Norge With Clock

[johnrk]

Though I'd never seen a Norge washer in the 50's or 60's when I was growing up, I've come to admire their inventive features and interesting style.

Looking at a '58 Norge washer ad that I came across, I noticed that this washer has a clock on it, like ranges used to have. Apparently, according to the ads (see below), the washer could be set to run at later times, presumably when hot water was more conveniently available.

Of course, delayed wash is easy and very available now. I just don't remember seeing anything like this on a machine from that era. And apparently it wasn't a great success, as it seems to have disappeared from their line.

Were there other brands in that time period that had settable clocks like this?

 

[appnut]

A-B-C-Omatic (which was also Kelvinator washers) had a model in the mid-1950s with a clock also.  That's the only one I can remember.  the ABC that I am referencing also is a POD at times. 

 

[goatfarmer]

Don't know about the clock, but RickR has a washer similar to this.

 

[norgeway]

Norge got a bad rap

But no matter, these things will outwash darn near anything.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Not all electric utilities offered off-peak water heating rates and not everyone depended on electricity for water heating. Electric utilities did not push such money saving devices because it was to their advantage to sell more electricity so, while this was a noble effort, more people who needed to save hot water opted for using the sudssaver feature if they had the accommodations. The other benefit of the sudssaver was that it saved water, something that was of benefit to people with limited capacity wells or inadequate municipal water systems. I remember traveling through central Virginia in the late summer of 1981 and stopping into a small down hardware store to checkout the housewares treasure trove. While I was there, a woman was telling the proprietor, in a discussion of the drought, that their well was running low and she was going to have to go back to using her wringer washer until the area got some rain.

 

[cornutt]

A lot of houses then had water heaters that were not that large. If, say, a family member was taking a shower, then you could set the washer so it would not start until the water heater had had time to recover. Based on that, I'm a bit surprised that this did not become more popular. Then again, the lady of the house was probably going to be there most of the day, so it's not like you needed to be able to set it to run while nobody was home. I'm guessing this was a feature that was only ever offered on TOL models, and was more of a gee-whiz thing than anything else.

 

[johnrk]

cornutt

Yes, unlike such things as those clock radios you could buy in the 50's that would perk your coffee at the right time, doing laundry (particularly those fast machines) meant, probably, that most women stayed close to the action. When I posted this I tried to remember whether I ever used the delayed start on either of the machines I've owned that had them--I don't think I ever did.

Huntsville is such a beautiful city! I used to have a medical client there, used to eat at some mall restaurant there that was good. Decatur General over in Decatur was also a client of mine and I used to stop at that Big Bob Gibson Barbecue. That was good eating!

 

[toploader55]

Delayed Start Features.

I tried them a few times Didn't seem to make sense for me anyway. I personally have no need for Delayed Start.

"Delayed Aging" would be a feature to consider... LOL

 

[cornutt]

johnrk, thanks! I don't think Norge was a popular brand here when I was growing up, in the '60s. I don't recall ever seeing any other than at the Norge Village laundromat. I guess Montgomery Ward had some. We didn't go in there much because my parents regarded their stuff as cheap.

Been to Houston many times, doing NASA stuff, and I've always enjoyed it.

 

[brisnat81]

Offpeak hotwater came early here, from the 50's onwards. It meant you got a maximum of 8 hours heating from 9pm to 5am roughly and was configured that way as to not overload the grid during the day. If you ran out of hotwater during the day then you were out of luck. Thats why so many machines here had built in heaters, even if you had central hot water, capacity was likely to still be a problem.

That would've made great sense over here to be able to run the machine at 11pm while the water was hot and then still reheat it for the morning.

 

[johnrk]

NASA

St. John Hospital, now Christus St. John, is almost directly across the street from the Johnson Space Center, and they were a client of mine of many years. We used to do a big business with astronauts and their families, got all the families from the local Challenger survivors. The bad part about that area of SE Houston/Webster is the proximity to Galveston Bay. They got hit badly with the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

 

[rp2813]

Spot-On Opinion of Montgomery Ward

"We didn't go in there much because my parents regarded their stuff as cheap."


 

Oh, if only my parents had felt the same way yours did. 

 

[johnrk]

Montgomery Ward

I don't remember my parents ever going in a Montgomery Ward. I was blessed that they thought good clothes and linens were worth paying for and never bought anything like that from either Sears or Wards. They were GE and Frigidaire appliance buyers except for KA dishwashers. I never knew them to buy anything off-brand in small appliances, electronics, etc. Looking back in those old catalogues, I agree with them--why buy off-brand when it's not particularly cheaper? Sears in particular was notorious about that with their small electrics. I guess the appeal was to people with their credit card.

 

[dermacie]

My grandparents had a Norge timeline dryer for well over 50 years. I don't think its timer was working well, but they only used it once a week on Wednesday when grandma was off from her work as a hairdresser.

I was so upset when the out of the blue bought a new Maytag washer and dryer to replace her old Maytag washer from the early 1990s and a new dryer.