Before WWII, Whirlpool was primarily a supplier of washers to Sears. They had few, if any products sold outside of Sears; so they were an unknown company to the public.

After the war they wanted to get into the consumer appliance business with a line outside of Sears (who was still their major customer).

RCA somewhere along the way had bought out a company called Estate that made ranges and sold them under the RCA Estate brand. Whirlpool came along in the early 50's and wanted to buy Estate. Since Whirlpool was little known at the time they struck a deal with RCA to use their name for I think 10 years. It also gave them access to RCA dealers to sell their appliances.

I think I read somewhere that color TV development was sucking down cash so fast at RCA that they jumped at the deal with Whirlpool to suppliment their funds. It worked out good for Whirlpool because they're still the biggest maker of appliances today (and still a major supplier to Sears).

If it says "RCA Whilrpool," RCA really didn't have anything to do with it. It was just a marketing tool.