POD Nov 7, 2009 Youngstown Dishwasher---

[maytagbear]

My great-aunt up the street had one of these, and I loved it.

If it was loaded correctly, it was a good dishwasher.

I really, really like the installation pictured, with the dishwasher up off the floor by several feet. Minimizes bending, and is good for a person with back problems.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[stevet]

More, more, more!

Does anyone have any money shots of this 30 inch machine? How about a parts Breakdown?

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Is there a connection between Youngstown and Frigidaire?

I'm just wondering if GM bought the Youngstown dishwasher division and incorporated the design into the early Frigidaire Spin Tube models?

Likely not, just a coincidence maybe.

Mike

 

[circlew]

Raised dishwasher

I'm raising my dishwasher up 1' higher in the kitchen of the house I'm renovating.

 

[Unimatic1140]

See this archived thread...

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/ARCHIVE/VINTAGE/2004/515x39.htm

 

[Unimatic1140]

oh and this picture from the archives...

 

[mrcleanjeans]

How well does this clean with today's enzyme detergents?

 

[tomturbomatic]

Enzymes take time. This one has a relatively short wash, although like most machines without a prerinse, the wash was not a very hot one.

Frigidaire consistently denied getting the design from Youngstown, but if they didn't, how could they have come up with this design if they were paying designers to design a dishwasher? Once metal kitchen cabinets started to fall out of favor, Youngstown flew apart like a bug hitting a windshield at 60 mph. They had neither the cachet of St. Charles Kitchens nor the builder tie-in of General Electric as the 50s advanced. For a while Youngstown kitchens featured Tappan built-in cooking appliances, but no Youngstown dishwasher so if the design was not sold to GM, Youngstown must have realized that their dishwasher sucked and just killed it off.

 

[appnut]

realized that their dishwasher sucked

That they did most definitely Tom!!

 

[maytagbear]

Well, now.....

My great-aunt's was decent, if a person was paying attention to scraping, and purging the hot water line before starting the machine.

After my first time of turning it on when I was 5 or so, I used it several Thanksgivings in the late 60s, mid 70s, when we had the Thanksgiving Family Reunion, ranging from 40 to 65 people, most of whom were blood relatives.

When it finally died, it was replaced with a reverse rack Maytag.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Thanks and request for more information....

Robert: Thanks for the link back to the 2004 Thread# 515. I just had the opportunity to read it now, and when I got down to the photo of the motor and pump, WOW, Packard! Another appliance division of an automobile company! And as I continued to read that Packard was a division of General Motors.

And I see Tom’s comment today that Frigidaire denied getting the design from Youngstown.

BUT, Frigidaire was a division of GM too, so how can we NOT think that engineers and marketing people were not collaborating in some way, to incorporate the same “jet-tower” or “spin tube” type of technology into both the Youngstown and Frigidaire frontloading dishwasher lines.

Do we know where Jeff’s Youngstown dishwasher is today? I notice that when I click on the Jeff_adelphi (Adelphi Maryland) link, it’s gone.

Are there more of these machines in the club member’s hands?

Mike

 

[appnut]

Miek, Jeff is still a member here--look in the members list for a Jeff there.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Bob,

Thanks. I found the profile.

Mike

 

[circlew]

Youngstown Kitchens

was a division of Mullins Mfg. Co. in Warren, OH. Sometime in the late 50's it was sold to American-Standard, Inc. As far as I know, their only relationship with GM was as that of a customer, buying Packard Electric motors to put in their dishwashers. Don't know what year the last Youngstown DW was made, but Youngstown steel cabinets were still being made in the early 70's, I remember seeing them at a local hardware store in Avocado and Harvest Gold at that time.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Reality check

Please study the picture of the girl loading the Youngstown on the left a few posts previous. Just like the Frigidaire that used to be in the home of a family I know, it was good for lots of plates after big functions, but look closely, please, at the disparity in capacity between the two racks. Look at all of those plates and the piddly amount of stuff in the top rack. There is not really even enough silverware in the basket for that many plates. Of course, the top-loading Jet Tower didn't have much in the way of a top rack either. The dividers in the lower rack of the YT do not even allow for the placing of bowls and pans which the Frigidaire dw did allow, kinda, sorta as the dividers in the lower racks improved over the years. With the timer knob available for manual cycle modification, this machine, like the early KitchenAids, some Westinghouse and other brands without a detergent dispenser, could give improved performance if the timer was advanced so that the load received one or two pre-rinses before detergent was added and the full cycle was started. From the picture of the machine interior, I don't see what they used as a filter but you probably could not get away with leaving much solid food on the dishes.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

It still is a totally FUN dishwasher!

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Tom: Thanks for the clarification on Youngstown and Mullins. I sit corrected.

Mike

 

[appnut]

Actually Tom, from my observation, I dont' see any dishwasher advertising literature or owners manual pictures reflect what is reality with what constitutes a typical load for a family. They usually look like someone's had a banquet that just has dishes and glasses and cups, nothing used in meal preparation. There have been exceptions, but generally not.