Model Names on Washers

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a78jumper

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Sep 10, 2006
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Were there any other washing machine manufacturers other than Inglis Canada that assigned names to the various models in their line ups. My Mum had a 1958 Inglis "Royale" set, the washer survived until 1968 and the dryer until the late 1970s. The former was replaced by a 1968 Inglis "Sterling" machine exactly like the one pictured on this site, and then it and the aforementioned dryer by a Harvest Gold Maytag set about 1978. An aunt had a 1971 "Liberator" model Inglis dryer and another a "Citation" set dating from about 1962. It is my understanding these were essentially Canadian built Whirlpool clones, did Whirlpool assign the same or similar names to their products?
 
My Mom bought a citation from western auto in 1975 and it looked just like the norges that have been shown on this site. So I believe that norge made it. The panel was brown or gold with little white flowers on it.Never seen another one like it since.Don
 
This is the 1968 Inglis, my Mum had one just like it, believe she bought it at Eatons just before we moved from Edmonton to Montreal, along with a piano, to save the provincial sales tax

5-28-2007-16-39-39--a78jumper.jpg
 
Great washer but I recall it went through at least three agitators in ten years, they wore out where the metal contacted the plastic or whatever they were made out of. In the end it still worked fine but leaked water somewhere, not a good thing when you have a main floor laundry room.
 
UK names

In the UK AEI-Hotpoint gave names to their wringer washers - appropriately imperial, they were called (in descending size order) the Empress, Countess, and Princess. Their twintub was of course the Supermatic (aka Filtermatic in export markets), but when the 1500 top-loading automatic appeared in 1966 names were dropped and numbers appeared.

For a brief period after the merger of AEI, English Electric and GEC, which saw the English Electric brand subsumed into Hotpoint, washers, dryers and dishwashers used the Liberator name in conjunction with a model number - presumably so former English Electric customers could see where their brand had gone. Hotpoint dropped the Liberator term in the late 1970s.
 
Come to think of it the GE kitchen appliances we had 1976-1994 were "Talisman 850" models, I believe their lower end models were "Medallion" and that also applied to Filter Flo washers as well. The cheapie line was "Encore" as I recall.
 
You must remember this...

In the sixties and seventies GE used the terms Custom for all their TOL models, Deluxe for the next step down and had "theme" lines, like "Versatronic" and "Americana". It was all marketing bullshit and, to me, made them look bad. Remember KitchenAid used "Custom", "Imperial" and "Superba" for years to designate their three built-in dishwashers in ascending order. "Varicyle" and "Electra" were always the names of their portables. I'm sure I'll think of more now that you've suggested this topic as the day wears on.

By the way, Happy Memorial Day to everyone!!! I watched "Casablanca" today and for the first time in years (six to be exact) I felt proud to be an American. God Bless everyone, everywhere, no exceptions.
 
Washer names...

I came across an old washer on the Web, that seemed to be available in the UK, but might have been meant for the Canadian market. It was called "The Pick of the Pixies".

Now, who in their right mind, would ever dream of calling a machine that! They must have been at the booze bottle!
 
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