POD 5-23 Apex

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

arbilab

Well-known member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
5,253
Location
Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)
I'm prolly like, the last to know.  But Apex appears the original WCI* laundry entry. [* Still calling itself White Sewing Machine Co in the ad.] 

 

Any collectors know the heritage of the badge?  The ad predates ZIPcodes, matching the machine look of late 50s.
 
In 1949, according to the June 15th, 1949 issue of Electrical Merchandising, when APEX bought all of the capital stock of  Lake State Products, Inc. of Jackson Michigan,  producers of what would be called the Dish-A-Matic, the Apex Electrical Manufacturing Co. was located in Cleveland, OH so I guess they stayed there.  According to another article, 1957 was the last year of APEX production. Various design elements might have been used by WCI under other labels as I think we have seen in other PODs of department store catalogs whee the machines had APEX features.

 

The double wall Fiberglass tub was advertised as insulating the wash water so that it did not cool. If you notice the little holes that feed into it, as opposed to the larger holes that threw water into the drain tub, it also filled during the spin drain to help stabilize the tub during the initial phase of the spin. As the tub speed increased, that water was thrown back out. I think that was the way it worked. The Fiberglass did not have the strength of a steel tub so having the water jacket might have helped prevent stress on the tub in the early stages of spin when tubs swing off balance a bit, maybe. Apex was big into Fiberglass. They used it for the lid on their portable dishwasher.
 
Some of the water from the spin was held in the pockets to provide ballast for unbalanced loads. The water drained out of holes at the bottom of the pockets at the end of the spin. You can hear the water running out at the end of the video -



White Sewing Machine Co. began acquiring appliance companies in the late 50's, lasting through the early 70's when they snagged the appliance division from Westinghouse.
 
Dream machine and wish list.

As far as I know, no one in the club has a Spiral Dasher in any machine, but I bet one day the Automatic SD will come to us. And OH for that green Corvette of a tub ! I would settle easily for a wringer with a Dasher. It is "THEE" most sought after agitator by me. I feel it coming; one can only hope.
 
A while back,

We had a discussion about Spiral Dashers, and when I lamented that I had never seen one in action, a generous member found two Youtube videos and posted them. Thanks again to you for that. Please reveal yourself if you see this. Here's the more dramatic of the two.

http:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr6fWDMG6So
 

Latest posts

Back
Top