Another historic brandname goes away

[runematic]

I guess we all could see things like this happening when WP bought Maytag. WP has now decided to end the Magic Chef line of applinaces. As of now, most MC products have been discontinued. They will now push the Estate line as the value line. It's not like the MC products were really different than the Maytag line, but it's always sad to see another American iconic brandname done away with.

 

[appnut]

Where's Jack Nicklaus when ya need him?

 

[goatfarmer]

Magic Chef...

Before Maytag got hold of 'em, Magic Chef, in my eyes, always made a top notch range. We had one from the early 70's that I found used, it was still going with no repairs as of last year.

Maytag turned them into a "value" line, and they were never the same.

kennyGF

 

[peteski50]

Magic Chef

It is very sad and this is what seems to happen a lot. Years ago Magic Chef did make excellent cooking products. After most takeovers most of the time a name will get ruined.
In my openion none will ever be as bad as to what WCI did to Frigidaire. That was the worst ever.
Peter

 

[exploder3211]

My new condo has a magic chef range wich works is a 1984 model. We aren't going to keep it because it will not match and plus i think its got some rust issues.. Not sure.. Dishwasher is a GE made magic chef unit and works too. We migth actually keep it for a while until money get situated. If we can make the front white insted of almond.. The range hood is shot beyond belief though.. Tappan will be the next one to hit the chopping block i bet..

 

[rp2813]

I had a friend who restored old gas stoves. Once when I was up for a weekend he had a 1930's Magic Chef, a big 6 burner stove with side and lower ovens, short little legs that gave it the look of a dancing stove in a Betty Boop cartoon. I really tried to find that thing a home with someone I knew since I had no place to put it myself, and almost got my cousins interested. I wish my parents weren't such dyed-in-the-wool electric people. I would have talked my mom into that stove and it would still be in her kitchen. And worth way more than the '49 Westy that's in there now.

Too bad that a brand that put out such a good product was dragged through the mud and has now been shoved off the cliff. All I know is, history repeats itself and at some point we're going to have multiple brands again that aren't all owned by one company.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Magic Chef was another old manufacturer that needed to spend lots of money to modernize their manufacturing facilities and do some redesigning of their stoves. A lot of Magic Chef's fame was their "Red Wheel" oven thermostat, the first in gas ovens, but it was history by the 1950s, not progress. The Red Wheel thermostat used to be on the side of the range. A friend of ours had just such a stove. The trouble with Magic Chef, like Maytag and many others was that they felt that they had to have a full line of appliances instead of the thing for which they had gained a reputation: stoves. Crosley killed itself when it thought it had to go beyond radios, TVs, Shelvador refrigerators (the first with door shelves) and electric ranges and got tied up with AVCO and Bendix. Crosely would add washers and dryers to have a full line and would make stoves and refrigerators for Bendix, but AVCO pulled the plug, literally, and Crosley vanished along with a lot of jobs and dealerships. The only thing to survive was the Bendix laundry line that was sold to Philco. Philco did not need Crosley's radios, TVs, refrigerators or electric ranges. Crosley might have gone out of business anyway or they might have cut back to making just TVs and radios, but on their schedule, not AVCO's. Crosley had once been quite an outfit. They even made the tiny cars called Crosleys that were driven around the 1939 World's Fair grounds.

 

[washertalk]

I remember in like 1980, going to the library and checking out decorating magazines from the 60s and 70s and seeing various ads for Magic Chef products.
They had several ranges and the ones with an elevated shelf above the work surface comes to mind. It seemed really neat if you didn't have a range hood or overhead cabinets. They also made a "cooking center" that had a built-in dishwasher. It was probly early 70s and was a stove with over head oven and under neath was a standard 24" D&M manufactured built-in Dishwasher. I don't know if the unit came as one piece or what. Then there was the range that had a built-in heater on the bottom. God those things must have been heavy.

Any way, I will miss the cute logo. Seems like it was just yesterday I was looking at a compact refrigerator at Sears with a Magic Chef logo on it. (Oh, wait that was yesterday)

Well thanks for the news, and your right, its like after mergers so many of these brands get ruined. I'm sure it is planned for various reasons. Technology moves on. competitors want to eliminate competition. and yeah, I suppose there is occasional, actual bad management, but come on...

 

[panthera]

Actually, it is always bad management

Or they wouldn't have become a well-known and loved brand to begin with.
A lot of it has to do with the shift from earning a profit through value addition to making money with the capital markets, tax breaks and other financial instruments.
Soon, many companies only saw their "products" as secondary.

Then you add in the stupid management fads, like mentioned above. Did BMW really need to buy Rover?
Did Daimler really need to buy Chrysler?

Both decisions were exactly like wanting to have cancer so you can have lots more "cells" in your body.

I'm not talking here about the time honored practice of buying your competition to slit their throat. Whirlpool has probably done us all a favor by putting Maytag out of our misery. Did we really need any more Amanananantags or sucking Hoovers?

And after all the horrors done in the name of "traditional brand names" (Amananantags, Hoovers, Duals, AEGs, etc.) maybe it is better to die a noble death than to be used to hype shit dressed up as shinola).

In the end though, after all the mergers and acquisitions, one thing remains: The Chinese. They have the patience, they focus on value addition and, don't fool yourself, the quality and the creativity (I teach young Chinese engineers; they come here to learn, they go back home after turning down jobs at Siemens and BMW)and long term orientation make them your (and our, though our quality will buy us a little time) worst danger.

Oh, well, I can see the boys building that boat for me out in the harbor now. Don't forget the lashings and tinder so it'll burn brightly...

 

[tomturbomatic]

Panthera is very correct, unfortunately. Most of the major appliance repair parts that I pick up each week are made in China. And for most every part that is sourced legally, there is a counterfit part part stolen from our designs used to made products to sell for less than our brands. But rest assured, even the United States of America's Department of Defense is fine with having components of weapons systems built by the Chinese. That enables the big arms merchants in this country to nake a bigger profit on Government contracts and what's more American than big profits for big business?

And do not forget the counterfit United States 100 dollar bill that three Russian security agents accompanying Poo-Poo tried to use to buy liquor last week. Of course all of these people are our friends, right?

 

[laundryshark]

Magic Chef Washers and Dryers

I vaguely remember the old ads for these on TV. In fact, *if memory serves me correctly,* I even saw a Magic Chef washer at a local department store. (I could be wrong), but the agitator in that unit was mostly smooth until you reached the bottom of the shaft or post. That's when you found a swirled or twisted rib or fin, which there were maybe three or four of them at the base.--Laundry Shark

 

[rp2813]

That agitator sounds a lot like the 70's "Penta-Swirl" design that Kenmore used. Aptly named, as they didn't churn things up like their vaney Norge/Signature counterparts.

Comments about the corruption that pervades Russia and China are spot-on and cause for serious concern. Alas, our delusional president is busy plunging the U.S. into bankruptcy and congress is asleep at the wheel. Sounds like a perfect recipe for a big crash to me.