Today's P.O.D. 05/25/14 Viking W & D's

[washdaddy]

It's the first time that I've seen a Viking machine pictured. Didn't know that they also had washers and dryers.

Did they make their own machines or do a re-badge of something. Kind of looks like a older G.E. cycle knob with some Hotpoint option knobs and some buttons to boot.
The softener dispenser looks G.E. and so does the mini-basket. Don't know of any other brand besides G.E. that offered that feature.

So would I be correct in assuming that G.E. had their hands in Viking machines?

 

[arbilab]

I was just gonna ask the same thing. What was 'Eaton/Viking' really?

 

[turquoisedude]

Eaton Viking washers and dryers and were 'Camco Clones' (that was the company which manufactured GE-based appliances here in Canada - this included the GE, Hotpoint, and McClary brands back in the 70s)

 

The Viking automatic laundry appliances were a mix of GE and Hotpoint styles, but were GE-designed at heart.

 

However, for other appliances, Vikings were different rebadges.   Viking wringer washers and their version of a twin-tub were Simplicity machines.  Ranges, refrigerators, and dishwashers until the mid 1980s were Westinghouse machines.  Then their air-conditioners were made by Electrohome... and so on.

 

Viking 'rationalized' their brand in the mid to late 1980s and all the major kitchen appliances were GE-based design.  Oddly enough, at about hat time that the old Simpsons department store was acquired by the Bay - this ended their long alliance with Sears and Simpsons dropped the Kenmore appliance line.  The end result was that the old 'big three' Canadian department store-brand appliances were pretty much all the same thing with a different name (Viking at Eatons or Beaumark at Simpsons and the Bay).

 

I have great memories of the Viking appliances my family owned over the years!  My first full-size automatic washer and dryer set were very much like those in the POD, but my set was just a notch less fancy than these.