collecting other appliances

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n0oxy

Well-known member
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Joined
Jul 28, 2015
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Location
Saint Louis Missouri, United States
I know most of us collect vacuums, I was just wondering what other appliances everyone on here collects. I've seen mixers and lawn moers mentioned. The other appliance I collect is humidifiers, I would have to count them but I currently have around 10 of them, and I have 3 more coming. In particular, I really like the ultrasonic ones, they are very quiet but can still humidify a room quickly. I do have one model that is known as an evaporative model, you have to use a filter with those and a fan blows air through it, these are much louder which is probably why the ultrasonic models are so popular. Anyway, wondering what other appliances everyone collects.
Mike
 
I collect fans mainly. Also I guess I would say I collect mixers but don't have very many. I have other kitchen appliances too but those are mostly things I use such as waffle iron, blender, etc. I don't plan to get more than one of those things, so I don't really see them as part of a collection.

Lately I've been collecting porcelain light fixtures with pull chains also. I've always had a few around but lately got interested in them again for some reason and bought more, both new and older ones.
 
mixers

I think KenKart probably has the most mixers, I think he has quite a few, I know the Sun Beam mix masters are very popular with collectors since I don't think they are made anymore. I will try and post my humidifier collection in this thread if I can get some pictures.
Mike
 
my humidifier collection

So, here is my humidifier collection, since I'm a blind person and cannot take pictures, I will post either a link from the manufacturer's site or a youtube video showing it, there are a few that are no longer made where this may not be possible.
First is the only evaporative humidifier I have, it's the Honeywell HCM2000, Honeywell humidifiers are made by Kaz which is the same company that makes the Vicks humidifiers. This humidifier is no longer made and I couldn't find any sites that I know for sure has a picture, I don't use this one too much anymore since it requires replacing a wick filter and I find the ultrasonic humidifiers actually add more humidity than the evaporative ones.
The next one is the Vicks filter free humidifier, v4500. This one does not use a filter, I'm not exactly sure how it works, it has a fan that spins in the water and creates the mist by spraying the water on to some kind of defuser. This one is also no longer made, but I found a youtube video that shows it.

Ok, now moving on to my Ultrasonic models. This first one is my daily driver, I use this in the living room during the winter months. It's unique because it combines the ultrasonic technology with a powerful fan to distribute the mist, it's an awesome unit. It's called the Vornado ultra one.
https://www.vornado.com/shop/humidifiers/ultra1-ultrasonic-humidifier
Next is the Guardian Technologies h8000, this one is nice because it has an extendable nozzle that you can attach to extend the mist higher in to the room.
https://www.guardiantechnologies.co...ist-cool-mist-humidifier-by-pureguardian.html
Next is the Boneco u700, a very nice unit with lots of features.
http://shop.boneco.us/U700.aspx?DepartmentId=34
Next is the Heaven Fresh hf710, unfortunately this one is no longer made, it's unique because it can produce a cool mist and has 3 different levels of warm mist as well, on the highest setting, it produces steam.
http://www.heavenfresh.com/index.php/products/hf-710
Next we have the Sunpentown 4010.
http://www.sunpentown.com/sudumihu.html
I use this next one at work, the air gets very dry there and you get zapped every time you touch something after getting out of your chair, it fits very well on my desk, it's the Crane warm and cool mist ultrasonic humidifier.
https://crane-usa.com/product/white-warm-cool-mist/
The last one that I currently have is called the Super Air ultrasonic humidifier and it's no longer made and I can't find any references to it, one unique feature of it is that you can fill the tank from the top.
Ok, I have 3 more on order, will hopefully get them next week, the first one is the Crane digital warm and cool mist humidifier, it's similar to what I have at work but also has a humidistat and negative ion feature.
https://crane-usa.com/product/white-digital-warm-cool-mist/
I also ordered the Holmes warm and cool mist ultrasonic humidifier.
http://www.holmesproducts.com/humid...cool-mist-humidifier/HUL8000-TUM.html#start=2
And finally I ordered the air innovations MH701b ultrasonic humidifier.
https://www.air-innovations.com/cool-mist-digital-humidifier-96-hour-run-time-mh-701b
So, there you go, that's my current collection along whith what I will hopefully have soon.
Mike
 
I think it's natural that if you collect vacs, other household items follow suit.  The only thing that really slows me down is the fact that I'm older and this is all junk to most anyone else. My sons accused me of being a hoarder. So at some point I have to arrange what happens to all this stuff. Go into AW and there's people that have rows of washer/dryers. I just can't even imagine giving up that kinda space unless you had access to your own personal warehouse.


 


I've seen pics of people's houses with a kitchen full of mixers and only enough room to sit in a chair. Same with vacs. More power to ya I guess if you can deal with it.


 


I mentored two boys in a Big Brother type program until they aged out.  One of the things we did a lot was go to yard/garage/estate sales. I thought it was a good teacher in how to handle other people's stuff, learn how to horse trade and really, those sales are just a microcosm of American life. Sellers lie and don't often disclose problems....shrouded in the fact that something is 'cheap', therefore disclosure is not necessary.  It was a good way to break them into the darker side of people. And conversely, there was ample examples of outstanding goodwill and honesty from sellers. If the boys were respectful and would ask before picking up something fragile/valuable, that went a long way toward the sale. My point in the above was that cookbooks and kitchen appliances go for next to nothing. I bought so much stuff with them I had to put the brakes on it all. I could see even buying kitchen appliances from periods like 50's/60's 70's/80's etc. After awhile, you could just look at it and tell when it was made.


 


Kevin 


 

[this post was last edited: 12/17/2017-16:33]
 
Nice collection, n0oxy!

Its also practical to have humidifiers to use during the winter.

I'm into toasters, mixers, hotplates, waffle irons, sandwich toasters.
Trying to find the 1st example of each when it was invented is also
my goal

My 1st's include the G.E. D-12 Electric Toaster, the Universal Mixer,
the Westinghouse Hotplate, and the Universal Waffle Iron.
 
when were these introduced

So, does anyone know when these appliances were first introduced? I know mixers have been around for a while, my grandmother had a mix master, that was probably made in the 1940's or 1950's. My mom and dad received a blender and an electric can opener when they got married in 1970 but I think those appliances were around before that. I've heard toasters mentioned in TV shows from the 1950's, so they were around by that point. I wonder when humidifiers came on to the market, I know the ultrasonic models came out in the 1980's but I think humidifiers of some type were around before that. Certainly the vaporizers that use a heating element to boil water and release steam were around before then, but I'm not sure when the cool mist ones were invented. When I was growing up, we had a Hankscraft cool mist humidifier, interestingly, those are collector's items now. The one we had would always wet the floor, the mist it produced was too thick.
Mike
 
You can figure that with the advent of electricity in homes, the appliances started to come out as fast as they were invented. Rural homes were quite a differnt deal than urban, as they typically lagged behind in 'newfangled devices'.


 


From the 40's on it was a race for the most 'conveniences' in the kitchen. By the 50's most people had a TV and then that launched the 'space age' in appliances.....a salesman's dream market.


 


Kevin 
 
Actually Sunbeam Mixmasters are still made, but aren't nearly as well made as the old ones and don't have attachments like they did in the 80s and prior.

I have so much stuff already, that sometimes I worry I could become a hoarder. But I've been getting better lately at not buying stuff that I think would be nice, but I don't need. Just because it's nice and I can afford it doesn't mean I need it because it will just be something else in the way. It can be hard because much of what I like to do for fun is go for drives on the weekend to relax after a long week. Usually this involves go to yard sales, thrift stores, flea markets, etc. At least it is cheap compared to going other places like theme parks, movies, etc.

In a way the last few years it was getting worse because I first started out with fans, which my collection really started growing after 2008. Then I discovered vintage vacuums and got some of those, but they took up too much space so I stopped getting them. Then about two years ago I started getting into small appliances more, such as mixers. I was getting a few smalls back in 2008, but this time it was more.

Now I've been getting into light fixtures, which like small appliances don't take up as much space as vacuums.
 
Firsts

Kitchen aid 1919 universal mix a beater 1918,I have these' sunbeam mixmaster 1930,I have many of the first models, I have the early single beater Edison hot point mixer as well as the 1930s hotpoints
 
The hoarding gene...

I have to fight that tendency. It runs deep in my family. My paternal grandparents' house, where they lived for more than 50 years, was packed to the gills with stuff. One room upstairs had actually had its door changed to open outward instead of inward and quite literally, nobody had set foot in there in years. All you could do was lean in and reach.

My dad collected antique toys for most of his adult life and now I'm saddled with about 90 percent of that collection and selling it stuff off is a job in and of itself. I spent about 14 hours photographing and listing stuff on eBay this weekend. I have to sell a minimum of $165--after expenses--each month, just to stay even with the storage unit rent. It's enough to make me swear off collecting anything, but I haven't done that just yet. I'm just becoming a whole lot pickier about what I bring into the house and I've started selling off some of my own stuff in addition to Dad's collection.

In addition to my modest assortment of 18 vacuum cleaners and related accessories and supplies, I also have about a dozen cameras of various types, along with way too many lenses, flashes, tripods and other related items. I also have a handful of vintage stereo components, some of which get more use than others. I also collect fine writing instruments, especially hand turned wood pens. I love them because they're small and don't take up much space.

Honestly, I can see the day in the not too distant future when I'm just going to have to have a big ass auction and unload a bunch of stuff without worrying whether I'm getting top dollar for it. It'll be hard to do, but I'll certainly feel better about it afterward.
 
As far as I know...

The G.E. D-12 Toaster was patented in 1908

The Universal Waffle Iron (actually Thermax
by Landers, Frary and Clark) dates from abt. 1910.

The Westinghouse Hot Plate (originally called
a Table Stove) also dates from 1910.
 
Interesting story Edgar, about your dad's stuff. I kinda had a conversation about my junk with my son today......didn't go well. He said he'd hire someone to come in and get rid of it all. I'm gonna try to make other arrangements. Hopefully, my grandson will grow up to have a head on his shoulders and do something more than 'hire someone to get rid of it all'. Auctioneers ask for up to 40% these days...probably do just as well selling to a pawn shop. I too have an assortment of cameras and Fuji quit making film for one of them a few yrs ago...right after I bought the camera and felt like I was 'safe' on the film issue.


 


I've got an early West Bend convection oven/skillet combo that is an amazing appliance. The top fan pulls off and you can seal the lid and cook conventional without it (two separate cords; one for the fan, one for the heating element!). I think the coil that runs the brushless fan isn't quite up to snuff as it takes awhile for the fan to get to speed. I had the original manual for it, but temp misplaced it in this move. I found a manual online that covers this cooker....with a lot more recipes than my original. So I've been combing the Net for West Bend products and I need to knock that off immediately...lol.


 


Kevin


 


 
 
Small collector here. Like vacuums I tend to try a few to get the one that works best for what I want/ am doing. Its how it got started for me. Mixers, blenders, cooking pots, mixing bowls. About it.
 
I’ve been known to collect vacuums, of course, but most people probably don’t know that I also collect all sorts of things. Irons were the first non-vacuum collection, mostly vintage electric irons. I also have a couple old fans, and want more. Then there are vintage radios, mostly tabletop and clock radios, and of course mixers and blenders. None of these collections are as large in numbers as the vacuum collection though. Someday I’ll have one of those houses completely set up with vintage everything. A time capsule house! Not to say there won’t be modern electronics and such hiding around...
 
old radios

I've heard that with old radios, especially the ones with tubes, that if you touch them when they are plugged in that you will get zapped, does anyone know if there is anytruth to this? Also, got the first humidifier I ordered, the Crane model, very nice.
Mike
 
yes and no...

Touching the outside of the cabinet of an old tube radio or TV set won't hurt you but what's inside definitely can, if you don't know what you're doing. When I took an electronics class in high school, the teacher demonstrated by waving a neon tube around in the open space in the back of a TV set and it lit up without being connected to anything. That said, the really dangerous charges aren't stored in the tubes but in the capacitors, which can hold a charge for quite some time after the set is turned off and unplugged.
 
Edgar nailed it!

The outside of a vintage tube radio or TV won’t hurt you, get inside to the chassis, that’s a different story! In addition to vacuums, I also collect electric fans, vintage Christmas Lights, and antique tube TV’s and radios. The old TV’s are the worst! They can store voltages inside certain areas that are in excess of 15Kv (15,000 volts), plenty enough to kill a person if they weren’t careful. I heard an old repair tech one time say “they call them flyback transformers for a reason.....you touch one, and you’ll most likely ‘flyback’ out of that case!”

s31463221-2017122014411209801_1.jpg

s31463221-2017122014411209801_2.jpg
 
capacitors and ultrasonic humidifiers

These are also found in microwaves and switching power supplies I think, I've never opened one of these and I don't think I want to. I find it really interesting how these ultrasonic humidifiers work, apparently what drives the ultrasonic transducer is a pieso electric driver, apparently these have quite a charge as well. At one point, curiosity got the better of me and I took off the tank while one of them was running and stuck my finger in the ripple of water. It was a very weird sensation, not a shock per say but it felt like my finger was getting slammed in a car door, definitely proves that there is a lot of water in your skin. It's interesting that a vibration like that can actually break up water in to a mist. All ultrasonic humidifiers I have seen also have an automatic shut off, I guess the transducer running without water would cause it to overheat.
Mike
 
more on getting shocked by old radios

Here is the text that I had read about getting shocked by old radios, it probably explains it better than I did in my previous message.
Mike
The following applies to a great deal of really old electronics, not just the radios described below. They were often called something like "AC/DC sets" with no power transformer, no isolation, and the metal chassis and other user accessible parts connected directly to one side of the AC line.
(From: Jim Locke ([email protected]).)
Tube radios made several decades ago are now collectors' items (literally 100s are offered for auction on eBay) and they had a metal chassis which was often connected to one side of the AC line. The user would get a shock if he or she simultaneously touched the electrically hot chassis and a separate ground. There was no safe way for the plug. Commonly, the chassis would be hot when the radio was off but at ground potential when the radio was on, or vice versa, depending on which way the plug was in the outlet. Earlier radios had set screws in their knobs, which provided electrical connection from a human turning the knob to the chassis. Also, screws through the bottom of the case connected to the chassis, and the back had ventilation holes large enough for fingers to reach the chassis. So, it was easy to connect the body to the chassis. Later models provided isolated chassis, plastic shafts for the knobs, etc., but still presented a shock hazard. I would recommend that collectors of working tube radios power them through GFCI devices. Furthermore, in a collection of radios, each radio should have a separate GFCI device, to detect when a human completes the circuit between two radios! If the two radios are on the same GFCI device, it will not trip. There is still a shock hazard with either or both radios switched off, but plugged in. More information may be found at Fun With Tubes .
 
ultrasonic devices

n0oxy wrote:
At one point, curiosity got the better of me and I took off the tank while one of them was running and stuck my finger in the ripple of water. It was a very weird sensation, not a shock per say but it felt like my finger was getting slammed in a car door, definitely proves that there is a lot of water in your skin.

I reply:
I remember a similar sensation when I stuck my hand in the water tank of an ultrasonic cleaning device for window blinds. It did indeed feel a bit like a mild electrical tingle but the guy running it said it was completely harmless, just the ultrasonic vibrations passing through the water and my hand.
 
I have a few old TVs and radios...

Regarding lethality of vintage electronics, HV in a TV set is painful but has almost no current and thus is not even close to lethal. I even proved that myself one day when I forgot to connect the ground clip on my high voltage probe to the chassis. People online can get quite hyperbolic on this subject. TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND VOLTS just has a scarey sound to it. Hot chassis radios are fine if you don't have it disasembled, running, and are grounded yourself. It is quite a big critera to match to get shocked. And to those who jump up and down over electrolytic filter caps being lethal, yes they are if somehow you bridge the connection with both hands. When people get shocked working on electronics usually ones hand touches two things simultainously shocking just that hand.

For those wanting some entertainment and to learn a bit about vintage electronics I suggest you look at these three youtube channels. Shango066 can repair almost anything and has a unique sense of humor. 'TVPhonoNut has an affinity for vintage classroom record players and goes on long winded rants about "how things used(and aut) to be". Doug Harland (DRH4683) is 1960s through and through(in everything but his age).

*Shango066: https://www.youtube.com/user/shango066
*RadioTVPhonoNut: https://www.youtube.com/user/radiotvphononut
*DRH4683: https://www.youtube.com/user/drh4683
 
TV set CRT voltage-careful here in saying its lethal or not-it MAY be LETHAL to an elder person with a weak heart-so still be CAREFUL!!!!As we get older a voltage that was not dangerous while you were younger-MAY be dangerous as you get older.

AC-DC sets-Hot chassis sets should be wired with a polarized cord-the chassis is wired to the wide or neutral pin on the cord and plug.Or the sets can be run from an isolation transformer.These are available from electronic suppliers.You will absolutely need that iso-former if you are doing troubleshooting and tests on the AC-DC units.I made up one from some military surplus gear.The transformer was marked 1A @120V-I ran a 10A load off it just fine!!!Did not heat up at all!!!Most military and surplus stuff has overating on them.
 
got my humidifiers and considering a couple more

Got all three of the humidifiers I ordered, I now have 13 I think, will have to count them to know for sure. All of them are really nice, I definitely prefer the ultrasonics over the evaporative type, no filters to replace and much quieter, the only down side is they leave a white dust on everything, and that requires a wet rag to remove, a vacuum's dusting brush doesn't really remove it for some reason.
Mike
 

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