Out of the archives

[rp2813]

Tom, I am so with you about any sort of household help invading my privacy by default.

 

A two-week stay at a delightful villa south of Puerto Vallarta was marred by staff presence from early morning until after dinner.  No chance for a clothing optional scene by the pool or anywhere else for that matter.  That put a real damper on things for a group of nine gay men.

 

[Unimatic1140]

UGH, that 1955 Frigidaire dishwasher brochure is beyond delicious!  Mine is a 1956 model where they already changed the look of the control panel.  The machine is exactly the same just the panel is different.

 

Fabulous Steve, thank you!  Love the Loeb dishwasher as well, I've never even heard of that brand.

 

[steved]

dishwasher-sink in my collection

this was one of my first eBay purchases, reminded me of the 1955 Frigidaire

 

[steved]

From Jan 1955 "House and Home" a little history

Frigidaire introduced their first dishwasher in January 1955. Apparently as a gift for my first birthday

 

[stevet]

Parts is parts!

Okay, now that we are all wishing that there were more of these dishwashers around for us to play with and enjoy, are there any parts or service manuals around for them?
I cannot get over how much the early dishwashers resembled each other. The Kitchenaids and Hotpoints look like they were born of the same aprents and now these Frigidaires..even down to the timer knob as well as the push to start button.
Was it linked to the timer mechanically like the Kitchenaids or did it just advance the timer to start? And what about the Hotpoints with the lever up top?

I would love to see how these were put together to do their respective jobs.

 

[turquoisedude]

Wow, Steve, thank you so much for sharing these!! You have inspired me to get that DWUW (the 1958 I got last year) back into service...
I didn't know you had a dishwasher-sink! You devil...

 

[mrcleanjeans]

Thanks Steve for these fun ads. Tell me, does the Loeb use a vertical spray tower like the Youngstown Kitchens Jetower or is that tube something else? The dishes seem to be arranged impeller style. And was that a fully automatic machine?

 

[steved]

Loeb workings

I'm not sure as this is the only piece of literature I've ever seen. I would bet it's an impeller wash. Although I can't quite tell, plus figure how that lift tower worked.....
hmmmmm.....

 

[steved]

maybe the Loeb was the daddy

of the Kaiser? And it worked on water pressure? Don't know.... It had the pop-up dish rack too.

 

[steved]

and the Kaiser

could have been the daddy of the Coronet. I saw one of these once on "House Hunters" in CA.

 

[steved]

Coronet

ran on water pressure too!

 

[steved]

Coronet 3

Who knew?

 

[akronman]

Kaiser and Coronet Dishwashers---NO ELECTRICITY

Fascinating--I'm studying the pics----Kaiser has 3 knobs/levers, LIFT, DRAIN, WASH. So the lifting is some mechanical/spring system. Drain would seem obvious, but you'd sort of think it would be open at all times. Wash is likely the main water valve? 40 or more pounds of pressure would surely spin a small rack of dishes with 4 or more jet sprays going. Maybe the detergent cup is some bimetal coil system, like on a many carbeurators in the 50's 60's, would open once the inside temp was 140 all around? And there's no timer, maybe you watched until suds were all done? Of course, how did the soap get into the jets of water, or was there a sump at the base and water jetting through it , sort of a soap distribution system?

Ya know, I bet for dishes fresh off the table, it actually would do an acceptable job, except for cheese and eggs. Pots and pans probably didn't do well, though.
I would love to see such a thing, talk about unique and a conversation piece!

Some of you engineers and experienced folks------throw more guesswork our way as to how this may work. I've never seen or heard of such a dishwasher ever. And the soap has me baffled---how to dispense, how to circulate?
Thanks
Mark

 

[gansky1]

Fabulous scans, Steve - thanks for doing these dishwasher brochures.  I've never seen that toy sink-dishwasher before!

 

 

[peteski50]

water pressure dishwashers!

My friend Louis has the keiser and it is a real cool dw!
As for the Coronet I saw it in a magazine in the 60's and always wondered about it. The pictuse was like the one above with positioned in the corner with the window. I always wondered about it now I feel like I found a old friend.
Peter

 

[peteski50]

Popular Mechanics

This was advertisied in 1973 Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech...

books.google.com

 

[tomturbomatic]

Obviously, the Coronet did not have as many aluminum parts as the Kaiser because you could only use Chat (which was formulated not to attack aluminum) in the Kaiser. Use something else and see how your whole dishwasher can begin to look like an aluminum pan you wash in the dishwasher. You would not want the basket to "spin" (as they state in the ad) too fast because that would reduce the impact of the force of the water on the dishes. Back in the 70s, catalogs and stores like "K Marks" sold awkwardly large plastic versions of this type of dishwasher. You sometimes see them in thrift stores and have to think how dreams of having a real dishwasher for $30 or $40 crashed and burned when poor people tried to use them for the first time. They sat on the counter by the sink when in use. They were fed from the faucet, had a plastic wash arm a little larger in diameter than a drinking straw under and beside a stationary rack and used liquid hand dishwashing detergent. It was possible to use 20 or more gallons of hot water trying to get things clean if you put them in dirty and, if you had low water pressure, they were not even much good for rinsing. Every ingredient in a recipe for disaster was present. I doubt that most users thought to dissolve machine dishwashing detergent in some hot water and use it instead of liquid hand dishwashing detergent to marginally improve performance. At least with the counter top machines, you could keep adding detergent because it was added outside the wash chamber while with the two builtin machines, the length of the wash was determined by the fixed amount of detergent added to the dispenser. When it ran out, you were rinsing unless you shut off the water and opened it to add more detergent.

None of these actually recirculated water. The detergent dispensing system was a sucking of the detergent using the venturi effect into the water stream before it was fed into the wash jets. Given the limitations of these machines, I don't think you would want to waste time or water by having warm water flow through the unit to clear the lines. You would no doubt have hot water present from the hand prewashing required before loading soiled items. With no mechanical pump, you would not want to put much in the way of solid food particles in it for fear of clogging the drain strainer.

If any of you have had experience with a "Roto-Rack" equipped dishwasher, you know that you can get some pretty weird noises out of the machine if the rack is not balanced weight-wise. I wonder if these two machines with spinning racks could be made to make funny noises with a unbalanced load or if the diameter was too small.

 

[steved]

the Spin Tube finale

1964 was the last year for the spin tube.

 

[steved]

more

I remember seeing this model in a storefront window while on vacation in the Adirondacks when I was younger

 

[steved]

Bewitched

And if it was good enough for Samantha Stevens, it was good enough for me! (Although she had a built-in model).