Anniversary of the biggest Appliance tragedy!

[peteski50]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the worst day in appliance history. General Motors shutdown Frigidaire! I had always knew it was the end of 1980 but I didn't know the exact date until I read this article a few years back. Many of us morn this terrible tragedy!

Bob Connor from Pittsburgh, PA sez...
Destroying electric cars seems like an act only a stupid company would do but this is not the first time GM made a good product that they didn't want to public to keep. I know some people who have a hobby of collecting and restoring home appliances. I don't buy the argument from GM that nobody would make parts for the EV1s that people wanted to buy. Until 1980 GM had their home appliance division, Frigidaire. GM Frigidaire kitchen and laundry appliances were among the most innovative made at the time and usually of high quality, some are still going today. No, you cannot get parts for GM Frigidaire appliances now and today GM pretends that they never existed (Today's Frigidaire appliances are made by another company and are considered a "budget" brand). GM shut down Frigidaire on December 26, 1980 so the employees in Dayton got unemployment for Christmas. What I am saying is that this is a much bigger blunder than getting rid of Frigidaire and GM deserves to go bankrupt because of it. I cannot figure out who in their right mind would buy Anything from this company. The only reason I think they do well in the Pittsburgh area: We have a lot of seniors who have good memories of the Chevys and Buicks they drove in the 50s, and a lot of funeral homes that like Cadillac. GM also screwed up when they wanted people to get an expensive charger for the car. Why could an electric car not be recharged by a 220 volt electric dryer outlet found in most homes? That way you would recharge after doing the laundry! Even if you didn't have this outlet an electrician could add one for about 200 dollars. But please don't charge near that much for the DVD, charge less than most movies as the message is more important than the one about the "Lake House".
[7/14/2006 12:30:28 AM]

 

[joelippard]

Woe is me

We'll always wonder what the future could have been like. Here is the last of the line, the 1-18

 

[laundromat]

HAD IT---LOVED IT---MISS IT.

 

[peteski50]

Frigidaire!

This poppy washer is the exact one my aunt had with the matching dryer she bought in 1974. Hers didnt have the window and she had the basement wall painted poppy to match!
Peter

 

[3beltwesty]

Confusing saga of Brands

General Motors sold Frigidaire to WCI in 1979 because they were losing massive amounts of cash. It sold for 120 million dollars. In 1978 Frigidaire lost about 9 cents on a dollar with their 450 million in sales. Detroit was on its rear, thus selling off lossy non core auto business was done.

ie the Frigidaire brand was acquired by White Consolidated Industries (WCI) in 1979, sold because GM wanted to focus on autos.

In 1986 Electrolux gobbled up WCI, thus Frigidaire too.

Before buying Frigidaire in 1979, WCI gobbled up other old brands like Westinghouse, Tappan, Kelvinator, Philco.

Before Frigidaire was sold in 1978 it was a leader and had a big R&D department.

WCI gobbled up Westinghouse's appliance divison in 1975; it too like Frigidaire in 1978 was loosing money.

This trend happens over and over again in the USA, a brand is loosing and will die. Another buys it and prunes to let part of it live on.

It is easier for the new owner to be ruthless, the folks in the sinking ship are all buddies and few want to fix the ingrained mess.

We can all feel mad that Westinghouse and Frigidaire got sold in the 1970's, it created a confusing mess of part numbers too often for the same exact part.

I am not sure what the answer really is, instead of selling these old brands they could have fired all too and killed the brands.

 

[launderess]

IIRC, Part Of The Story Also Was

That the dies to make parts for various Frigidare washers/appliances were getting on, and the cost to aquire new versus ROI just didn't add up for GM.

GM like many other appliance makers of the time saw the writing on the wall. That is major appliances would soon become a "commidity", and soon as the post war boom was over, that is the market became more and more saturated with product, you would have many chasing fewer customers.

Of course one way round all this is to take a page from what has happened today. Build things of such low quality that their built in lifespan is only about five years or so, then they *have* to be junked. This clever trick is also because such machines aren't built for repair,and or simply mark spare parts scarce.

Another option was to build things cheaper, but most all plants were union shops then and NAFTA wasn't around. There would have been some nasty blood on the streets if GM had then announced it was closing plants and moving production to say Mexico.

Post WWII there was pent up demand for major appliances, not to mention the mass building boom as those who could fled cities to the newly built suburbs. All those new "Levitt-towns" et all required fitted out kitchens, laundry areas and so forth. We see that new housing is still what mainly drives appliance sales today, as the recent credit disaster/housing bust also killed sales of white goods.

 

[macboy91si]

Frigidaires

You know it's odd, for the longest time, I never thought anything about Frigidaires. We had an old 50's pull-handle fridge growing up, and we had a horrible washer from the 80's that groaned like it was giving birth. It was never on my radar...

Fast forward to August 15th, 2010... The place: Robert Seger's basement... I saw a Frigidaire in person and working for the 1st time. And oh what a treat! Videos do not do these machines any real justice. There are so many sounds and "feel" that these things make it's actually incredible. The Unimatic was pretty amazing, and after getting a glimpse of its inner workings, even more so. So well built and put together, if there wasn't a sell off at GM and parts were available, these machines would never die I don't think.

Fast forward to December 11th, 2010... The place: Kevin Benz's basement... Getting to know a Unimatic a little better and using a newer addition to the Frigidaire family, the 1-18. The silky 55 Uni was merrily doing its thing and the 1-18 roaring along beside it. There was an Agitub based Skinny-Mini across from it doing its thing as well.

The 1-18 on low water level is something that I document as "a force to be reckoned with", it was an amazing machine, the look, the feel, the operation all went together in a package. The spray rinses and fills were just amazing to watch and it really does pummel the clothes. Lots of suds, and lots of washing action. Also the 2-speed spin was a neat design, giving the pump time to get rid of the water before the real spin. The dial also had a notch labeled "Spray Rinse" after the main wash that was pretty awesome as well.

The anemic Agitub was yanking away on a load of towels and all I could think of was "broomstick in a bucket", but I loved the machine all the same. Then I was surprised by an overflow rinse and realized it was actually a solid tub machine, which was something for whatever reason I had never thought about before. The shape and feel of the machine, gave me the same feel of the other portables that I love so much, but this was a serious "Laundry Center" and was on a much higher playing field. I loved it and can't wait to get the one from John as soon as transportation permits.

Yes, it was heaven. Pure heaven, well next to the Hoovers anyway But I now have a place for the Frigidaires, something that was so far out of radar is now climbing on my wanted lists. I SERIOUSLY doubt that I will find a working/savable Unimatic, but a 1-18 or Skinny-Mini would suit me fine, I'm more of a later 60's - 80's guy anyway.

My thoughts

-Tim

 

[mickeyd]

OUCH

Ya think they could have waited a few weeks!? Sheesh.

Seeing it in black and white is striking. I had no idea: the closing was just a big blur to me. Thanks, Pete, for the enlightenment, tragic though it is.

 

[neptunebob]

It kind of blows my mind that Frigidaire was worth only 120 million. Two new school buildings where I live will cost 10 mil more than that (and they won't even be all that nice). Even if take inflation into account and it would be 360 million today, I would think the asset would be more than that.

 

[bajaespuma]

Wait until China starts making washing machines!

I have boycotted GM for my entire adult life and will continue to do so. General Motors has been the our own home-grown exemplar of blind stupid greed. I am a staunch Michael Moore fan and I believe he is a great American and think that the population of this country would have done well to listen to him and to pay attention to his manifestos from the beginning.

Having said all that, even companies that didn't amputate their appliance divisions (like GE and Whirlpool) have commoditized their white goods into feeble junk.

The good news is that nothing is as permanent as change. I believe, firmly, just as the well-made, well-designed Japanese car won the American market, appliances that will be made in emerging economies with lots of new families realizing what was called the "American Dream" will take the place of the junk in the present day market.

And I'm still driving my Mother's Honda Accord which is 9 years old and runs like it's new. My parents had always bought Oldsmobiles. They were stubbornly loyal to "American Made" until the early eighties when they realized, finally, that GM had betrayed its customers. Am not looking forward to buying a new car.

 

[3beltwesty]

Westinghouse 700 million

WCI bought Westinghouse's appliance division in 1975 for 700 million

 

[3beltwesty]

China already makes washers

Haier washers in dinky 1 cubic foot models have been sold in the USA for many years. Now they are invading with full size machines too.

http://www.haier.com/products/index.asp

 

[3beltwesty]

Disposable AC units

Look how long today's stuff lasts or does not last.

In 1997 I got a Sears/whirlpool 5400 BTUH 10.7 EER window AC; built by Whirlpool in the USA, with a Korean LG compressor. It lasted until 2007, 10 years. I scrapped it because the USA built fan motors bushing would go dry, and the inner bushing/bearing to be lubed required taking the AC apart. I did this for 4 years, until the styrofoam pieces were all duct taped. It got to be were it would stop in one month, and to lube the inner bushing was alot of labor. The 10 years of salt air had the outside fins a mess of mush Its replacement is a Korean LG unit; it has outlasted now the Maytag and GE units below:

A sister spare Sears/whirlpool 5400 BTUH 10.7 EER unit of the 1997 AC was installed new in 2005 after Katrina and works well. It was bought in 2003 and never used until 2005.

A Temporary 5200 BTUH brand new Maytag bought after Katrina in 2005 worked for 2 years and then got low on gas and had about no output. It was made in China.

Another Temporary 5200 BTUH brand new GE bought after Katrina in 2005 worked for 2 years and then got low on gas and had about no output. It was made in China too.

A Sears/Whirlpool 8000 BTUH 9.2 EER unit I bought in 1994 still works well in barn up north, it has ports on both of the Fan motors ends for lubing.