P.O.D. 3/15/18 - "Dash" ad, what brand is the washer?

[revvinkevin]

 

 

At first glance I thought Westinghouse because of the badge on the front panel.  But then decided "nope". 

 

Then briefly thought Kenmore due to the design around the timer, but again a "no". 

 

Then noticed the lid hinged on the right side.  The only machine <span style="text-decoration: underline;">I know of</span> with a right hinged lid is a Philco, but is this too old to be a Philco??

 

OK experts, what is it?

 

 

 

[swestoyz]

Yes - a Philco!

A 1963 model W236 to be exact, which was their TOL model (note the row of push buttons on the left hand side).

This ad has always cracked me up. Can you imagine her holding the drain hose up to a drinking glass? [this post was last edited: 3/15/2018-15:16]

 

[norgeway]

High Frequency Washing

Philco came out in about 58 and was made up until the late 60s or very early 70s.One thing is for sure they WILL wash, unlike these anemic things today

 

[swestoyz]

High Frequency Washing

AVCO Bendix first introduced this wash action with the 1956 Power Surge, of which after the merger of Philco/Bendix in '57, it replaced Philco's 1956-1958 ball point (aka Beam design) washer starting in 1959 with a slightly modified version that incorporated an agitator column.

From the documentation I've found, Philco-Ford continued to make a variation of this washer up until around 1967-1968, with all Washer/Dryer/Duomatic/Dishwasher production ending by early 1969.

Ben

 

[jamiel]

Did Philco produce dishwashers? I recall seeing a D&M Philco somewhere, and think I'd seen (Consumer Reports?) some commonality between Philco and Westinghouse dishwashers...

 

[turquoisedude]

Hans (norgeway) had a Philco dishwasher at some point - it was definitely a D&M if I recall correctly.  

 

[swestoyz]

D&M all the way

Several years ago I stumbled across a ton of Philco/Bendix and Philco-Ford service manuals, two of which were for dishwashers, one a 1963 manual, and the other a 1968. Robert has graciously added them to AE.org.

During the AVCO years, Crosley would often pair up a D&M American Kitchens Dishwasher with their kitchen appliances, along with Bendix laundry (and for a few years, Bendix-badged kitchen appliances and Crosley badged-washers/dryers). I suspect that during Philco/Bendix merger, it was easy for Philco to jump on the D&M bandwagon. What I don't know is if Philco had a D&M dishwasher with the fridge and range lines prior to the Bendix merger.

http://www.automatice.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi?showdoc~994~Philco~

 

[tomturbomatic]

Dash also ran an ad with the front loader with the slogan that Dash would make you washer clean like it was 10 feet tall.

 

Father Knows Best had the kitchen appliances that were part of the AVCO Bendix Crosley family, but I have never known if the refrigerator and beautiful 40" range were badged Crosley or Bendix.  There was to be a merger of Bendix and Crosley, to the extent that I remember seeing a magazine ad for a Crosley washer and dryer. They had square doors with square windows. Then something happened and Bendix merged with Philco before disappearing as a brand a year later. Apparently a lot of appliance dealers lost their shirts after signing up to be dealers for the complete line, but both Crosley and Philco had well established range, refrigerator and radio lines.

 

So was the entire laundry line sold to Dexter in '69 and nothing but the commercial equipment continued under the Dexter name?

[this post was last edited: 3/16/2018-09:44]

 

[swestoyz]

Sure, I believe the Crosley badged Bendix washer/dryer line were around for about one year, 1953-1954.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?127

As for what happened to Philco laundry items and Dexter after Ford decided to halt the domestic side of that business 1969, I'm not entirely sure. I found a New York Times article from February 1970 that discusses the then president of Philco-Ford stepping down, and buried within the article is this paragraph -

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/07/...lcoford-president-leaves-philcoford-corp.html
Last Sept. 15 Ford announced at. Detroit that Philco‐Ford was getting out of the home laundry, kitchen, range and dish washer business. The move was, said to cost the company about $16‐million after taxes, or 15 cents a share, a non‐recurring charge on third‐quarter earnings.

 

What I don't know is how Dexter continued production of commercial machines under both their name and Philco/Bendix through the 70's. Per Dexter's website, the employees bought out the company in 1987, but I'm not sure what parent company they are referring to - is it the remainder of Philco-Ford, or the commercial side only of Philco-Ford?  I'd love to fill in the gaps at some point.

 

http://www.dexterapache.com/about-us/mission-history/
 

In 1912, as the business operations outgrew the original factory, the company was relocated to Fairfield, Iowa, where the Dexter Laundry headquarters and manufacturing operations remain to this day. Since then, manufacturing operations have expanded beyond laundry to include additional manufacturing, financing and distribution channels.

 

In 1987 the employees of Dexter purchased the company through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Over preceding years, the employee ownership facilitated growth through acquisitions. In 2006, Apache Stainless was acquired and Dexter Apache Holdings, Inc. was formed. We grew again in 2008 with the acquisition of Leer and in 2011 we grew further with the acquisition of Crystal Group.

 

Ben

 

[launderess]

Dexter

Posted information before, so it's somewhere in archives.

Back when Philco-Ford was killing off their appliance division a group of Dexter employees and investors got together and purchased the brand.

Dexter had been a privately owned company until Philco (then Ford) snatched it up, hence those Dexter twin tub wringer washers being sold under both "Philco-Ford" and "Dexter".

Since then Dexter remains in Iowa and still manufactures/sells commercial laundry equipment.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?68196

 

[swestoyz]

Laundress, I guess what isn't clear is exactly what parent company the Dexter employees bought out in 1987. From the hand full of timelines you linked to in your original thread, one would be lead to believe that during the WCI to Electrolux transition in 1986 that the Dexter folks were able to buy out their share of their commercial line. But what isn't exactly clear is what happens between the late 60's up until 1987.

Was Dexter apart of Philco-Ford after Ford deciding to get out of the domestic washer/dryer lines in 1969, but still a part of Aeronutronic Ford Corporation through the 1970's? (per the Old Time Radio site)

OR

Was Dexter apart of Philco International until 1977? If so, was Dexter then apart of WCI from 1977 to 1987? (per the Electrolux Intl site)

My hunch is Dexter was a step-child of Philco International and part of the WCI conglomeration until the folks in Fairfield decided to step in. One of these days I really need to go back to Fairfield and start asking around to old timers about their Philco-Ford past.

Ben

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thank you Ben and Launderess.

 

[launderess]

Philco-Ford was "bought out" by what would become De

In early 1970's from my research....

"In 1965, as the president of the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Charles was active in the establishment of the municipal airport north of town which served both local businesses and Parsons College. He led the group which financed of the management and employee buyout of Philco-Ford in 1971, which later became The Dexter Company, and had significant involvement in the restructuring of Parsons College's finances in an attempt to save the institution. Finally, he served as the longtime treasurer of the Fairfield Community School District and was a founder of The Greater Jefferson County Foundation."

http://iagenweb.org/boards/jefferson/documents/index.cgi?read=490130

It looks like there were two separate "buy out" of Dexter.

One in the early 1970's by investors and employees created "The Dexter Company". Then came another in 1987 lead by employees which formed Dexter Apache Holdings company. http://www.dexterapache.com/about-us/mission-history/

WCI did not purchase Philco International until 1977. I keep reading about employees of Dexter being "under the gun" to close their deal in the early 1970's. This could because if they didn't Dexter would have been sold to WCI along with rest of Philco.

https://washingmachinesmuseum.blogspot.com/2013/07/philco-ford-wa952-year-1966.html?m=1

 

[swestoyz]

Oh wow, Laundress! I believe you've found a critical piece of the puzzle in Charles Eastburn's obit, especially the archving site it was housed on.

Another obit that is also interesting is Harry Munn's. It appears he became the president of Dexter shortly after the first buyout -

http://iagenweb.org/boards/jefferson/obituaries/index.cgi?review=494196

MUNN began work as a tool and die maker with the original Dexter Co. in 1946. He received a science degree from Parsons College and joined Dexter's engineering department in 1953 and was named manager of manufacturing in 1959.

 

He continued in management after the company was bought by Philco-Ford, and was in the Philco headquarters in Philadelphia before returning to Fairfield in 1968. He was president of the Dexter Co. from 1972 until his retirement, after being instrumental in a drive for private investors to purchase the company from Philco and return the company to its original name.

 

It also appears that the local paper in Fairfield ran a 40 year anniversary story in 2012 about Dexter, but alas their articles require a paid subscription to read.

 

https://fairfield-ia.villagesoup.com/p/1972-dexter-formed-in-buy-out-deal/204397
 

It's been interesting to read through the obits and articles today.  A lot of family names of kids I went to school with in the 90's in Fairfield.  By the time my family moved to the area in '97 the impact of Philco-Ford wasn't a hot topic.

 

Thank you, Laundress!  Our conversation has helped me bridge the gap of Philco to Dexter to Bendix to Ford to Dexter!  I also ran across a library records hit at the Unviersity of Iowa regarding the original Dexter,  pre-Philco purchase.  It looks like the library has a good chunk of records that Philco turned over in 1958.  It's interesting to see under the patents that Dexter had a patent on hand and royalty agreement from Beam, dated 1950 through 1954.  This connects how Philco had their 'ball point suspension' washer before the Bendix purchase in '57.

 

https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/msc/tomsc350/msc344/msc344_dextercompany.html
 

Ben

 

[launderess]

Yes, saw that libarary listing

Some time ago in my research, but never bothered to post since, well there isn't much to "see" online. *LOL*

Time line makes sense as we know by late 1960's early 1970's Ford was getting rid of/shutting down many non-automotive (and some automotive) lines as the company reorganized. In fact during the 1970's there was a good amount of retrenchment; GM got rid of Frigidaire in 1979 IIRC.

@tomturbomatic

By the 1970's it became clear the domestic laundry appliance market was becoming saturated and reaching "maturity". Pent up demand from just after WWII, the move away from semi-automatics to fully automatic washing machines, and so forth had largely run it's course. What was becoming increasingly a main part of the market is what we see today; white goods sales for new homes/remodels and or those replacing old or broken equipment.

Dexter while big on wringer washers, never had a fully automatic top loader IIRC. Philco-Ford was another matter; they did have that snazzy front loader and IIRC a H-axis top loading washer. Neither however were a large part of the USA market for domestic laundry.

Where Dexter shone then and still today is with commercial front loaders; so guess they decided to remain in that niche. Things likely would be different if H-axis washing machines had caught on back in the 1970's and 1980's thus giving a potential larger market share.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

This is back, wonder what opening that lid towards the right must be like...

— Dave