Push Button Whirlpool Dryer in 1970's Bounce commercial

[whitetub]

Hi guys and girls,

I was watching an old commercial of Bounce sheet fabric softener on Youtube.

The Whirlpool dryer is also advertised in the same commercial, in the last part of the 1 minute ad.

The dryer has 5 silver push buttons on the left, 9 white push buttons in the center, and the start push button on the right.

Does anyone know what all those buttons are for? Any picture of what this control panel looked liked? What year was that made?

Just curious. Looks like a beautiful dryer. The answer from Whirlpool to the Maytag DE906, I suppose.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I believe that the chrome buttons corresponded to the levels of dryness that were seen in Kenmore solid state dryers of the time, usually on a dial. The tan buttons in the middle offered time selection in 10 minute increments. Somewhere on the panel was the setting that controlled the wrinkle guard feature, I think.

 

[whitetub]

Thanks Tomturbomatic.

 

[whitetub]

I think that's the one in the commercial

 

[DADoES]

 
The chrome buttons at the left are temperature selections.  High, Med, Low, Ex Low, and Air ... or however they're labeled.

The many buttons in the middle are for dryness level or time.  There's a toggle switch between the two button arrays (can be seen in the video at 0:41).  Upward position is Automatic sensor dry per the labels above the buttons.  Lower position is Timed for the choices below the buttons.

Wrinkle Guard is linked to the temperature buttons.  See at 0:41 there is a bracketed label on the 2nd and 3rd buttons ... I believe it indicates Wrinkle Guard.

The Start button is chrome at right of the dryness/time buttons, seen briefly at 0:43.

 

[whitetub]

Thank you so much.... very complex machine...but once you set your favorite dryness level and temperature, all you have to day is press START each time you use it.

Thank you.

 

[DADoES]

 
Found this in the archives.

Automatic drying on the toggle switch is labeled Custom.

Temps seem to be labeled as such, with Fabric for the top regards to Custom dry and Temp at the bottom regards to Timed dry:
  Reg Heavy / High
  Perm't Press / Med (with Finish Guard)
  Knits / Low (with Finish Guard)
  Del / Low
  Fluff / Air

 

[whitetub]

Thanks again. Very cool machine.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thanks, Glenn. Sorry, Steve.[this post was last edited: 4/11/2022-19:12]

 

[seedub]

Glenn or anybuddy (sic), am I correct that Finish Guard was not the same as the Wrinkle Guard on Sears dryers, and it tumbled the clothes with no heat for whatever amount of time after the cycle (including cool-down) ended i.e., no intermittent tumbling? I *do* recall noticing the appearance of Tumble Press after the 1987 redesign. Tumble Press had the same action described here. Then came Wrinkle Shield, which does the intermittent tumbling for whatever time interval. My first-generation Cabrio has Wrinkle Shield, but I've not taken notice of how long it goes...seems like the two hours that Wrinkle Guard III took on the one or two occasions that I let it go all the way through. I typically stop the dryer after a few tumbles.

Also, my eyes are not functioning well - I can't make out whether the machine in the ad is painted almond, newly introduced at that time, or gold.

 

[DADoES]

 
Whirlpool offered anti-wrinkle tumble only on TOL models at that time, which I believe they always called Finish Guard at the time vs. Kenmore calling it Wrinkle Guard.  I think Finish Guard always did intermittent tumble.  Kenmore had the feature earlier than Whirlpool, thus providing for Kenmore to be "the best."

Other brands that offered the featured referred to it by various names such as Press Guard, Wrinkle Free, Extra Care, etc.

Whirlpool's Tumble Press, which dates much earlier than 1987, was to de-wrinkle (press, as in iron) clean items that were rumpled from storage, luggage packing, or brief wear by running a few minutes of heat then cool down.

 

[whitetub]

In the Bounce commercial, I would say the washer and dryer are painted almond.

 

[henene4]

Bounce

Weird question, but if anyone knows the answer it's the people here.

I bought some current Bounce sheets, and the box says to use low heat when using them to prevent staining.

Is that more of a carry over from back then, or did they redo their formulation at some point making staining more likely?

(I am aware that they basically certainly have revised their formula since the first launch.
My interest is more if that low temp advisory was present on all versions ever, or if some new dryer generation or so made them put it there.
Similar EU products do not have that warning and our condenser dryers most likely reached way higher temps than most US vented dryers.)