Rescued! A G.E. dryer with a console I've never seen...

[combo52]

Nail Down Appliances from GE, WP and KM and Others

These basic appliances were made to use to get customers into the showrooms so they could be sold-up to more expensive models. This is why you see what appear to be silly combinations of higher end features in otherwise BOL models, like a two speed washer that doesn't even have water temperature choices, super capacity machines with no water level control etc etc. They did this so a newspaper ad could advertise a low price on an automatic washer with TWO SPEEDS knowing full well that 98% of consumers would never be buy that model. Salesmen were under great pressure not to sell these machines, not only was there NO commission on them there were often financial penalties if they actually allowed someone to buy one. This is where the sales term Nail Down came from as the salesmen was supposed to think of the machine as Nailed to the floor, this is where the term from the consumers point of view Bait and Switch came from.

 

Most major manufactures built these low end Come On models to some extent, even MT built the DE90-DG90 dryers that did not have matching washers to lure people into the showrooms. This trend has died down as consumers became wiser and several Stare Attorney Generals cracked down on this Bait and Switch practice, Sears for one got hit with this for advertising $50 full sized clothes dryers that were almost never sold in spite of many people trying to do so.

 

The neat thing about these BOL models today is that they are fairly rare and were in almost all cases perfectly good machines.

 

[bajaespuma]

Thank you for your compliments.

 

Those model numbers I assigned to the weird BOL's were just guesses and were wrong. Because of the black panels and the controls I thought Drew's dryer was produced in 1962, where, in fact, it's a 1964 model that's using old parts. I still don't know whether the washer existed or not, but I'm going with the camp that thinks they did.

 

The model Number Drew gave us for the real dryer that he saved is: 1DA-516YW which breaks down to...

 

1= it was made in Louisville, KY

DA=it's a GE automatic dryer(which are all electric at this point; later on we get DDE {for electric} and DDG {for gas}).

516=it's a step down from the retail catalogue BOL, which was a 520, but it's much higher in features than "Nail-Down" models.

Y=1964

W=it's white

 

Most 1964 pairs looked like this (did GE steal Frigidaire's panel design, or did Frigidaire steal from GE?):

 

[gansky1]

Ooooh! Thanks for the 900 series drawings, my favorite GE from childhood. My best friend and neighbor had this set growing up. Hope you don't mind if I captured the pic for my profile? Too cool.

Do you know how long they made this panel style? I believe Steinberg's set was bought in '66 or '67, in white.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

This is a little bit of an aside, but I've had some experiences with 'nail down' models.

John is right - stores didn't want you buying those. While living in Denver, I saw an appliance store run a weekly ad in which in 1981/1982 they were always advertising either a GE BOL or a Frigidaire BOL for $249. This is how I became fascinated with the the one-knob wonder models, and clearly, the GE was the much better washer of the two offerings.

Within the last two years, I tried to buy a one cycle Roper DD washer - it had even only a single solenoid fill valve. It was on every floor of Charlotte's Queen City Appliance for $199. Matching dryer too. I nearly had to create a scene to get the salesman to even consider selling me one. It was frustrating. When I realized I truly didn't need it, I backed off.

Law requires, as John eluded to, that these models be available for sale, or an alternate be made available, if they are advertised to be on sale, etc. I stopped one day in fall 1982 at that store on my way home from school, just to see what the GE was - it was a non-FF basic single cycle standard capacity GE. There were blanks in the two toggle switch holes on the left side of the console. I stood there looking at them, a salesman came up and didn't even say hello, but said "You don't want that model" or something like that.

What I paid more attention to is that Sears didn't offen have a washer that could compete with that sale. They had the 24-inch belt-drive at this time in the catalog for $249, but that required shipping. Once in a while they'd advertise the one-knobber for this price, but usually just a weekend only.

They may not have intended to sell many back then, but if recent Craigslist evidence is any indicator, the 1990s version of this one-knobber sold like hotcakes in their various Kenmore, Sears, Capri, etc. versions.

True too about the large capacity machines without a water level adjustment - Sears did that in a number of models - 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1982 to name a few. It would take me some adjusting of habits to use a large capacity machine to its fullest without wasting water, if I could not adjust the level. I have the 1980 model - it needs a full resto but it will one day get it.

One thing about Sears - they always had a one-knobber / Nail down model in the catalog. I presume they could be had that way with less hassle than from a salesman.

Gordon

 

[bajaespuma]

I'm honored. That style of GE 950's was around from 1964, the "Y" series, to 1966, the "B" series. Also, in the middle of the 1964 model year, GE changed the mini-basket to a larger size and the activator to accommodate it.  For some reason that I haven't learned yet, GE skipped some letters in their model sequences. In 1967, GE introduced TOL's with the canopied fluorescent lights; they finally figured out that shining a light into the eyes of the user wasn't as smart as shining a light on the controls and the control panel. There was a learning curve.

 

I have to go now. The shipping people just dropped off my new vintage DA-720V from Pennsylvania and I have to go take "before" pictures to post and figure out where I'm going to put it for disassembly and cleaning.

 

[combo52]

1960s GE Dryers

Lots of good information, Ken and Gordon. I was just checking my GE service manuals that covered GE Dryers in the 1960s and GE did introduce Gas dryers in 1964 with the Premier name on them, they did not come in all models as they would later. By July 1964 they had 5 different gas models available ranging from a DG4920Y down to a DG4520Y.

 

[76speedqueen]

super cool dryer !

Nice to see it !

 

[redcarpetdrew]

I always wondered where the term "nailed down model" came from. Thanks for all the info. Does anyone have this model dryer and possibly the matching washer (if it exists) in a catalog or advertisement?

RCD

 

[bajaespuma]

I've seen only two of these before, both were offered on the Boston Craigslist in the last five years. One exactly like yours and the other:

 

 

(and of course I want the blue one)

 

[tomturbomatic]

GE was not certain about the success of the gas dryers so they used the name of the vacuum cleaner company they had bought long ago to be able to offer a line of GE vacuum cleaners.