A new toy!

[bigalsf]

Hi everyone. I want to share a recent acquisition of mine. I stumbled across it on Facebook marketplace and picked it up this week.

Presenting the Westinghouse Continental 700 portable/convertible dishwasher! I’ve never had a Westinghouse dishwasher of any series so i’m psyched to get this one! I’m aware there are many who pan these models as poorly designed and of low quality. I agree, but it is a rare model and should be fun to play with.

The pictures show the machine after I did the initial cleaning. It was filthy when I first picked it up; really gross!
But it cleaned up fairly nicely for these pics. I’ve tried it out to see if & what functions and so far everything is functioning and no leaks! I can’t get it inside right now and It’s too cold for me to work on it in the garage so I will have to wait until spring rolls around to really get into this.

It’s in very good shape; the tub looks bad, but just needs a good scrub. The racks are yellowing, but are still in great shape; no rust areas at all! It’s even in Coppertone! I can’t wait to play with it!

Does anyone have any information regarding this model? I can’t find anything related to these models online, other than the service manual in the Ephemera library. However, that manual does not cover this model, so I can’t get a complete picture of how this model operates, specific service info to this model, cycle charts, etc. If anyone has any information they can share I would really appreciate it.

(Also, not sure why some of my pics are sideways? They don't show that way in my files.)

 

[repairguy]

Congrats! I’m sure you will have lots of fun with this machine. Best of luck with it!

 

[appnut]

Alan, I venture to guess this is the last rendition of Westinghouse dishwashers before the divestiture to WCI. So erly 70s. Obviously the TOL or next to TOL. The Power Soak should be 3 separate detergent washes with temperature holds possibly if some are built into the sequence without the sanitizer option selected. Otherwise would have to select that option.

 

[retro-man]

Congrats on finding an unusual machine. Looks like you will have some fun with it.
I notice you stated that you won't be able to get to this machine until spring but you have tried it out. I don't know how cold it is where you live but you may need to drain all the water out of the pump and hoses so they do not freeze and bust up a bunch of possibly unreplaceable parts. Not sure if you can put marine anti freeze into it to hold it till spring. Hopefully others will chime in on this. Good luck with your new toy.

Jon

 

[combo52]

Last Real TOL Westinghouse DW

Probably early 70s, This is very cool, I have never seen this model and they probably did not make many TOL ones.

 

We saw a lot of the basic one dial builder versions, they had lots of problems with the pump and motor assembly, leaking main seals, bad rust on the motor shaft, burned out drain valve solenoids, motor cooling fans that disintegrated, other than these faults there were not that many problems, the racks did not even have wheels to break off.

 

This DW design was WHs answer to GEs cheap plastisol DWs and the last gasp for WHs appliance engineers, the only problem was GE had better engineers and better materials and could make something that looked really cheap actually work and get will beyond the warranty without lots of problems.

 

WH even had a shaded pole motor in these DWs that used more power than the cheap black motor GE used at the time that needed a powerful fan to cool it.

 

WH was very clever in several areas, The motor cooling fan provided air movement to pull heat and steam out of the tank to dry the dishes, of course this meant running an 8 Amp motor through the entire dry cycle without using any of the motors heat to actually dry the dishes.

 

Other clever cost cuts included, a very simple door latch and switch, no wheels on the racks, most models did not have a detergent dispenser, basic models used a cheap to build clothes dryer type timer that could be turner either way and advanced continuously to save the cost of an escapement. And best of all it actually had a porcelain enameled inner door and tank.

 

We have a basic Harvest Gold one of these in the museum, many people have asked me why I kept this DW with all the other cool DWs and I did so because it is interesting to see how cheaply a DW could be built at the time.

 

John L.

 

 

[turquoisedude]

Very cool!!  I've never seen the Westinghouse-badged version of this machine up close, but I remember seeing the Viking models that were built for the old Eaton's department store -  I think I may still have a picture or two in a catalog showing this ultra-fancy rapid-advance timer model.  I'm not at the house in Ogden today, but please remind me to look for them - I think there was a cycle chart included to help folks compare models. 

 

Does this one have a porcelain tub?  I've got a 72 or 73 Viking-badged and a 71 Westinghouse (both built in Canada) and they are porcelain.  

 

Congratulations on a fun find!! 

 

[steved]

Didn't have much......

My library is a little thin on these models.

 

[appnut]

Steve, I knew you'd save the day!!!!

 

[cam2s]

Beautiful machine! Looks to be in pretty good shape given the dodgy build quality. Can’t wait to see it loaded up and to explore all the engineering “quirks!”

 

[hippiedoll]

CONGRATULATIONS...

Very cool! And I love the funky 70's color (probably my favorite part). And that is so cool that you can remove the cutting board top! Too cool!

 

[bigalsf]

Some updates

Thanks for the comments everyone. Steve, thank you very much for posting that ephemera info. I appreciate your help identifying more information; it really helps understand what the various features are and what they’re supposed to do.

Paul, yes the tub is all porcelain. Would love to see cycle charts if you have them.

I’ve had a chance to do more trials with water and it appears to be water tight! Whew! I was able to clean off the dirt on the inner door and it really looks good! The heater works as well as the detergent dispenser. I haven’t had a chance to check the thermostat as I couldn’t run the cycle long enough.

Some concerning news. First, the wash arm appears to be loose on its support. There is a locking ring on the underside of the arm (attached to the inside rim) that mates with a set of tabs at the top of the support. One of these tabs is broken and i’m not sure it it can be fixed. The arm stays in place due to the center tower which rides on the washarm and is attached to the lower rack. Although the arm rotates, there is some drag due to the broken lock ring.

Second, i’m not sure if the timer is cycling correctly. I’ve tried the Single Wash cycle and it’s supposed to have a sequence of R, W, R, R, D. Each time i’ve tried it the detergent cup opens in the pre-wash, but the sanitizing delay occurs at the correct point in the cycle. Not sure what’s up, but I am thinking the timer is out of sequence from being cancelled at some point and not letting it fully finish the cancel sequence. The timer may need to run through an entire Power Soak cycle in order to fully reset it.

Third, it had some type of leak at the drain hose connection which will have to be looked into (although it did not leak in my three tests).

We haven’t had any freezing weather so far this winter (which means a very dry summer here!) But we still have a few weeks left so I drained all the water out.

I’ll keep everyone posted on restoration efforts when I can complete them this spring (or earlier if weather permits). Thanks again for all your input/comments.