Tragic day in Appliance History! December 26, 1980

[peteski50]

Today will mark the anniversary of the most tragic day in appliance history. On this day in 1980 General Motors shutdown Frigidaire. For myself this is my own day to morn. I had never knew the exact date until recently but I had remembered it was around the same time John Lennon had been killed. Both the loss of two great icons.
And being a appliance person no matter what negative issues I have saw or come accross in the appliance world nothing could be as bad as this blunder.
I will attach the article I received this from which was not only about the Frigidaire shutdown.
Peter

By: Bob Connor from Pittsburgh, PA sez...
Destroying electric cars seems like an act only a stupid company would do but this is not the first time GM made a good product that they didn't want to public to keep. I know some people who have a hobby of collecting and restoring home appliances. I don't buy the argument from GM that nobody would make parts for the EV1s that people wanted to buy. Until the end of 1980 GM had their home appliance division, Frigidaire. GM Frigidaire kitchen and laundry appliances were among the most innovative made at the time and usually of high quality, some are still going today. No, you cannot get parts for GM Frigidaire appliances now and today GM pretends that they never existed (Today's Frigidaire appliances are made by another company and are considered a "budget" brand). Oh, BTW, GM shut down Frigidaire on December 26, 1980 so the employees in Dayton got unemployment for Christmas. What I am saying is that this is a much bigger blunder than getting rid of Frigidaire and GM deserves to go bankrupt because of it. I cannot figure out who in their right mind would buy Anything from this company. The only reason I think they do well in the Pittsburgh area: We have a lot of seniors who have good memories of the Chevys and Buicks they drove in the 50s, and a lot of funeral homes that like Cadillac. GM also screwed up when they wanted people to get an expensive charger for the car. Why could an electric car not be recharged by a 220 volt electric dryer outlet found in most homes? That way you would recharge after doing the laundry! Even if you didn't have this outlet an electrician could add one for about 200 dollars. But please don't charge near that much for the DVD, charge less than most movies as the message is more important than the one about the "Lake House".
[7/14/2006 12:30:28 AM]

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: Thank You Peter:

That is quite an interesting Article, as is your info shared as well. I didn't know when the "GM" Frigidaire Plant Shut-Down, before your sharing this info with us.

I hope that you had a wonderful Holiday and the New Year will start out real well for you, after everything that you've been through and having to deal with.

Peace and Holiday Greetings, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[agiflow]

Pete,..what was their market share like in the seventies? From what i have understood ,their washers were very expensive to produce. It sound like maybe WP/KM, Maytag, and GE were getting the core business of laundry,..though i saw a lot more of their refriderators in the seventies in friends and relatives homes.

In all honesty, did they ever perfect the pulsator/jetcone in all those years they had the chance to do so?...this now is very interesting.

Still a damn shame that legacy was let go of.

 

[tolivac]

One of the early GM stupid moves!It is a shame!The "krushing" of the EVI cars another GM blunder.And presenting an enviorenmental hazard too!Krushing just releases the harmful toxins into the Mother Earth!Would Have been better to let people keep their EVI cars.One of the big reasons I don't presently buy GM products because of their STUPID management-and another "Blunder"The closure of the EMD Locomotive factory in LaGrange,Ill.now EMD Locos are built in Canada.And now they wonder why GE Locomotives outsell EMD---GE units are still built in Erie,Pa,and have more advanced AC traction design.EMD builds AC traction locos-but the GE design is better.

 

[gyrafoam]

Indeed, a sad day.
If Frigidaire ever did come close to perfecting a washer and dryer, the 1-18's came pretty close.
Yeah, the washers were noisy, tended to suds-lock, and the spin speed not as fast as the previous generation's (available) "Rapidry", but the quality sure was there---as evidenced by all the survivors that continue to surface-----many of them still in good working order.
And, both the washers and dryers could handle HUGE loads----no "Cruel-Action" agitator required!)

The stoves and refrigerators are still plentiful, I know of two families who still use them, blissfully unaware of their vintage history, since "they came with the house" and they provide dependable service.

Only the dishwashers seem to be hard to come by. Must be bacause they lacked a high enough level of rust protection. They were good performers though, (spray tube excepted), I loved using the early 70's DCI I once had.

I guess we will never know what would have evolved if Frigidaire were still in business.
What we do know is the loss of the GM division created a gap that can never be filled by anyone---especially to those of us that cherish the memory.

(My two shekels)

 

[goatfarmer]

GM Electro-Motive was the locomotive leader for years,from back in the 1930's.GE didn't get started in the business until the early 60's. Didn't take them long to catch up,though.
I still think GM Frigidaire was the leader in refrigerators.Great styles,innovative products,proven quality.

 

[swestoyz]

"I guess we will never know what would have evolved if

Steve, that was very well put! It is nice to think of this as a 'what if' situation when it is so easy to feel a bit of anguish.

Ben

 

[rinso]

My parents remodeled their kitchen in 1966, installing all turquoise GM-made Frigidaire appliances. This included a Flair 40" range ala Bewitched, and a side by side refrigerator. Although the matching dishwasher no longer exists, the range and refrigerator are still in operation. Over the years for laundry, they had two Maytag sets which lasted about 15 years each. (we had a huge family, the machines ran all the time) In the early 1970's, they purchased a 1-18 set, which lasted 20+ years, with the usual minor repairs (bellows replacement, spin clutch, etc.) Even our very reliable Maytags required more repairs in the years we had them. I should mention that from 1951 to 1974, my aunt's Unimatic only required a couple of service calls to remove socks from the outer tub. The thing was built like a tank. And what washing machine motor now days could withstand being switched directly to spin an tubful of water with hardly any built-in slippage, and last for years? Excellent engineering and construction for their time.

 

[exploder3211]

what a sad shame...

 

[bajaespuma]

No one made a better electric stove than GM Frigidaire. NO ONE. Those thick coil burners heated a huge pot of water to a frantic boil faster than any home gas range on the market and their ovens were famously even and efficient. I'm a chef by profession and I always enjoyed cooking on those home appliances.

The divestiture of Frigidaire wasn't just a tragedy; it was a crime.

 

[goatfarmer]

Ya gotta remember,the early 80's were not memorable to GM,with a lot of look a like cars,with different names,like Citation,Phoenix,Cimarron,etc.

 

[mixfinder]

No One Made Better Stoves

I agree with Ken. I bought my last new Frigidaire Appliances in January of 1980, sourcing the remaining models of the GM production. In the middle 70's Frigidaire became competively priced. The stoves and refrigerators were comperable to GE in price, the dishwasher slightly more expensive and the washer less expensive than Maytag. I bought and sold a lot of houses in the 70's with early flipping and also moving with Stouffer Hotels, corporate. I bought at least 5 sets of appliances in that time, although laundry equipment was Maytag.
The sheer weight of Frigidaire set it way apart from GE and all other competitors. The wide burner coils were very durable and provided gentle even heat for long slow simmering, sauce making and candies. I bought the Heat Minder burner with every range. It was like having another electric frypan as it dialed heat to perfection. Heat Minder was not good for cooking eggs or anything that didn't have enough mass to prvide measurable temperature. My real joy was the oven. Frigidaire ovens were legendary for good insulation, excellent heat cycling and great results without excessive browning. Frigidaire self cleaning ovens were the best in the industry. They never left the strip under the door like GE or the dirty door like Kenmore. They cleaned perfectly. In the late eighties and ninties, I bought vintage Flairs for the kitchen but always have a 30 inch Frigidaire tucked in the basement or garage for cleaning bakeware, roasting messy items and baking 16 inch wedding cake layers that wouldn't fit in the Flair because of limited depth. I finally let go in 2002 when I moved to the city and it was too hard to find the older retired repairman who liked to tinker with the once great and legendary Frigidaire.
The gleaming procelain, chrome trim, lighted backsplash, added geegaws and the enormity of presence Frigidaire appliance made in the kitchen are the stuff memories are made of.
Kelly

 

[neptunebob]

Guess what? I wrote the article you quote! Last year, I got a lot of guff here about it. Must have made an impression.

As for Frigidaire, the fact that you still find the appliances now proves that they were made to last a long time. Makes one wonder what they would have come up with today.

Why did they pick the day after Christmas to do this? Somebody at GM was a real Scooge for Grinch Motors!

 

[exploder3211]

I know they picked my FRIGGIN BIRTHDAY!

 

[frigilux]

Good heavens that was a terrible month! We lost both John Lennon and Frigidaire in December of 1980.

 

[neptunebob]

Maybe whoever ran GM should get a lump of coal!

Of all the times to close the plant, why at Christmas? Scrooge must have ran General Motors at the time.

 

[alr2903]

You are right Neptune Bob

IIRC, Monkey Wards pulled the same stunt, poor Rudolph was a Wards Icon. It's just wrong.

 

[peteski50]

Such Nice Thoughts!

Thanks to all for the nice comments on this annaversary of a very sad day in appliance history. Yes it was such a great loss. WCI should have at least tried to keep the refrigation / airconditioning and washing machines, that is what had really made Frigidaire big. The refrigation sales after that went to GE and Whirlpool. The laundry sales went to Whirlpool and Maytag. The biggest insult was that WCI tried to make the appliances look the same as the GM products. But at least most people were smart and didn't go for the WCI products at the time. Also all sales people I knew at the time didn't push the WCI products either. After all we already had Westinghouse what did we need another one for.
And the reason General Motors shutdown Frigidaire the day after Christmas was because that is when the contract was up with WCI. At the time myself and other people I knew assumed the new products were to be like the GM ones (little did we know).
Peter

 

[hydralique]

Sad . . .

The saddest thing about GM dumping Frigidaire is that, unlike electric cars, Frigidaire's products appealed to a huge number of Americans and undoubtedly made profits for GM. I don't know what the balance sheet was like in the late '70s, but if Frigidaire hadn't made money shortly after GM created it, it would have died a long, long time ago.

I love my '67 Imperial refrigerator. I looked a long time for it 15 years ago, and aside from fixing the defrost heater it hasn't given any trouble at all. To my eye, the classic design with a slightly bowed front door incorporating chrome reveals at each side, and dual foot pedals, is sooo much more elegant than a plain box. And don't get me started about those newer refrigerators with the grained leather-patterned steel . . . at least that modern "improvement" never made it to laundry equipment!