Thermador brand question

[d-todd]

Was there a time when Thermador was a fairly average brand, and not high end? I am thinking of the Eichler home we had in Palo Alto, CA that had a wall oven which I think was a Thermador. This is all from memory though. The homes were built in the 60s and I am trying to figure out what kind of message the builder was sending by the brands of appliances they chose to install with the new builds.

 

[cfz2882]

I dumpster-dived a 1978 Thermador dishwasher back in 1987-it had stainless interior,but seemed pretty average.It had an axial-flow wash pump,so might have been on the noisy side.

 

[appnut]

That thermidor dishwasher was a waste king dishwasher

 

[combo52]

Thermidor was a top-of-the-line cooking appliance maker

They had some very good quality wall ovens and cook tops throughout the 60s and 70s, they only made electric cooking appliances, but due to the increasing popularity of gas again around 1984 they came out with gas cooktops and some dual fuel drop in ranges.

Thermidor made a dishwasher in the 60s that was fairly high-quality not very popular but at some point they merged with or acquired waste king, and then the Thermidor dishwashers were just waste kings after that, the tub that looks like stainless steel rusted easily on Wasteking models.

Thermidor was located in Los Angeles California. They were a union manufacturer. They also made a lot of built-in and portable electric heaters.

Thermidor had some very innovative micro combination wall ovens. They also were one of the first to build really get good downdraft ventilation systems with exterior blower units for their hoods and downdraft systems.

Unfortunately, Thermidor was bought out by Bosch 10 or 15 years ago and it’s just junk now I wouldn’t bother with it. Bosch can’t build a wall oven to save themselves. That’s any good. And Thermidor dishwashers are just Bosch now definitely not worth the money for those tiny little Motors that Bosch uses as their main pump motor.

John L

 

[jamiel]

Since they came up with the idea of a wall oven, they had first mover advantage plus the advantage of local proximity to Eichler (back in the 40s/50s there was a lot more local manufacture of cooking equipment...look at all the weird brands that are out there).  As the American Gas Association revved up in the 1950s to specify gas in houses (Blue Star Homes) the western manufacturers (Western-Holly, OKeefe and Merritt specifically) revved up their production.

 

Had Eichler been building in the Midwest in the early 50s, the kitchen equipment would likely have been GE as they were the only significant manufacturer developing volume production of built-ins in the 53-55 timeframe...Frigidaire, Tappan etc were more toward mid to late 50s to get themselves revved up. 

 

[circlew]

Thermador was a division of Norris Industries for many years, as was Waste King.

As for Eichler houses, most were on the west coast, and Norris Industries was based in Vernon, CA, so it makes sense they would use a product made close by. Jamie mentions GE as a supplier of built-ins. I believe it was sometime in 1954 they introduced their wall ovens and cooktop. The Hotpoint division also introduced their built-in line of appliances around the same time. Hotpoint had a wider selection of such items than GE itself did.

 

[askolover]

I remember when I was in highschool I worked in the library. I'd look at architectural digest and southern accents magazines for all the high end appliance ads. Thermadore had a new star burner gas cooktop. Those magazines are where I first heard of Miele, ASKO, and AEG.