Maytag vintage washer w/suds saver

Hi Lisa,

First don't be discouraged with non-responsive posters. One of my best scores came from chasing after a guy for 6 months....

Suds Saver models are rare and in my opinion, desirable. They're a kind of thrifty holdover from the days of wringer washers: Like wringers, instead of dumping all water into the sewer, the used wash water is transferred and held in a laundry sink adjacent to the washer. The machine goes through a normal rinse cycle and when the SECOND load is done, the used wash water is pumped back into the tub and the second load is washed.

We turn our nose up at this today, but these machines use a voracious amount of water for a cycle, and many women didn't like the thought of all that waste (from a money, not a green perspective). Also, if you were on a well, you may not have had the unlimited amount of hot water you'd have in the city.

Since it was common to wash several loads in the same water in a wringer, the suds savers were kind of a "sop" to get women to buy an automatic. When that generation died out in the early 80's, the suds saver features were discontinued.

I do a lot of my wash in wringers using the same water for several loads and I don't have a problem with it (loads need to be sorted and done in a certain sequence for best results) and I'd love to have a suds saver to keep the water consumption down.

One last thing, these suds savers machines have extra parts which either fail from lack of use, or are removed because second and third owners of the machines think it's "icky". You can tell an original Maytag suds saver model because the model number will end in "S", like A806S.


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Post# 778799 8/22/2014 at 21:17 (3,528 days old) by ovrphil (N.Atlanta / Georgia )
Checkrate/Likes CLICK HERE TO GO TO ovrphil's LINK on Muskegon Craigslist Photos... < > Photo 1 of 3 View Full Size

Post# 778908 , Reply# 1 8/23/2014 at 15:21 (3,527 days old) by mom11 (Dundee, MI)
Checkrate/Likes *What model* What model # is this or year? I am interested and may go out. What is the button that is missing and taped over in black electrical tape? And does anyone have a matching gas dryer for this? Thanks

Post# 778912 , Reply# 2 8/23/2014 at 16:21 (3,527 days old) by washdaddy (Baltimore)
Checkrate/Likes Lisa- The current owner of the washer just has the button "taped over" so she doesn't change the "suds" function on the washer. Maytag's use two buttons for their suds saver functions. One is "DRAIN SUDS" (which is the one that's taped) and the other is "SAVE SUDS". She doesn't use the suds function. If you do go to check the machine it should have 2 drain hoses on it. One for regular and one for suds (same as the regular hose just has a longer tailpiece on the hose). Anyhow good luck and let us know what happens, Rick

Post# 778994 , Reply# 3 8/24/2014 at 07:24 (3,526 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)
Checkrate/Likes Early to mid 70's.

Post# 778995 , Reply# 4 8/24/2014 at 07:35 (3,526 days old) by Kenmore71 (Minneapolis, MN)
Checkrate/Likes It appears to be an A208S. 1976-1980

Post# 780012 , Reply# 5 8/28/2014 at 22:04 (3,522 days old) by mom11 (Dundee, MI)
Checkrate/Likes *thanks* for the help, guys. So, this may be a stupid question but...I'm still learning. I'm afraid to say that I don't know what the suds saver function does. I've not had a machine with that feature before. I am in Michigan where this washer is but it's at least a 3 hour trip each way. I was hoping to find one closer. I've beeen responding to craigslist ads for 4 months on these vintage machines but all have either not responded (what's up with that? Are they wanting to sell or not?) or they are sold before I get to them.

Post# 780027 , Reply# 6 8/28/2014 at 23:24 (3,522 days old) by scoots (Chattanooga TN)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Suds savers...* Hi Lisa, First don't be discouraged with non-responsive posters. One of my best scores came from chasing after a guy for 6 months.... Suds Saver models are rare and in my opinion, desirable. They're a kind of thrifty holdover from the days of wringer washers: Like wringers, instead of dumping all water into the sewer, the used wash water is transferred and held in a laundry sink adjacent to the washer. The machine goes through a normal rinse cycle and when the SECOND load is done, the used wash water is pumped back into the tub and the second load is washed. We turn our nose up at this today, but these machines use a voracious amount of water for a cycle, and many women didn't like the thought of all that waste (from a money, not a green perspective). Also, if you were on a well, you may not have had the unlimited amount of hot water you'd have in the city. Since it was common to wash several loads in the same water in a wringer, the suds savers were kind of a "sop" to get women to buy an automatic. When that generation died out in the early 80's, the suds saver features were discontinued. I do a lot of my wash in wringers using the same water for several loads and I don't have a problem with it (loads need to be sorted and done in a certain sequence for best results) and I'd love to have a suds saver to keep the water consumption down. One last thing, these suds savers machines have extra parts which either fail from lack of use, or are removed because second and third owners of the machines think it's "icky". You can tell an original Maytag suds saver model because the model number will end in "S", like A806S.