Tappan appliances
Tappan made extraordinary well built appliances. Their Dual Drench dishwasher left something to be desired, from a performance standard, but they took care of that with the exemplary performing Reversa-Jet.
Their jets clogging sounds like another of John's tall tales. Look at the filtration level of their filter which was almost pinpoint fine holes. Large particles were not able to get through. The filter, which had the fine perforations in the center for filtration of recirculated water, with larger openings around the periphery for the larger particles that the filter had caught, to be drained away. The handle on the filter allowed it to be removed and washed in the sink, should it be needed although Tappan described their filter as normally self-cleaning.
Tappan ranges, such as the Fabulous 400, with the upper level ovens, were innovative and well built. My parents got one about 1960 or early '61. We had it until 1974, when my parents remodeled the kitchen with all GE appliances. The Tappan range never had an issue other than one of the automatic temperature sensors in the burner.
I remember how our neighbors were so impressed by the Fabulous 400 with its innovative styling and innate beauty. It was very similar to the Tappan unit in the film, "The Parent Trap " with just some minor cosmetic differences.
Their redesign of the Dual Drench dishwasher into the Reversa-Jet dishwasher showed the skill of their engineers. It was a top performing machine. It also had features that were not new, but not yet common either, in 1965, such as folding rack dividers and a self-latching door.
The high filtration rate and well designed wash arms gave it great cleaning power..even if it did topple some items in the upper rack. Tappan was an elite name in appliances through the mid-sixties until things, sadly, went south for them. They were a bright and shining star in the appliance industry. They purchased O'Keefe and Merritt in the early fifties.
The Reversa-Jet was also marked under their O'Keefe and Merritt name as well as under the Tappan name.
Tappan was among the early pioneers of consumer microwave ovens, being one of first offering a microwave that could fit on a countertop and a hi-Lo oven range with the microwave oven on the top.
Unfortunately, Tappan's quality grew less. They farmed out their dishwasher production to D&M and then to Whirlpool. Their bright and shining star dimmed and then finally went out when they were purchased by Electrolux of Sweden in the latter seventies..[this post was last edited: 7/30/2024-00:19]
