date of WP

[bwoods]

Does anyone remember an RCA Whirlpool Imperial Mark XII laundry set from the early sixities? My parents had one and I am wondering when they were produced. I am thinking they were a 1960 or 1961 set, but may be off a year or two.

The washer had a lit console, the controls were to the right and were color coded. The timer had no writing on it, but just color bands. (Very pretty when the back-lighting was on.) There was row of five or six pushbuttons down each side of the timer dial, color coded to correspond to the color bands on the timer. There were, I think, two other buttons over the timer knob, but I can't remember what they were for. I think one was for suds-return.

The dryer was ahead of its time as it had no timer knob, just a big start button where the timer should have been. It also had a little compartment with an opening under the lint screen access. You filled it with water and it sprinkled the clothes for ironing. Inside the drum was a UV light. The door had a window in it. (for hours of fun watching the clothes tumble!)

Unfortunately, the electronics of the dryer were not reliable, and my parents gave up trying to fix it. The guy they had out to the house was not from Whirlpool, just some local repairman, and he gave up on it too, saying he couldn't figure out how it worked. Evidently, he had never worked on one without a mechancial timer. Once you hit start it would just run until doomesday. So my mom just used it as a manual dryer and would have to keeping checking on dryness. Occasionally, when she would forget about it for a length of time, we had VERY dry, if not parched, clothes. ha

It was a good looking set and I would like to find one some day.

 

[laundromat]

I believe they were from 1962-1963.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Barry -

You may want to check out Akronman's 1960 Whirlpool Mark XII - see how similar it is to what you remember. There are a lot of photos of that machine in the archived threads from either 2010 or 2011 (time flies). What you're describing certainly sounds very TOL for WP and Kenmore both in this time period. The pastel colors were prominent in the very early 1960s, but in Kenmores at least, they were phasing out by 1964, and gone in 1965. 1960 - 1963 seems to be the heyday for those.

Perhaps Glen/DaDoes knows the exact model of your parent's machine?

Gordon

 

[bwoods]

I looked at the profile picture for Akronman. That picture looks very similar, except there were no numbers, but color colding instead. On them left at the bottom of the control panel he has a number chart that wasn't on my parents.

If his is a 1960, then my parent's must have been a 1961 model. Maybe Whirlpool just decided to fancy it up a little that year with the colors.

Yes, I think both the washer and the dryer were ahead of their time. The washer had both a bleach and a fabric softener dispenser. I don't think fabric softeners had been around all that long in 1960 or 61, had they?

There probably weren't too many dryers existing at that time, either, that were electronically controlled with no mechanical timer. (too bad it didn't work, ha) I think Maytag did though, as the model in the first year of the Bevery Hillbillies TV show, which debuted in 1962, did not have a mechanical timer knob. I wonder who stole the idea from who.

I bet Whirlpool had it first. Whirlpool, I think was really ahead of the curve, back then. My parents bought a Whirlpool refrigerator, either the same year as the washer and dryer or very close to it and it had an ice maker. It said "Ice Magic" on the door. Many people who came to our house had never seen an ice maker before and my dad was all too happy to show it off.

It was around that time too, he bought the Tappan "Fabulous 400" range, which was well ahead of its time too will the ovens on top, and slide in burners. My dad, like me, liked technology and all the newest gadgets.

 

[DADoES]

 
This be it?

 

[DADoES]

 

 

[DADoES]

 
The blank button at the right above the timer would be for Suds Return ... this specimen is not so-equipped.

 

[mickeyd]

Glen, what great shots!

Here's a later (?) version, way dumbed down from your model or non-tricked-out. Yours is Barry's washer- man bliss, the control panel almost fetishized.

 

[bwoods]

THAT'S IT!!!

Thank you, DADoES!

This is the exact machine. Only my family's was white instead of pink. Everything else is identical. A beautiful machine. It especially looked neat at night will all the other lights out in the room and just the backlight control panel on.

By the way, is this a 1961 model as I suspected, or no??

Barry

 

[qsd-dan]

Funny how "Cold Water Wash" was considered a "Special" cycle back then, lol.

 

[DADoES]

 
It's 1960 per the thread in which the pics first appeared (August 2009).

 

[bwoods]

Thanks, Dadoes. Funny, it almost seems like reverse evolution has occurred on appliances.

That Imperial Mark XII has capabilities that todays many of today's machines don't. built in Bleach dispenser, fabric softener dispenser, lint filter. A wide varieaty and combination of speeds and temperatures available. It was attractive and of heavy guage metal construction.

Look how hard it is to even find a machine with a warm rinse today! Sheet metal tends to be light weight and flimsy. Some of the top loaders put such a small amount of water in the rinse, the clothes can't even circulate.

I wonder how many of the washers and dryers made today will still be operating 52 years from now, ha.

Take that WP Mark XII in the picture you sent me, clean off the soap scum, touch up the paint here and there and you have a high quality machine that will probably outcean most machines on the market today. (and it looks a lot classier, too.)

No doubt 52 years from now, it will still be running. Of course, in 52 years it may be washing jeans with carbon metallic fiber threads. It may me in the laundery room of a house in a levitated city way in the sky, and electrical power may be transmitted through the air. But it will still be curning away!