My pride and joy: The all-turquoise 1956 GE Wonder Kitchen (with combination washer/dryer, pull-out dishwasher, range) plus matching LW-11 wall-mount refrigerator.
Dishwashers:
1962 turquoise GE Mobile Maid dishwasher; 1950 (maybe 49) white GE semi-automatic portable dishwasher; Early 1950s Youngstown Kitchens Jet-Tower Stand-Alone dishwasher; 1955 turquoise GE built-in pull-out dishwasher; 1959 turquoise GE Princess built-in pull-out dishwasher; 1957 GE Mobile Maid (white) 1st model with bow-tie impeller; 1963 turquoise GE SD203 front-load built-in dishwasher; 1958 or 59 white Kitchen-Aid KDP-2 (12 series) portable dishwasher; Early 1960s Montgomery Ward (Westinghouse) white top-load portable; 1965 (?) white Kitchen-Aid Electra (15 series) portable dishwasher ; 1958 Frigidaire front-load built-in dishwasher (restored and repainted turquoise); 1961 re-painted turquoise Whirlpool FP-50B top-load portable dishwasher; 1963 (?) Kenmore 600 Roto-Rack built-in dishwasher; 1971 Avocado Green Westinghouse convertible front-load dishwasher; 1957 Whirlpool Imperial built-in dishwasher, white; 1973 Viking (Canadian Westinghouse) Super-Surge built-in dishwasher; 1956 GE Mobile Maid (white); 1956 Hotpoint built-in (pink); 1970 GE Mobile Maid (coppertone); 1965 GE Talisman (Canadian) Mobile Maid with Silver-Shower; 1962 KitchenAid KDS54 Superba VariCycle convertible portable (repainted turquoise); 1965 Kenmore 600 portable Roto-Rack, white; 1967 KitchenAid KDS55 portable, coppertone; 1964 Inglis Liberator top-load portable - white; 1954 James SweepFlow portable dishwasher - white; 1978 Frigidaire DWM44B convertible dishwasher - Wheat; 1963 Whirlpool SKU-70-0 built-in front-load dishwasher - turquoise; 1955 Kenmore (D&M) top load portable dishwasher - white; 1950 Youngstown Kitchens Jet-Tower standalone topload - white; 1947 KitchenAid KD10 undercounter front-load; 1950 Youngstown Kitchens Jet-Tower (restored); 1989 Maytag WU400
Pending pickup in 2020: 1960 GE SU70 pull-out (yep, the 4-pushbutton one with rapid-advance timer!), 1961(?) Waste-King Universal, 1950(?) GE standalone top-load built-in
Washers and dryers:
1966 Inglis Sterling H560 automatic washer with matching D860 automatic dryer - both white; 1953 Canadian Westinghouse CLB6 Laundromat and matching CD-6 dryer; 1956 Whirlpool Imperial matched washer and dryer set;
1965 Lady Kenmore turquoise automatic washer and matching 1965 turquoise Soft-Heat automatic dryer (yay!); 1951 Kenmore automatic washer and matching unrestored 1951 Kenmore dryer, both white ; 1957 GE Filter Flo (solid tub) washer, white and matching 1957 Clothes Conditioning dryer (both to be restored); 1958 Dominion (a very rare Canadian model) automatic washer, pink; 1957 Hotpoint BOL Automatic with almost-matching 1958 Hotpoint dryer - both white; 1953 GE WA450K Automatic washer (unrestored) - white; 1951 Frigidaire WO-65 Unimatic automatic washer - white; 1951 Frigidaire TR-60 Filtrator automatic dryer - white; 1966 Blackstone BA600 automatic washer - white; 1962 GE DA610 V-12 dryer - white; 1959 Frigidaire Custom Imperial Washer (turquoise) and almost-matching 1959 Frigidaire Imperial Flowing-Heat dryer (turquoise); 1958 ABC-O-Matic Automatic washer, white (leaky); 1955 Norge TimeLine Model AW450 automatic washer, white; 1947 Jacobs Launderall automatic washer; On loan from the GE Institute of Melrose,MA - 1951 GE 1AW5B6 automatic washer; 1957 Speed Queen AW19 automatic washer - white; 1955 Frigidaire Pulsamatic washer; 1958 Philco-Bendix Duomatic washer/dryer combo; 1955 Norge DE620 dryer; 1957 Kenmore automatic washer - white; 1956 Easy Automatic washer - white; 1938 Bendix Home Laundry non-automatic diving bell washer; 1957 Frigdaire Imperial dryer (the Control Tower one)
Vintage ranges etc: 1957 Pink GE wall oven; 1962 Turquoise GE built-in range top; 1962 Frigidaire Flair 30-inch turquoise range; 1965 GE P7 wall oven, turquoise; 1964 GE 30-inch range - turquoise
Food waste disposals: 1967 Tappan
Modern stuff: 1989 or 1990 Maytag WU404 built-in dishwasher
What are your dream machines yet to be found?
A late 50s or early 60s Westinghouse pull-out built-in dishwasher (in turquoise, if possible!); A turquoise Frigidaire DishMobile; a late 50s (57 or 58) Hotpoint Dishwasher with the double deck washing system; An early 60s Tappan dishwasher with the dual drench washing system.
Looking for the following parts: cutlery basket for a 1957 D&M impeller style dishwasher
What are your earliest and favorite appliance memories?
Watching my mother do laundry with a 1955 Whirlpool wringer washer.
What is the history of appliances you have owned?
When I moved into my first apartment in the mid 1980s, I had a used Kenmore apartment-sized washer and dryer set and the much-storied Viking top-load impeller-wash portable dishwasher that had once graced the kitchen of the family homesteads in Pointe-Claire, then in Durham-South.
In 1989, I bought my first house and (foolishly) scrapped the Viking dishwasher and traded the Kenmore compacts for a 1974 matched set Viking washer and dryer. They were Harvest Gold and were the models just one below the TOL. These were GE clones, so the washer had a mini-basket and the dryer had an automatic dry cycle (the first dryer I ever owned with that feature). In 1991 the person I traded appliances with moved and wanted to get the full-size appliances back. I said yes, but the Kenmore compacts never made it into my house... I sold em and bought a late-70s (1977 models I believe) GE washer and dryer set. They were pretty special - French dials and tagged as the Adventurer models. I was happy to have the mini-basket and automatic dry cycle... In 1994, I moved out of my house and into a loft with Chris (Hubby) - there was no full-size washer/dryer hookup, so I was now in the market for a compact set again... Word spread along the grapevine, and the full-size GEs wound up at a friends house and he in turn secured a 1978 Inglis compact washer/dryer set that had once belonged to my estranged brother! A good dose of bleach got rid of any traces of his opinions forturnately... The washer tub of that 78 Inglis rusted right out on me in 1996, though. I then acquired what I believe is the all-time worst washer ever made - it was a Danby compact machine that had no agitator. It had a paddle-wheel (like the ones on the side of a Hoover twin-tub) and sheesh, did that thing tangle clothes! I hated it and it was donated to a local charity... To replace it, I found a low-end but full-size Viking machine that I made portable by attaching to casters and jury-rigging an dishwasher hose and and a Y-adapter to be able to hook it up. My engineering of washers was born... In 1996, Chris and I acquired a country house in Mountain Lakes (Brownsburg). The house came with a vintage GE dryer (a 1960 or 1961 model) that needed a bit of tinkering but I got the beastie working again. I picked up a Brentwood (possibly made by Hitachi and rebagded for the Woolco department stores) twin-tub washer/spin drier. It worked, but leaked so I didnt use it all that much. And I had to have a dishwasher.... I bought a 1978 Kenmore portable (Avocado Green) from the parents of a guy I played tennis with in my college days.
In 1997, Chris and I bought the house right next door to the first one. It came with a 1979 Inglis Sterling refrigerator and a gawd-awful-el-cheapo-deluxe 1976 Admiral electric range. We decided to use this house for the summer months (it was larger but badly insulated) - I HAD to have a dishwasher there, too, so I picked up a late 1960s Kelvinator portable. This one of those machines that needed constant attention, unfortunately... In 1998, when the house across the road sold, the former owners chucked out a 1951 Hotpoint wringer washer - guess whose garage that wound up in?
In 1999, a co-worker gave me a matched set 1973 Westinghouse washer and dryer (Harvest Gold). I hooked up permanent hot and cold water supplies in the garage to use them.
In spring of 1999, the Westinghouse washer started staining clothes with oil; I got rid of it (I honestly did not think I could save it) Its short-lived replacement was a plastic-console Kenmore, acquired in the spring of 2000. It had a Roto-Swirl gold agitator and sadly, the first time I tried to use, the bugger smoked like a chimney. I was thankful that I still had the Hotpoint wringer. I used it until the pump broke that autumn. The Kelvy dishwasher seemed to becoming a "sewer into which I never stopped pouring money", so I yielded to Hubbys complaints and replaced it with a 1982 Beaumark (Hotpoint-clone for the Bay department stores) dishwasher. Big mistake...
In spring of 2001, we moved out of our loft in Montreal and bought an apartment-style condo. The Viking-on-wheels seemed to have developed a leak, so Hubby deemed it unfit for the new digs and we bought what I think may be one of the last Magic-Norge-Tag washer and dryer sets to have been built in Herrin, IL. They are really Magic Chef models... The Viking got moved to the country house and was paired up with 1977 Kenmore dryer. In 2002, the dryer suddenly stopped heating - at this point, hubby blew his fuse and ordered the end to musical bloody appliances and we scrapped the Viking washer, the Kenmore dryer, the Beaumark dishwasher, and the Brentwood twin-tub... They were replaced with a NEW GE Direct-Drive washer and matching dryer, a NEW Beaumark portable dishwasher, and a NEW Hotpoint compact washer and dryer set. I still had the GE dryer and wasnt parting with it yet....
About this time I got into turquoise appliances - much to Hubbys horror, I was given a 1962 McClary compact turquoise electric range. It was in rough shape, but I cleaned it up and it was brought into the kitchen. In spring of 2003, I repainted the Inglis Sterling refrigerator to match the range. Close, but not quite what I wanted...
In what would set a new precedent in my aqcuisitions, in 2004 I found a matched turquoise Kelvinator range and refrigerator located about 8 hours drive away from our Mountain Lakes home... Hubby said I was crazy, but I bought em and brought em home!
In August of 2007, in the midst of looking for a new home, I found a 1959 GE Princess pull-out dishwasher. I bought it and drove all the way to Toronto to get it. The home where this came from had a GE wall fridge... I decided then and there that I would have one someday! In September of 2007, we bought the house in Ogden. In October of 2007, I found the 57 GE Mobile Maid dishwasher in upstate NY; I got that too. Hubby was starting to flip. The look on his face when I told him about the GE wall fridge and Kitchen Centre (all turquoise!) that I found in Texas...
It was about this time (late summer of 2007) that I discovered this site also and once I realized that I was not the only person on the planet who was keen on vintage appliances, I had an Epiphany. I decided that I had to get on the bandwagon and build a collection of my own. I can still hear Hubbys shrieks when, in October of 2007, I announced that I had won an eBay auction for a 1957 GE Mobile Maid dishwasher in upstate NY. Now, he had no cause to complain because that dishwasher soon became the daily driver in the house in Ogden (the 80s Maytag reverse-rack in the kitchen was too far gone to save...). After that, well, all Hell broke loose. The 66 Inglis washer/dryer set was acquired in fall of 2008 and surprise! These replaced the 2006 GE set that we moved from our former house (THAT was a waste of effort...). In spring of 2009, I found the 63 Canadian Frigidaire MultiMatic washer. Then the 1950 Westinghouse L5 (which I no longer have), then came the 1953 Canadian Westinghouse set. Oh, and the 65 Maytag washer and almost-perfect-matching dryer... The rest is kind of blur...
Have you ever worked on, repaired and/or restored any major appliances?
Yep! The range, washer/dryer and dishwasher in the GE Kitchen Centre; did a total tear-down and rebuild of the 1950 Westy L5 Laundromat; Restored the 1953 Westy CD-6 dryer to working condition.
Replaced the motor and belt in the 66 Inglis.
Repaired/preserved leaky pump in the WP50B-1 dishwasher.
Redid the bearings in the 65 Lady Kenmore Automatic Washer;
Replaced the transmission boot in the 63 GE FilterFlo washer;
Still getting comfortable with GE washer transmissions - I should be able to tear down and rebuild the 1957 Filter-Flo with Suds-Saver.
My biggest feat: I got the 1956 LW11 refrigerator running again after it conked out on me in early 2012. The secret - a 9-ohm resistor;
Wound up doing a complete tear-down and rebuild of the 66 Inglis washer and its matching dryer;
Rebuilt the outer tub tank on the 66 Blackstone BA600 washer;
Rebuilt the pump on the 62 KitchenAid Superba Varicycle;
Refurbished the 62 Frigidaire Flair range;
Partial restore of a 1956 Norge Timeline automatic washer
