Kitchen Appliances
Buy and sell kitchen appliances in Panama.
A Panamanian kitchen is usually built around a freestanding gas range, sold by its width in inches, with the oven underneath and the fridge beside it. Newer apartments split that into a built-in cooktop, a separate oven and an extractor hood, and some add a dishwasher under the counter. Machines change hands new and pre-owned, from a single range to a matching stainless set out of a kitchen that has been redone. Measure the space you are filling, in inches, before you message anyone.
One gas range or a cooktop over a built-in oven:
that is the first split in a Panamanian kitchen. A freestanding range, the kind most homes here cook on, puts four to six gas burners over its own oven and stands in a gap of 20, 24 or 30 inches. A built-in cooktop drops into a hole cut in the counter, with the oven in the cabinet below or in a column. Both kinds of stove are listed under stoves and cooktops, and built-in ovens under ovens. Above the burners sits the hood. A ducted one pushes smoke outside; a recirculating one, the usual answer in a flat with no exit through the wall, runs the air through grease and carbon filters and back into the kitchen. Both are under extractor hoods.
A dishwasher under the counter, a chest freezer in the corner:
a built-in dishwasher is 24 inches wide and takes the place of a base cabinet, so that spot needs a water inlet, a drain and a socket. Look for one under dishwashers. A chest freezer earns its floor space in a house that buys meat and fish in bulk or cooks to sell, and many switch between freezing and cooling with one control. Find them under freezers. Fridges are under refrigerators, and rice cookers and blenders under small kitchen appliances.
What puts a used range at $50 or at $150:
a 30-inch range with five or six burners costs around $250 to $450 new, and with new ones that cheap, buyers judge a used range almost entirely on how it lights. Most change hands between $50 and $150. Rust under the cooktop and an oven that will not ignite push one to the bottom; a stainless body, cast-iron grates and a working rotisserie hold it near the top.
Lighting every burner before you pay:
the flame should come up blue and even all the way round the ring. Yellow, lifting or patchy flames mean a dirty or warped burner or a cracked cap: cheap parts, but they show how the range was kept. Turn the oven on and wait with the door shut: an electric igniter that clicks and never catches is the fault listings most often leave out. Any smell of gas with the knobs off ends the visit. Built-in pieces need a tape measure too: measure the cutout in your own counter first, because a cooktop that does not match it means a new countertop. On a hood, look at the grease filter; if it drips or is matted with old fat, it was never washed. On a dishwasher, check the bottom of the tub for standing water and the door seal for black mould. Many chest freezers hide the condenser inside the outer walls, so a rust hole along the bottom edge is not cosmetic. Ask for it to be running and cold when you arrive.
Listing a range or a dishwasher by its width in inches:
put the width first, because that is how buyers here search. For a cooktop add the cutout size, for a hood say whether it is ducted or recirculating and whether the carbon filter comes with it, and for a freezer give the capacity in cubic feet. A short video of every burner lit and the oven catching answers the first question. If the range, oven, hood and dishwasher came out of the same kitchen, offer them as a set and also price each one alone. Keep the dishwasher’s inlet and drain hoses and the hood’s filters with the machines: a buyer who comes from Chame and finds them missing will take the cost off the price on the spot.