Jack Santoro owned a moving and storage company in the San Fernando Valley which had quite a few clients in the show business field during the 1970s. One day an actor who had purchased a large old O'Keefe & Merritt range, asked Santoro if he knew anyone who could fix and restore the stove. Although there wasn't such a service available, he said that since it was going into his storage warehouse, he would take a look at it when he had time. Ultimately, he refurbished that stove to showroom condition and eventually had to sell his moving business since he became so overloaded with vintage stove restoration work, all through word-of- mouth advertising.
During the next twenty-five years his company, J.E.S. Enterprises, has refurbished and restored over 17,000 vintage ranges and antique refrigerators. Some old stoves need only minor repair, others require a complete dismantling and rebuilding to bring them up to factory-fresh standards. Whatever it takes, Santoro says, 99 percent of the time it can be done!
In 1994, realizing it would be impossible to fill all of the requests to rehab all the classic ranges that needed help, from in and outside of the United States, Santoro wrote the first how-to series of Shop Manual Reports available. The series is an ongoing project which covers every point from buying the best antique range, to restoring the stove to whatever degree is desired. All of the safety devices, vintage thermostats, porcelain work, supplies, books, and other necessities are available through his core company, J.E.S. Enterprises, by mail order.
In 1994, Santoro founded The Old Appliance Club, the only organization in the world dedicated to the preservation of vintage American appliances. The clubıs members include owners, collectors, historians, and a network of highly skilled restoration experts and dealers in all areas of classic household appliances.
Jack Santoro is also the editor of The Old Road Home vintage appliance quarterly magazine, which is available free to all members of The Old Appliance Club. The periodical contains rare information, archive pictures, classifieds, sources, the Duck Brothers Fix-It Column, member owned appliances from across the globe, company histories and much more.
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