Saturday fun: GE PORTABLE Disposall

[Unimatic1140]

Your GE countertop disposal is very fun Jeff. John Lefever in Washington has one too but its probably about 10 years older and just has a pipe that dispenses the gunk into the sink if I'm remembering that correctly.

I have a picture of the very first GE disposall where the on/off switch is a rod that connects from the machine, through the front of the cabinet. I will post it next week.

 

[hoover1060]

Disposal history

Would love to see that pic of the first GE model. According to history, John Hammes invented the disposer in 1927. Hammes would later found InSinkErator in 1938. GE had their disposal in the market in 1936.
Would be very interesting to know the details on this!

 

[tomturbomatic]

We have a thrift store James portable with a locking lift-up lid. The ideal accessory that should have come with these was a sturdy rack that would support it over the toilet; maybe something like a toidy seat that little tiny kids use. Then you would not have to worry about the pumping action, the soup or clogging the sink drain. You would just have to hope that the thing did not sling the stuff sideways on the way out. I guess if you lived in an apartment, your downstairs neighbors might wonder just what in the hell was going on upstairs in your throne room when the cessation of all of that noise was followed by a flush. Maybe you could try telling them that your roommate was the Six Million Dollar Man and that's just the way it is with the bionic process.

 

[westytoploader]

Interesting Tom, I was thinking the exact same thing. Why not make a stand for over-the-toilet use?

 

[hoover1060]

yes BUT...

It needs running water to flush the garbage thru...
how?

 

[tomturbomatic]

To get the running water, you attach a hose to the bathroom sink. You can either change the aerator so that it accommodates a snap coupler like on a DW or get a cheapie push on rubber fitting like on the end of those shampoo & baby bathing sprayers. The hose would not be under any back pressure so the fitting does not have to be super tight.

 

[compwhiz128]

On our GE dispossal, it's built into the sink. To turn it on you put the drain cap in and turn it, it's cool, but my dad wants to get a new one because the sharpener blade broke off.

 

[hoover1060]

my mom had one of those

Comp: My mom had a GE twist-top disposal, from 1978 to 2001. It was a good grinder, and with the top that locked in place during operation, you never got garbage back in your face!

I'm still getting used to the portable model in the bathroom...seems like a lot of bother for a disposal...

 

[tolivac]

Very interesting machine-a good alternative for folks who can't put in a permenant one-Ie a rental home.Love the cast hammers on the shred wheel.Combine those with the universal motor-would think it would shred anything you put in it.Does it have the Carboloy cutters? couldn't see them in the picture.The carbide blocks really contribute to the shredding action-nothing like a couple carbide lathe cutters for more shredding fun.Thats what the "Carboloy" cutters were originally used for.Usually I was used to seeing the "flail" like hammers in the GE univsersal motor machines.The idea of using it over a toilet is a good one-no worries about clogging.
Yes there would be "pumping" action from the rotating shredder-but not real efficient-I have had clogged lines even from regular disposers.When you fill the sick and run the disposal to "drain" it-you can hear the disposer motor lugging.A centrifical pump impellor is designed to pump water-but not shred food waste.

 

[hoover1060]

I checked..

No carboloy cutter, just the standard shredder ring. Kinda interesting that there are no drain holes on the disk...
I've haven't fed it anything beyond potato peelings and lettuce, easy stuff for any disposal. I'll have to give it something more substansial!

 

[tolivac]

when I looked at the picture of the "base" and shredder section-yes there are no holes in the flywheel.The waste only has one place for it to get out-thru the holes in the stationary shredder ring.I would guess if worst -to-worst-if you wanted the waste more thoruoghly ground-you could scoop it out of the sink and run the bigger peices thru again.With the stationary shredder in a plastic base-I would be concerned about the shredder ring being knocked loose from the impacts against solid waste-such as bones or bone peices.Chicken bones from COOKED chiken may be OK-would think it would shred those without worry.It looks like from its design that peices cannot be thrown up at you.Thats where it could be safer than a regular disposer-and you can't put your fingers or hands in it while its going.
A scary thing-not about disposers-at one of the "dumps" out hereI used-the Marathon compactor there doesn't have a hopper and the dump operator reached into the compaction chamber to stuff something else in it--could have lost his hand or arm.

 

[hoover1060]

the differences are very cool

No holes on the disk, that was GE's thing, where ISE had their one row of holes around the outer edge of the disk, and Waste King had them everywhere.
Maytag made disposers had holes that were slanted - supposed to create a "scooping" action for faster drainage.
I haven't put anything too substantial in the portable, it seems very well made though, and there is nothing flimsy about it.

 

[tolivac]

I am glad the construction of the GE portable machine is good-guess they figured since it was made to shred food waste-make it handle anything users will throw in it.From the pictures of it running-It appears like the shredded waste drops out of the bottom?How long did GE build these machines? Were they the only one that made them?

 

[hoover1060]

other portables

I didn't know GE made a portable until just this year. There were others, the most memorable is the James portable disposal, which could later be installed permanantly. The James model goes back to the 1950's. There were others too, every now and agaion they turn up on Ebay.
The James and others that I have seen pictures of more closely resembled a conventional disposer, bottom motor, with a flip top lid over the grind chamber. A spout is where the garbage flowed out and down the sink.
The GE model is the only one I've seen where the garbage drops out the bottom as it sits directly over the sink drain.

 

[tolivac]

I had seen ads in the old B&H 1950's magazines I have and they show the James products-the sinks,dishwashers and the perm disposals.It would make sense that a portable one could be varation of a perm one.I would have to guess on the James machine an interlock switch was put into the Flip lid to keep the unit from running unless the lid was closed.With any of these machine you could "monitor" the outflow and run thru any peices again that look to big and could clog your plumbing.

 

[hoover1060]

The James had the same problem as the GE

In college and on boring nights with no homework, I would sit in the Library and read old Consumers Reports and Consumers Research magazines. I remember a review of the James machine with regular disposals, and the James got low marks because it left a sink of garbage soup as well....

 

[tolivac]

Yes,I would also read magazines in the library on boring days or those with no homework.Read CU,and a magazine called "American City"-loved reading the reviews on trash trucks and compactors and other such things.also had reviews on heavy equipment.They had good articles in the book as well.also were heavy on "roadside" mowing equipment.

 

[hoover1060]

I loved reading on the old stuff

Once while in college I had to get a book from the UNL library in Lincoln... they had Consumer Reports all the way back to 1936! I was in there for hours!

 

[tolivac]

I enjoyed reading the old magazines and books too,also older Stereo Reviews,Audio(Remember those?)I also bought a box of old "Audio" at an old hardware store in Denton Texas,The store operator said they were her fathers,he was a radio engineer like me.These dated to the late 40's-early 50's.I also found ohter old Hi-fi-radio books to read.Now its the Internet.Lots of old itmes on there like that to read.The largest library-not to forget the section on this website that has the older CU articles on appliances.-and yet another section that has older machine owners manuals.