GE 1969 Product Catalogue

[bajaespuma]

To whoever supplied today's offering to the Ephemera library, a Big Thank You!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Thanks Ken

Greg, Fred and I found it in a box of magazines at the estate sales this weekend. It was the "L" line so I'm not positive but we guessed at '69, could be '70 or '71. Does anyone know for sure?

http://www.automatice.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

 

[jetcone]

Miss the drop in range

living era! Whatever happened to the "built in" craze??

 

[bajaespuma]

The model designations changed in the last years of the 1960

It's 1971; and that's not because I'm such a freakin' expert, but it indicates 1971  on a couple of pages. Also, you'll note that the wonderful Versatronic Washer is gone even though the Versatronic Dryer is still there. Dig those cooktops with the grills.

 

I think I had the 1970 catalogue which was very similar in almost every way except it included the Versatronic Washer and a couple of other things. IMHO these were GE's overall pinnacle years. It was a slow ride downhill from here.

 

[bajaespuma]

Whatever happened to the "built in" craze??

My memory of that time is pretty good. First of all, it was the end of the Nixon years and the economy was shaky to begin with and then oil prices began to rise. Mortgages were at an all time high and most of the Baby Boomer families had already built their fancy-schmancy kitchens earlier in the sixties. Now, a lot of people were having to replace built-ins and were finding that many units that would fit the exact dimensions of the rough-in were no longer available. This was when Crown stoves had great sales because they were one of the few companies that still built a 40" gas stove. Nothing as wonderful as the ones produced in the early Sixties, but when you're faced with an $800 replacement versus a multi-thousand kitchen overhaul, the choice is easy. Consumers Reports had done such a good job of denigrating appliances with bells and whistles that the MOL became the desirable product and companies like GE had hard numbers to support this trend and began to "de-fabulous" their lines for greater profitability and wider appeal to builders. IMHO this was the beginning of a general dumbing-down of American-built appliances.

 

[combo52]

1071 GE Full Line Appliance Catalog

Yes loved this catalog, so many cool cool appliances and I agree Ken that this was when GE was a full line builder of appliances and yet if I look at GEs full line of TOL appliances today I would take [ most ] today's appliances over these 1971s in a minute.

 

In this 1971 catalog I especially liked the Veratronic ranges [ GE still makes a great 30" Trivection wall oven ] and you may notice that 1971 was the last official year for the GE combo and the under-counter model had already been discontinued.

 

I also loved the range hoods that have the surface unit controls on the hood, this is an idea that should be revived, it was not only safer, more durable and much easier to clean the cook-top area with no controls to get dirty and best of all nasty gas cook-tops could not copy this easily.

 

[combo52]

1971 GE Full Line Appliance Catalog

Yes loved this catalog, so many cool cool appliances and I agree Ken that this was when GE was a full line builder of appliances and yet if I look at GEs full line of TOL appliances today I would take [ most ] today's appliances over these 1971s in a minute.

 

In this 1971 catalog I especially liked the Veratronic ranges [ GE still makes a great 30" Trivection wall oven ] and you may notice that 1971 was the last official year for the GE combo and the under-counter model had already been discontinued.

 

I also loved the range hoods that have the surface unit controls on the hood, this is an idea that should be revived, it was not only safer, more durable and much easier to clean the cook-top area with no controls to get dirty and best of all nasty gas cook-tops could not copy this easily.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Thanks Ken, we suspected it could be '71, but I was skeptical because of the horizontal row of buttons on the TOL washer.

I changed the Ephemera listing to read 1971.

 

[luxflairguy]

Did anyone notice the absence of 40" ranges?

 

[combo52]

Absence of 40" ranges

Because this was a product catalog mainly directed to new home builders 40" ranges were not included as GE was already not emphasizing this product any longer even though they continued to build then for about ten more years. Unfortunately they never made a 40" Versatronic range either with the Micro-Combination main oven.

 

[applianceguy47]

It was fun.  the slide-in ranges were a bit redundant.

 

As for the hood with the controls built into them, I speculate they were eliminated because of the need to include so <span style="text-decoration: underline;">many</span> more parts  in order to make that set up work.  

AND

if they aren't installed correctly, its more liability on GE.  Also, your limiting who could buy this.  If someone has a cement or brick wall the stove will sit against, where would you put the controls.

 

I had a friend who had one of these slide-in stoves, from about 1965, in torquise with the control and clock module located in the wall behind the stove.  When she finally replaced it in 1984 with a new slide-in GE range, the controls were mounted in the front of the stove and the module in wall was left behind, lest she be left with a hole in the wall.

 

I'm sure the idea was universality acrross all appliance manufacturers.  That's what we have today. 30" stoves, 24" dishwashers, 28" wide frigs and up.

 

[danemodsandy]

Has Anyone Actually Seen....

....One of the TOL Versatronic dishwashers shown in the catalogue?

I remember seeing an ad for these back in the day, but I don't recall ever seeing one in the flesh. The rotary knob controls are what make this a really unusual machine; dishwasher manufacturers usually picked buttons for controls, the more the merrier.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I broke down & ordered this catalog (and I have a 1982 GE appliance catalog, hard copy) too!

I also have the Whirlpool ranges brochure from Automatic Ephemera as well (though probably should consider a Whirlpool washer & dryer one; that is what W/P is famous for) though I'm shocked in the year it was published the ranges were not self-cleaning by the Pyrocatalytic method but by the innards being pulled out & wiped w/ a cloth or a rag...

However, I was impressed w/ the gas ranges that had the burners covering the entire cook top (with the die cast metal rest or support in the center) and they reminded me of a 2000-Somethin' Kitchen Aid range in Biscuit that I saw at Sears w/ that big burner design and the controls mounted right over the oven (w/ a LOCK control readily accessible) and even a florescent light across the back guard to fully illuminate the cook top (And in 2000-somethin', definitely the last of its kind!)...

-- Dave