Geez, looks like a match to Jon Charles' Filter-Flo washer (a 1960, I believe!)

Blue on the control panel - only in 1961, I believe.

lawrence

But actually there was ONE 1960 GE dryer that looked much like this one and the control panel was almost identical; I put the cut sheet for it below. I've never seen one in person but you can tell by the illustration that the bezel has that blue-on-blue design; the controls and the dryer door pedal are different.

I have this exact dryer, a DA-720V (1961) and I love it, more for its significance and looks than its features; it's an MOL without an Automatic cycle, but it does have a gorgeous lighted dial, a drum light and the dumbest door pedal GE ever designed (it was discontinued immediately after this model year).

500 dollars is an unrealistic price for this dryer no matter how well preserved it is. They'd be lucky to get 100 dollars, even from me.

From the point of view of ergonomics, most dryer foot pedals required more movements than simply grabbing hold of a handle or the edge of a dryer door and pulling it open. Ditto for fridges, once the latch-handle refrigerator door became obsolete.

The problem with the GE 1961 dryer foot pedal was that, compared to models before and after. the '61 pedals used lots more metal and relied on bending a long strip of metal to pull on the magnetic latch. It looked kinda cool and fit into the whole "straight-line" aesthetic, but it was a design that just begged for metal fatigue. Having used a lot of GE dryers with pedals, even when they're in perfect working condition, you just get tired of trying to find them with your foot in relative darkness and just grab the edge of the door which always worked just fine.

Were foot pedals work really well in kitchens and where they make a significant difference both in terms of convenience and sanitation is when they're installed on sink faucets. Think about it.

I submit that any arrangement using a pedal would be more complicated and involve more parts than any arrangement using a simple friction catch; both of which would translate into more expensive.  And we all know how manufacturers feel about higher manufacturing costs.

Also, any arrangement using a pedal would be difficult to combine with a reversible door - a feature that most manufacturers strive to offer on both dryers and refrigerators and I daresay the customer has grown to expect.

lawrence

Another problem that GE must have had with their foot pedal dryers equipped with magnetic latches is that they can pop open easily, sometimes by being shut too energetically, sometimes by being struck from the inside by tumbling articles. This would have caused a lot of costly service calls with a problem that couldn't be resolved easily. It is interesting to me how many of my GE dryers equipped with these magnets still function as designed. I don't know enough about the physics of magnets to know whether they have a half-life or some other expiration.

My favorite was the multi-talented door on the TOL Panel-fronted Whirlpool dryers offered the best access and were worth the extra cost. Second from that were the large full-width TOL doors on both the Kenmores and the Whirlpools that folded down with a stop in the middle that let the door act as a laundry chute. It would have been nice, however, if the actual dryer opening had been as large and high up as GE's. I guess you can't have it all.

I've also like the very few top-loading dryers, like the Fisher & Paykel, that I've seen.