STUMPED: What kind of dryer?

OMG!

That's my grandmother's dryer. It was from Rheem (the small round red dot). Wedgewood is in the long name.

To the left were two buttons "Normal" and "Modern Fabrics" with a pilot light for each. To the right was a non-electric (i.e. spring...tick tick tick) timer. It went for 90 minutes if I recall, and had some letters which I was never able to figure out.

No air fluff.

The unique thing about this dryer was that the top lifted up (the chrome strip was the handle) where there was exposed the drum (and inner workings) covered with a grill on which you could place things you didn't want to tumble. So you could tumble the towels and lay the socks flat. The grill was slightly saddle shape (following the drum) and was made of a heavy hardware cloth.

The door button was a push button release (right at knee level--very convenient.

There was no lint filter if you vented outside...the lint filter was behind the middle of the backsplash (where the pink area is). If you didn't vent, you inserted the lint filter and air blew from the back of the machine. If you did vent, you omitted the lint filter and used 3" (if memory serves) vent pipe.

I remember it did not have a standing pilot. Behind the kickplate was a second filter (metal screening) to screen out the dust bunnies from the incoming air. My grandmother bought it new most probably in the 1952-1954 time to accompany her Whirlpool automatic washer (the button on the front-one) and used it continuously until about 1980. I don't remember that it ever had any problems.

Would be curious of the provenance of this...Rheem was a midwestern (Chicago?) based water heater mfgr. Wedgewood was a west coast stove mfgr. Did they merge and cross-sell?

(This grandmother had interesting appliances--she had a 1939 Chambers range which she built a kitchen around in 1970, a KA Superba which she also installed in 1970, a honking big Waste King disposer ditto, in the basement a huge 1955 or so Westinghouse upright freezer (with drawers and swing-down doors) and an old 1935 or so Norge refrigerator (not plugged in). The afore mentioned Whirlpool washing machine was used until the late 70s...it had a suds saver (as did the Maytag that replaced it) and she kept her Tide in a shoebox...two scoops for the first load, a scant scoop for the second load and a big scoop of ...La France!

They also had a sump pump which in my 10 year old mind was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen...it would switch on and scare me if I was in the basement.


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Post# 259156 1/10/2008 at 22:13 (5,944 days old) by swestoyz (Cedar Falls, IA)
Checkrate/Likes Okay - I can't tell what brand of dryer this is. Any clues? CLICK HERE TO GO TO swestoyz's LINK on eBay

Post# 259158 , Reply# 1 1/10/2008 at 22:18 (5,944 days old) by gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA)
Checkrate/Likes Wow, that console looks a bit like mid-fifties Philco. Front looks Norge'ish. Can't read what console.

Post# 259163 , Reply# 2 1/10/2008 at 22:27 (5,944 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes I believe thats a WEDGEWOOD gas dryer, by the same folks that gave us WEDGEWOOD gas ranges. Wedgewood tried to expand their market in the mid-50's with gas water heaters, wall units, clothes dryers. Caloric also did the same thing, but oddly they never seemed to make a washer to go with their dryers. This certainly is a rare piece and deserves to be saved...........

Post# 259169 , Reply# 3 1/10/2008 at 23:06 (5,944 days old) by pturo (Syracuse, New York)
Checkrate/Likes Really cool design and Wedgewood Stoves are highly sought after in the West (LA, SF) So, a rare gas dryer by Wedgewood is worth preserving. A nice looking smart design for it's era.

Post# 259193 , Reply# 4 1/11/2008 at 01:43 (5,944 days old) by laundromat (Hilo, Hawaii)
Checkrate/Likes YUP,it's a Wedgewood.Good eyes,Filterflo

Post# 259215 , Reply# 5 1/11/2008 at 06:11 (5,944 days old) by lesto (Atlanta)
Checkrate/Likes Reminds me of another rare dryer from the 50's, Firestone. It had controls very similar to a 58 Frigidaire and was extremely noisy.

Post# 259227 , Reply# 6 1/11/2008 at 07:42 (5,943 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes OMG! That's my grandmother's dryer. It was from Rheem (the small round red dot). Wedgewood is in the long name. To the left were two buttons "Normal" and "Modern Fabrics" with a pilot light for each. To the right was a non-electric (i.e. spring...tick tick tick) timer. It went for 90 minutes if I recall, and had some letters which I was never able to figure out. No air fluff. The unique thing about this dryer was that the top lifted up (the chrome strip was the handle) where there was exposed the drum (and inner workings) covered with a grill on which you could place things you didn't want to tumble. So you could tumble the towels and lay the socks flat. The grill was slightly saddle shape (following the drum) and was made of a heavy hardware cloth. The door button was a push button release (right at knee level--very convenient. There was no lint filter if you vented outside...the lint filter was behind the middle of the backsplash (where the pink area is). If you didn't vent, you inserted the lint filter and air blew from the back of the machine. If you did vent, you omitted the lint filter and used 3" (if memory serves) vent pipe. I remember it did not have a standing pilot. Behind the kickplate was a second filter (metal screening) to screen out the dust bunnies from the incoming air. My grandmother bought it new most probably in the 1952-1954 time to accompany her Whirlpool automatic washer (the button on the front-one) and used it continuously until about 1980. I don't remember that it ever had any problems. Would be curious of the provenance of this...Rheem was a midwestern (Chicago?) based water heater mfgr. Wedgewood was a west coast stove mfgr. Did they merge and cross-sell? (This grandmother had interesting appliances--she had a 1939 Chambers range which she built a kitchen around in 1970, a KA Superba which she also installed in 1970, a honking big Waste King disposer ditto, in the basement a huge 1955 or so Westinghouse upright freezer (with drawers and swing-down doors) and an old 1935 or so Norge refrigerator (not plugged in). The afore mentioned Whirlpool washing machine was used until the late 70s...it had a suds saver (as did the Maytag that replaced it) and she kept her Tide in a shoebox...two scoops for the first load, a scant scoop for the second load and a big scoop of ...La France! They also had a sump pump which in my 10 year old mind was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen...it would switch on and scare me if I was in the basement.

Post# 259242 , Reply# 7 1/11/2008 at 09:38 (5,943 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Jamiel, you jogged a memory with the comment about the lint filter placement in this dryer. I visited friends in Greenwood, SC in 1968 or 69 who had an electric dryer from the early 50s. There were 8 of us so there was a good bit of laundry and it was Thanksgiving weekend so they were taking care of it (I took over all of it after I arrived). The dryer had a department store name on it like Gambles, maybe. It had a perforated drum and the heating element exposed near the top of the outer tub. It was very slow, but produced very soft towels. I investigated and found the lint filter in exactly the location you mentioned. I pulled it up to remove it and seem to remember that it was rectangular, open at the bottom and you had to reach up into the perforated box to remove the lint The person who did laundry must not have known about it because the lint was packed solid. It's a wonder the dryer was drying at all. I cleaned it out and it dried much faster, but the towels were not as soft. It would be interesting to be able to see both dryers side by side to see what other characteristics they shared. Until today, it was the only dryer I had seen with that location for the lint screen. Something that unique would hint at a shared manufacturer or at least the sharing of a design. They also had the Hotpoint dishwasher-sink combo with the 27" machine. They were using some new footed tumblers and were having trouble loading them into the top rack. I showed them the little plate on the front of the top rack with the directions to reverse the top rack for taller glasses. The dishwasher was installed when the house was built in 1952 or 53 and they had never noticed that, but the dishwasher was mainly used by the cook, so that was understandable, I guess. Probably a bank president and his wife have better things to do. A friend who lived in Mexico City for a brief while in the 80s said that homes of those with higher incomes were having dishwashers installed, but the dishwasher was only for the use of the wife on the one day of the week when the maid was off.

Post# 259341 , Reply# 8 1/11/2008 at 18:44 (5,943 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)
Checkrate/Likes *Does Macy's tell Gimbel's?* Gambles?

Post# 259380 , Reply# 10 1/12/2008 at 07:43 (5,942 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)
Checkrate/Likes *It has a grill?* This dryer has a no-tumble grill? Could you warm dinner rolls on Thanksgiving day? Regarding MACY's; isn't their house brand "SUPRE-MACY?" Don't know if it applied to appliances though. I'm sure it applied to electronics.

Post# 259381 , Reply# 11 1/12/2008 at 07:45 (5,942 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)
Checkrate/Likes *Gambles = Bradford* Macy's = SUPRE-MACY Gambles = Bradford Gimbles = NO-CLU

Post# 259393 , Reply# 12 1/12/2008 at 10:05 (5,942 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)
Checkrate/Likes Gambles was Coronado

Post# 259420 , Reply# 13 1/12/2008 at 13:14 (5,942 days old) by danemodsandy (The Bramford, Apt. 7-E)
Checkrate/Likes *Bradford:* So far as I know, Bradford was the "house brand" for W.T. Grant's. We had one of their stereos when I was growing up, and a few smalls like window fans. They had pretty much everything- major appliances, smalls, TVs and stereos, etc.

Post# 259346 , Reply# 9 1/11/2008 at 19:14 (5,943 days old) by appnut (TX)
Checkrate/Likes Tom, I never knew the top rack could be reversed on those Hotpoints!!

Post# 259728 , Reply# 14 1/14/2008 at 07:23 (5,940 days old) by appliguy (Oakton Va.)
Checkrate/Likes *And do not forget Hecht's in D.C.* Their house brand was Duracrest, which were nothing but Kelvinator/Leonard clones. PAT COFFEY