Late 50s GE Dishwasher find!!!!

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norgeway

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Several months ago Donald went to an estate sale, i was not along because I work two weekends a month...Anyway, he told me about the vintage kitchen in the house, Hotpoint stainless double ovens and cooktop, and a GE roll out dishwasher, I left a not on the door for the realtor, sometimes this works and sometimes not...but saturday the phone rang, a very nice lady said she had bought the house and I could have the dishwasher, so tonight we took it out, it is in very good shape, the motor will turn but is very tight, but NO RUST!! I was pleased, best of all, the people are leaving the rest of the kitchen intact, the oven door needs work and I agreed to help her with it..I think this is a 57..

norgeway++12-3-2012-20-31-41.jpg
 
Oh Hans! That's just stunning! I've seen the brushed-chrome models in ads only and you're so fortunate that the machine was carefully removed. These machines are pretty easy to work on - I've got a wiring diagram to this model if you ever need it.
Congratulations!!
 
OMG !!!

That's my Gram's Dishwasher from 1960-61. Her's did not have the Power Shower. BowTie for sure. I have never seen a cusioned (Plastisol) coated Impeller Guard EVER !!!

They have been steel and I have one. Looks like (similar) "Chicken Wire" but baby squares
 
Neat Hans!

Thats the DW I grew up with, ours had Walnut panelling on front, real walnut too. Ours originally had a white plastic grip but that broke off soon and Dad got the metal one yours has.
Ours had a plastisol bottom; I've never seen SS before and our bow tie guard was pink plastisol but it had bigger squares than this model.
Isn't it amazing there is nothing new under the Sun, SS way back when for kitchens!

Great save!!
 
Aferim!

I'm speechless.

 

Ok, now that that's over... A Brushed Chrome Princess in the flesh!!!!! This dishwasher was very well loved by it's owners. At some point, early in its life they went to the trouble and expense to contact the GE dealer or technician in their area who was VERY well versed in these products and had it retro-fitted in ways that I never thought possible. First, GE did sell/offer a stainless steel accessory tub bottom for its pull-out dishwashers that I've seen illustrated in tech manuals. I would guess that the owner may have damaged the Plastisol-coated tub bottom and had that installed to forestall rust. Either that or this was one of the very first Princesses sold and the dealer provided the retro-fits because this was such a good customer. GE had early problems with the flange around the impeller and with the heater which had a higher wattage in the early models. The owner must have been one of those old-timers who had a very close relationship with their dealer and kept him abreast of what was happening with the purchases.

 

The grill on the bottom is a mystery. That year, 1957, there was no grill, just a circle and cross of vinyl wires that didn't do much to protect the impeller from the occasional falling fork. Somebody was handy here.

 

What I find really interesting is that silverware basket which was not OE to that year, it's more Sixties vintage. GE obviously had a retro-fit "kit" to use their new plastic silverware basket to replace the wire one that came with that machine. Those two plastic "bridges" fit over the rack prongs to anchor the front basket clips and then that metal flange works with the metal loop that's installed on the tub where there would have been two prongs in later years.

 

What a wonderful find! And his has the original magnetic detergent dispenser!!! Which couldn't have been retro-fitted because then they would have had to replace the whole timer assembly. Wow! these people must have had money. Or they were early versions of us. Today, this would have been a Craigslist selection in a heartbeat. Thank you for posting this.

bajaespuma++12-4-2012-09-07-51.jpg
 
The original owners..

Must have had LOTS of money, I was told he was a high level employee of the Western Electric Co which for many years was in Winston Salem, the odd thing was, why did they have a Hotpoint cooktop and tol oven, and yet have a GE DW when a Hotpoint was front loading?? I suspect one of the big plumbing companies was a GE dealer , thats the only thing I can figure..
 
Jon, we have established, previously, that your bow tie machine was the exception. The rest cleaned very well. Every Thursday night our next door neighbor made swiss steak with lima beans and smashed potatoes. The potatoes were done in the 2.5 qt. Mirro Matic. She never even scraped the cooker let alone rinse it and it emerged clean from that machine. It was loaded in a corner of the lower rack.
 
Or was her last name "Moses"?

I can't do an endorsement even though I love these machines. Mater hand-washed every item before loading. We figure it was Dad who bought the machine because doctors back then thought that dishwashers did a good job of sanitizing the family tableware. Pop was also responsible for bringing Scott towels into the house and lots of hexachlorophene everywhere. Mom was a little "Granny Clampett" when it came to gizmos; didn't trust them one bit.

 

I'll test the Mobile Maid with rinsed vs. not pre-rinsed loads when I get her all hooked up and let y'all know.

bajaespuma++12-4-2012-21-56-29.jpg
 
Well....

"doctors back then thought that dishwashers did a good job of sanitizing the family tableware."

And compared to a housewife who hated housework, they did. Most people are piss-poor hand dishwashers, mainly because they don't wanna.
 
"Mom was a little 'Granny Clampett' when it comes to gizmos". Truer words were never spoken of my Mama! To this day, she won't have anything to do with her dishwasher (it came with the senior apartment). "I can wash them better myself."

To this day, I don't have a dishwasher. Heretic, I know.
 
Great dishwasher,that is a beautiful machine and I have never seen one those in person ever.My Mamaw was the same she had a

beautiful Kitchen with everything.Nutone food center,dishwasher,disposer, but she would never use them she would wash them

buy hand and make her cakes by hand.She told me it wastes water which made no sense to me because, for one she had plenty

of money and two she was on a well.
 
Today's POD with the GE Empress shows the first impeller "protector" that GE used over the bow tie impeller. It got smaller and smaller holes each year, although I think that heavily coated grid in this machine would kill most of the washing action.
 
Cool Brushed Chrome GE Roll-Out DW

Hans that is a rare find to find one of those that survived this long. I am not sure that I would necessarily agree that the people who had this DW were all that rich, granted DWs in general were not all that common in 1959, but is was a GE DW not a Kitchenaid. And brushed Chrome front panels cost cost no more than painted front panels. Also the fact that this DW had the added SS bottom might indicate that they were too cheap to buy a new DW when the floor started to rust out or hopefully they made GE pay for the repair. 

 

The SS bottom was a kit that was used when the cheap Plastisol coating failed in the floor of the DW from mechanical damage from silverware that fell into the impeller area or damage caused by the heating element which was far more frequent when people actually set their water heater above 140 degrees. The added impeller guard was also a kit that was sometimes used with the SS floor kit as many of these DWs were destroyed  by just a single heavy knife that got into the impeller area, the bad thing about this added guard is it would have likely have cut down on the washing performance by restricting the water force and even distribution of water to the far corners of the wash tank.

 

It will be neat to here how you like it when you get it running.
 

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