KitchenAid KD-12 in Long Beach California

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you might need a loan...

:-)
since it is a TANK...
but you could try "you crate" freight.
I really liked the service we received from Highway Freight for our RCA Whirlpool Dryer and would use them again...
 
Re: KitchenAid KD-12

Unimatic,

Like the picture you posted, its looks like it been used very little. Is this a commerical dishwasher? I remember seeing one like this at our local corner drug store when I was a kid. It was in the soda counter and remember often seeing it been unloaded (talk about HOT steam coming out of it).
 
Getting some facts straight!

Spiceman,
The Hobart machine you had in the Drugstore was definitely a commercial unit and was a model UM.(undercounter machine)It accommodated only one rack in it for dishware and came with a silverware rack that fit into a slot in the front or back which looks very much like the one in the picture except it did not have the pegs to hold the dishes but rather a series of bars from side to side so the dishware would sit between the wire bars of the rack. It also came with a flat half sized basket which was to be used for cups and glasses. For the record, the original machines came with horizontally mounted motors and went to the vertical motors we are all more used to seeing. Also, that machine may have also come with a porcelain coated tank since the stainless commercial tanks were also a later modification primarily for sanitary reasons. The Stainless never wore out but the porcelain did especially with the commercial soap products. The cycle was a bit over 3 minutes and the machines required some source of 180 degree water until they started making units which used bleach or iodine to sanitize.

The KD12 series machine above appears to be a built in model and not part of a sink combination and the production run for that model was June of 1957 thru October 1960. (thanks to Gansky)
If the unit pictured has a drain pump then it can be installed just about anywhere. If it doesn't, then it needs to be a connected to a gravity drain either under the machine or behind it but very low to the ground.
The model number will spell it out. If the model is KD-12 it is a gravity drain. The KD-12P is the one with the pump and can be attached to your sink or garbage disposer.
It should also clean the dishes and dry them in less than an hour and do a damned good job of it too.

Hope this helps everyone.
 
Thanks stevet for the information. Brought back some memories of the drug store lunch counter with that unit that you mentioned built into the counter. Man I remember when they opened the door after the 3 minute cycle, the amount of steam that was released. Also the rack I had forgotten about with the rows of wire bars where the plates would be loaded. Thanks again.
Jon
 
Hey Bob, if you've got a vehicle that can haul it, why not make a road trip out of it and pick it up yourself? Two (sort of long) days each direction will do it and even with the cost of gas food & lodging (maybe an AW member along the route can put you up for a night?) it could be cheaper than shipping. And the LA area is always fun to visit.

Or you can wait for Dan in Seattle to find one for you. He seems to score great stuff out there all the time and would probably be happy to notify you if he comes across one of these.

Ralph
 
More than just the white!

Jons,
If you keep that machine long enough and it was used every day, it will not only take the white off your plates, it will take the porcelain off the tub!
Back around 1978 or 79, I picked up a KDS14 for 30 bucks for my cousins who had just redone their kitchen. The manufacture date of the unit was from 1962 but it looked prisitne. At the time I was working at the Hobart Office in NY and had made some good connections with some Kitchenaiders in Troy,Ohio.
We needed to obtain the custom panel trim kit to match his cabinets and one of my cronies found the last one available in the country. He sent it to me for free and I have to say it was one of the most stylish trim kits I had ever seen. But that machine just continued to amaze all of us and went on to work well past the 90's.They replaced it with a 25 series Kitchenaid Superba in the late 90's or early 2000's which they then took from that house to their new house.
The only reason that they replaced it was because nearly all the porcelain had been worn off after 40 some years of daily use, sometimes more than one use per day. The rusty looking tank was not very appealing.My cousin put it out at the curb in perfect working condition. Even the detergent and rinse agent dispensers worked like the day they went in!
I wished he had told me before he trashed it..I had wound up seeing many more of them in great condition after that at the curb, but never thought to grab one. Besides, I would have needed a helper to get it into the car. It had to weigh close to 200 lbs!
But if anyone does grab this unit, it will probably last 25 more years! It would certainly make an incredible potscrubber with the way it pumps water and today's better formulated detergents! Good machine for anyone's garage as a spare or overflow machine.
 
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