Ben is spot on (as always).  

Console glamour shot:

Not quite.  

The 810 had a genuine soak cycle that you filled with warm or cold water.  It then alternated long periods of soak with brief periods of agitation.  At the end it spun the water out and then either stopped or moved into the main wash cycle depending on the position of the "soak cycle" switch.  If you wanted it to move into the main wash automatically you had to put some sort of liquid detergent in the agitator dispenser so that it would be deposited into the main wash cycle.

The 712 soak cycle filled with wash water and then alternated brief periods of agitation with longer periods of soak.  When it reached the end of the 15 minute "soak" portion, it DID NOT spin out and refill, it simply began 12 minutes of constant agitation and completed the cycle.

Here's the timer diagram for the A810.  Note that cam 3 in the timer is what will energize the timer motor through the first increment of the "Off" period between the soak and regular wash when the "Soak and Wash" button is depressed.  Then, during the second increment of the "Off" period cam 6 would energize the fill valve circuitry.  Once the machine was filled it would engage the timer motor and the machine would pause for a timer increment before agitation began.

Here is the cycle diagram for the A712.  You will notice that there is no spin out between the "soak" portion of the regular wash cycle and the main portion.  While it says "fill and wash" above the main wash portion, it will only add water here if for some reason the fill level switch detects that the tub water level is not at the level that was originally selected (this is because the wash fill cams 2 & 4 are energized throughout the soak & wash period).

Sandy, it WAS strange.  The only thing that could be added automatically between the soak and main wash was whatever liquid detergent would fit in the fabric softener dispenser which was 1/2 cup.  

When you think back to the early 80's, if you were using Wisk or Era I think the recommended amounts of liquid detergent were about a cup for standard machines and 1-1/2 cups for large machines!  If there was a super-concentrated liquid detergent on the market in the early 1980s it never made its  way into our house.

While I appreciate the mechanical simplicity of the Maytag, there is something truly marvelous about the Kenmore Lady Ks and model 800s from that same time period where you could but your enzyme product in the tub, your powdered detergent in the solenoid activated dispenser (dispensed right at the beginning of the main wash), the liquid chlorine bleach in the solenoid operated dispenser (dispensed at the 4 minutes to go mark in the main wash) AND your April Fresh Downer or Sta-Puf in the solenoid operated dispenser (dispensed at the beginning of the final rinse) and then WALK AWAY and come back about 75 minutes later to completely AUTOMATICALLY washed clothes!