Machines of Ill Repute, Volume II - The Westinghouse Wards

[daveamkrayoguy]

AMKrayoGuy Dave's Flashback to the "Monkey Wards&#34

Mont. Ward, 1989: When I was looking at appliances, in pursuing my interests in 'em at age 19, (& when I was old enough to take myself out to the app. stores & app. departments when my family "really didn't need anything), the saleslady I saw was telling a customer I saw buying a washer that everything he was looking at that was the "their brand" (SIGNATURE 2000) was "made by WHITE-WESTINGHOUSE!"...

(He didn't seem to want to spend much on it, either, despite Ward's was at the time, beginning to add nat'l-branded lines...)

Color choices of the appliances were only "almond" and "white"...! (& the customer just shyly said "white")...

Wondering if it were true, or the last of the NORGE/FEDDERS-made M/W's...

The dishwashers I remember seeing if not a Maytag or GE which Ward's was beginning to see was a D&M design (such as this one & the WCI-made Frigidaires, this retailer was also beginning to sell)...

-- Dave

 

[combo52]

DISHWASHER REVIEWS

Yes Nate I loved the reviews of your DW experiences [ and I won't say I told you guys so about the Waste-King, Thermadors LOL ].

 

About 25 years ago we removed an unused Tappan rotating drum DW from a house. And at the time I had just purchased a 2nd home and thought that it might be a fun machine to use for dishes only near the formal dinning area. So we hooked it up in my home here and in ran perfectly and quietly, so in went some lightly soiled dishes. Well it easily holds the title of the worst cleaning DW that I ever put a dish in, it was pathetic, it just moved food soil from one side of the machine to the other.

 

I am now sorry that that I trashed it as it was a very interesting machine. And I really hope you find one some day and get to play with it as I would love to read your review of it. Just don't go to much trouble permanently installing it in your kitchen,   LOL.

 

[roto204]

LOL

Thank you so much, John!!  Yes, your words of advice about the WK-Thermadors rang fresh in our ears, LOL!  Now, we just have to find one of the real Thermador Masterpiece dishwashers for a comparison!

 

That's sad to hear about that Tappan dishwasher--it was so pretty!  That would definitely be one to have installed just for potato-chip storage.  Or, loading with clean dishes prior to running! 

 

[combo52]

1971 REAL THERMADOR DW

Nate as it happens I do have a real TD DW, it looks to be in great shape but I have never even tried it out. Many years ago I had a little older model of this machine and a pored varsol in it and used it to clean old washer transmissions, it worked great for a while. But I would really like to try this one out sometime as it is a very interesting machine.

 

[garyl]

90s Maytag

We had a Maytag dishwasher in the early 90s that worked great. It had a LOT of jet holes on its spray arms. It developed a bearing whine, but still worked great- really cleaned the dishes. I got one recently that was about 2 years old, and was the same as the Tappin in our house, just a bit more delux with a second spray arm. I was disappointed! We now have a Frigidaire in our current house. I don't care for the electronic timer. If you open the door to put something in you forgot, the cycle starts over. There is a lot to be said for the old mechanical timers.

 

[re563]

I'm wondering what the cycle sequence was on this Ward's dishwasher. Looking at the detergent cups, and timer settings, I'm thinking that the Normal/Econo setting was :
R-W-W-R-R-D. Would this be correct?

 

[rinso]

Hmmmm. So, you push the pots and pans button yet there is a position on the cycle dial that is also labeled pots and pans. Could those buttons be placebo buttons? I had a White Westinghouse front load washer back in '81 that had something similar. I'm thinking that the demise of D&M was because they couldn't out-cheesy WCI.