1963...

[brandonkoons]

What would be the most commonly found washer inside a home in 1963?

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: Toss-Up:

I would say that it would be a "Toss-Up" between either a Top-Load Kenmore, Whirlpool or GE and maybe a Front-Load Westinghouse Bendix Washer. My area where I've grown-up here at, between our Friends, Neighbors and Relatives, they seemed to be almost equally seen in the homes. There was also actually quite a few Kenmore and a couple of Philco Combo's as well.

Peace and Good Luck with your interesting era time Search, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[frigilux]

Well, in 1963, of the 5 houses on our block, 3 had Kenmores, one had a Maytag and one a Frigidaire. My vote is for Kenmore.

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: Toss-Up:

I would say that it would be a "Toss-Up" between either a Top-Load Kenmore, Whirlpool or GE and maybe a Front-Load Westinghouse Bendix Washer. My area where I've grown-up here at, between our Friends, Neighbors and Relatives, they seemed to be almost equally seen in the homes. There was also actually quite a few Kenmore and a couple of Philco Combo's as well.

Peace and Good Luck with your interesting era time Search, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[petek]

Probabl Kenmore in my hometown as they were the only dept store we had. There was an appliance/tv store that sold RCA's and another one that sold Admiral and Frigidaire stuff. Thing was that many people bought at Sears back then because of their credit card, this was long before Visa and Mastercard came on the scene. And if they didn't have a Sears account they always had one of those 4 equal payments deals going to get you to buy something. Going to a small appliance store meant you probably had to have pay outright with cash or check.

 

[gyrafoam]

Atlanta would have been a dead heat between Frigidaire and Kenmore, with Maytag not far behind.

 

[appnut]

Kenmore, GE, and Frigidaire in Houston.

 

[JerseyMike]

Maytags, Maytags, and more Maytags

My family and I lived in a 44 unit apartment building in 1963. Just about everyone had a Maytag. You could count the non-Maytags on one hand -- a GE Filter Flow, a Norge Time Line and a very early Frigidaire. That's it. 41 families owned a Maytag!

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: OOPS, sorry Robert:

I had a problem with my Thread Posting, getting it to confirm. It took quite a long time, then I had a prompt telling me to re-do my attempt. If you would like to delete one of the duplicates, I'm sure that you don't want them to remain.

Now, about my info shared, I had forgotten when I was commenting about both M. Wards and Sears, actually being close to each other, we also had quite a few Wards Signature Appliances, besides several Maytag's also.

Peace and Good Times, remembering the Past of Appliances, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[angus]

Hmm = 1963....

In my area of Brooklyn, I would say an even split between Kenmore and Speed Queen. Right behind would be GE and Maytag

 

[stainfighter]

1963, neighbors around the block...

neighbor to our left had a Norge, we had a GE FF, two on the other side had RCA/Whirlpool, next had KM, then GE FF, next Frigidaire, and then GE. GE and KM were big in So Jersey, at least in our neighborhood...Best friend's mom had the '59 rainbow pushbutton w/rapid advance timer (sigh)

 

[rinso]

In rural Eastern Idaho where I grew up, people preferred to trade with local appliance stores rather than big department stores. Two outlets had Frigidaire and Maytag as their low and high-end offerings, respectively. A third was a Whirlpool dealer, a fourth GE and Hotpoint. Not too many Kenmores around. Most people I knew, opted for Maytags.

 

[mayken4now]

Geeze - O -

I was such a baby boy,a mere 2. But I guess I knew what we had and the neighbors had.
1- Kenmore/because of the Roebuck Co.

2 - Maytag and Frigidaire/not Sears

 

[Burpalator]

I was born in '63 so really can't comment there, but by '66/'67 when I began to take notice of such things, Kenmore was the most popular because of the local Sears catalog outlet that stocked appliances. There was also a Western Auto so a few bought Wizards. By '69, we had a new furniture store that carried Frigidaire appliances and many people opted for those since they now had a choice. I remember one family in the early 70s who built a new house and all the new appliances were Frigidaire in Poppy. Our local phone company was independent (not part of the Bell System) and while our rented rotary dial phones were manufactured by Western Electric for Stromberg-Carlson, we had a few colors that Bell didn't offer on all of their phone models. These new folks with the Poppy kitchen had a blindingly bright orange rotary phone on their kitchen wall with a 25 foot coiled cord (not to be confused with "Rust" that Bell offered on their Trimline phones later in the 70s). I remember being so impressed because most people in our tiny town (population less than 1,000) had one phone in the house, generally on the wall in the kitchen, with the standard 5 foot cord and almost always in black because our little phone company charged a one-time "color charge" of $8.50 which everyone thought was outrageous. (Sorry, I know I went off topic, but this got my memory going.)

 

[Hometechdoc]

Industry Reports

I looked through some old files of saturation levels and market share data. In 1963, Whirlpool had the largest market share and more than three fourths of their product was sold as Kenmores. Therefore, I would have to say Kenmore was the most common brand sold that year. GE, Maytag, Frigidaire, and Speed Queen followed in that order.

 

[drmitch]

Here in West Tn.,a more rural aera the stores handeled mostly GE and Maytag but this was a poorer part of the country so a lot of people were still using there wringer washers. Question, Did International Harvester make a wringer washer or sell one made by someone else. I had an old photo of one of our stores with winger in the window and an IH sign. The sign could have been for the friges they sold.

 

[hoover1060]

My parents built their first house that year

Mom chose Westinghouse appliances for the kitchen, stove and fridge, and an ISE disposal.
Mom was pregnant with me for a good part of 1963, and dad wanted to buy her an automatic washer and dryer, but mom would have none of that.
She chose and got a Maytag wringer.

 

[scott55405]

Jeff, what year did she switch over to automatic?

 

[sudsmaster]

By 1963 our old '47-or-so Bendix front loader had given up the ghost, and my Mom tells me that they started driving to a laundromat in town instead. Then we moved to the Big City and used laundromats within walking distance. All the kids wound up doing their own laundry... and when we moved to a flat with a GM Frigidaire in the basement (around 1965) that was a real treat. I learned how to make rope with that machine ;-)