7 Defunct Brands That Still Have Parts Available

W.L. May stocks parts for the top selling appliance brands in the United States. Naturally those are the majority of the calls that we receive, but there are some appliance brands that were once popular, but are no longer being sold. Occasionally we will get requests for some parts for those older machines. As long as the parts are still being produced, we can frequently surprise our clients with access to pieces on those older units. Here are few older brands that we still can get parts for.

1.Montgomery Ward: Younger readers may not remember, but once Montgomery Wards was a major department store that was Sears main rival in many communitties. Much like Sears with their Kenmore brand, Montgomery Wards also sold appliances under the Montgomery Wards brand name. 

2.J.C. Penney-Another department store that sold appliances to compete with Sears was J.C. Penney. It doesn't seem that they had the same sales volume as Wards or Sears, but there are still some of these appliances out there.

3.Gaffers and Sattler-A popular brand in the 1950's and 1960's, Gaffers & Sattler were acquired by Magic Chef in 1969.

4.O'Keefe and Meritt-A West Coast company based out of Los Angeles, O'Keefe and Meritt were a well known regional range builder that built some durable appliances for many years before being acquired by Tappan (another older brand we can get parts for!). 

5.Caloric-Started in the 1890's as Klein Stove Company, the Caloric Line was introduced in 1903 eventually taking the company name and proving to be a very popular brand in the 1950's. Raytheon, who owned Speed Queen and Amana purchased the company in 1967. By the early 1990's, the Caloric name was phased out.

6.Hardwick-Starting in the late 1800's, Hardwick began making Cast Iron Stoves. As natural gas and electric stoves gained popularity, Hardwick began manufacturing those. A successful company for most of the 20th Century, Hardwick was acquired by Maytag in 1981 and discontinued production.

7.Modern Maid-Started in the 1950's as the electric range division of Tennessee Stove Works, a company founded in 1914.  They had a lot of success in the 50's and 60's. and merged with McGraw-Edison,  under that merger they produced appliances through the 1970's before the brand was acquired by Amana who would shutter the factory by the early 80's.

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