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Thread Number: 20066
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| Post# 320755 12/21/2008 at 18:38 (5,598 days old) by wetguymd (Maryland) | ||
My mom has had this washer for quite a while and it has finally started having problems. It agitates fine but when it goes into spin it only spins in what seems to be a slow speed. She had a repair man take a look at it and the only thing he said was she should just buy a new one, that it would cost more to repair it than to replace. Suggestions?
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| Post# 320768 , Reply# 2 12/21/2008 at 20:24 (5,598 days old) by everythingold (Grand Rapids, Michigan) | ||
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| Post# 320773 , Reply# 3 12/21/2008 at 20:27 (5,598 days old) by maytagbear (N.E. Ohio) | ||
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That is not a GM Frigidaire That is a White Westinghouse in a Frigidaire panel. The Frigidaire 1-18 had a very different agitator. Frankly, I'd junk it. Not every old washer is worth fixing. Lawrence/Maytagbear | ||
Post# 320833 , Reply# 4 12/22/2008 at 08:40 (5,597 days old) by goatfarmer  (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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| Post# 320840 , Reply# 5 12/22/2008 at 09:57 (5,597 days old) by wetguymd (Maryland) | ||
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Thanks guys | ||
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Post# 320855 , Reply# 6 12/22/2008 at 11:39 (5,597 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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I'm not a lawyer,
but this thread makes me a little angry. What WCI did here is to have perpetrated fraud. By recreating the GMFR contol panel and cabinet down to detail they have duped many unwary consumers into buying a product that they thought was a GM-made Frigidaire washer with a heritage and a track record but is in reality a piece of junk. Certainly the statute of limitations has expired but a crime is a crime. Seems to me that constitues fraud. And last time I looked, fraud was a federal crime.
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Post# 320893 , Reply# 7 12/22/2008 at 14:25 (5,597 days old) by jons1077 (Vancouver, Washington, USA) |
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If it's junked... | ||
| Post# 320901 , Reply# 8 12/22/2008 at 14:44 (5,597 days old) by peterh770 (Marietta, GA) | ||
There was no fraud. WCI took over Frigidaire, kept the Frigidaire name, removed all traces of "GM", kept the look for a few years, then really started dicking with it. When the change over happened from a Jetaction to the Westy transmission, there was a huge ad campaign. Seems to me that even GM engineers thought that this washer would be just as good as the 1-18 because it produced just as much "turbulance" in the basket. That these machines have last is more of a tribute to the pre-dicking Westy design. The real culprit here is GM, not WCI. Maybe if they asked for a bailout back then... | ||
| Post# 320929 , Reply# 9 12/22/2008 at 16:36 (5,597 days old) by everythingold (Grand Rapids, Michigan) | ||
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Post# 320930 , Reply# 10 12/22/2008 at 16:41 (5,597 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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This was also a time when Westinghouse has all but disappeared from store shelves and had become White-Westinghouse, store brands were fading away and mergers and consolidations were the name of the game for companies to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market. GM jettisoned Frigidaire in order to keep themselves competitive against Japanese auto-makers. The Frigidaire brand was never a big money-maker for GM and despite a few exceptions in their line, quality was barely above average and in many cases, below. Maytag had dominated the washer ratings for a decade with their tried-and-true washers, Sears/Whirlpool wrapped up another lion's share with the Sears Credit terms available to nearly everyone that could breathe on their own. Frigidaire, Kelvinator/ABC, Easy, Norge, Roper, Caloric, on and on all fell victim to a more streamlined and limber marketplace. | ||
| Post# 320947 , Reply# 11 12/22/2008 at 18:06 (5,597 days old) by wetguymd (Maryland) | ||
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I have learned quite abit about this machine after this post. My parents had the matching dryer which died about 5 years ago. Before this they had a TOL GE filter flow set. The store where they bought this stopped selling GE around 1980 and sold only Frigidaire. They got about 25 years out of the GE. Now she has gotten about 25 years out of this one. I guess even tho it was a knock off it wasn't too bad.
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Post# 321062 , Reply# 12 12/23/2008 at 11:16 (5,596 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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GM Frigidaire | ||
| Post# 321065 , Reply# 13 12/23/2008 at 11:26 (5,596 days old) by sudsman () | ||
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W C I Killed everything they came in contact with. | ||
| Post# 321096 , Reply# 14 12/23/2008 at 16:48 (5,596 days old) by johnb300m (Chicago) | ||
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| Post# 321288 , Reply# 15 12/25/2008 at 22:21 (5,594 days old) by everythingold (Grand Rapids, Michigan) | ||
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GMFR barely above average? Come on, they were innovative, rotary compressors, piston washers. GMFR represents something that is dead. There is no creativity left, only planned obsolenscence. No the Calypso doesn't count, pieces of S***, magnetic induction, yawn, old hat. The simple fact is that (with top loaders)piston agitation is superior to spinning blade agitation. Blades rip the hell out of clothes. The only thing you can do is slow the blades down. Piston action provides a vigourous wash with minimal damage to clothes. The 1-18's provided 20-30 years of service, that's not good enough? I still see them in the pipeline, including a poppy that I should have snagged. I think the biggest problem is that no one knows how to fix them. Call a repair guy out of the phone book, confronted with a piston driven, 95% of the time, their eyes will glaze over and they will stand there with a confused look on their face before they tell you that it can't be fixed.
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Post# 321301 , Reply# 16 12/26/2008 at 05:26 (5,594 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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1-18?
Hate to burst your bubble, but I don't care for the GM 1-18's, and I'll stand by my statement of barely above average. I worked on them when they were still in warranty, back in the mid 70's. Our shop never had less than 2 or 3 of them in at a time, all for leaking water, and taking out the transmission bearings. Poor design, IMHO, with the use of the bellows seal. Great wash action? Yes, but at what cost? One running change they made is to put a plastic diverter tray above the motor. That's so WHEN, not IF it would leak, it wouldn't take out the motor. I would bet they paid out as much in warranty repairs, as they made in new sales. Repair people will look at you with glassy eyes, because it's near impossible to get parts, and most of the machines have been scrapped by now.I haven't seen one on a trade in pile in many moons. Ask anyone who's been in the business for years about them, and the matching dryers. Cheep, cheep, cheep! If someone got 20-30 years out of a 1-18, it was the exception, not the rule. 20-30 out of a similar vintage Maytag, or a BD Whirlpool? Happens all the time. GMFrigidaire refrigeration? Some of the best. My opinion is given freely, value accordingly..... kennyGF (proud graduate of Frigidaire training school 1976) | ||
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Post# 321303 , Reply# 17 12/26/2008 at 08:28 (5,593 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Post# 321322 , Reply# 18 12/26/2008 at 13:13 (5,593 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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| Post# 321382 , Reply# 19 12/27/2008 at 00:59 (5,593 days old) by wigwag (San Diego) | ||
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dump question When you say it only spins on slow speed, I happened to notice the last cycle was perm-press which in most cases has a slow spin. What happens on the 'regular' cycle? | ||
| Post# 321404 , Reply# 20 12/27/2008 at 09:43 (5,592 days old) by wetguymd (Maryland) | ||
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| Post# 321537 , Reply# 21 12/28/2008 at 16:59 (5,591 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
Oh, that thing again! :-)
I had this next to my GM 1-18 back at the 2006 wash-in in Tucson for a tongue-in-cheek comparo. Great machine, and I loved mine--I lucked out and it was minty. However, they are absolutely impossible to work on, and anything beyond swapping motors or changing the belt falls in the category of "I love you, but I have to let you go. It's not you, it's me. Really." Even changing the belt is a relative nightmare, compared with other machines. If it wasn't leaking oil, I'd say stick a new belt on it--that improved my machine a thousand-fold. But if there's oil afoot, trash it. Trying to take the basket bolts out of my minty machine sheared one of them off in the tranny, even though everything looked fabulous and cherry. They used cheap, metallurgically incompatible metals together, and the results made you grind your teeth. Plus, this model follows the Westy toploader tradition of not only clamping all the hoses in place, but gluing them onto their fittings, which just drives you ape when you have to take the thing apart. It's a real booger. Fun and handsome machine, great wash action, splashy agitator, but if it wants to become an investment, invest elsewhere :-) | ||
| Post# 321538 , Reply# 22 12/28/2008 at 17:05 (5,591 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
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*giggle*
GM engineers thought that this machine would be an okay successor to a pulsator 1-18? Holy schnikies. Free beer night at the local dive. The Westy top-loader series was no slouch, but compared to a 1-18, it's like a standard-capacity '60s Kenmore up next to the Double-Duty Surgilator machines. Big capacity difference. And don't forget, people were used to doing things like tossing a queen-sized comforter in a 1-18 and having it roll over happily, and that was not going to happen in a million years in this machine. The cubic footage of the baskets were worlds apart, and of course, the type of agitation allowed a lot of stuff to be washed in a 1-18 that couldn't easily be handled by an oscillating agitator. Not worse, just different... | ||
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