Thursday, May 8, 2014

We used to make things in this country. #151: Standard Appliance Manufacturing Company, Toronto, Ontario

An old space heater I picked up years ago.  It still works fine.





Update November 2023; Reader Cliff sends images of a similar unit still in regular use.




Below, a later model I still use in my shop:





Below, some of their other products being advertised for sale on the web.  Another space heater:

A toaster:
A waffle iron:


The waffle iron is pictured on Books, Cooks, Gadgets and Gardening, and the blogger has this to say:


"This Canadian made grill and waffler is quite heavy and very well made. Even the cord is made in Canada.
Electric Waffle bakers, Sandwich grills or “presses” as they were also known were very well accepted by consumers when they were introduced in the 1920s and “Combination” appliances that with removable, interchangeable plates, could perform as a waffle iron, sandwich grill or as a griddle when the top was fully open and flat, were very popular from the time they appeared in the mid-to-late 1930s.
Manufacturers competed to produce appliances that were both beautiful and functional. Some of those produced in the 1930s could be considered works of art. It was the height of the Art Deco style movement that continued well into the 1940s. Many of these appliances exhibit the “streamline” forms that reflected industrial design of everything from ships to locomotives. The 1939-40 World’s Fair represented the culmination of this period of design innovation that had begun almost twenty years earlier in the 1920s."

 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've got a two burner hotplate made by this company. It was called the Standard "Gourmet 520" and if you'd like I could send you a picture.

Wish the box showed the year of manufacture but I'm guessing late 80s though it looks like today's versions. Late 80s was when manufacturing crashed in Eastern Canada, following the NAFTA trade deal. About 250,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Canada after NAFTA.

Mister G said...

And the jobs continue to disappear... Please send a picture if you can, I'll add it to the post. gerald@vanwyngaarden.ca Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I stumbled onto your site looking for information about my Model 351. Given that the 351 is a fan-forced 500/1000/1500W lowboy white painted metal box (with an orange neon dome power light perched on top😲. That still works 😳. And doesn't flicker.😲. At all.🤯), I'm thinking mine's from the 1960-1970's? The "51" in the nomenclature suggests that Standard didn't necessarily update their models very often; maybe the previous model was a 251? That would mean that this is only the second heater they designed after the 151 shown above?
🤣🤣🤣
Anyway, she's heating the room right now, the motor is whisper-quiet & strong, & so is the heat she's pumping out. A bit of rust bubbling through the paint, but then again I did rescue her from an outdoor pile of scrap where she probably sat for a few years. Who knows how many decades since she'd last been used? Blew a desert's worth of dust out of her, didn't bother to even lubricate the motor which runs LIKE NEW🤯🤯 & she works 10x better than any of that plastic PRC crap that's all you see today! Clearly built to last a lifetime. Or three. Or five.
Lemme know if you want me to forward a photo to add to the distinguished list shown above!

Anonymous said...

I've got the exact same heater, except the "Catalogue" # is slightly different. Whereas yours a #66, mine is an #AG60. Everything looks identical except the colour of the centerpiece is slightly bronzed in colour, with rather less oxidation. The element in mine just crapped out a couple of years ago, after about 2 decades of faithful service...AFTER I found it discarded at the local "tip". I think I accidentally splashed a couple of drops on the element about 3 years ago, this caused a hot spot to start developing on the heating filament which slowly got worse & worse, brighter & brighter, until it was bright yellow & finally opened up in that spot.
I refused to throw it away, & I'm glad I held onto it. It worked too well not to try to fix somehow.
Fortunately, out of perseverance & sheer luck, I crossed paths with another hoarder who kindly sold me his box of spares of all sorts for $5, maybe $10. Lo & behold, there was a brand new element, ceramic molded base & all, in the collection! Should have it back in service within the week; the weather's turning rather chilly now!

Mister G said...

Hoarders rule. Keep us posted on the progress and send pictures! gerald@vanwyngaarden.ca

cdo said...

As I write this I'm basking in the warmth of one of Standard Appliances' radiant heaters (one of two that I have). My grandparents bought them sometime in the late 1950's or early in the 1960's for use at the family cottage on Stoney Lake (I remember them as a kid) and they've been in use every year since then. I think I replaced the cord on one about ten years back. As can be seen from the photos this unit is higher powered at 1000W, the other one is a 660W unit. I wish current products were as robust in their design as these are; Standard obviously knew what they were doing. I doubt the Chinese will ever match them.