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Toaster Central: Antique and Vintage Toasters and Waffle Irons

Finnucane 7y ago
Just this morning I cranked up my Sunbeam CG-1 waffle iron for our Sunday brunch. Still works pretty good for an appliance that’s on the order of 60 years old.
dang 7y ago
Recent toaster thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014
Maxion 7y ago
Here's an interesting video on why these old toasters are better than the modern ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
- dang 7y ago
  Discussed in depth! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014
reaperducer 7y ago
This site makes me miss living in New York. They have everything there. Also, one of the toasters on display is the same one that was given to me when I went to college. https://toastercentral.com/images/2SimplexT211-4921DL-02.jpg https://toastercentral.com/images/2SimplexT211-4921DL-02.jpg
sidpatil 7y ago
I love websites like this—online museums which catalog relatively-mundane items. It reminds me that these "mundane" items actually have a lot of history, and I'm sure a lot of interesting stories from those who worked on them.
- Stratoscope 7y ago
  Coincidentally, last night I learned about a similar website by a collector of antique radios, Radio Heaven: http://radioheaven.homestead.com/ http://radioheaven.homestead.com/ I was talking with Ron W4RON on ham radio and he mentioned that he collects old radios and told me about his site. I asked him if he had a Truetone radio and he said he had one from the 1930s. I went on to explain that in the 1970s I saw a Truetone radio at a neighbor's garage sale, and the printing on the back panel said: Equipped with Truetone Stratoscope Eliminates Aerial and Ground (The Stratoscope was a coil antenna on the inside of the cardboard back panel.) I thought the Truetone Stratoscope name was pretty cool, and I adopted it as my hippie nickname and later my online handle. I used to try to get Truetone but someone always beat me to it, so I started using Stratoscope. Ron said his Truetone radio didn't have a Stratoscope but he was familiar with it; it was something they added later. Here's a Truetone Stratoscope from another antique radio site: https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/western_auto_supply/d2610_truetone_160_551837.jpg https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/western_auto_supply... https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/western_au_d2610.html https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/western_au_d2610.html Back to Radio Heaven, Ron has a neat story of how he got started collecting radios and some wisdom he learned from his mom (edited for brevity): I went with my mother to a local flea market and there sitting on the tailgate of a pickup just inside the gate was...an Atwater Kent model 20. I remember the dealer had it priced at $15, I only had $10 so I asked my mom for $5 so I could buy the radio. She said "I'm not going to give you $5 to buy that old piece of junk, if you want it try to haggle him down to $10". Well, he took the $10 and I was hooked, not only on old radio, but haggling with dealers over their price.

Just this morning I cranked up my Sunbeam CG-1 waffle iron for our Sunday brunch. Still works pretty good for an appliance that’s on the order of 60 years old.

dang 7y ago

Recent toaster thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014

Maxion 7y ago

Here's an interesting video on why these old toasters are better than the modern ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y

dang 7y ago
Discussed in depth! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014

reaperducer 7y ago

This site makes me miss living in New York. They have everything there. Also, one of the toasters on display is the same one that was given to me when I went to college. https://toastercentral.com/images/2SimplexT211-4921DL-02.jpg https://toastercentral.com/images/2SimplexT211-4921DL-02.jpg

sidpatil 7y ago

I love websites like this—online museums which catalog relatively-mundane items. It reminds me that these "mundane" items actually have a lot of history, and I'm sure a lot of interesting stories from those who worked on them.

Stratoscope 7y ago
Coincidentally, last night I learned about a similar website by a collector of antique radios, Radio Heaven: http://radioheaven.homestead.com/ http://radioheaven.homestead.com/ I was talking with Ron W4RON on ham radio and he mentioned that he collects old radios and told me about his site. I asked him if he had a Truetone radio and he said he had one from the 1930s. I went on to explain that in the 1970s I saw a Truetone radio at a neighbor's garage sale, and the printing on the back panel said: Equipped with Truetone Stratoscope Eliminates Aerial and Ground (The Stratoscope was a coil antenna on the inside of the cardboard back panel.) I thought the Truetone Stratoscope name was pretty cool, and I adopted it as my hippie nickname and later my online handle. I used to try to get Truetone but someone always beat me to it, so I started using Stratoscope. Ron said his Truetone radio didn't have a Stratoscope but he was familiar with it; it was something they added later. Here's a Truetone Stratoscope from another antique radio site: https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/western_auto_supply/d2610_truetone_160_551837.jpg https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/western_auto_supply... https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/western_au_d2610.html https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/western_au_d2610.html Back to Radio Heaven, Ron has a neat story of how he got started collecting radios and some wisdom he learned from his mom (edited for brevity): I went with my mother to a local flea market and there sitting on the tailgate of a pickup just inside the gate was...an Atwater Kent model 20. I remember the dealer had it priced at $15, I only had $10 so I asked my mom for $5 so I could buy the radio. She said "I'm not going to give you $5 to buy that old piece of junk, if you want it try to haggle him down to $10". Well, he took the $10 and I was hooked, not only on old radio, but haggling with dealers over their price.