Litton full size ovens, that also doubled as a microwave.
kennyGF
kennyGF
Most useless appliance addition?
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rocketeer500
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Here's one......
my GE mixer has a knife sharpener attachment. I have the attachment, but would never use it.......
my GE mixer has a knife sharpener attachment. I have the attachment, but would never use it.......
pturo
New member
My mom's Kirby had an attachment that could be put on the hose(when the hose was put on the exaust side) that looked like a paint sprayer and could make suds if you put in Lux or some other detergent, supposedly to clean upolstery. Kirby did have some outlandinsh attachments that no one ever used. How about that stupid rug shampooer attachmnent?
rocketeer500
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How about that stupid rug shampooer attachmnent?
I have an Electrolux XXX, and I love my shampooer attachment. I use it to clean the tile floors once a week.......and the spray bottle..... love it!
I have an Electrolux XXX, and I love my shampooer attachment. I use it to clean the tile floors once a week.......and the spray bottle..... love it!
thor
Well-known member
Absolutely useless!
A friend of mine inherited from his parents an Electrolux horizontal canister vacuum cleaner from the early 60's, with a box full of unused attachments. One of these never used attachments was a hair drying bonnet, which had to be connected to one end of the vacuum hose while the other end of the hose connected to the discharge side of the vacuum cleaner.
He tried the thing just for fun, and when he turned on the vacuum cleaner a very thick cloud of dust blew out from the bonnet, obviously comming from the hose!
Another one of the attachments was a paint pistol (a glass jar with a Venturi tube) to be used in the same manner. Just magine your painted surface full of dirt!
If I'm not mistaken I think he immediately threw the whole box of gizmos into the garbage can!
Emilio
A friend of mine inherited from his parents an Electrolux horizontal canister vacuum cleaner from the early 60's, with a box full of unused attachments. One of these never used attachments was a hair drying bonnet, which had to be connected to one end of the vacuum hose while the other end of the hose connected to the discharge side of the vacuum cleaner.
He tried the thing just for fun, and when he turned on the vacuum cleaner a very thick cloud of dust blew out from the bonnet, obviously comming from the hose!
Another one of the attachments was a paint pistol (a glass jar with a Venturi tube) to be used in the same manner. Just magine your painted surface full of dirt!
If I'm not mistaken I think he immediately threw the whole box of gizmos into the garbage can!
Emilio
thor
Well-known member
I've just remembered another one of the attachments for the Electrolux my friend got was a drill, with a mandrell to hold the bits. The mandrell connected to one end of the vacuum hose, and was propelled by an air turbine located inside a circular housing. It could work both with the hose connected to the exhaust side or suction side of the vacuum cleaner, but it worked better if connected to the exhaust side.
Emilio
Emilio
fa-f3-20
your mom must of had a hoover hair dryer. Mom had the lower end model no nail tool on a cable.It does have that non heated air business with "nail dryer" in gold leaf. Was hers pink?- another goof with this thing was the mirror in the lid popped out and the bonnet storage area was behind the mirror,very difficult to fold the bonnet just so you could snap the mirror back in place, she has not used hers in years, but i did notice it still on a closet shelf on a recent visit.
your mom must of had a hoover hair dryer. Mom had the lower end model no nail tool on a cable.It does have that non heated air business with "nail dryer" in gold leaf. Was hers pink?- another goof with this thing was the mirror in the lid popped out and the bonnet storage area was behind the mirror,very difficult to fold the bonnet just so you could snap the mirror back in place, she has not used hers in years, but i did notice it still on a closet shelf on a recent visit.
red_october
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- Jun 18, 2007
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AH, Vacuum bits...
As vacuums are my specialty, I have a few of the oddball ones.
Kirby's oddball bits are actually better than most, their drills/grinders/whatever ran via a drive belt off the main shaft; the drill was the flexible shaft kind and these are very useful to the craftsman indeed; the grinder worked adequately and all of these that fell under the "Handi-Butler Group" were more than enough for the casual use of such an item for the "Gee, if only I had a [TOOL]" type of use. The paint sprayer was relatively useless (it was poorly made and doubled as the suds maker, which worked well enough but was a rather "why bother" item) especially as you could only use it with watered-down non-oil-based paint. In the 80s with the Heritage they had a sander/scrubber/massager item that was a good sander (it picked up its own dust!) adequate massager, and poor scrubber (though better than doing it by hand). This was part of the "Turb Group" that included what has to be the best turbo brush ever made; an unique one with a brush roll; much better than the horrible "Zip Brush" that came later.
Filter Queen was another that had a hair dryer; the problem with these is obvious and already stated. Plus, who the hell would drag out a 30 pound vacuum just to blow-dry their hair?
Eurekas had a sort of low-rent power nozel called a "Vibra beat" that just made a lot of noise while doing a whole lot of nothing. All sorts of gimmick nozels have come and gone, and continue to. (although the Hoover nozels with the rubber nubs worked well while they lived).
As vacuums are my specialty, I have a few of the oddball ones.
Kirby's oddball bits are actually better than most, their drills/grinders/whatever ran via a drive belt off the main shaft; the drill was the flexible shaft kind and these are very useful to the craftsman indeed; the grinder worked adequately and all of these that fell under the "Handi-Butler Group" were more than enough for the casual use of such an item for the "Gee, if only I had a [TOOL]" type of use. The paint sprayer was relatively useless (it was poorly made and doubled as the suds maker, which worked well enough but was a rather "why bother" item) especially as you could only use it with watered-down non-oil-based paint. In the 80s with the Heritage they had a sander/scrubber/massager item that was a good sander (it picked up its own dust!) adequate massager, and poor scrubber (though better than doing it by hand). This was part of the "Turb Group" that included what has to be the best turbo brush ever made; an unique one with a brush roll; much better than the horrible "Zip Brush" that came later.
Filter Queen was another that had a hair dryer; the problem with these is obvious and already stated. Plus, who the hell would drag out a 30 pound vacuum just to blow-dry their hair?
Eurekas had a sort of low-rent power nozel called a "Vibra beat" that just made a lot of noise while doing a whole lot of nothing. All sorts of gimmick nozels have come and gone, and continue to. (although the Hoover nozels with the rubber nubs worked well while they lived).
The over abundance of speeds on mixers and especially blenders. 3 is good, 5 is pushing it but 8-16 is overkill and hard to clean all those buttons but it does make it fun. I remember early Kenmore m/w having something like 100 power levels. Makes for good ad copy I guess.
electric door opener
Fridigaire once had a regrigerator called the Food Life Preserver, and it had a button on the door where the handle should be. When you pressed this button, and electric motor turned a lever near the door gasket and pushed open the door for you.
It was cool, but I think this was the only refrigerator ever to have an electric door opener. I guess it didn't catch on.
You could always just grab the door by the side and yank it open too, since magnetic gaskets were used, just like in modern refrigerators.
Fridigaire once had a regrigerator called the Food Life Preserver, and it had a button on the door where the handle should be. When you pressed this button, and electric motor turned a lever near the door gasket and pushed open the door for you.
It was cool, but I think this was the only refrigerator ever to have an electric door opener. I guess it didn't catch on.
You could always just grab the door by the side and yank it open too, since magnetic gaskets were used, just like in modern refrigerators.
hoover1060
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Vacuums...
This was just discussed on the vacuum side earlier this week, Eureka's "Touch Power handle Grip" introduced in 1972 on their TOL golden Vanguard upright.
Basically it was a little pressure bar on the back of the grip which activated a momentary contact switch to turn the vacuum on when you squeezed the grip, in other words, grab the handle and vacuum, let go and the motor stops.
A neat feature, on paper anyway. In reality you had to hold the grip a certain way to keep the cleaner on, otherwise the motor was pulsing off and on all over the place. Thankfully you could over-ride the squeezy grip by flipping the main power switch to "Attachments" and then vacuum normally
This was just discussed on the vacuum side earlier this week, Eureka's "Touch Power handle Grip" introduced in 1972 on their TOL golden Vanguard upright.
Basically it was a little pressure bar on the back of the grip which activated a momentary contact switch to turn the vacuum on when you squeezed the grip, in other words, grab the handle and vacuum, let go and the motor stops.
A neat feature, on paper anyway. In reality you had to hold the grip a certain way to keep the cleaner on, otherwise the motor was pulsing off and on all over the place. Thankfully you could over-ride the squeezy grip by flipping the main power switch to "Attachments" and then vacuum normally
Charcoal Coffee Filters
Actually one wants fresh water for brewing coffee or tea, as the oxygen releases all that goodness. While fitered water is fine, water that has been sitting around in that carafe weather in the fridge or on the counter goes flat within a few hours. Pouring the water through a filter in that respect does make sense if one wished to use filtered water.
If one uses fresh ground beans, the type of water can produce a world of difference. Best indicator of "fresh" water and beans is a nice light tan "froth" (at least when I'm using my vaccum coffee makers), this means that there is lots of oxygen in there and one is going to have a great cup of java, all things being equal.
Coffee also goes "flat" if left sitting around after brewing for the same reasons. This why the best coffee shops dump coffee out after about an hour and make fresh.
L.
Actually one wants fresh water for brewing coffee or tea, as the oxygen releases all that goodness. While fitered water is fine, water that has been sitting around in that carafe weather in the fridge or on the counter goes flat within a few hours. Pouring the water through a filter in that respect does make sense if one wished to use filtered water.
If one uses fresh ground beans, the type of water can produce a world of difference. Best indicator of "fresh" water and beans is a nice light tan "froth" (at least when I'm using my vaccum coffee makers), this means that there is lots of oxygen in there and one is going to have a great cup of java, all things being equal.
Coffee also goes "flat" if left sitting around after brewing for the same reasons. This why the best coffee shops dump coffee out after about an hour and make fresh.
L.
perc-o-prince
Well-known member
you can enter in time X at power Y, then time A at power B,
My old microwave (bought about 1984 at JC Penny) had that feature. It was great!
Chuck
My old microwave (bought about 1984 at JC Penny) had that feature. It was great!
Chuck
selectomatic
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- Apr 6, 2007
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My New microwave has that feature.
It's a Goldstar that my parents bought for me for christmas, 1985.
You can choose a timed Defrost cycle, then you can put in one or two timed cycles with your desired power levels.
I seldom use more than one time/power-level cycle at a time, though.
My older microwave is a Tappan from 1977 or so. It has a power level knob and a mechanical timer. Plus, it can Brown the Food.
I use both of them regularly, and I have no real need for any additional features. Well, it would be nice if the Tappan had a carousel, but I can turn the plate a few times, if needed.
-kevin
It's a Goldstar that my parents bought for me for christmas, 1985.
You can choose a timed Defrost cycle, then you can put in one or two timed cycles with your desired power levels.
I seldom use more than one time/power-level cycle at a time, though.
My older microwave is a Tappan from 1977 or so. It has a power level knob and a mechanical timer. Plus, it can Brown the Food.
I use both of them regularly, and I have no real need for any additional features. Well, it would be nice if the Tappan had a carousel, but I can turn the plate a few times, if needed.
-kevin
rocketwarrior
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Paint Sprayer
Emilio, my mother speckle painted an old piano with her Electrolux paint sprayer! It actually turned out well, all things considered. But she never used it again.
Emilio, my mother speckle painted an old piano with her Electrolux paint sprayer! It actually turned out well, all things considered. But she never used it again.
selectomatic
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The piano or the paint sprayer?
Panasonic's talking microwave / Kirby massager
In the 1980s I think - Panasonic had a talking microwave. Oh.. one could argue that blind people might have use for such a thing..
I think Kirby had a massager attachment. I heard some joke about Kirby vacuums where if you heard the vacuum running in the bedroom - they're probably not cleaning the carpet.
SHARP had a magnetic card reader in some 1980's microwaves. I think it was called "A LA CARD". You could preprogram your favorite recipes on magnetic-striped cards.
These "innovations" sound like the output of bored engineers.
In the 1980s I think - Panasonic had a talking microwave. Oh.. one could argue that blind people might have use for such a thing..
I think Kirby had a massager attachment. I heard some joke about Kirby vacuums where if you heard the vacuum running in the bedroom - they're probably not cleaning the carpet.
SHARP had a magnetic card reader in some 1980's microwaves. I think it was called "A LA CARD". You could preprogram your favorite recipes on magnetic-striped cards.
These "innovations" sound like the output of bored engineers.
Are you realted to Hoover3060?
Actually we are all family.
It is generally safe, around here, to expect a sisterhood bond unless you know otherwise.
Actually we are all family.
It is generally safe, around here, to expect a sisterhood bond unless you know otherwise.
Filter Queen also had a messager attachment for their vacuums.I had seen blenders that recipes on their displays-Oster and Lectrix.Crazy-they have the same recipes in the instruction book.
