Westinghouse Range

[jeb]

Has anyone ever heard of a Westinghouse range with an automatic pot stirrer? I was talking to someone tonight who claim her father was an excecutive with the company and they introduced a "self stirring range", but it wasn't very popular and they droped it from production pretty quickly. I have never heard of it and the logistics seem far-fetched but she is adament about it. Jeb

 

[appnut]

I have seen it mentioned here a bit.  It's not something that was "made up". 

 

[danemodsandy]

Yep!

There was a motorized arm with a magnet under the burner, and a stirring unit that you put in the pot (might have been the other way around, with the magnet in the stirring unit, but same difference). The arm made the stirring unit rotate in the pot.

Anyway, it was a real gizmo.

 

[norgeway]

It Really did

Work well too, the stirrer was a wire type thing with a handle, when the motor under the unit turned the stirrer would turn as was said above by a magnet,I believe it was a mid 60s option.

 

[mixguy]

Westinghouse Stirring Range

I brought this very same topic up for discussion when I first joined this forum. The commercial showed the stirring gizmo having a magnet in stainless wire frame. It was shown in Pyrex cookware. Comments were made that when a mixture like pudding thickened, the gizmo was not effective. One could not use cookware containing iron so one could not use LeCruset or similar cookware. It would work in you have Visions or plain bottomed Corning Ware saucepans. I have no idea if it could work using an aluminum saucepan. No one ever said they owned this Westinghouse range that I can recall, but I have been wrong before. (And have been reminded, LOL!)

The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search

 

[mixguy]

From 1967

A Westinghouse "Continental" Range advertised in 1967

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19671114&id=_C8gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZygEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5572,2396300

 

[toploader55]

I believe it was advertised as the ...

No Turn Speed Broil which had an additional Coil under the Bottom of the Top Broiling rack. The Broiler pan was placed on the rack under the 2 elements. It would cook both sides of chops, Steaks, Burgers et al simotaneously.

OMG... Remember that Westy Jingle ???

"You can be sure... if it's Westinghouse... Dadada da

 

[toploader55]

All over the place here.

Here's a Great Westy A/C ad.

Look at her Hair, The Dress and Her Face. She's 900 sheets to the wind on Martinis or Med MaryJane. Look at her "flit" about and that Dress. She twirls as it could be a Cooling Fan. Turned to Gold !!!

Still trying to find the Pot stirring range. It is Real.

 

[combo52]

1966 Westinghouse Electric Range

I have had for many years a TOL WH 30" Electric range in my collection that was not only their first Self-Cleaning range but it also has the fabulous self-stirring right front 8" element and it also has no-turn speed-broil and Westinghouse's LF 6" automatic surface unit. It is a really cool piece of engineering the range even has dual cooling fans for the self-cleaning cycle.

 

[tomturbomatic]

There were two sizes of "stirers" and they move faster in water than in thicker stuff like sauces. The TOL WH range in our home ec department had that and the teacher who was a friend demonstrated it for me one afternoon. She used it in a copper bottom pan from Sears and it spun fast enough to cause the water to slightly swirl up on the sides of the pan.

 

[mixguy]

Types of Cookware

The advertisement says you can use aluminum, heat resistant glass, and even stainless steel. Was there a speed control for the stirring accessory? A video of this action would be a of interest of many members here. Was there an electormagnet utilized? Permanent magnets lose there magnetism with exposure to heat. Members having knowledge in physics, please feel free to share what you know.

 

[tomturbomatic]

There was no speed control: drop it in, turn it on and hold on to your ass. Given the mess the no-turn speed broil made in a non-self cleaning oven, the stirer might have been used more than the speed broil, but it only was offered for one year, I think; another innovation people could do without.

 

[firedome]

Self stirrers

Have been used in chemistry and medical laboratories forever, usually as a feature of hotplate type heating units, least since the 40s. Used them all the time in various Organic and Physical Chemistry labs. Using more or less the same principle, you just dropped a magnetic lozenge in and it spun around to keep things mixed up.

 

[norgeway]

The strange thing is...

Although Westinghouse was marketed here extensively, you rarely ever see Westinghouse products,they were sold in Winston Salem NC by Ed Kelley who was one of the first around here to really push just appliances, before he came on the scene it was mostly furniture stores that carried appliances, I saw one nice WH range at a sale several years ago, but they would not sell it to me, they were leaving it in the house, a 1963 40 inch double oven with a griddle...but that is the only WH ive seen since, mostly you see GE and Hotpoint and a few Frigidaires.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Some power companies sold Westinghouse. In the old days when they would let you pay for the appliance, INTEREST FREE, on your utility bill that would sell a lot of appliances, but they were never the cheapest, price-wise, so they lost nothing with those terms. In areas where the power company sold Westinghouse, you saw many more WH appliances. Then other appliance dealers sued and it all ended in the 70s, I think. Air conditioners were not sold under those terms by Georgia Power. I was able to pay it off in 90 days interest free, but AC units contributed to summer load and were not a year round operating appliance like a range or dryer. Until they stopped selling appliances, GAPOCO even maintained their own service dept for appliances and a had a unit that installed replacement water heaters. I seem to remember the water heater in a friend's house had the GAPOCO logo on it instead of a brand. It was a green outline of the State of Georgia and their name.

 

[applianceguy47]

Gawd, it never fails to amuse me the lengths to what previous generations went to, to customize products that we now know, are damaging to a healthy diet.

Cooking food, in general kills, vitamins.
I don't even have a stove. I have a steamer and a single unit burner for the occasional warming of food.