GE 1955 side open lid!

[peteski50]

Did GE actually make a side open lid like in this photo?

 

[combo52]

Side Opening Lid?

Hi Pete, I never saw one, but who knows, probably a mistake in the way the ad or photo was cropped.

 

[NYCWriter]

I have always been a fan ...

... of the side-opening lids.

I like leaving the lid open, loading in clothes and soap as the drum fills with water, AND having full access to the control panel, rather than having it hidden behind the open lid.

This is a photo of the same model my mom had when I was growing up (except her matching set was avocodo green!).

I loved those color-coded bars, the flip-down woodgrain-style cover, and the automatic fluorescent light that snapped on when it was opened![this post was last edited: 10/14/2014-06:02]

 

[turquoisedude]

If they did, it may just have been for this one year!  The 53 and 54 models are rear-opening for sure and so are the 56 and later models. 

 

The side-opening lid always seemed to be a Hotpoint thing, but that being said, my 63 Canadian Frigidaire has one as well...   

 

[tomturbomatic]

It was given the "photoshop" treatment of the day since all of the illustration was done by illustrators instead of photographers. GE just wanted to show the control panel and the fabulous new Filter Flo mechanism in one picture to make sure that people knew what to look for both outside and inside the washer, much like Maytag used to show the control panel and the inside of the tub without the lid in the way. GE did not have side opening lids.

 

[mrb627]

GE in Canada?

Did GE in Canada have a side opening lid for a while?

Malcolm

 

[peteski50]

GE Lid!

It was probably just the illustration because I never saw a GE like this. I always perfered a back opening lid anyway.
Thanks all
Peter

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

My grandma's GE was a side-opener, and had knobs you turn, almost as though it were really a Hotpoint machine...

-- Dave

 

[turquoisedude]

Malcolm,  the Canadian-built GE's had a rear-hinged lid and still do.  There were a couple of GE-based machines, though, that did have the side-opening lid, especially during the 70s when a company called CAMCO built the GE-licensed lines here.   In those days, Viking and Beaumark (store brands from Eatons and The Bay respectively) as well as Moffat and McClary washers had a side-hinged lid.  These washers looked like a cross between a GE Filter-Flo and a Hotpoint!  Canadian-built Hotpoints had side-hinged lids, as the US-built models did. 

 

[washerboy]

hated it!!

We had a side opening washer at some point when I was a teenager...maybe a KM or WP..all I remember was it was brown or copper tone as my mother called it. I hated the thing because I was always scraping the back of my hand or kunckles on the edge of the lid; also it seemed to be in the way for some reason. Anyway, ever since I've always made sure that the lid opened front to back..not that I've seen a side opening machine in what seems like forever.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

My mom's Bradford had a side-opening lid...

I preferred side-openers enough that I was in an appliance store long-ago that had nearly-ALL back-openers (Whirlpool, Maytag and Hotpoint) other than that the dealer at least sold Frigidaire and Norge machines, that opened to the left...

So there were a few of those and at least one White-Westinghouse, but it was a completely BOL, and even had the logo (and maybe some, or all, of the of the timer dial) written in RED...! It didn't have any higher-up ones, despite the fact that I think it was a W-W dealer, though its main Name-Brand competitor had GE, and a more fuller line of White-Westy's, though Admiral in place of Norge, and probably no Frigidaires, but at least Whirlpool and Maytag...

 

Both dealers had Tappan and Caloric dishwashers and ranges, in addition to the brands listed above for every major home appliance...

 

I remember how disappointed I was that General Electric (other than my grandma's machine) and Hotpoint (the later '70's, onward) even went to back-opening lids, and probably didn't care for the Kenmore lids that just didn't fold flat...

 

 

 

-- Dave

 

[kenmore71]

If you look CAREFULLY at the illustration, the indentation on the top that you would put your fingers into to lift the lid is still on the front. Can you imagine how awkward it would be to place your fingers in the front and then have the lid open to the side??? I think we have an illustrator here who was told to take "creative" license.

 

[philr]

Here's a picture of my Eaton Viking washer that's probably from the late 1970s or early 1980s. It has a side opening lid like a Hotpoint. I think I have seen some GE washers with the same side-opening lids.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Frigidaire coin op washers had the top molded for the side opening lid of the home machines, but the rear opening lid. It made for an interesting combination of access potentials.

 

[mrb627]

Side Lid Troubles

Speaking of side lids, were there any heavier than the Norge machines? Damn they were heavy!

Malcolm

 

[DADoES]

 
Per a pic I found, the 1960 GM Frigidaire Custom Imperial had the lid access at the front but with the lid opening to the left side.

 

[philr]

1960 is when Frigidaire switched from rear-hinged lids to side-hinged lids but the top/lid design remained otherwise almost unchanged from the previous year, I have a 1960 Deluxe and it has side hinges (and surprisingly, no lid switch like the Imperial/Custom Imperial models).

The later coin-ops with rear-hinged lids still had the indent in their tops to open the lid from the side but they had an added handle at the front, a bit like Whirlpool machines. I think that post-1965 coin-op models used the same handles as the domestic dryers that didn't have foot-pedal openers.

 

[arbilab]

Today's POD (10-15) is a TOL Hotpoint with side open lid.

 

[washdaddy]

This whole thread was started because it pictured a GE with a side open lid. And that just opened up the discussion because everyone had not seen a GE produced that way before.