I can certainly see how and partly agree with the writers opinions of these two machines. I think that he was recommending MT washers for thier well known reliability and WH FLers for thier washing performance and thrifty use of water and detergent. But WH was never known for good construction or reliability after about thier 1956 models. IMO the last good full sized machines were the 1963 washers and the dryers were a POS by 1959 and none of the washers or dryers ever had anything approaching good reliability after the late 1950s.

WH laundry appliances are some of my favorite classic machines, I very much like the three belt machines, I think my favorite were the 1959-1963 slant front washers as they combined the best combination of good performance with cool styling. For overall performance and fun of use I would take a WH FL washer over a MT or GE washer from 1959-1988

But you have to remember that WH was one of the first really big companies to sell out of the major appliance business, by the early 1970s  thier slogan YOU CAN BE IF ITS WESTINGHOUSE meant to most consumers that it was JUNK. 

MrCleanjeans, I kind of remember a book like that in our library but the title escapes me.  Maybe I should go there and try to find it. 

3BW:  Do you think front loaders would be more popular in America if Westinghouse made them more reliable?  It seems to me of the ones I have seen the metal is very thin, thinner even than a modern Whirlpool.  One of the reasons Maytags survive is because the metal is much thicker.  The door should have been redesigned so as to not be so prone to rust.  It also seems that WH did not offer much support and training to their repair people.  I find it hard to believe that a company as reputable as Westinghouse would cheap out on a product with so much exposure, but then, we Pittsburghers cannot figure what happened to the rest of Westinghouse either.

That is the part I wonder about.  I would think a company like WH would have had a good training program for their technicians but they must not have.  I think it would also have helped if there was a Kenmore version so Sears technicians would know what to do.  I know GE used to brag "Customer care Service everywhere" and Sear bragged about their service but was WH so arrogant that the assumed their washers would never need service?  It seems like a good design was done in by poor management.

WH FL washers were easy to work on I loved getting calls on them and I never heard repairmen complaining about having to fix them, with the exception of stacked units in small closets which is still the case today. Many of the stacked FL pairs are almost unrepairable without at least two men and a lot of skill[ as a repair person I would never recommend a stacked laundry installation, unless there is no other option ]. I would ratter install four door boots on 3B WHs than doing one on a Neptune or WP Duet any day.

Sears never sold 3BWs, Montgomery Wards did and they put the Wards name on them. Sears did start selling the horrible ill fated single belt machines in the stackable and under counter versions with the KM name on them when they came out around 1989. This was when the Sears Kenmore brand really started to loose a quality image as Sears was bringing in almost any one that would build appliances for them along with selling national brands. This to me was the end of Sears good service as they could no longer stock the needed parts on the truck and the service men were no longer able to keep up with all the different appliances that Sears was selling. This is still one of the major problems with Sears today.