Hobart/Kitchen-Aid/Viking
Hobart's Kitchen-Aid and the later produced Vikings (based on Hibart's design were truly phenomenal disposers. In fact, it was a Hobart design Kitchen-Aid which I took out, to be replaced by the newly redesigned ISE. I have had several Vikings in the past as well.
The KA which I just took out was one of the last produced before Whirlpool sold the design to Viking and thenncontracted ISE to produce the Whirlpool and KA.
disposers.
The first and most noticeable difference is the physical size and weight, with KA being larger and much heavier than the new ISE. The new ISE'd feel substantially lighter than the previous ISE units they replaced.
The Hobart KA has fixed impellers versus ISE swivel impellers.
The Hobart KA reverses direction each time it is started. The ISE does not.
As we are all now aware of, lol, the KA has a manual reset overload, the ISE has auto-reset.
My biggest complaint with all the Hobart produced models, from the bottom of the line National to the top of the line 3/4 HP KA to the 1 ho Vikings is noise.
Not so much grinding noise, as the TOL models are well insulated, but motor noise and vibration transmitted to the sink basin and counter tops.
With my first Viking, I thought it be defective, my second proved that was not the case and my present Hobart KA is exactly the same. The older Hobart National, a bare bones model, was unbearable and even rattled items sitting on the counter top.
With all the Vikings and KS you can actually hear the harmonic beats of the motor. I have encountered the same noise/vibration in other units such as Whirl-Away. Other than the National, the noise is distracting but not unlivable. It is just surprising that such a prestige disposal would not a fully balance turntable bnd better insulated mount. With a heavy porcelain sink, it is less noticable. With a stainless sink, the sink resonates with the disposal and magnified the noise.
The new ISE is very quiet eith no noticeable beats. With the water running, the TOL ISE are scarcely audible under no load. When grinding, yes, it's audible but very muffle compared to most other disposers.
The Hobart design has a device called a Wham-Jam breaker, which as the name implies, is for times the turnable jams. Touching the button, in the front of the machine sends the turntable into oscillations of several thousand times a second. Hobart claims it pulverized most jams. In all the years I have had a Hobart designed disposal,I only used the Wham-Jam feature once. It seemed to work just fine. In other jans I have had, the Hoobart design automatically reversed the turntable direction, and always effectively freed the jam.
The Hobart design is very sophisticated for a disposer. It grinds bones very well and is one of the best for disposing of paper products such as grease soaked paper towels, coffee filters and especially those pads that soak up blood in the trays of meat products that you buy at the grocery store.
I have not fully tested the ISE in all areas yet, ad I have only had it a short time. Grinding time for paper towels is as good as the Hobarts units. The blood pads, not so good, they take quite a long time compared to the Hobart.
Corn cobs, the Viking is slightly faster initially but when it gets down to the core they bounce around a little while before being finally gone. The ISE is only slightly slower initially, but leaves no core to bounce around for a while, so I rate the ISR slightly better in grinding cobd BUT, the ISE does not have a rind flipper.
A rind flipper is a small protrusion set in from the impellers, toward the center of the turntable. If a grapefruit or corn cob hits near the center of the turntable, The rind flipper grabs it flips it over and heads it towards the impellers.
When grinding corn cob, first I had to break them in half if they were any length at all. Both the Viking/KA continuous feed units have shallow hopper/grind chambers. The new ISE hopper is also very shallow and requires most cobs to be broke in half. However, without the rind flipper, which ISE recently removed from their new design, I found the cobs would often get hung up, and I would have to turn the disposal off and reconfigure them.. Once that was done, the ISE did a good job of disposing off them.
Both the Hobart design and the ISE have the desirable undercuttet, which helps prevent drain stoppages.
I can report more later when I try fruit outs, pork chop bones and watermelon rinds. In the past, I found ISE to be slow with fruit pits. The Hobart better. Nothing compares to the vintage GE disposals on the items though.
I was excited, initially, to try out the newly Whirlpool designed ISE, but the more I use it, the more I miss my Hobart KA. Whirlpool did put some good features such as the undercutter wheel, but they took away the rind flipper, the manual reset overload and the automatic reverse.
My opinion is, if you are deciding between a vintage KA true GE, or true Maytage, they areall wonderful machines and I would recommend them over the new ISE. With that being said, if you like quiet the new ISE's are great. The old vintage true Maytags are nearly as quiet though.
There you have it. Others if you will hopefully post your experience s as well so we can compare!
