Avocado dishwasher installed...

[philr]

A few days ago, I decided to replace my Harvest Gold mid-seventies Frigidaire Custom Deluxe dishwasher with my 1969-70 Custom Imperial dishwasher. This used to be a mobile dishwasher but the previous owner got the undercounter installation kit for it.
 
It's one of the last models from the Canadian factory. It does even say "General Motors USA" on the control panel but the tag inside says "made in Canada" at the Scarborough plant.  The model number is DW JMP but it's the equivalent of the US-built DW-CIMP
 
I had to repair a few things on it and replace the timer motor that had a broken plastic gear in it but it works well now. I think I'll buy a brass replacement gear from Dave's Repair Service to keep the old one as a spare.
 
The only thing I haven't figured yet is the timer that doesn't seem to advance on the 150° wash. The 150° light comes on not very long after the beginning of the second wash but then it gets stuck on the second wash for very long... When I tested it, I didn't have the patience to see if it would eventually advance or if the plastisol-coated tank would rust out first so I just cancelled the 150° wash option and let it complete it's cycle!
 
I haven't figured why it does that and I haven't looked much at the service manual for answers but if anybody could tell me what might be wrong (or approximately how long this wash should take!).
 

It doesn't match better with my pink spin tube dishwasher than the harvest Gold one did! I have to admit I'm not very concerned about that!

Before:



Now:





 
 

 

[washer111]

Would it be Possible for...

A "money shot?"

Be interesting to see the innards of one of these rust-prone, supposed "disaster dishwashers."

 

[jetcone]

Love the idiot lights

and is that an RR-2?

 

 

 

[moparguy]

She sure is pretty in her avacado splendor!

 

[firedome]

ooooo...

Nice!! I like all 3 of them! That avacado machine just screams 1970!

 

[philr]

The plastisol has been repaired on the left and stainless steel tracks for the lower rack have been added by the previous owner. [this post was last edited: 12/17/2012-13:15]

 

[philr]

The upper part.

 

[philr]

The model number/serial number plate.

 

[philr]

And about the microwave oven, yes Jon it's the RR-2 that I recently got (see the link, I'm sure you'll remember the thread!), almost like yours (but mine lacks the buzzer)

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?42566

 

[philr]

For that dishwasher, I wish I could find a replacement inner door panel as the plastisol had been repaired around the rinse agent dispenser and some of the printed loading instructions were gone.
I decided to wipe off the rest of the instructions with paint thinner and I repaired it again as the repair was bubbling again and rust was showing under the cracking plastisol... The rinse agent dispenser was cracked so I repaired it and one of the detergent dispenser doors was stuck. Now both work but the detergent dispenser looks porous. I'd like to find new ones of these too...

 

[twintubber]

Hi Phil

I would assume the reason for the delay is to heat the water.
Many machines of the past would 'stop' or 'pause' the timer from advancing until the correct water temperature was reached.
My Maytag RR machines had a "Water Heating" light that would illuminate when heating the water to let you know the timer had paused and would therefore not advance until it reached it's appropriate temperature.
And my Whirlpool/Kenmore machines both would stop and pause the timer during water heating phases as well. And those cycles would go on forever it seemed!
A lot of the older machines took a long time to heat the water to higher temperatures due to small heating elements being submerged in such large pools of water.
Hope this helps answer your question, if at all.

 

[philr]

Thanks for the info Scott, that's very possible. I have waited at least 25 minutes but maybe it wasn't long enough!

On my machine, I know the timer is paused until the water temp reaches 150° but I thought that the light turned on when the water had reached this temp as it doesn't turn on at the beginning of the second wash. Maybe it turns on while the timer is stopped and the sensor at the back of the door is faulty (as the temp was quite high in the dishwasher after 25 minutes!).
The heater itself does work and the blower for the drying cycle works too.
[this post was last edited: 12/17/2012-13:10]

 

[rpms]

Is the top rack hard to load? What can you load down the middle aside from utensils?
Can I see a pic of it loaded?

 

[turquoisedude]

Looks good Phil!! How's the cleaing with the extra wash arm? I have always wondered about that...

 

[stevet]

what did they make in the mid tp late 70"s

Can anyone comment on the Frigidaire dw's from 1973 thru 1977? One aunt had one in Sun City Az,which had that orbital lower washarm. It seemed to work well at cleaning the dishes, and my uncle in Santa Fe bought a Frigidaire dw because his sister's machine( the same aunt) cleaned so well.

WELL NO SUCH LUCK AT ALL! That machine was a real dog! It barely cleaned anything off the dishes no matter what cycle was selected. When I was there it was a constant source of disappointment and aggravation. They said their 1966 bol builder's GE machine cleaned whistles around this one, and I have to say it did!

Well, I took a good look at it and it seemed that they had increased the number of positions in the lower rack that you could stack dishes into and the dishes wound up very close to each other with little room for the water to get between them to really do a good job. I think they were trying to get like 16 place settings into the rack and my aunt's rack having less positions but more space in between the plates was more like 12 places.

Anyone have any thoughts on it?

 

[mixfinder]

Auld Land Syne

I owned this machine in coppertone. It came as a portable and I built it in. The owwners were causual acquaintance and his wife wanted a Kitchenaid. I bought it for $50.00 in 1972 and used it until I sold that house in 1976. I love them and you can double load the side rail, the lowere flat surface, hang glasses off both sides of the middle posts and still lay cups and glasses down the middle. It was a killer machine.

 

[philr]

The main problem I have with these racks is not to load large items but very small items such as plastic covers... Most of my glasses fit on the center part of the rack.
The top racks used in these Super Surge dishwashers are very similar to those used in the last generation of Spin Tube dishwashers and were mostly unchanged until the end of the GM-made dishwashers. Some of the later models had an height adjustment but I never really needed one. I never use the folding sections at the top which I think are useless. At least not with the kind of dishes I have...

I didn't take a picture of it loaded with dishes but I'll do it next time!

 

[appnut]

It was a killer machine.

I agree with Kelly.  Given the right dishes, that top rack would out load any other machine on the market.  Those cup racks were still a novelty at the time, pioneered with the new rack design brought out with the 1960 spin tube.  Other cups or squatty ghlasses on the outsides on either side.  Then glasses in two to 3 other rows.  then cereal bowl, salad plates, sauceers, or asKelly said, double load more glasses with cups down the middle.  A very deep top rack too. 

 

[philr]

And as Kelly and Bob said, the center section allows to load glasses on both sides and in the center. Glasses and mugs which normally accumulate water on their bottom can be placed at angle on each side of the center section keep water accumulation on the top to a minimum.

In my older spin tube dishwasher, I lay glasses almost flat on each lower section and again, no water accumulation that needs to be wiped-off after the dry cycle!

Oh and this dishwasher has forced air drying too.

 

[rpms]

I still want to see the top rack loaded. I just can't picture it.