Waste King Dishwasher

[launderess]

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1964 Waste King Dishwasher in Texas

I've been contacted by someone in San Antonio, TX who has a 1964 Waste King Dishwasher as well as a 50's Kenmore Ironer who would like to find good homes for. I quote: "The Dishwasher was installed brand-new in the house in 1964, and painted pink to match the kitchen tiles. It does still work...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[pulltostart]

We had a similar Waste King dishwasher when we lived in Air Force housing.  The housing was built in 1958/1959 and included GE 30" range, refrigerator, filter-flo washer, and dryer.  However, the dishwasher and the garbage disposal were Waste King.  I never understood why the two brands, but I figure the plumbing contractor supplied both of these items while all of the other appliances were furnished by the general contractor and separate subcontractor.  I have no memories of the particular model, it was my first experience with a dishwasher.  Based on comments I've seen here and on what I do remember, it was loud.  We always closed the doors to the kitchen when it was running!  The only specific memory I have is of one occasion when I removed a drinking glass from the dishwasher immediately after it finished the cycle, I held it under the cold tap, and the glass shattered in my hand.  This could have happened in the dead of winter, when the water would have been very cold; regardless, I never did that again.

 

I've attached a picture, taken in 2005, of a unit identical to our house (although ours was reversed) when I re-visited the base. 

 

Lawrence

 

[alsaroy]

Waste king dw

My Mom had a Waste King dishwasher circa 1972. It had a full stainless steel interior, and panel front for wood to match her new ( redone) kitchen. Yes it was loud. The controls were somewhat limited for a dw of that era. It had four buttons for only three cycles rinse and hold, pots and pans, and normal wash. It had a timer dial but you could not move the timer it was behind a clear plastic cover. The fourth button started the machine. You had to hold the button about five seconds which would advance the timer dial to start the machine. There was no way to cancel a cycle early. But I figured out that I could pry the cover off of the timer dial and then move the dial with my fingers to advance the cycle. The difference between normal wash and pots and pans was just that the pot cycle turned off the heated drying. Very limited functions for a supposed top of the line and very expensive dishwasher. It lasted about 14 years with a few repairs, but was replaced by a Whirlpool

 

[launderess]

IIRC Consumer Reports Did Not Highly Rate WK DW

Have a series of CR's "Buying Guides" from the 1980's and Waste King dishwashers were down on the bottom of ratings.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Those were different machines. They did not even have filters and they had large holes in the wash arm(s). These late 50s machines had filters made of aluminum that were not super fine, but the wash arms had small holes so they really sprayed. When we first looked at DWs, I asked daddy if the Waste Kings were made by Hobart since KA & WK were the only two wash arm machines on the market in the late 50s. These in the late 50s did not excell in performance either but there were a lot of machines at that time period with only one wash, two rinses and a dry along with no electric detergent dispenser. I think the way CU framed the lower ratings was that the following machines might be satisfatory in a home willing to do more preparation of the dishes before loading them into the machine. Funny, I never read an owner's manual that suggested stopping the machine before DRY and restarting it with a fresh charge of detergent although many "Pots & Pans" cycles of the late 50s into the 60s did essentially run the machine through the regular cycle without the dry portion so it would have been easy enough to repeat the cycle.