Thread Number: 48274
GM/Frigidaire Impeller Dishwasher Find
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Post# 699610   8/28/2013 at 22:04 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        

This came in today at the Habitat ReStore where I volunteer. Brought it home to clean it up a little and try it out.

Plugged it in out on the patio and put some water in with the garden hose.
The main motor and pump motor both run well. The main motor's bearing is good. I can twairl the impeller with one finger and it coasts a little after being turned off.

If there was a safety interlock on the lid, it is either non-functional or someone removed it. The main motor keeps running with the lid open.

Does anyone know the age? Maybe late 1950's?

The model is: DW-STB Serial: 67ED490





Post# 699611 , Reply# 1   8/28/2013 at 22:06 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
Timer

I did not have the time to let it run through it's cycle, so I don't know if the timer progresses. Will check that later

It looks as if there is one main wash and two rinses.


Post# 699612 , Reply# 2   8/28/2013 at 22:09 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
Inside

I wiped it out. Tub has no rust throughs. Hopefully running some CLR through it will take some of the rust and calcium deposits off.

Post# 699613 , Reply# 3   8/28/2013 at 22:12 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
Good racks

No visible rust on the racks, that I could see.

Post# 699614 , Reply# 4   8/28/2013 at 22:18 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
Top Rack

The upper rack has a neat feature in that the two center pieces swing open to allow access to the lower rack.

Post# 699615 , Reply# 5   8/28/2013 at 22:21 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
silverware basket

Don't know if this is the original basket. If so, it must be missing the hangars that I assume would have supported it in the missle space in the upper rack.

Post# 699616 , Reply# 6   8/28/2013 at 22:27 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
innards

I vacuumed the cobwebs off the guts. Noticed no leaks while it was operating. Terribly noisy. Makes the Maytag Reverse Rack sound like a distant whisper. :) You could actually see the tremors/vibrations of the machine and the water hit the tub.

The lid is a single layer of sheet metal with a porcelain coating. Does nothing to muffle the sound.


Post# 699617 , Reply# 7   8/28/2013 at 22:30 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
another view

hefty motor. The total amps for the machine is listed as 12.0

Post# 699618 , Reply# 8   8/28/2013 at 22:34 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
Unicoupler

Unfortunately, I do not have the male fitting, that goes on the kitchen faucet, to snap into the unicoupling. Anyone have a spare laying around??

Post# 699638 , Reply# 9   8/29/2013 at 00:43 (3,864 days old) by pdub (Portland, Oregon)        

pdub's profile picture
You can still buy that unicouple faucet adapter at any hardware or appliance parts store. There are two sizes sold and it should be the larger size of the two.

What a cool find. It appears to have the Frigidaire logo of the early 60's so I'm betting the machine was made about 61 or 62. PhilR will probably know.

Looking forward to more pictures of the machine all cleaned up.

Patrick



Post# 699640 , Reply# 10   8/29/2013 at 00:52 (3,864 days old) by alr2903 (TN)        

Bwoods thanks for posting the pictures.  I have never seen this one.  A frigidaire impeller. How cool is that? Best of Luck with it. alr


Post# 699701 , Reply# 11   8/29/2013 at 05:51 (3,864 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

That silver basket sits along the side of the tub on the lower rack.

Post# 699705 , Reply# 12   8/29/2013 at 06:32 (3,864 days old) by turquoisedude (.)        

turquoisedude's profile picture
Great find! Imagine GM letting D&M make a dishwasher for them....

Philr actually has a dishwasher like this one - I think you'll enjoy it. Congratulations on this save!!


Post# 699735 , Reply# 13   8/29/2013 at 10:21 (3,864 days old) by bwoods ()        
comments

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Thanks for the tip on getting the adaptor for the unicoupler, Patrick.

I'll be returning the dishwasher to Habitat for resale, but I've got clean the inside up a little. And of course, I've got to run a load of dirty dishes through it first to see what it can do! Never had an impeller machine before.


Post# 699744 , Reply# 14   8/29/2013 at 11:19 (3,863 days old) by Volvoguy87 (Cincinnati, OH)        
Classiccaprice!

volvoguy87's profile picture
I believe Classiccaprice has a version of this.

Dave


Post# 699750 , Reply# 15   8/29/2013 at 11:45 (3,863 days old) by bwoods ()        
price?

Anyone have any thoughts on the price Habitat should put on it? They were thinking between $100 -150.

BTW, as items come into our store that I feel all of you may be interested in, I'll post them on AW.

The nice Tappan Fabulous 400 range that they had and I posted on AW sold. We don't get too many vintage items, but every now and then something good comes along.


Post# 699842 , Reply# 16   8/29/2013 at 17:27 (3,863 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)        

philr's profile picture

It's slightly older but still similar to mine (mine is a 1965 DW STJ). Yours is an early 1960s model (1960-61 I think). 

 


Post# 699871 , Reply# 17   8/29/2013 at 20:14 (3,863 days old) by classiccaprice (Hampton, Virginia)        
Looks familiar

classiccaprice's profile picture
I paid $100 for my 1955 D&M Kenmore and it was completely restored. I know they also made these for Westinghouse. I love mine, even if the gasket does leak slightly! As with anything, it is worth what someone is willing to pay. Good luck and I hope it finds a good home!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO classiccaprice's LINK


Post# 699872 , Reply# 18   8/29/2013 at 20:23 (3,863 days old) by classiccaprice (Hampton, Virginia)        

classiccaprice's profile picture
And yes, it is a very loud machine to run. That is normal.

Post# 699890 , Reply# 19   8/30/2013 at 01:19 (3,863 days old) by rinso (Meridian Idaho)        

Like most impeller machines, they do a good job is you rinse the dishes off before loading. We had the 1959 version of this and the glasses always came out spotless.

Post# 700281 , Reply# 20   8/31/2013 at 19:42 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
tub clean-up

Ran some of "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner through the machine to try and get rid of calcium and rust staining. Most (but not all came off.)

Post# 700283 , Reply# 21   8/31/2013 at 19:47 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
first load, bottom rack

First time I have ever tried an impeller machine, so I
scraped most of the solids off. Not exactly a "Bob Load". :)


Post# 700286 , Reply# 22   8/31/2013 at 19:54 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
upper rack

more room than I expected and was able to get the popcorn popper top in.

Post# 700288 , Reply# 23   8/31/2013 at 20:01 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
and the final results - lower rack

Not bad results, if you look closely at that bowl on the lower right, you can see some redposition of a piece of cat food on the outside of the bowl.

Post# 700291 , Reply# 24   8/31/2013 at 20:09 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
and the upper rack

Fairly good, but not perfect, results also. You can tell very well from the picture, but a film was left on the tall glass in the corner which had the dried remains of a smoothie. But the other glasses and the corn popper container/lid were nice and clean. The inside of of both orange plastic glasses had a few very small cat food nibbles in them.

Post# 700294 , Reply# 25   8/31/2013 at 20:23 (3,861 days old) by appnut (TX)        
orange plastic glasses

appnut's profile picture
Back when these machines were quite the norm, many families I knew had melmac and melamine dishes. Plastic just tended to hold onto food soils far more than glass surfaces. And since so many people had such amounts of plastic dishes, they pretty much got disgusted and rinsed everything. Very very fine job of loading there!! I'll certify it as BobLoad just because you managed to fill that thing up all the way.

Post# 700296 , Reply# 26   8/31/2013 at 20:30 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
the rejects

a closer view of the food remnants.

If I had scraped a little better, these would not be there. Overall, the results were better than I expected from a bakelite/plastic impeller dishwasher with only three water changes. It seems to me this machine was a little outdated technology wise for 1960/61.

The dishwasher has one short wash and two very short, almost flash, rinses. I didn't time them but the wash wash probably in the neighborhood of ten minuntes and the rinses maybe a coupleof minutes each. It did take a purge before and after the main wash. I think this helped as it the first purge made sure the water entering the machine was hot and the second purged helped to flush any residual food remnants down the drain.

Considering only three water changes and a very short cycle, I think the machine did quite well.

If D&M had two washes, like the Hotpoint impeller machine that Harriet Nelson (of "Ozzie and Harriet") advertised on tv, I suspect I would have had near perfect results.

Anyone have one of those Hotpoints??

BTW, anyone know how many water changes the General Electric "bowtie" impeller machine have?

If anyone is interested in this machine, I am going to take it back to Habitat next week. You might make them an offer for it. A nice coat of epoxy paint on the outside, and some detailing work on the control panel/knob and she would look pretty good.


Post# 700297 , Reply# 27   8/31/2013 at 20:32 (3,861 days old) by bwoods ()        
thanks-

Thanks for the BobLoad certification, Bob!

Post# 700312 , Reply# 28   8/31/2013 at 21:47 (3,861 days old) by appnut (TX)        
GE "bowtie"

appnut's profile picture
Prewash, rinse, main wash, 3 after rinses.

Post# 700406 , Reply# 29   9/1/2013 at 11:16 (3,860 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

The GE bow tie had a far larger capacity, especially in the top rack than the Frigidaire model here. If you position the silver basket along the wall in the lower rack where the owner's manual states it belongs, you could have placed the knives in it, making extra space in the small upper rack. This machine was one of those that CU stated needed more preparation prior to loading. One reason that the GE handled food waste better was because it did not have a separate drain pump. It used the main pump to drain the machine which was capable of grinding the food into fine particles instead of having it have to pass through the holes in the strainer over the drain pump opening. When food sat there after the wash drain, it was able to be thrown around in the two rinses.

One thing I see that is missing from this Frigidaire is the wash-through detergent dispenser. It hung from the crossbar between the two sections of the upper rack at the back of the machine. How did you add detergent so as to keep it from being washed away during the pre-wash purge? Most types of modern packaged portion-controlled detergent are not formulated for the short wash period of this machine.

As for the Hotoint dishwashers of the early 50s, they had a metal filter ring around the impeller. It had fine holes in the upper portion of the ring to keep food particles from being recirculated while the impeller was spinning. At the bottom, there were larger holes so that when the impeller stopped and the drain began, the heavier particles could pass through the larger holes to move toward the drain opening, at least in theory. From the models I have seen, the fine screen caught stuff, but was not self-cleaning. It probably also served to protect the vulnerable leading edges of the Bakelite impeller. Speaking of Bakelite impellers, what is the one condition of the leading edges on the impeller in the Frigidaire?


Post# 700787 , Reply# 30   9/3/2013 at 08:07 (3,859 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)        
Early D&M Built Frigidaire Portable DW

combo52's profile picture

Barry Thanks for taking the time and effort to show everyone here at AW this DW, it is always neat to see how an early machine operated. Your test results really show the need for a DW to have a detergent dispenser and at least a dual wash, your tests also shows how poorly most impeller DWs washed dishes. If I were going to use this machine to actually wash dirty dishes I would stop it after the first or final rinse add more detergent and start it over again. Of the impeller DWs that I have had direct experience with only the GEs with the SS bow-tie impeller and the WH top loading DWs with the flush through detergent dispenser did a half decent job.

 

The best and only impeller DWs to have a separate roto-rack for the top rack were undoubtedly the best overall performers, all made by D&M in the early 1960s.

 

It is easy to see why the impeller style DWs disappeared, it was a cheap and easy type of machine to build and it was fairly durable but they were no match for DWs that used a real pump and wash arm. It is also worth noting that every [ decent ] DW built today has a full wash arm under rack washing UP and no one uses a silly center wash tower that only washes the middle of the top rack, also gone are the DWs that attempted to wash dishes from the top down.


Post# 700808 , Reply# 31   9/3/2013 at 09:53 (3,859 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)        

philr's profile picture

That's probably why the later versions of this dishwasher added a second wash and a detergent dispenser. I didn't get so bad results with mine but I usually pre-rinse my dishes (unlike John who lets his dishwashers do that job!).  


Post# 700931 , Reply# 32   9/3/2013 at 18:14 (3,858 days old) by bwoods ()        

I love your technical terminology, like "silly". It must have taken quite a few years of college education to come up with such a descriptor, ha.

The tower wash on the General Electric dishwashers certainly outwash, on the upper rack, the Kenmore and Whirlpool two arm non-tall tub dishwashers that I have had. And DEFINATELY outwash the WP tall tubs that I have had.

Dried oatmeal (usally dried for two to three days) in bowls on the upper racks have never even been even a remote challenge for the GE TW. In my non-tall tub Kenmore, Whirlpool PowerModule and WP built Kitchen-Aid it has been hit and miss for dried oatmeal in the upper rack. Usually most is removed but almost never all.

In the WP tall tub I had, was very consistent in that it never was able to totally get all the dried oatmeal off. In my GE tall tub, it was also hit or miss. Sometimes it got it all, but ufortunately often left at least some residue.

Consumer Reports also agrees that the washing performance of the 1980's tower wash GE's exceeds that of the Whirlpool built units, with the GSD 2800 and GSD 1200 getting top performance ratings.

As far as "only things getting clean in the middle of the rack." That is a funny fabrication on your part. If that were true, it would certainly have been caught by Consumer Reports in the testing of the GE tower washes from 1962/63 through the present. There would certainly have been inumerable consumer complaints. GE would not have been the number #1 selling dishwasher in the U.S. and certainly you would not be the only member of AW.com who has noticed this issue. Many, many of our members have or have had General Electric tower washes.

Attached is the thread 4418 back the recent test of my GSD1200 and cups with dried and hardened fudge sauce were placed in the corner of the upper rack with a pot, in the lower rack, blocking the spray from the lower wash arm. You can see the spotless results of those cups.

Anyway this thread is for impeller dishwashers. For someone who rinses dishes or scrapes VERY thoroughly, I think the D&M machine would be quite nice. Patrick, I believe loves his.

I was surprised in that it cleaned better than I thought. Had I done a better scraping job, the only problem would have been the dried on smoothing in the upper rack. I think that glass had the smoothie remains in it for a couple of days. I suspect that had it been washed the same day, it would most likely be clean.

With the six water changes of the General Electric "bowtie" and the food waste maceration abilities of the stainless impeller it probably would have given pristine results.

Hopefuly, one day I can find a GE "bowtie" and find out from first hand experience!

Maybe Santa will bring me one. :)



CLICK HERE TO GO TO bwoods's LINK


Post# 700963 , Reply# 33   9/3/2013 at 20:57 (3,858 days old) by washer111 ()        
Barry's Tower-Wash Thread:

When I saw John's comment, I wanted to see your response before posting that thread. How the Tower-Wash vs. Wash-Arm debate sprung up here in this thread is absolutely beyond me. But now that those comments have been made, I'll continue on:

You'll also notice in that thread there is no comment from John (not to criticize) - which is concerning as it shows he hasn't viewed the thread or didn't believe what he saw. 

As for the "silly" dishwashers that wash dishes from the top, you only have to look at the thread Barry has made of his Electronic Jenn-Air Reverse-Rack machine, or another thread, where he "Bob-Loaded" his BOL Maytag model, where the performance of his machines is demonstrated in full - in terms of its "Tower Wash" performance and "Washing from top" performance.

Jenn-Air: www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/T...
Maytag BOL: www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/T...


Post# 700966 , Reply# 34   9/3/2013 at 21:09 (3,858 days old) by washer111 ()        
Getting Back on Topic:

This looks like a fairly nice machine for habitual pre-rinsers. I wonder if having a longer main-wash (or a switch to stop the timer) would improve the results produced by the machine by any amount, or if the machine is destined to produce slimy, disgusting results each and every time?

 

As I put it, this machine would probably be loud enough to wake the living-dead... I don't know whether anything like this would even last a minute in any collection I form - I hate pre-rinsing with a passion!!!


Post# 700981 , Reply# 35   9/3/2013 at 21:54 (3,858 days old) by bwoods ()        
impeller perfromance

Yes, I think, if one wanted to increase the performance of this machine without making any major modification, Mike I think your idea would work very well.

A simple on/off switch could be put on one of the leads to the timer. This would give the detergent extra time for the enzymes to work.

If one was very ambitious they could even put a delay relay on the timer.

I agree 100 percent, prerinsing negates the whole idea of the dishwasher being a labor and resource saving device.

For people who are avid prerinsers (like my mom was) even when it is not necessary, this would be the machine for them.



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