1940's "Load Touch and Go" Dishwasher Questions

[zippyjet]

My Grandmother had a late 1940's Hotpoint Electric Kitchen. I was always enamored by the funny looking Hotpoint DW. It was not the sink model but was built in. I have plenty of questions:
1. What years was this dishwasher made?
2. Was this the state of the art prior to the Kitchenaid 1949 KD1?
3. Was this Hotpoint wider than the standard 24"?
4. How long was it's complete cycle?
5. What kind of wash system? Impeller or wash arm? I understand this unique dw had the wash system on its top instead of the usual bottom of tub. Where was the Calrod heating drying element?
6.Did this machine have a detergent dispenser?
7. What did you use in dishwashers before the invention of Cascade in 1956?
8. I remember these Hotpoints were noisy. How did they compare to the Kitchenaid?
9. Anyone remember the print ads that proclaimed "Load Touch N Go?"
10. Why did Hotpoint go from a premier brand to GE's also ran step child?
11. Can someone post pictures of this dishwasher's interior, the wash system and the heating drying element?
I look forward to learning more about this crude looking early dishwasher. Someone said this Hotpoint dishwasher design was basically unchanged from the 1920's

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hotpoints featured a fill spray from the top of the tub, but the impeller and the Calrod element were in the bottom sump of the tub. This model is 27" wide. HP was the first DW to have the heating element in the tub. Others offered a tank of water heated to around 180F from which the machine was filled, but Hotpoint was the first to use the Calrod element inside the tub and to use it for drying. Hotpoint was the first to have a detergent dispenser allowing for two washes, but I am not sure which model was the first Hotpoint to have it. It was not an electrically operated dispenser.

Use the Search function in the Imperial Forum to find pictures and history of Hotpoint dishwashers. There is a lot of information about them. When you find information that interests you, click on the thread number at the left.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

zippyjet:

1. In the photo above, this is my Hotpoint Electric Sink/Dishwasher that is presently sitting in my Garage. I believe it to be made in 1949; the model number is 10MC16.

2. In my opinion, and according to an advertisement in a 1955 Electrical Merchandising magazine that I just recently purchased, General Electric had the largest market share on dishwashers. This likely began as early as the 1930's and continued into the 1950's and perhaps even through the 1960's. But I don't have any hard evidence to support my statement. GE made Electric Sink and Free-standing Dishwasher models starting in the 1930's. But GE bought out the Walker Dishwasher Company in 1930, and Walker had been producing dishwashers since the 1920's. I do not know the year that Hotpoint introduced it's own line of Dishwashers.

State of the Art is likely in the eye of the beholder. Hotpoint dishwashers were probably more on the cutting edge ahead of GE with a Timer, the top spray fill, Calrod, and detergent cups, as Tom has described above. When GE went to a fully automatic dishwasher in the late 1930's to early 1940's, it still had a mechanical "timer" that was gear driven directly off the bottom of the motor turning the impeller; a cam and cam follower system was used to control the cycle. Once started, the wash cycle could not be reset or bypassed - the motor had to turn the cycle cam one complete revolution to complete, and thus reset the cycle ready to begin again. GE introduced a standard cycle timer on their dishwashers in the early 1950's.

If my information is correct, in addition to Hobart (KitchenAid), Westinghouse, Apex, American Kitchens/Crosley, Youngstown, and Sears all were introducing their own Electric Sink/Dishwashers or Free-standing Dishwasher in the late 1940's into the early 1950's.

3. Yes, Some of the earliest Hotpoint Free-standing (or undercounter) dishwashers were 27" wide. Also, Youngstown had a 30" wide front loading version of their wash tower dishwasher.

4. I can not definitively answer this question. I have never fully operated any of my Hotpoint dishwasher. I suspect that on the earliest Hotpoint dishwasher, they had a 5 minute wash, two 2 minute rinses, and about a 15-20 minute drying time.

5. Tom answered above.

6. Tom answered above.

7. Calgonite was the dominate dishwasher detergent at the time.

8. I can not answer.

9. I have several Hotpoint Magazine Ads from the late 1940's and early 1950's, but none mention the "Load Touch N Go", so that may have come along in the mid 1950's when Hotpoint added the push button start.

10 I don't have an answer. Hotpoint was/is a division of GE. I kind of believe that GE used Hotpoint to test out new concepts.

11. I will post pictures of the inside of some of my Hotpoint dishwashers later.

Mike