TODAY'S PIC OF THE DAY

[rollermatic]

this is the dishwasher i would love to find!

i only saw one once back in 1968 behind a plumbing store in the garbage pile.

it had a roller instead of a pump and spray arm. the roller was like a rolling pin that went from the front of the tub to the back. in the center. if i remember correctly it was a direct drive off the motor which was in the rear of the tub but i may be mistaken about that.

i always thought it looked like a really poor design for a dishwasher but i do remember reading advertising about it at a later time and they billed it as able to "wash both sides of the plates" due to it's reversing action.

if i could ever find one it would be a real treat! it's definately a very unique wash system and it's a shame that none are surfacing anywhere these days. i assume cause they were such a poor design that people replaced them long long ago.

anyway has anyone else ever seen one of these or better yet actually used one? i'm just curious if they were any good at all? i assume tappen was the only brand that tried this roller style spray system?

thanks

 

[volvoguy87]

This has been discussed at sme point before.

If I recall correctly, they are supposed to be very quiet, but lousy performers.

Dave

 

[appnut]

Peter, we had O'Keefe & Merrit appliances in the new house we moved into in Sept. 1961. We had the O&M brand of this design dishwasher, although it was the baic builder's model. It got switched out with the Waste King and was put in our old house. My Godfather's family moved into their new house like in 1962 or 1963. they had Tappan appliances and the Tappan brand of the dishwasher in our house we switched out. I got to use it many times. Everything was srcubbed clean before it went in. Their dishes were melmac and most of the glasses were plastic and it was my experience those type of dishes didn't get food soil removed off them very easily. It was a fairly quiet dishwasher except for when it started the little drum or rolling pin running to "wash". At the back of this said deice we are series of blades which helped kick up the water for the cleaning action. Although I used it a lot, I don't remember a lot about its loading pattern other than what I see in the POD today. The dial had regular, short, rinse & dry, and plate warmer cycles on it. There was also a separate rinse & hold section kind of like some Maytags through the years. It would "wash" using one roation direction for about 1 or 2 minutes, pause for 30 seconds, and "wash" the opposite direction. It also had a detergent dispenser which kinda fit in the bottom rack. It was fine mesh with a plastic lid over it. If it was iover-filled, it wouldn't dispense of all the powder by the end of the rinse cycles. The little barrell even ran during the dry cycle for a forceed air type of effect.

 

[appnut]

Not only were they pretty bad (ranked right up there with spin tubes as far as I'm concerned), but they were extremely cheaply made. So you guessed right, between bing aweful and cheap, many were gotten rid of as soon as they went bad in some way. On the basic model, the top rack was somewaht open, it was actually a uniform rack with both levels tied together, but the center of the top rack was open so you could place the dishes in the bottom of the rack. It kinda killed top rack capacity too.

 

[rollermatic]

thanks for the info!

very informative to me! i have always been curious about them having seen one as a kid.

i don't recall any discussions on these in the past year and a half i have been checking into the site but i will check the achives a bit to see if i can dig up anything else. can't hurt! that's the great thing about the archives here, once it's posted it's there!

so were they a direct drive with the motor built into the back of the tub wall like i seem to remember or am i wrong here. if not direct drive were they belt driven?

anyway, i wouldn't think they would do any kind of a great job, slingin water off a roller but i gotta hand it to em for originality!

and they are a nice little chunk of dishwasher history! between that and the spin tube, they are the most unique type of washing system i have ever seen!

appreciate the info appnut!

 

[appnut]

Peter, the noise this dishwasher made is reminiscent of the sound when you're driving down a wet freeway and the sound the water being flung off the tires as you travel down the road, the mist type of sounds.