One of the rarest machines of all was found by one of our members while on a visit here last week. He called and let me know where it was so I went to pick it up today in, of all places, Newton, Iowa! I was told by the person selling it that it was removed five years ago from a house (kitchen I believe) where it was used rather little - and it shows! I still can't believe it and keep peeking out in the garage to make sure it's not a dream! I gave it a preliminary sponge bath for a photo shoot but I'll put a cord on it later and give it a spin and see what sort of work we're in for. This will be a fascinating machine to restore and even more fun to watch running! Let's give a very big Discuss-O-Mat Thank You to Jerry for the tip on the location - I've always said 'if we ever find a Maytag combo, we'll find one in Iowa - in or near Newton' and there it was! Oh, did I mention it's yellow??

We've spent a total of 20 hours in the car this weekend but brought home some beautiful things from Tulsa and Newton so it makes the exhaustion all worthwhile! I have a couple of very cute photos that Jerry shared with me to post soon from when he was 8 years old in 1959 playing with his washer "toys" that are really adorable and I also have pictures of the Tulsa trip - namely the "Holy Grail 1-18 set" and a couple of stunning jukeboxes in Bruce's collection that I will post soon. For now, step through the Maytag Combo Door and enjoy!

OMG, and that isn't sufficient to say. I know Lisa Douglas will be happy toknow a sibbling/cousin of her old washer/dryer is going on to greener acres/pastures in Omaha, Neb. Oh Olivahh!!!

GREG, THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! YOU DO REALIZE THAT THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT VINTAGE APPLIANACE FIND OF 2004! Congratulations 100 times over!

Looks like I'm going to have to take another trip to Omaha this year to see it in person, and in sunny yellow no less.

I can't wait to see more pictures. This is another video in the making for sure.

Greg, this is truly a great find!!!! I can't wait to see pics of your first load! What kind of capacity did these machines hold; the drum looks pretty big. It looks like it is in pristine condition. Congratulations of your new baby!
Todd

Greg,
This is a Great find - I know so many have spoke about finding this particular combo for a long time.
Best of Luck
Peter

WOW Greg, this is wonderful! Not only did you find a Maytag Combo, you found one that's nearly pristine inside and out!! The appliance gods have surely blessed you; maybe an Apex automatic will appear in the not-so-distant future! Can't wait to see if it works!

Again, much congratulations!

As a follow-up I didn't notice the dispensers were on the door opening. IMHO, hidden dispensers look better, but I wonder how many Maytag Combo owners forgot to add fabric softener/bleach before they started it, and then it was too late??

Also, what is the approximate year of this machine?

As for the "Holy Grail" TOL 1-18s, I would be thrilled to see a set like that in person!

Greg, I can't believe this. Is this a one of a kind club find isn't it. This machine is beautiful. I don't know much about Maytag combo machines. Are these vented or condensor machines. I can't wait to see it in action. Thank you for the pics. This is a real treasure.

Dano

OH MY Greg, I am so happy for you, funny to that we were just talking about there having to be a least one of them in Newton on our recent trip there!!I can't wait to see this beauty in action!!Congratulations.

That's so cool! Congratulations and good luck!

What a wonderful treasure Greg!!!! And three cheers for Jerry ofcourse for finding it. I hope it doesn't need too much work. Keep us informed!

Wow! What a find, and in beautiful condition! I've never seen one before. What vintage would it be? Early '60s? Congrats on your find!

Congratulations! Those Eva Gabor Maytag Combos are rarer than hen's teeth! May it bring you years of faithful service.

O h Greg its beautiful just beautiful! I'll be in that Jeep with Robert!!! That drum has the same access door like the GE Combo?YES,NO? AND IS THAT--COULD IT BE---COPPER on that backsplash???

WHAT A FIND WHAT A GREAT SUMMER! We've all had super finds but this is the Rarest of them all!

I told Robert we should have detoured around Des Moines but-- NO what do I know!!
Its so freaky that you were just there a few weeks earlier and probably less than a mile from it and it was sitting there all along!
Advance Scouts thats what we need , we need to train the public as advance scouts and give them extra points when they find something!!

Get that power cord up and mounted and give me a call!

Congratulations Greg I am very happy for you and I am checking airfares!!


jon

Jon Charles, I was thinking the exact same thought (about the GE Combo) when I saw the pic of the door opened. And, I got to hear it spin over the phone last night. It sounded so much like a Bendix.

I'm checking those fares too Jon! When I woke up this morning I thought that I must have had a dream about Greg finding a Maytag combo, then the best part was to realize it was true!! It has been a wonderful year for so many in the club and I couldn't be happier for everyone!!

Congratulations Greg, what a beauty that combo is.Looking forward to seeing pics of the machine going through it's paces.
Happy washing!

PC

Congrats, Greg! What a beautiful machine! What a great find. I agree this has been a wonderful summer. Good things come to those who wait!

Mike

how wonderful. how lucky are you. am very happy to hear the good news

Greg,
I can't get over you have a Maytag Combo!
I always thought that if someone did find one, it would be one that someone put out in their yard or barn, and it had been sitting there for 30 years or so. The machine you found looks like it is showroom condition!
I could not be more happy for you!
Can't wait to hear about the first trial run. I bet that there is nothing at all wrong with it!
Thanks for the pictures!
I just can't get over your find!
Brent

What a find!! I am very happy for you!

If I am not totally mistaken, Maytag combos were condenser dryers.

Congrats on your rare find. Thankyou for keeping us posted and the time to take pics after the "roadtrip" This is an electric 220v. machine?, The small dial turns and not the large one with the numbers and the blue tab is moved to the drying stop time, is that right? Thanks again alr2903

Hi all and thanks for the well-wishes on the new baby! It is a beauty and I'm very lucky to have one in such nice condition. I wired a cord to it last night - 30A/240v - and fired it up. There were two distinct squeals, more like screams, from the mechanism. One was from the pump and the other was the blower pulley rubbing against the transmission housing. I suspect the previous owner used it mostly as a dryer so there is probably lots of lint and hard water scale from the condenser system jammed in the pump and around the blower and baffle system. Maytag used an interesting method for their "Sealed In Climate" condenser dryers, it has a blower spinning at 2150 rpm which a stream of water is directed to at the rate of approx. 3 1/2 pints per minute. When that stream of water hits that spinning fan/blower, it gets smashed apart and creates a mist effect to condense the warm moisture being drawn in from the drum. The cooled, dry air is then directed back through the heating elements and into the drum. This same design was also used in their condenser stand-alone dryers up until the introduction of the '06' models in 1966. The good news is that the transmission seems to work fine in tumble and spin modes although judging by the years-old oil mess on the base plate, looks like it needs to be refilled with oil.

The controls for the washer are fairly straightforward, there is a chime that sounds at the end of the wash phase and again at the end of the drying phase when Wash & Wear is selected and there is no heating of the clothes during the final spin on the W&W or Delicate cycles. W&W defaults to cold rinsing no matter what wash temp is chosen. There is a spray rinse and three deep rinses, the timed fab. softener dispenser is activated in the final rinse of all cycles. The bleach dispenser is a simple holding tank that is flushed in the main wash and emptied during drain (connected to sump). The dryer timer is the small tab on the control dial which selects the drying time after the wash cycle.

I found the service manual for this model 340W combo on ebay a while back so I'm also very lucky to have all this information. Even though it's in good cosmetic condition, I'll still have to disassemble it to make sure the blower/condenser assembly is clean and inspect/repair the pump, etc. which will probably all add up to no small job. I'm anxious to see it running (there is a tub light that will undoubtedly be wired "on" whenever the machine is running ;-) so I will take pics all along the journey to it's first load.

GREG! I BOW TO YOU!!! MOST HOLY ONE!!! WHAT A FIND!!!!Mark

So does anyone know what was so bad about these machines that Maytag felt compelled to recall them? That's a pretty big step, something they haven't even done with the Neptune. Fortunately, there probably won't be much trouble with this machine since it won't be seeing the service it would in a normal household. Do you think Maytag might have thrown out all the spare parts figuring they wouldn't need them because of the recall? Hopefully not.

So would you say that the Maytag Combo used just as much, if not more water during the dry cycle as the Bendix Combo that you have? I have to say that it sounds like such a complex drying system. I bet the clothes would come out so fluffy with all of the moisture.
What does the machine look like with the back off? Is it very crowded under the cabinet, or does it lot's of space to work around?
I still can't get over you have this combo!
Brent

Kenmore1978 asked: "So does anyone know what was so bad about these machines that Maytag felt compelled to recall them? That's a pretty big step ..." Wow! I agree! That is a VERY big step! I knew that they were rare, but this is the first time that I've ever heard anything about Maytag recalling their combos! (Did I miss a memo?) I just assumed (yes, I know what happens when you assume! LOL!) that that Maytag combos didn't sell every well and that's why they were so rare. Now that I think about, a recall actually makes sense. Like Kenmore1978, I'd be interested in knowing what happened. Were they reliability issues (something that current management seems to have forgotten all about!) associated with Maytag combos? Was there a safety issue? Any details would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

Greg,I am so glad to hear that you found a Maytag combo!!!!!When I was a child and would go to the appliance graveyards nearby,I would see them and admire their design.I never got to bring one home but always hoped once I was collecting them that I would find one of these creatures but to no avail.From what I have seen on line of your other classics and how you have made diamonds out of rocks,I can hardly wait to see the unvailing of your most beautiful peace of art seen in decades.Many thanks for your passion,interest,care and knowledge in appliances especially washers and dryers!!Take us all for a spin sometime!!!!

Many congrats on this great find!

-ph

Many congrats on this great find!

-ph

The Bendix combo used about a gallon per minute for drying so the Maytag is a bit more thrifty that way. The washing/rinsing was about the same if not a little more with three deep rinses and the flush/spray rinse.

I'm very curious as well to know what catastrophic problems led Maytag to finally recall or buy back all those machines. Westinghouse did the same thing with their combo as well, and around the same mid-late 60's timeframe. At the owner's option, Maytag (and Westy) would give you a new washer & dryer to replace the combo. I've heard they were frought with troubles, timer, tranny, etc. in addition to higher the labor costs to repair, etc. We'll have to do more research on this, unfortunately many of the people who would know were "relocated" to keep the secret forever - just kidding! ;-)

Very interesting about the water usage. Man, I did not know, or forgot that the Bendix combo with condenser dryer used so much water. I guess your Maytag combo is really not all that bad.
About the recall. I think that Maytag was just getting the world to know how great and reliable their top loaders and dryers were. I wonder if they thought, or were afraid that the combo would ruin their track record, so decided to pull them out of homes, and pretend the cobo never exisited. It is also interesting to think about yours making it this far. It may have been a "good one" that the owner was happy with.
I have a book called "Maytag, an American Icon". In it they talk about everything up to the late 80's. Not a mention about this beautiful combo. I was so shocked to hear that you guys saw the combo at the Maytag museum.
I am still so excited about your find!
Brent

They had a brand new combo at the Maytag historical display in the Jasper County museum in Newton and another in the Maytag factory store.

Here is the inside of the one at the factory store - with the box of Dash still inside!

The link is to the pics of the trip to the store last year, nearly all the machines on display were new - never used!

Hi Greg:
I like the fact you need to get into the machine. I always like to get into a machine because it makes you familiar with it and that makes it your machine. When I get a washer that needs no work and just runs I never feel like its mine. Reading the service "doctrine" and disassembling the unit gets you familiar with how it works so when it fails again you have a pretty good idea of what is wrong before you even open up the mechanism for repair.
I envy you the pump & blower repair that is the fun part.
Has anyone seen any recall literature from Maytag regarding what the reasons were, Maytag might have told their dealers why they were going to recall these machines?? I will check with Grays here in Melrose they have been in business for 75 years as a Maytag dealer they may have all the service beacons.

I hope that you can find something Jon, I have been wondering myself if anyone had any of the actual recall letters or knew anymore about it. Keep us posted.

That is so exciting to find a washing machine so rare!

Congratulations.

Tell me, how much can be viewed from the window in the door. It looks rather small, but being maytag, one should be grateful its there at all.

I am sure the lighted tub? would make it an interesting experience.