It goes to show what a good deal todays new machines really are. I cannot imagine any new FL or TL energy star washer sold today that would not outlast a late 1950s Norge washer by at least 2 to 1. Early Norge automatic washers only had a 3-8 year life span in spite of the relatively high cost of automatic washers at the time. And I dare say that most of these automatics were repaired a few times before they were pushed out the door. I have an old Rate-Master book that gives suggested repair labor costs for different brands of machines and different repairs. The suggested total house call and labor cost to change the transmission in an early Norge washer in 1960 was only $15.00, if you include the cost of a brand new transmission the repair would cost under $60.00 and most times they would even repair the old transmission rather than put in a complete unit.

Very very few 1950s automatic washers were still running by he end of the 1960s, however the 1960s washers faired much better and so on with 1970s machines and on through today. Automatic washers today are at thier lowest service rate than at any time in thier 72 year history.