What DON'T You Care For?

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danemodsandy

danemodsandy

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Let's all play nice, but I'm curious - what classic appliances don't you like - and why?

I personally never cared for GE laundry appliances, because I don't like the console styling, don't care for the mismatched look of the toe-kick on the dryer when there's none on the washer, and for some unfathomable reason, those angled corners on the washer lid drive me bonkers.

I'm not a fan of Frigidaire ranges, either - the "orphan" status of GM-made appliances means parts difficulties even beyond the norm for vintage stuff. I'm happy to see so many people collecting and restoring Flairs, but man, is that more work than I want to get into!

And I'm not crazy about most Kenmores. I have a soft spot for the 1966 keyboard Lady K's, and for the 800s of the same vintage, as well as the early-'70s DM-made dishwashers and the 1960s Powermate vacuums - but the rest? I'm not exactly lusting after them, because I have so many lingering bad memories of being poorly treated by Sears on parts and service, before I just cut Sears out of my life altogether.

I also have not yet brought myself to trust a vintage refrigerator of any brand, as much as I'd like to have one. I know more about interplanetary space travel than I do about refrigeration systems, with the result that I just don't think I'm the right owner for a vintage fridge at this point.

Without dissing anyone else's choices - what don't you care for?
 
I loved the look of older whirlpool build washers but I always felt they were overly complicated. Yet they seem to hold up quite well.

Amama, I don't think they ever made a washing machine that was any good.
 
This Is So Easy!

NOOOOOOOOHRGE!

 

Washers in particular.

 

I also agree with Malcom about short stroke machines and their kid gloves approach to washing clothes.
 
Here's my list

1. Hands down the horribly designed Auto-Chlor Dishwasher. While fairly well built these things have a hard time washing clean dishes. Amazing considering the massive amounts of water, detergent, rinse aid, and sanitizer they gulp down. I pity any restaurant operator who's dishroom has been plagued by one of these.

2. Any WCI appliance, they're all pretty much worthless crap.

3. Most GE and HP DWs save for the few higher end Potscrubber such as the GSD1200 and the like that actually worked.

4. Waste King/Thermador DWs. Poorly designed racks, flimsy wash arms and mediocre at best washing for a price higher than a KA Superba! Really?

5. I'll probably get death threats for this but Frigidaire 1-18's. Extremely noisy and unreliable. Although they did clean very well and are really cool to watch.
Note: not written to offend anyone, just my opinion.
WK78
 
People who don't follow strong suggestions when they're warranted (for example, no smoking in our home).

Oh, appliances!!! Nevermind (shades of Roseanne-a-danna-danna)!

How about new dishwashers that take 2 hours to do what our Power Shower does in 20 minutes, or what the KDS-20 does in about 40?

Chuck
 
If you bought a higher end GE washer, it had a black kick plate that matched the dryer's bottom recess. The recess was nice for moving the dryer because the recess accommodated the door pedal so you did not have to watch out for it when going through doors, unlike with TOL Frigidaires.
 
My dislikes are GE dishwashers, after spending my whole life with my grandmothers 1966 GE I feel they have mediocre performance unless all food residue is well scraped.

Another thing I dislike are Maytag products, Ive never liked the external styling of any of their products, and in the washers I fell their capacity seems less than other brands I also think the wash action is lack luster,
 
I find the Frigidaire 1-18's to be excruciatingly ugly, and I like vintage Frigidaires. When it comes right down to it, if I can't get past the looks, I don't want to hear about the performance. That's kind of how I feel about relationships too.

<a name="start_44325.651287">"Another thing I dislike are Maytag products, Ive never liked the external styling of any of their products, and in the washers I fell their capacity seems less than other brands I also think the wash action is lack luster," - Blasphemer!!!! Behold, it is written in the sacred book of vintage household appliances, Thou shalt not insult the Goddess Maytag!!!! ------Unless your name is John.
smiley-wink.gif

</a>

[this post was last edited: 1/5/2013-19:19]
 
Yep d-jones I said it I do not like Maytag and never have even as a child, it is all of their products I dislike but I really dislike the washers
I much prefer the look and style of a GE filter-flo with ramp activator or a Speed Queen.
 
I think CONTEXT has a lot to do with it

although, to be fair, there were/are some less well engineered, less well built, lesser performing machines out there. However, most of my disliked brands I only encountered as coin-op, or in rental properties.

However, I dislike(d) GE laundry, but all the GE laundry I ever used were well (ab)used coin-op machines. GE cooking, too, during the Filter Flo era. Again, abused rental units. I HATED the pushbutton cooktops, and I was not too fond of the comparatively small oven.

I never understood GM Frigidaire laundry or dishwashers (all periods for their dishwashers). Frigidaire cooking and refrigerators, I like, and if I had to have a vintage electric, I would want a GM Frigidaire, preferably with Electri-Clean.

I disliked the mid 1980s non-self cleaning Tappan electric range that was here when I moved in, but context....rental......I cleaned it up.....but it still had been badly used by previous tenants. The oven was still decent, but the cooktop had been brutalized. Oh, and my 2011 gas Whirlpool self cleaner is still cooler than the Tappan.

However, I always understood, and liked, Maytag and Whirlpool. Kenpool, not as much because of a Sears thing I had. It was similar to my current disdain for Wal*Mart, but lower intensity. In my Ma's house, Whirlpool was what you bought when you couldn't afford Maytag. That is back when it wasn't Maypool or Whirltag.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Most of each of your dislikes are pretty much illogical.  Much has to do with individual experience and preference as well as style apparance being shallow and such and you ucould care less about performance (d-jjones is a perfect example).  But that is why there exists marketing, engineering, and design teams.  We don't live in Russia where one product fits all. 
 
I can remember my dad, who was an electrical engineer, having a very low opinion of Motorola TVs and stereos. This was back in the early '60s. Our TV and stereo were both Zenith.
 
LOL!! The reason..

Maytags last so long, and I agree they do last forever, is because they dont do anything!, my Aunt had a 606 when I was growing up...she had it 33 years!! and it was OK, but I clearly remember although it was a large tub model, it would not wash nearly as heavy load as our solid tub frigidaire!I agree about the later Norges, but the Borg Warner Norges and the first Fedders Norges, will consistently out wash just about anything ever made, now...what do I use at home, an 83 Kenmore and a 73 Lady Kenmore dryer..I DID have a 72 Norge, but Don complained that it wore out his clothes!!LOL,,,but no matter how greasy or nasty, they came out clean!
 
Re Maytag...

If you look...the old Norges are vERY SIMILAR in design to a maytag, except they agitate about twice as fast!, the worst part of a Norge was that brake that everyone loves to here go BANG! if you will let it stop spinning bEFORE you lift the lid, you wont have trouble, the Norges had a MUCH heavier transmission and a bigger motor, they were designed basically for the biggest tub ever used 20 pound, and were used most successfully in laundromats!
 
But I Admit!

As much as I like Norges, they are NOISY, and are as hard on clothes as anything, "Except those direct drive thrashing things " that Whirlpool put off on the public!, I also admit, as good as a Norge oven bakes, they do have rust issues, and thet Dryer they made...it dries your clothes great, and with less wrinkles, but you better leave it outside...unless you love LINT!!LOL
 
In my case it is dishwashers of whatever make that hold no interest for me. I always found the fault finding more difficult on dishwashers than on other appliances and eventually virtually stopped repairing them completely, when they introduced the moulded plastic base type, which are so difficult to work on.
It was also a Whirlpool dishwasher that almost caused me to get sued, a few years back. It had flooded a customers kitchen due to a high pressure hose coming off. The hose was held with the crimp type hose clips that can't be re-used so I replaced the failed one with a jubilee clip. Three months later the hose came off again, just after the customer had got her house insurance to buy her new laminate flooring. The spigot for the hose to fit onto was smooth plastic with no ribbing, so it was really a design fault, as I pointed out to the customer. This time I made a sort of cage with stiff steel wire which would prevent the hose from moving anywhere. The customer was satisfied with this modification and never pursued me for another new floor!
 
As I've mentioned on a recent post on a current POD, I find it easy to fall in love w/ a washer, though it's hard to find the dryer as striking (and the dryer typically does stay around a lot longer, after the washer sadly first gives up the ghost!) and the example in this case is a GE that was featured...

It was a nice TOL model, and I had commented on the ad it was in, to which I'd cited disliking the dryer and here's why: The lint filter is a trough shape, as opposed to the more flat screen design other makes use, which is easier for the lint to stay contained & likely to need less frequent cleaning, especially during use; so it's mainly the lint filter design that I'd disliked about GE dryers (and the Hotpoint corp. stable mates along with 'em)...

And the door handle, if it's the grab bar is OK, but later high-end GE's put an emblem along side the handle just to (redundantly) further remind you that you have a GE (and did Hotpoint do the same thing?) and the door design that wraps around the cabinet is to me a lot more preferable than the design that is based within the cabinet...

The above reasons are why I've long disliked the GE dryers while praising their washers (and cite other brands preferred in washer & dryer line-ups)...

-- Dave
 
Department store brands

I've never been fond of department store brands UNLESS they were really oddballs. For that reason you won't find Kenmore, Signature or Penncrest in this house. If I have a classic appliance I want it under the brand of the actual manufacturer whenever possible.
That being said, I WOULD welcome a Wizard or Bradford or other oddball branded appliance. Why? They're a bit rarer around these parts and thus are a bit more interesting to me.
 
The score so far: It appears Norge and GE are in the lead. A couple of Frigidaire mentions, but not for the Unimatic-era machines.

C'mon, who wants to tempt fate with the ultimate blasphemy? Certainly there must be at least one closeted soul among us who doesn't like Unimatics!
 
Preheat

Any electric rqange with a "preheat" setting because they don't bake evenly. D&M dishwashers.
 
<ul>
<li>Rebadged D&M and GE Dishwashers that lack a food filter</li>
<li>Maytag AMP machines-rust in the lid and those trouble-prone mercury switches</li>
<li>Maytag Halo of Heat Dryer-tiny drum, took forever to dry a load of clothes</li>
<li>Speed Queen solid tub washers</li>
<li>Norge positive air flow dryers AKA Lint Monsters</li>
</ul>
 
not as picky anymore-like most any vintage washers,but as a kid had a few i didn't like as much as others:
-maytag -thought they were boring
-GE -motor harder to adapt to other uses(washers,dryers were easy)
-franklin built washers-thought they were cheap and rust prone
-WCI westinghouse and franklin dryers-thought they were cheap and rattley
Today i don't care for korean imports
 
Any electric range with a "preheat" setting

The old Wilcolator oven thermostats had an automatic preheat if you turned the thermostat up to BROIL and then back to the desired temperature. The broil element shut off before the set temperature was reached to prevent overshoot and then the broil element, either with a separate perimeter unit or the whole thing on 115 volts cycled with the bake element to provide beautiful baking results. Older Frigidaire ranges used them and gave superior baking compared to ovens with the selector position "Preheat" which, I think, did not use top heat during baking. There was another thermostat for electric ovens that had a button you could push to give the same sort of preheating.
 
We had a 84' era Maytag washer (forgot the model #, but the dryer had the end of cycle chime) that was near TOL. It was very reliable, never broke down but was soooo boring. It took forever to turn over a load of laundry. The clothes would just kind of sit there and roll at a snails pace. We weren't sure clothes were getting cleaned properly. After 9 years of this set we traded them in on a Whirlpool TOL DD machine. Now there is turnover! The electric dryer was pretty efficient, we never had any complaints about it.

We have enough clothes, towels, sheets, etc so we don't do laundry ever week. We like to let it all pile up and then do a massive wash day. We don't overload so sometimes our laundry day can last a weekend.
 

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