Anyone ever see a Thermador Microwave?

[red_october]

Here you go. It works a treat but it's beat. Has no turntable but a stainless liner, and weights something like 73,000,000 pounds. It's in my basement now as I have no space for it and it's positively filthy inside, in addition to the obvious physical damage. Once I get a better kitchen cabinet, you bet I'm gonna clean this up and use it!

Seeing as I'm new here I figgured what better way to endear myself to the population than by sharing photos of interesting vintage appliacnes. I have stories too.

 

[hydralique]

Thermador still makes microwaves . . .

I just specified one for a project . . . it hasn't even been installed yet.

 

[bongobro]

Thermador(ian) Reaction...

Thermador was very big on microwaves in the late '70s and early '80's, too...

Richard Deacon (Mr. Rutherford on "Leave it to Beaver" and Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show") was their ad spokesman, and was featured in at least one cookbook spotlighting the "Thermatronic" oven that combined microwaves and a browning element (a copy of which I scored at a used book sale a couple of weeks back)...

Considering most modern microwaves are as disposable as toasters, you might be onto something!

 

[red_october]

I know I'm on to something. My best buddy from College has a Sharp Carousel (NOT a II) that was his parents. It is about 30 years old or so and takes forever to microwave anything. It is so old it had the temperature probe and all that jazz. At any rate, the thing never dies. It is veritably indestructable. Once we thought it was dead. Turns out he had only made the mistake I once made, turning on the temp probe mode without the probe in it (Probe is long since lost). Gaze upon this wonder of engineering:

 

[danemodsandy]

Julia Child...

Had a Thermatronic- the TOL stainless model. She bought it in the early '70s, IIRC, and she was still using it in the late '80s when she wrote her book, "The Way to Cook". It's visible from the side in the cover shot. Back then, the TOL Thermatronic was available in two versions- 110V and 220V. Both had a browning element. If you bought the 220V model, you could use both microwaves and browning at the same time. If you got the 110V model, you could use either, but not both at the same time. The 110V model was sometimes referred to as the "sequential" model, meaning you had to use the microwave and browning features in sequence.

 

[buffster]

Safety First

Just a word of caution... You might want to check those old microwave ovens for radiation leakage. Here's a link to the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health where you can find more information on related topics.

 

[andrewinorlando]

I've got a 1980's Kenmore Microwave/Convection oven, now somewhere around 20 years old, and still going strong. Never a minute's worth of trouble with it. Still use it every day, especially that convection oven for roasting chickens, pork, beef, turkey. Does a fabulous job. Don't think I could ever part with it. Temp probe works great too. Love that old girl. Cooks fairly quickly. Rated at 750 watts output for microwave and 1440 watt convection oven. Can be used in combination or alone. Has a huge convection fan in the back of the oven.

 

[buffster]

FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health

Forgot to include the link... Here it is...

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/microwave.html

 

[spankomatic]

In 1979 we installed a Thermador double oven. The top oven was a combination oven/microwave. It had a ceramic tile in the center of the oven rack that you would place items on to microwave. You could use the oven in conjuncton with the microwave at the same time to cook food faster. The Thanksgiving turkey in 1978 was pretty DRY. It did brown food better when using the microwave/oven combo at the same time. The lower oven was just a normal oven. Both were self cleaning. I liked the lighted controls it had.

 

[whirlcool]

We have a Litton Model 412 Microwave from 1976. We stopped using it in 2000 when we moved into this house which had a built in microwave (Kenmore).

It was noisier than hell considering how quiet the Kenmore is. You can really tell how far microwave technology has come along.
More even cooking, etc over the past 30 years.

When we were moving, we broke the bottom glass plate to the Litton. Does anyone know if these are still available?

 

[DADoES]

What I don't like about the typical microwave nowadays is the power profile. Damn irritating when setting 1 min @ 50%, and get 30 seconds of full-blast followed by 30 seconds of nothing (well, maybe not that bad, but close). I often use 20% and 30% power for reheating. I suppose I'd be more happy with an invertor-type micro, but what's here is here.