parts for your old range as the girl won’t even talk to you. The burners of the newer Hilleranges will still work on your unit and the oven thermostat control will to, however, on the back of the stove is located a Mercury Switch Control that controls the pilot. I got the last one of the old typ when they found one on a test unit in the lab so you are out of luck trying to get a replacement through Hiller Seaward. I think your best bet may be to work with an RV parts suppplier to work out a replacemnt. The new Hilleranges all have Pizeo Crystal ignition so they don’t have parts.

2. Unknown author
One word of warning, CHECK THE GIMALL TRUNION PINS! By accident one day I had the stove out and happened to look at the trunion pins only to find out they were cut almost all the way through. I had a machine shop make me new pins and weld them on the old plates. We also took the support brackets off the bulkheads and has 1/2 washers welded on to thicken the bearing surface. One more passage and we would have had the stove on the cabin sole with a broken propane hose!

3.
Hello, our 1976 DE 32 has a Hillerange, which is the original, as far as I can tell from the literature that came from the boat. It is a 3 burner with oven. The model number is 3120. The number is located under the top surface panel of the stove next to burners. I have been trying to get parts for it; just trim which has rusted. The rest of stove is in good shape and I don’t think it was used much.

Randy Harlan

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