1930's CONOVER dishwasher...help!

[perc-o-prince]

Thanks to Larry(CleanteamofNY) I now have a Conover Electric Dishwasher. I am fascinated by the simplicity. I have been trying to find out some info on it. History, time frame produced...how it works?? It is pretty straight forward but a couple of things have me scratching my head. Does anyone have any information on it. It looks very much like a Walker.

I will post some pics as soon as I can. Thanks again, Larry. It was great to visit you and see your washer collection. Better lock your doors or you may find your Thor missing!!

Rich

 

[turquoisedude]

Paging dishwashercrazy! Mike, do you have any information about the Conover??

 

[circlew]

Westinghouse

Hi Rich, according to info on this site, Westinghouse bought Conover sometime prior to 1939. The "Super Searchalator" list 13 threads mentioning this machine.

 

[cleanteamofny]

Rich,

Your welcome and it was a pleasure doing this favor for you!
Mr. Thor will be hiding behind door # 1 but will have a goodtime if the abducter treat him with good suds! P-)

 

[perc-o-prince]

Tom, Thanks. I did see that but there realy was not much info. I was hoping that maybe more information had surfaced. I saw that another member had the same dishwasher and his came with paperwork BUT he was looking to find it a new home. My hope was that someone on this site was able to get it and might share what they know. I tried emailing the orig owner but didn't get any reply.

Oh, Larry...I'll take what's behind door #1 !!!!

Rich

 

[akronman]

Conover pics

I'd love to see pics!

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930


In at least two previous threads, I had posted a scanned image of my Conover Brochure. The quality is not sufficient enough to read some of the words unless you save the pictures to your computer then enlarge the images yourself.

And Robert has requested new scans of the Brochure in better quality so that he can include it as a Picture-of-the-Day. However, I no longer have a functioning scanner that works with my present laptop computer.

The brochure is a folded pamphlet, which has a hole in the middle of it. When the whole thing is unfolded, some images are upside-down. So I scanned the brochure in sections, then used Windows Paint to reassemble it - which is what I previously posted.

Below are the individual sections that I scanned, in hopes that the information will be better to look at and read.

By the way, this is the only Conover Dishwasher material that I currently have.

Mike

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Conover Dishwasher Brochure dated 1930

 

[polkanut]

What type of detergent would have been used in early dishwashers? Didn't dishwasher specific detergents first appear in the late 40's-early 50's?

 

[circlew]

Interesting early machine

Noted that it came in green, ivory and blue in addition to white. Wonder if Conover had their own foundry to make the cast iron parts, or if they were provided by American-Standard or other plumbing mfr.?

Did find it odd that it appears that the water is pumped out of the dishwasher section into the sink to drain. That would preclude using the sink side at the same time. Would like to see one in person sometime.

 

[akronman]

Conover plumbing

Thanks for all the posts, very much. I am wondering about that extra handle mounted up the sink backsplash from the dishwasher----possibly a hot water valve and the operator would control the amount of water coming in? Or was water controlled by regular faucet through that hole in the top of the drainboard/dishwell cover? Or were they modern enough for a solenoid and limit switch?
Many thanks for pics, now explain what you know, please. Thanks in advance--
Mark

 

[circlew]

As this was not a fully automatic machine, I'm thinking the lever may have been a multi-positon control. Perhaps you set it one way to fill, another to run, and yet another to empty out the water. I have a feeling the operator determined how long the dishes washed, as no timer is mentioned. I also assume it used regular soap flakes such as Ivory or Lux.

 

[akronman]

Maybe you're right. I took another look at all the pics, I'm gonna guess it has to do with pump valve open or closed. Maybe water was filled by person at spout thru hole, then either it ran with valve closed for propeller to wash or with valve open for pumping out water? I'll keep guessing until an owner gives us the real dope----and VIDEOS!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

It filled through the hole in the top that you see under the faucet when the cover is in place. That is mentioned in the picture in the lower right corner.

You could not use soap; it made too many suds. As has been discussed here previously in other threads, there were no non-sudsing surfactants until the 50s and those were not very good. Early dishwashers used a combinations of water softening agents, like STPP and others. Because they were not fully built detergents, early machine dishwashing was not like today. Food soil was quite thoroughly removed from the items before they were washed in the machine. The dishwasher with the water softeners removed the grease and food films. You basically washed in the left hand bowl and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher on the right for what amounted to hot water rinsing.

I want you to look back at that dishwasher tank. Do you have any idea how much very hot water it would take to heat that up until it did not cool the wash and rinse water? If you wanted half-way decent dishwashing, you had to run several changes of hot water into that tank to heat it before washing dishes. This is why most of these machines were almost more bother than they were worth and were mainly used for rinsing dishes that were already washed. Also remember that storage water heaters were not common in the 20s and 30s, so a house would have to have a good supply of hot water to use a dishwasher, although a home that could afford a dishwasher probably was wealthy enough to have a good supply of hot water.

It is correct that this machine had no timer. The control would have been wash/rinse or drain.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Ours is a free standing portable model

There is a lever on the side of ours that in one position you can fill the dishwasher through a telescoping adjustable pipe and in another position to pump out the water. Ours has another pipe that has a type of funnel that I suspect was used for detergent?? It would have to be a liquid as the opening is about as big as a eye dropper. It's a cool dishwasher and as I was running it, for the first time, I couldn't help but think about how excited the original owner must have been with such new technology. I will get pics very soon.

Thanks for all your input and the fantastic sales brochure!! I just wish it showed the model I have :-(

Rich

 

[circlew]

I would also think soap would make too much suds, but the brochure page in Post #473189 states "uses soap flakes effectively". Maybe something else had to be added to control foaming.

As to hot water use, I could see that being a problem. Kohler's website makes mention of the Kohler Electric Sink (introduced in the 20's) which didn't prove too popular for that very reason. I don't know what type of water heaters were available in the 20's (mansions would have had large boilers), but do know that by the 30's any decent house should have had plentiful hot water. One of my relatives had built their house in '36 (nice, but by no means a mansion), and it had a large oil-fired Monel water heater in the basement. They did not however, have a dishwasher. They must have considered one though, as I found information about the GE Electric Sink in the file box.

 

[petek]

Wow it looks really interesting. Are you thinking of installing it somewhere so you can actually play with it.
Where'd you find that thing at Larry?

 

[perc-o-prince]

Pics!!!

I found this dishwasher on eBay and Larry was kind enough to drive 2hrs each way to pick it up for me and keep it safe in his garage....Thanks again, Larry.

As you can see, from the pics, it needs no hook-up. It wheels about. The first pic shows the Conover closed up with the fill/drain tube over the cover turned up in the fill position. If you follow the pipe down you can see the valve which when in the up position allows the dishwasher to fill and wash. Pull the lever down to activate the drain. Everything is enamel over steel. Even the emblem is enameled on.

More pics to follow...

 

[perc-o-prince]

Open with fill arm extended. This would have been rolled up next to a sink and the two way telescoping arm would have been put under the faucet for filling. To drain you would just turn the tube over so that the water would be pumped DOWN into the sink. This was how I found out that it had a pump drain!! In the right area it could double as a fountain

 

[perc-o-prince]

This is a closer view of the fill valve. I don't know what the purpose of the tube to the left is. This is what I think may be a detergent dispenser???. The top part of it comes out and it is funnel shaped. Looking down into the pipe it has some purple gunk. This pipe also goes into the pump.

 

[perc-o-prince]

View down with all racks in.

 

[akronman]

Conover Pics

Thanks for pics!!!!!!! Congrats on that machine, treat it well.
Again, thanks for posting pics

 

[perc-o-prince]

Removable top center rack out for ease of loading bottom.

 

[perc-o-prince]

All racks out

 

[perc-o-prince]

Final pic...All racks laid out on floor