Today's POD

[chachp]

The inside of this machine looks an awful like a KitchenAid dishwasher prior to the wash arm under the upper rack. Does anyone know if the designs were similar? I know at some point the Waste King dishwashers began looking almost identical to the KitchenAid I just didn't think it was that early.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In the mid to late 50s, KA and WK were the only brands that used a wash arm, but they were not related in any other way. Notice how both racks' rollers ride on the same rail. That is a neat innovation. At the time, KA had the wash arm with the big spray openings that created "six moving walls of water". The WK had many smaller holes that were angled off in a way that let them show the glasses loaded in the top rack over the serving dish that's tilted in toward the center in the lower rack. Unlike the KA racking then and for decades to come, the center of the lower rack was an open area to help the angles of the spray pattern reach items in the top rack from below. Waste King also switched from a porcelain tank to a Plastisol-coated steel tank within the first couple of years of production, while KA stayed with porcelain tanks for decades. Waste King was also one of the first dishwashers, along with Hotpoint and Kenmore, to have a dedicated water source for the upper rack. In their first portable, the lower wash arm was half the width of the lower rack with a tower in the middle and then the other half of the wash arm was placed under the top rack, sorta like a Z with the middle perpendicular to the top and bottom halves. It took KA until the 18 series introduced in 1977, to have a dedicated water source for the top rack. I read the obituary of the man who headed the company for many years and he was a great philanthropist, using his fortune to help many causes. It makes me like these qwirky old machines even more.

 

[chachp]

Wow.

Thanks for the information. I wonder if anyone has any photos of the sprayer configuarion in the WK.

I am familiar with the KA because we had one at home. It acually replaced our Youngstown top loading dishwasher.

 

[appnut]

Tom, thanks for the comments about WK. Everytime this POD shows up, there's something new you reveal about these machines. I had not idea about the angled spray jets. But it explains how water still got to the top rack forceful enough to topple light plastic even when the mother had put pans or bowls face down in the bottom rack. The lower center rack opening and the user manual stating to not put large dinner plates near the center (aside f.rom the fact they wouldn't fit 4 large perpendicular to each other).

Tom, was this WK portable a top or front loader?

 

[tomturbomatic]

The first WK portable I saw was a top loader. It had the wash arm I described. The lid on the machine was black and it had a hole in the front corner that allowed the cover to close over the timer dial. When you lifted that black lid, the inside was coral-colored with the wash arm in a darker tone I think. It was like something designed in the late 60s, with Flower Power, Carnaby Street & LSD adding to something that was like some Hollywood monster that was scary enough in its darkness and size and then, when it opened its mouth, it was a glowing orange-red color, like the dinosaurs in Fantasia. When dishwashers first started gaining popularity in the late 50s and early 60s, the various stores sold many different brands. I remember seeing a Youngstown portable that was just like the D&M portable sold under the Frigidaire name, EXCEPT that the vinyl tub and lid seals as well as the racks were a creamy yellow-beige that brings to mind the descriptive term that begins with baby and ends with an a. The WK that I described was the only WK I saw for sale in a store anywhere. They seemed to be sold mostly through kitchen remodlers or smaller dealers I never knew about. A few apartments in Atlanta had WK dishwashers. Friends had the earlier one in an apartment in Buckhead. I saw one of the 60s models in 1970 in an apartment off Buford Hwy; a street, a demographic and a landscape that are really gone with the wind.

 

[appnut]

Tom Thanks!! I remember seeing a demonstration DW that wash the "1/2" wash arm revolving. When I saw the first James ad on here I was convinced taht whatI saw at the age of 5 or 6 had to have been a James. But with your decription of that wash system design for portable WK dw, I now know what I saw. A portable WK. It mst have been the time the first WK undercounter was purchsed in 1958 or 1959.