A family photograph with an old refrigerator in the background is usually about the people in front of it. Whirlpool is betting that Americans will notice the appliance, too.
Whirlpool Corporation is marking its 115th year by asking consumers to submit photographs featuring appliances from Whirlpool, KitchenAid, JennAir, Maytag, Amana or InSinkErator. The company will give away 115 appliances and countertop products, one for each year since the business that became Whirlpool was founded in 1911.
The promotion, announced Aug. 27, is the consumer-facing part of a broader anniversary campaign that runs toward Whirlpool’s official Nov. 11 milestone. But the number 115 tells only the nostalgic half of the story. Whirlpool reaches the anniversary as a company more concentrated on the Americas, more exposed to the health of the U.S. appliance market and more vocal about domestic manufacturing than it has been in years.
What Whirlpool Is Giving Away
According to Whirlpool’s official sweepstakes announcement, entries are open through 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 27. Entrants submit a photo that clearly shows one of the eligible brands and a caption of up to 300 characters describing the memory.
- 70 KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-quart tilt-head stand mixers with accessory packs
- 30 KitchenAid Pure Power blenders
- 5 Whirlpool Smart Front Load washers with FreshFlow Vent System
- 5 Maytag 5.0-cubic-foot Smart Front Load washers with Pet Pro
- 5 Whirlpool third-rack dishwashers with Advanced ProDry
No purchase is required. The promotion is open to adults in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C.; Alaska and Hawaii are excluded. Whirlpool says it will arrange standard delivery, installation and removal of an existing appliance where applicable.
From Wringer Washers to Six Familiar U.S. Brands
The company traces its beginning to Lou Upton and his uncle Emory, who developed an electric motor-driven wringer washer in Michigan. The enterprise started in 1911 and eventually became Whirlpool Corporation, accumulating brands that now put the company’s products into kitchens and laundry rooms under names that consumers may not always realize share the same parent.
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Whirlpool says a 2025 third-party survey found at least one of its products in three-quarters of U.S. households covered by the survey. Its 2025 annual report shows why that reach matters financially: North America accounted for 66% of company sales, while refrigeration, laundry, cooking and dishwashing together make Whirlpool one of the broadest major-appliance portfolios in the market.
The company reported about $16 billion in 2025 net sales and 41,000 employees worldwide. Nearly 90% of sales came from the Americas.
The Anniversary Arrives at a Difficult Moment
Anniversaries invite companies to tell uncomplicated stories. Whirlpool’s current business is more complicated.
Whirlpool’s second-quarter results showed net sales falling 6.8% from a year earlier to $3.52 billion as weak U.S. appliance demand and higher costs pressured the business. The company’s decision to become more Americas-focused makes a U.S. housing and replacement-market slowdown particularly important.
At the same time, Whirlpool has leaned hard into its domestic-manufacturing identity. In a June anniversary announcement, the company said it employs about 20,000 people in the United States across 11 manufacturing communities and additional offices, and that roughly 80% of the major appliances it sells in the U.S. are made in American factories. Whirlpool also said it spent $23 billion on U.S. manufacturing, labor and logistics over the past decade.
Those are company-reported figures, but the physical manufacturing footprint is substantial. Appliance News recently covered Whirlpool’s apprenticeship programs at its Clyde, Ohio, washer plant, where the company is trying to develop the skilled workforce needed to keep large-scale U.S. appliance production running.
Why Old Appliance Photos Are More Than Nostalgia
The sweepstakes is designed as marketing, and consumers should understand it that way. Yet the photographs Whirlpool is soliciting capture something real about the appliance business that product launches often miss: major appliances are unusually long-lived consumer goods.
A refrigerator or washer can sit in the same room through graduations, new babies, moves and renovations. When it finally fails, the replacement decision can be influenced by an experience that began 10 or 15 years earlier. That makes brand memory unusually valuable in an industry where the interval between purchases is measured in years rather than months.
It also explains why Whirlpool’s six eligible U.S. brands matter. A consumer may remember a grandmother’s KitchenAid mixer, a parent’s Maytag washer and a Whirlpool refrigerator as separate household objects without thinking about the corporation connecting them.
November Is the Real Anniversary
The current giveaway closes Sept. 27, with winner notifications scheduled to begin Sept. 28. Whirlpool says its broader celebration will continue toward Nov. 11, the company’s official 115th anniversary date.
By then, the old family photographs may provide Whirlpool with exactly the anniversary imagery it wants. The more consequential question will remain in the present: whether a company built around American appliance manufacturing can turn that heritage into an advantage while the U.S. market it increasingly depends on remains difficult.
