Today's Doctrine - 1974 GE Washers

[Unimatic1140]

When I was 10 I started writing away to every appliance company I could find. All of their mailing address were listed in Consumer Reports. It was so much fun to come home from school and find a large manila envelope in the mail box just waiting for me. I saved all this stuff through my teenage years and into adulthood.

Today's Doctrine were some of my favorites. The bigger the washer pictures, the better I like the materials that were sent!

The Dispensall brochure was particularly cool as I could see closeups of all of the dispensers in the lid. Also is it me or the picture at the bottom center of page 9 showing the mini-basket in action, doesn't it look the entire tub is filled with water, even though they are using the Mini-basket?

 

[macboy91si]

Dispense-All Doctrine

That's a nice scan, very colorful, I wish GE still put this kind of effort into their machines. Redcarpetdrew (Andy) is going to die when he sees this one.

 

Thanks for posting, downloading these now, so can't comment on the water shot just yet...

 

-Tim

 

[kenmore71]

BOL questions...

As I was going this brochure I was a little surprised to see the options provided for & NOT provided for on the two machines at the bottom of the line.

If I read it correctly, the 7000 offered 2 speeds, but no control over fill level or water temp.
I can see not having a fill control but what temp is the water? Is everything Warm/Cold?

Even more curious is the 6300 which has only a water level switch.

It would certainly seem to me that have control of water temperature would be more important that having a 2 speed motor or a water level control.

 

[peteski50]

1974 GE Washers!

They were nice washers but I didnt like the dispensal system. I would love to see the dryers.
Peter

 

[Unimatic1140]

Mark, the BOL machines were made with one water valve only. You had to set the knobs on the intake faucets to determine the water temp. So unless the user stood there until agitation began and changed the temp for rinse, the wash and rinse temp was the same. Mmmmmmm Hot wash and hot rinse, how deliciously decadent!

Peter the Dryers will come up as well at some point in the Dispenser.

 

[macboy91si]

The D-D-D-Doctrinator

I'm so going bankrupt this year... lol

 

[geextrarinse]

This one made me very happy!

Was very excited to see this today! Thanks Robert for posting this! I'm surprised to see that the standard capacities use the older styled activators and filter flo pans while the 18lb machines have the newer slimmer filter pans and activators. Was 1974 the first year for the Dispensalls? I recently met John Lefever and saw his Dispensall and it has to be later than mine because the dispenser and lid is different and he also has a solenoid bleach dispenser which mine does not have. All of the laundry additives are dispensed from the lid as is seen in this line sheet in my machine, though i can see from my own usage and experience why they would change the bleach dispenser. My bleach dispenser is always getting clogged with lint.

Do you have other GE years that you will be posting Robert? I love seeing the evolution of these machines.

Thanks again!
Matt

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hi Matt, thanks I'm thrilled you like today's Doctrine! These are really beautiful brochures.

Was 1974 the first year for the Dispensalls?
I'm not sure about that, but I suspect it very well might be. This brochure probably was produced to introduce their new Dispensall system.

Do you have other GE years that you will be posting Robert? I love seeing the evolution of these machines.
I definitely have some more years, some are full GE product catalogs that aren't quiet as pretty as these brochures, but they show every major appliance GE had for that particular year. Those will be coming up in the Dispenser in time. Hopefully others have some stuff like this that they would like to share as well and we can get them loaded into the Dispenser rotation.

 

[Unimatic1140]

The other thing I found odd and you can see it just in the preview thumbnails is how the bottom of the line washer still has the wash control dial surrounded by a circle graphic, I wonder if 1974 was the first year of the square graphics around the control dial?

 

[gansky1]

May 1973? I have a set of these coasters but these were likely a giveaway to distributors, etc. I would assume they had product hype and service training prior to it's intro in the line, perhaps some in the biz will chime in on that. I found these at a sale at the home of a GE sales rep. where I also bought this '74 Americana Dispensall washer and big-door Americana dryer. The dispenser tray had been removed unfortunately, but the timer controlled filter-flo diverting valve still worked. I had found NOS parts for this diverting system at my local Launderall dealer but didn't need them. That was a complicated timer, it made really cool sounds when running on the mini-quick cycle. Our GE Washer and dryer growing up was the similar design to the BOL this year but ours had 3 temp and level selection, 1 speed and 2 cycles on round timer dial.

The large capacity machines had several variations of that too-large-capacity filter pan that always thwacked the back of the top opening when being placed or removed. There were variations of the large cap. pans but never remember them being on the standard cap. washers.

 

[bajaespuma]

Love those jade green mini-tubs! and small filter-pans

Beautiful sheets and gorgeous scans thank you very much!.

 

I don't ever remember seeing that Dispensall lid on an MOL model backsplash like the one in the coaster. Maybe the GE folks were being optimistic that their widget would take off more than it did. When I worked in an appliance store in those years I remember opening the lids of the first Dispensall washer they had in the shop and rolling the eyes because two of the magical dispensall openings were nothing more than dressed-up dumps to the filterpan and the inlet cup for the old style bleach dispenser. The magic was reserved for the pre-wash additive and the FS dispenser that benefited from that talked about water diverter. This was truly a machine for the husbands...I don't think many wives wanted such a complicated system for a washing machine.

 

There's a reason your parents had the WWA 5400; it was the standard bearer for Filter-Flo for those years. I saw more of those in more houses than I can count and it made me realize something it took me years to figure out. Most women thought of doing laundry as a chore; no bells and whistles would make the job any more enjoyable to them so they opted for the simplest, easiest to understand controls possible. I think Maytag figured this out long before anyone else and I had some success in selling the pricier Maytags to couples on that attribute alone.

 

But, of course, bells, whistles, lights and wacko pieces of plastic under the lid is a big part of the reason I love Filter-Flo's! Also a big reason that at this stage of life I'm beginning to warm to the Ladies (Kenmores, that is).

 

[geextrarinse]

WOW!

I LOVE that coaster! So can we assume that they started in 1973 then? I even noticed in the small print of
Robert's line sheets that they seem to indicate 1973 as the year if you look at the numbers on the bottoms of the pages...

also I posted pics of my Dispensall in a separate thread...

 

[gansky1]

You're exactly right, Ken. Mom bought that washer and dryer with a tax refund and needed only a basic washer and dryer to just get the job done. No doubt counseled by her mother, a die-hard Maytag gal who only had a Highlander and later a A208, I can even hear her saying - the basic machine was all that was needed. It wasn't until 2004 that my mother even owned a washer with two speeds. Never saw the need for them. She now has a Whirlpool Duet Sport, still the basic model

 

[mickeyd]

HI Robert,

I see the water currents high up in the tub with the mini-basket, too. Hmmmm. Assuming it's a photo and not a drawing, maybe someone put the basket in after the tub was filled, thinking no one would notice or ask or wonder what is up. Or that a harried editor was so overwhelmed, he missed it. What's your theory?

 

But THANKS for giving us another idea for a crazy washer trick. And I really enjoyed your story and the smile it brought to my face imagining you in your Boy Scout uniform scribbling away, and waiting at the window for the mailman. We are all so much alike.

 

[mickeyd]

Cod liver oil

was given to children for over-all health, and for colds, the way fish oil is in vogue today for adults.

 

[applianceguy47]

Thank-you Robert, our most awesome leader.

 

I had a (harvest gold) Dispensall, but the bleach would drain from the dispensall into a electric solenoid controlled reservoir mounted where a standard bleach dispenser would be in other machines. I don't see the round, grilled  hole that would be there and the dispenser would drain into.  I wonder if they just air brushed that out, or if they changed the design. 

 

Your story about sending away for literature is so cool.

 

I think your speculation about the change of graphics from '73 to '74 is accurate.  I have advertisements from Better Homes and Gardens from the early 70s, that show GE appliances "on sale" and the washer shows the round graphic. 

 

I downloaded this Advert with no problems.  Thank-you

 

 

 

 

[applianceguy47]

The coaster is interesting as the picture doesn't show a tall console with the flourescent  light projection.  Also, there is only 3 switches on the left.  This looks more like a later 70s model.

 

As for the BOL model, I found one once (1985ish) with only  a water level switch.  It had only a single solenoid water valve.  In fact the water valve holding plate had a blank over one of the holes.  It just seemed so awkward.  It was good for parts. 

 

GE wasn't the only ones to make these awkward machines.  Remember the portable Kenmore washers that had a single cycle and the timer didn't even turn off.  In fact, it didn't have a fill valve, just a manual fill tube your literally had to connect to the faucet and fill by constant monitoring.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I downloaded this doctrine just before it went off the radar

Or became NLA so to speak.

My grandmother had the WWA5400, and I remember it well.

Robert - Yes, I think '74 was the first year of the new console print style without the circular dial print. My grandparent's place was a 55-and-over community which had just been constructed. The model was a few months older and it had the previous edition with the big black circle around the timer dial. Ever since then I have assumed that 1974 models debuted the new style with G.E.

I am wondering, did anyone notice on the final page, the BOL 6300 machine is a 24-inch model? Never seen one of those in a GE, and you'd think they would have accentuated it's space saving design...

Now we have the dryers on today's doctrine - EXCELLENT!

Gordon

 

[Unimatic1140]

Now You Can Have A Matched Set!

Matched sets are always better! I received several emails about when we might see the matching dryers to Monday's very popular '74 GE washer brochures. So I got scanning and they are all ready to be dispensed.

ps. Good catch Gordon I never noticed that the absolute BOL GE washer in those brochures was a 24" model, after all these years.

By the way, if someone missed Monday's GE doctrine or any other doctrine that they've heard about and would like a copy, please email me and let me know what you are looking for. I set up a supplemental system that I can fulfill doctrine by request after it falls off the dispenser.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/DDD/Dispenser.cgi