Is this GE of any interest or is it too new? Would this have an induction motor? Model GFC 800-01.
Best disposers -- vintage or modern?
- Thread starter Marky_Mark
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neptunebob
Well-known member
Wham-Jam
Sounds like something that might interest George Michael.
Sounds like something that might interest George Michael.
Hobart KitchenAid disposer
Yay Mark I’m glad you got this. These things are heavy. There are A beast.
We have one of these in the museum kitchen unfortunately, when we were installing it slipped out of Jason‘s hands and fell on his hand and broke a finger. They are heavy because of the cast-iron drain chamber.
In one of the sinks in my kitchen, I have a Hobart KitchenAid like this. The other sink has a Maytag FB5 which is the short FC Maytag disposer converted to batch feed. Both disposers here at my home have their own personalities. The Maytag is a very good disposer. The Hobart is a little bit more rugged and grind faster with its fixed impellers.
The new GE disposal you found is one of the 8000 RPM ones were fairly durable, but they never competed at all with ISE disposers, they tended to clog drains because they didn’t grind that finely and they were very noisy and could not handle bones worth a damn. GE disposers were basically builder model stuff and they worked pretty well with new houses that had clean drain lines.
Mark, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this new disposer just be careful not to drop it on your fingers when you install it. Their installation collar system is not quite as nice as ISE.
Yay Mark I’m glad you got this. These things are heavy. There are A beast.
We have one of these in the museum kitchen unfortunately, when we were installing it slipped out of Jason‘s hands and fell on his hand and broke a finger. They are heavy because of the cast-iron drain chamber.
In one of the sinks in my kitchen, I have a Hobart KitchenAid like this. The other sink has a Maytag FB5 which is the short FC Maytag disposer converted to batch feed. Both disposers here at my home have their own personalities. The Maytag is a very good disposer. The Hobart is a little bit more rugged and grind faster with its fixed impellers.
The new GE disposal you found is one of the 8000 RPM ones were fairly durable, but they never competed at all with ISE disposers, they tended to clog drains because they didn’t grind that finely and they were very noisy and could not handle bones worth a damn. GE disposers were basically builder model stuff and they worked pretty well with new houses that had clean drain lines.
Mark, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this new disposer just be careful not to drop it on your fingers when you install it. Their installation collar system is not quite as nice as ISE.
reactor
Well-known member
GE
Hi Mark. Yes, I have seen that on eBay as well. I had that exact model in the early nineties.
It is a series wound motor. However, it was not produced by General Electric. In the early eighties, GE began using disposals (permanent magnet motors) made by Anaheim Manufacturing. Near the end of the eighties, they asked Anaheim to reconstruct their famous series-wound motor disposer based on GE's older design.
General Electric had an ad campaign that said, "They're back!" GE had long before quit manufacturing disposers, but Anaheim now produced a unit based on the previous true GE machines design. There were some modifications, a slight reduction in current draw, and I suspect a slight reduction in the size of the hopper, as I had things hang up in the new unit that were not a problem in the real GE serious wound unit. Also, the new units top of the line models did not have the harder Carboloy cutter, as the TOL original GE units did.
I liked mine, but not quite as well as the original. One of the women I worked with needed a disposal, and I gave her that one and installed it for her. I had other units I could use. She like it well enough, that when she moved, she asked me to swap the GE in her old house, with the unit that came in her new home. Which I did.
The one you see in the picture is one of the earlier manufactured models, with the same mount design as the original GE units. The only difference is that it has "Disposall" only embossed on sink flange. Most of the true GE's had "General Electric" with the logo and "Disposall" (which was their trademark name, embossed upon it.)
Later, Anaheim started putting their own mounts on the GE units. The small, narrow diameter, plastic mounts that screwed onto the sink flange. Which you still see in many of the units today.
I seriously thought about buying it for old times sake, but I really couldn't justify the expenditure. I have some of the original series wound units and really don't need anymore.
I think you would like it, and it would give you an idea of the performance of a series wound motor, until you find one of the true GE built units.
The operating characteristics are quite different than an induction motor. A series wound motor has a torque curve inverse to the speed curve. In other words, the slower it goes, the more torque it applies. One of our members (you can guess who) laughed about it slowing down when food was put in. I tried to explain that it was supposed to, that is what makes a series round motor so ideally suited for a disposer. He didn't have a clue how a series wound motor operates, nor was he aware of the characteristics. The more you put in, the harder it fights the load as it begins substituting rpms for torque.
GE had to put a sensitive overload protection on their eeries motor or it would destroy itself in fighting the load to the bitter end. Series motors have a very light weight to power ratio, and do not have the thermal mass of an induction motor.
The other characteristic to get used to is the sound. Under no load it sounds quite like a vacuum cleaner. As you load food wastes into it, it quiets down, and then you hear the rpms ramp up as the wastes are being eliminated. In fact, in GE's original instructions, it states that the unit is finished grinding when it sounds similar to a vacuum cleaner. It's a very fun machine.
The machine is also a great tool if you have kitchen plumbing that has a propensity to clog. The serious wound motor propels water through the lines with such force that lines are unlikely to ever clog. I shared this story with others here before. My brother--in law had an older home where the kitchen sink frequently clogged. It especially seemed to do so at every holiday, to my sister's chagrin, due to all the extra cooking she was doing for our family gathering.
After another Thanksgiving of using a snake to clean out the drain line, I suggested to my brother-in-law that he get the series unit such as I had and explained that I had never had a clog since I purchased it. That's saying a lot as I am exceedingly liberal on what I put into the disposal In short he purchased one of the original GE series units (in the latter seventies) and never had one clog the rest of the years they lived in that house. He still talks, to this day, how impressed he was with that unit.[this post was last edited: 5/26/2024-18:56]
Hi Mark. Yes, I have seen that on eBay as well. I had that exact model in the early nineties.
It is a series wound motor. However, it was not produced by General Electric. In the early eighties, GE began using disposals (permanent magnet motors) made by Anaheim Manufacturing. Near the end of the eighties, they asked Anaheim to reconstruct their famous series-wound motor disposer based on GE's older design.
General Electric had an ad campaign that said, "They're back!" GE had long before quit manufacturing disposers, but Anaheim now produced a unit based on the previous true GE machines design. There were some modifications, a slight reduction in current draw, and I suspect a slight reduction in the size of the hopper, as I had things hang up in the new unit that were not a problem in the real GE serious wound unit. Also, the new units top of the line models did not have the harder Carboloy cutter, as the TOL original GE units did.
I liked mine, but not quite as well as the original. One of the women I worked with needed a disposal, and I gave her that one and installed it for her. I had other units I could use. She like it well enough, that when she moved, she asked me to swap the GE in her old house, with the unit that came in her new home. Which I did.
The one you see in the picture is one of the earlier manufactured models, with the same mount design as the original GE units. The only difference is that it has "Disposall" only embossed on sink flange. Most of the true GE's had "General Electric" with the logo and "Disposall" (which was their trademark name, embossed upon it.)
Later, Anaheim started putting their own mounts on the GE units. The small, narrow diameter, plastic mounts that screwed onto the sink flange. Which you still see in many of the units today.
I seriously thought about buying it for old times sake, but I really couldn't justify the expenditure. I have some of the original series wound units and really don't need anymore.
I think you would like it, and it would give you an idea of the performance of a series wound motor, until you find one of the true GE built units.
The operating characteristics are quite different than an induction motor. A series wound motor has a torque curve inverse to the speed curve. In other words, the slower it goes, the more torque it applies. One of our members (you can guess who) laughed about it slowing down when food was put in. I tried to explain that it was supposed to, that is what makes a series round motor so ideally suited for a disposer. He didn't have a clue how a series wound motor operates, nor was he aware of the characteristics. The more you put in, the harder it fights the load as it begins substituting rpms for torque.
GE had to put a sensitive overload protection on their eeries motor or it would destroy itself in fighting the load to the bitter end. Series motors have a very light weight to power ratio, and do not have the thermal mass of an induction motor.
The other characteristic to get used to is the sound. Under no load it sounds quite like a vacuum cleaner. As you load food wastes into it, it quiets down, and then you hear the rpms ramp up as the wastes are being eliminated. In fact, in GE's original instructions, it states that the unit is finished grinding when it sounds similar to a vacuum cleaner. It's a very fun machine.
The machine is also a great tool if you have kitchen plumbing that has a propensity to clog. The serious wound motor propels water through the lines with such force that lines are unlikely to ever clog. I shared this story with others here before. My brother--in law had an older home where the kitchen sink frequently clogged. It especially seemed to do so at every holiday, to my sister's chagrin, due to all the extra cooking she was doing for our family gathering.
After another Thanksgiving of using a snake to clean out the drain line, I suggested to my brother-in-law that he get the series unit such as I had and explained that I had never had a clog since I purchased it. That's saying a lot as I am exceedingly liberal on what I put into the disposal In short he purchased one of the original GE series units (in the latter seventies) and never had one clog the rest of the years they lived in that house. He still talks, to this day, how impressed he was with that unit.[this post was last edited: 5/26/2024-18:56]
Hobart fixed impeller disposal
These Hobart disposers, of course, were re-badged National disposers, after KitchenAid bought national disposers they did improve them quite a bit. They added the cast-iron drain chamber, for example, to make them more durable.
There were other fixed, impeller, disposers, all real whirlpool disposers had it fixed impellers and they were a few other companies that did it as well. Some of the cheaper Anaheim product units used to have fixed impellers.
Interestingly, I believe all commercial disposers still have fixed impellers they really do grind better and there’s less chance of wearing and coming loose so I believe it’s a more durable design overall.
Here’s a picture of one of the really interesting disposers that whirlpool made. It’s one of their neat through the sink models. My brother and his partner put one of these in when they remodeled their home in 1981 and it worked extremely well. It was a very fine grinding disposer it ran 11,000 RPMs. I also installed one of these in the bar sink here at my home, but it’s almost never used, but it still works. Great of course.
Whirlpool didn’t continue these very long because they got out of the disposer business altogether. This one really was very expensive to make it all beautifully welded into of one piece of stainless steel.
I should try to figure out a way to install about six or eight different disposers at the museum so we can do comparison grind tests Of the different units this would definitely be one of the fun units to have Hooked up to test. It would be neat to hook them up with a clear drain line with a light behind it. The way GE used to demonstrate their dispose all back in the 50s to show how thoroughly disposers grind up food making the way safe for the sewer system or your septic system.
These Hobart disposers, of course, were re-badged National disposers, after KitchenAid bought national disposers they did improve them quite a bit. They added the cast-iron drain chamber, for example, to make them more durable.
There were other fixed, impeller, disposers, all real whirlpool disposers had it fixed impellers and they were a few other companies that did it as well. Some of the cheaper Anaheim product units used to have fixed impellers.
Interestingly, I believe all commercial disposers still have fixed impellers they really do grind better and there’s less chance of wearing and coming loose so I believe it’s a more durable design overall.
Here’s a picture of one of the really interesting disposers that whirlpool made. It’s one of their neat through the sink models. My brother and his partner put one of these in when they remodeled their home in 1981 and it worked extremely well. It was a very fine grinding disposer it ran 11,000 RPMs. I also installed one of these in the bar sink here at my home, but it’s almost never used, but it still works. Great of course.
Whirlpool didn’t continue these very long because they got out of the disposer business altogether. This one really was very expensive to make it all beautifully welded into of one piece of stainless steel.
I should try to figure out a way to install about six or eight different disposers at the museum so we can do comparison grind tests Of the different units this would definitely be one of the fun units to have Hooked up to test. It would be neat to hook them up with a clear drain line with a light behind it. The way GE used to demonstrate their dispose all back in the 50s to show how thoroughly disposers grind up food making the way safe for the sewer system or your septic system.
Whirlpool through the sink disposer
This was a really clever design, and it eliminated the chance of ever having a Leak between the disposer and the sink mounting flange because it was all one piece.
The one Jeff had in his house was in a cast-iron sink so it was actually quite quiet. The one I have in a small stainless steel bar sink is a little louder.
It’s very fast at grinding waste however it’s obvious limitation is the fact that it was a small hopper and it wasn’t good for bones and you had to cut up even grapefruit, rinds and watermelon rinds to get it in the disposer, but it would make short work of anything you could drop down in there.
You can see by the serial number. This was made in 1979 whirlpool was out of the disposer business by 1980 I believe and just started sourcing from ISE.
The Hand writing was on the wall as it was impossible to compete With ISE, that’s why KitchenAid and Maytag and General Electric, etc. all got out of the disposer business as time went on.
John
This was a really clever design, and it eliminated the chance of ever having a Leak between the disposer and the sink mounting flange because it was all one piece.
The one Jeff had in his house was in a cast-iron sink so it was actually quite quiet. The one I have in a small stainless steel bar sink is a little louder.
It’s very fast at grinding waste however it’s obvious limitation is the fact that it was a small hopper and it wasn’t good for bones and you had to cut up even grapefruit, rinds and watermelon rinds to get it in the disposer, but it would make short work of anything you could drop down in there.
You can see by the serial number. This was made in 1979 whirlpool was out of the disposer business by 1980 I believe and just started sourcing from ISE.
The Hand writing was on the wall as it was impossible to compete With ISE, that’s why KitchenAid and Maytag and General Electric, etc. all got out of the disposer business as time went on.
John
reactor
Well-known member
through-the-sink
The Whirlpool through-the-sink disposal was an original concept from Whirlpool designed to attract builders/plumbers for it's ease of installation, and little else. One just dropped it through the sink opening, locked it down and did the hook-ups.
My 1979/1980 built apartment had one of these. It was THE loudest of any disposal I had ever to that point or since. It transmitted vibrations from its high speed motor directly to the sink which resonated and amplified them. Zero sound insulation. I only used it a couple of times and pulled it, without even getting permission from the landlord.
Not one of Whirlpool's better ideas. Geared for lazy/cheap builders as opposed for the consumer. They did not stay in production any time at all. Whirlpool's other disposer, the "Bone Specialist" was also deficient, receiving a rating from CU, in the bottom eschelon of all disposers. Still I would like to have one just to test, so I stay on the lookout.
[this post was last edited: 5/27/2024-10:04]
The Whirlpool through-the-sink disposal was an original concept from Whirlpool designed to attract builders/plumbers for it's ease of installation, and little else. One just dropped it through the sink opening, locked it down and did the hook-ups.
My 1979/1980 built apartment had one of these. It was THE loudest of any disposal I had ever to that point or since. It transmitted vibrations from its high speed motor directly to the sink which resonated and amplified them. Zero sound insulation. I only used it a couple of times and pulled it, without even getting permission from the landlord.
Not one of Whirlpool's better ideas. Geared for lazy/cheap builders as opposed for the consumer. They did not stay in production any time at all. Whirlpool's other disposer, the "Bone Specialist" was also deficient, receiving a rating from CU, in the bottom eschelon of all disposers. Still I would like to have one just to test, so I stay on the lookout.
[this post was last edited: 5/27/2024-10:04]
Disposers----All of the ones I used to have were lost in the fire.Same with my vacuums and everything else.Only disposers I have had experience with were the PM magnet GE disposer that is in the hotel,then the ISE Badger in the rental house I am in now.The drop in thru the sink WP sounded interestingfrom its money shots apperas to have very simple shredders.At the high speeds-all you would need.Not really related to disposalls-the rental house has rental furniture-washer/and dryer,linens.I did get a new VM Ascent 3500 from Best buy and a Brevelle Smart oven air fryer Pro.Still learning how this works.So far so good.Not an Advantium-that will come later.
Thanks so much, John & Barry, for the great info and photos in those replies. I decided to go ahead and buy the GE Disposall too as it'll be fun to try it out. Who knows, I may even end up keeping it installed as one of my daily drivers. However, I feel like the Hobart KitchenAid will be the real quality star of the show.
My current ISE is great but I wish it would just "get on with it" when it comes to mango pits bouncing around forever.
Ouch! Poor Jason and his finger. Thanks for the warning, I'll be extra careful. I'll post photos when I get the new disposers up and running.
My current ISE is great but I wish it would just "get on with it" when it comes to mango pits bouncing around forever.
Ouch! Poor Jason and his finger. Thanks for the warning, I'll be extra careful. I'll post photos when I get the new disposers up and running.
Hey Mark, we find the same with our relatively new ISE Evolution 200. Citrus rinds will quite often need a second lot of food waste to get them done, otherwise they bounce around forever.
What I do love is how silent it is. If you have the plug in on the disposer and on the other side of the sink, it’s pretty much silent when running.
It’s night and day compared to the model 65 we had before.
What I do love is how silent it is. If you have the plug in on the disposer and on the other side of the sink, it’s pretty much silent when running.
It’s night and day compared to the model 65 we had before.
reactor
Well-known member
"disposall"
I saw the Anaheim version of GE's series unit was no longer listed. Hope you got it, Mark. It will give you a reasonable facsimile of the true GE-built series-wound disposal. It is a little bit lighter in mass and draws less current, but will do well for you. Even Anaheim's version won't have pits bouncing around for long. That is something I disliked about the earlier ISE, as you did.
GE's induction motor disposals are also worthy of your eye, but they are very rare to find. They are second only to the true GE series disposer in speed for fruit pits and pork chop bones. They also don't leave hard cores of corn cobs to bounce around for awhile as do my ISE and Hobart Kitchen-Aid. Although the KA doesn't leave them for long as compared to the older ISE.
Get a Maytag, a true GE-built series Disposer and a true GE-built induction disposal and you will have the best of the best.
I saw the Anaheim version of GE's series unit was no longer listed. Hope you got it, Mark. It will give you a reasonable facsimile of the true GE-built series-wound disposal. It is a little bit lighter in mass and draws less current, but will do well for you. Even Anaheim's version won't have pits bouncing around for long. That is something I disliked about the earlier ISE, as you did.
GE's induction motor disposals are also worthy of your eye, but they are very rare to find. They are second only to the true GE series disposer in speed for fruit pits and pork chop bones. They also don't leave hard cores of corn cobs to bounce around for awhile as do my ISE and Hobart Kitchen-Aid. Although the KA doesn't leave them for long as compared to the older ISE.
Get a Maytag, a true GE-built series Disposer and a true GE-built induction disposal and you will have the best of the best.
They've arrived!
At 15 kg or 33 lb, the KA is 3x the weight of the plastic fantastic GE.
Let's test them out:
With its 1725-RPM induction motor, the KitchenAid is certainly quieter than the 8000-RPM Disposall.
I've tested them with a variety of foods including bones, mango pits, pineapple cores/leaves, celery, egg shells. They both grind very well.
The KA produces a finer grind but the GE is still perfectly acceptable. Here is the result of melon rind:
I've tested them with a variety of foods including bones, mango pits, pineapple cores/leaves, celery, egg shells. They both grind very well.
The KA produces a finer grind but the GE is still perfectly acceptable. Here is the result of melon rind:
I must say, I'm blown away by how good the KitchenAid is. It's quiet and very fast.
My modern ISE Evolution Excel bounces mango pits round for an eternity but the KA quickly banishes them without a trace. The only other tricky item that springs to mind is pineapple cores, which the ISE reduces to what resembles a small ball of knotted string that absolutely refuses to disappear. But the KA got rid of it no problem. It's an excellent machine and I am looking forward to installing it.
Could anyone please give me a clue as to how the KA disposer is separated from the sink flange?
My modern ISE Evolution Excel bounces mango pits round for an eternity but the KA quickly banishes them without a trace. The only other tricky item that springs to mind is pineapple cores, which the ISE reduces to what resembles a small ball of knotted string that absolutely refuses to disappear. But the KA got rid of it no problem. It's an excellent machine and I am looking forward to installing it.
Could anyone please give me a clue as to how the KA disposer is separated from the sink flange?
When my Hobart KA died for good (no replacement parts for these anywhere), I installed an ISE. Ground a few things up and plugged the drain for the first time....EVER. Had to flush the cleanout for the first time. It was that point I realized the ISE does not grind items nearly as well as the KA did and I had to be mindful about that. Hobart KA/National has to be one of the finest residential disposers ever manufactured. Supposedly, Viking improved it even further.
Testing two vintage disposers
Hi Mark, glad you got these two disposers and ran some comparative testing, The national Hobart designed disposers were certainly an excellent disposer. I have one in my kitchen. We have one in the kitchen at the museum and they were great generally disposers With fixed blades grind better. This is why, even though basic old whirlpool disposers were pretty good units for fine grinding, and as I’ve said before all commercial disposers have fixed blades to this day.
It’s interesting. The difference between the Hobart KitchenAid disposer I have in one sink and the other sink area in my kitchen has a Maytag FB5, which is a very good disposer also
I’m glad you tested that builder model GE thing that was designed for new homes that had very good drain lines because they tended to clog drain lines a lot they just didn’t grind as finally. How did the GE do with bones? How large of bones were able to get ground up in it of course with it’s much smaller hopper you can’t even get larger items in it without cutting them up. GE also made a 1725 RPM induction motor disposer, which was quite good but they started to move away from them even by the mid 60s to pursue the builder business.
The oceanfront house I’ve been staying in this past week has a ISE batch feed disposer that’s fairly new. It certainly grinds up everything easily. I wish the housing were deeper because it fills up awfully quickly, but I put complete watermelon rinds down it and everything else you can think of from teabags to egg shells, and it certainly gets rid of them quickly.
John
Hi Mark, glad you got these two disposers and ran some comparative testing, The national Hobart designed disposers were certainly an excellent disposer. I have one in my kitchen. We have one in the kitchen at the museum and they were great generally disposers With fixed blades grind better. This is why, even though basic old whirlpool disposers were pretty good units for fine grinding, and as I’ve said before all commercial disposers have fixed blades to this day.
It’s interesting. The difference between the Hobart KitchenAid disposer I have in one sink and the other sink area in my kitchen has a Maytag FB5, which is a very good disposer also
I’m glad you tested that builder model GE thing that was designed for new homes that had very good drain lines because they tended to clog drain lines a lot they just didn’t grind as finally. How did the GE do with bones? How large of bones were able to get ground up in it of course with it’s much smaller hopper you can’t even get larger items in it without cutting them up. GE also made a 1725 RPM induction motor disposer, which was quite good but they started to move away from them even by the mid 60s to pursue the builder business.
The oceanfront house I’ve been staying in this past week has a ISE batch feed disposer that’s fairly new. It certainly grinds up everything easily. I wish the housing were deeper because it fills up awfully quickly, but I put complete watermelon rinds down it and everything else you can think of from teabags to egg shells, and it certainly gets rid of them quickly.
John
steved
Well-known member
Could anyone please give me a clue?
"Could anyone please give me a clue as to how the KA disposer is separated from the sink flange?"
Will this help? I remember that it's a little tricky.
"Could anyone please give me a clue as to how the KA disposer is separated from the sink flange?"
Will this help? I remember that it's a little tricky.
Installing a Hobart KitchenAid disposer
Thanks, Steve, it’s not that hard but little different than ISE You have the snap ring with the little tab on it that you have to just release tension on push it up on there and release it. That makes it a little bit tricky because the disposer is so heavy.
John
Thanks, Steve, it’s not that hard but little different than ISE You have the snap ring with the little tab on it that you have to just release tension on push it up on there and release it. That makes it a little bit tricky because the disposer is so heavy.
John
