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Thread Number: 59544
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
todays POD |
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Post# 821520 4/30/2015 at 05:31 (3,276 days old) by cuffs054  (MONTICELLO, GA) |
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Love the fact that the washer comes with a "HOW WASH, COLD RINSE" | ||
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Post# 821528 , Reply# 2 4/30/2015 at 06:46 (3,276 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Do you remember the WH model? The gold-ish brown polypropylene tub and black, straight vane agitator. Some of these didn't even have the lint filter-vane unit that slipped over the agitator shaft and snapped onto the base.
But... a 210 degree agitation arc in the WH model. Speed Queen wasn't the only one. | ||
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Post# 821529 , Reply# 3 4/30/2015 at 06:50 (3,276 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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Post# 821531 , Reply# 4 4/30/2015 at 07:22 (3,276 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Truly A Sad Washer and Dryer If someone gave us a pair of these NIB I would not keep them for the museum, even worse that the washer these WCI dryers were absolute JUNK, I remember a customer that [ thought ] she got a good deal on one of these dryers, she had me connect it up and when I pushed the start button the machine started to shake and rumble and WALKED a foot out from the wall. It calmed down with a load of wet clothing in it somewhat, but the customer learned her lesson and ended up buying TWO pairs of electronic WPs from us, model LHA9800 washer and LHE9800 dryers, one set for each house, after we gave her a deal on a returned LHE9800 dryer and she immediately saw how nice a real dryer was. | ||
| Post# 821544 , Reply# 7 4/30/2015 at 11:00 (3,276 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
Greg!
Roger and I saw one of those that you described years ago at St. Vinny's here, and I was instructed to go wash my hands after I touched it. Just looking at the thing--a single-knobbed, BOL Wards-badged wonder--caused my soul to wilt. I'd rather go beat laundry on a rock. At least with a BOL GE, you had a respectable washer, albeit without the fun of the Filter-Flo, or any options.
I still have the deluxe control panel on the shelf from the programmed version of these machines. I loved mine, but if a required repair extends beyond replacing a belt, they go in the trash. And no, they are not a 1-18, by any stretch of an LSD-enhanced imagination. 1-12 is more like it. I laughed about the dryers being utter crap--in that respect, they carried the GM-Frigidaire legacy forward nicely. 1-18s had the privilege of being one of the few washers to outlast their dryers handily. I was lamenting to Scott when he visited last that we needed a super-capacity gas dryer, since the little '78 Kenmore is ill-equipped to deal with the monster loads that the 1-18 (a real one) can crank out. He said, "What you need is a 1-18 matching dryer!" at which point I clutched my pearls in horror. David cleared his throat, and noted that what we need is a clothesline. ;-) | ||
| Post# 821547 , Reply# 8 4/30/2015 at 11:32 (3,276 days old) by glomain (tuscarawas cnty. (eastern ohio)) | ||
not a true 1-18 | ||
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Post# 821575 , Reply# 9 4/30/2015 at 16:27 (3,276 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area) |
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The dryer pictured is not a Westinghouse design, but rather the one WCI also sold under the Kelvinator, Gibson and Hamilton brands. They were pretty chintzy. | ||
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Post# 821591 , Reply# 10 4/30/2015 at 19:19 (3,276 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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1978 KM Gas Dryer | ||
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Post# 821593 , Reply# 11 4/30/2015 at 19:25 (3,276 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 821636 , Reply# 13 5/1/2015 at 07:04 (3,275 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Monster Dryer
How about a Samsung 9.5 cu ft?? Another thread.
I've never had a WCI dryer, I never bothered to pick one up. With the addition of the KM Elite 27" dryer, I have three WP built dryers that handle the bulk of the machine-drying. I continue to be madly in love with my '66 Whirlpool Mark XII dryer, currently installed in the garage. 37,000 BTUs of drying power, it never fails to turn out a perfectly dry load. Even big loads from the current washer-of-the-week in the garage, the 18lb Lady Executive Hotpoint, everything comes out dry without fail. | ||
| Post# 821668 , Reply# 14 5/1/2015 at 11:51 (3,275 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
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Hmmm
"5.9 CF 29" KM dryer will easily dry any load that one can cram into a 1-18 washer"
John, our's doesn't. But I wonder, then, if it's a 5.9 CF model. This is the smaller-door, not bumped-out back model. Gas with auto-dry (time/temperature only, no moisture-sensing here). If we use Auto Dry, and dump a full load from the 1-18 in there, it'll take two runnings to produce a uniformly (usually by then, over-dry) load; the clothes on the outside may be dry on the first cycle, but there will be a core of semi-moist clothing within. Running loads only filled to the Normal level on the 1-18 resolves this, as does--of course--giving everything two passes through the dryer (or subdividing a Maxi-sized load), but if run through twice, then items are so over-dry in some instances that you could generate electricity for a small African village from the polyester-based items. The fact that extending the time, or reducing the load, or removing dry items as they happen from the drum all seem to remedy the issue suggests to me that the capacity just isn't quite enough. We haven't noticed any aberrant behavior, and the solenoids fire just fine--the dryer is outside, so it has no vent to work against at all. It's clean as a whistle, airflow is strong and smooth, the seals are good, and it has fresh rollers, belt, idler pulley, and Nylon glide from about six months ago. Is it true, then, that there's a slightly larger-capacity model--and might that not be a better choice for us in this case? | ||
| Post# 821670 , Reply# 15 5/1/2015 at 12:01 (3,275 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
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9.5 cu ft
Perfect for the quest to do laundry once a month, and be done in one load. :-) I love that Lady Executive, Greg! I want to see pictures of you with it set up under some fab piece of Mediterranean-style furniture and a swag lamp, with you in a sundress and your hair up, smiling coyly at the camera. ;-)
We actually kicked around the idea of getting a modern dryer, but I loathe electronics (they screw me everytime), so I don't want to go there. I also thought about the Norge negative-pressure dryers. Ralph and I tore one apart and rehabbed it when I had my Wards set in Oakland, and it was a good (albeit noisy) dryer performance-wise (with an end-of-cycle signal that would get you written up by the HOA, and send you stomping back to the laundry room from the other end of the house, yelling "All right, all RIGHT, ALL RIIIIGHT!!") The Norge system seems a little pissy about airflow--as in, lint buildup is forever a risk, and easily clogs the chute at the front of the drum. I hadn't thought about the older positive-pressure dryers--can you even get parts for them if you needed them? I'm a little loathe to get a gas Wards/Norge positive-pressure, Sock Jet dryer, anyway--even though ours lives outside on--and under--concrete. Roger and I found one years ago that was so full of lint that the burner had started to singe the accumulation around the door, and surely it was a few cycles away from a major house fire. | ||
| Post# 821678 , Reply# 16 5/1/2015 at 13:47 (3,275 days old) by brucelucenta () | ||
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fire You right about it. That was why my parents old '57 Norge dryer went when it did. It caught fire and luckily was self contained. They replaced it with the "Premier" gas dryer that matched the '63 GE washer they already had replaced the Norge one with. | ||
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Post# 821742 , Reply# 18 5/2/2015 at 08:22 (3,274 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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 There are so many things to dislike about WCI washers, but certainly the salt in the wound for the AW family is that we lost GM Frigidaires to these cheap, ill-conceived machines.
However...thirty-five years' distance from that horrendous seismic shock allows a soft spot in my heart for these red-headed stepchildren. Logic and facts not included, LOL.
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Post# 821792 , Reply# 20 5/2/2015 at 17:51 (3,274 days old) by hydralique (Los Angeles) |
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Tom . . . Why do you consider your Kitchenaid dryer too dangerous to operate in the house? | ||
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Post# 821796 , Reply# 21 5/2/2015 at 18:26 (3,274 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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WOH! Run that one by me AGAIN! | ||
| Post# 821798 , Reply# 22 5/2/2015 at 18:42 (3,274 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
>There are so many things to dislike about WCI washers, but certainly the salt in the wound for the AW family is that we lost GM Frigidaires to these cheap, ill-conceived machines.
>However...thirty-five years' distance from that horrendous seismic shock allows a soft spot in my heart for these red-headed stepchildren. Logic and facts not included, LOL. Glad some people have a soft spot. I don't, and it has nothing to do with the GM to WCI sale. It is entirely about having suffered with 2 different early 90s Frigidaires a total of 3 different periods of time. (Yes, one of those monsters came into my life two different times, and, yes, the second time I half thought I'd died, and thought I'd gone to hell.) I am guessing the total time was about 4 years. The four longest years of my life--even surviving the last term of George Bush seemed to go faster and be a more pleasant experience. | ||
| Post# 821801 , Reply# 23 5/2/2015 at 18:46 (3,274 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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Post# 821863 , Reply# 25 5/3/2015 at 08:40 (3,273 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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John (LordKenmore)-- I had two of those washers, as well. The first was a 1987 or '88 Frigidaire. WCI had already been acquired by Electrolux at that point, but a few features remained from the GM 1-18 days; the circle-spray fill and spin-drain for example. The tub indexed, but not so wildly as would later versions. Washing sheets wasn't a problem. The machine behaved quite like an early 1970s Westinghouse.
Then came the 2005 Frigidaire top-loader. Tub indexing increased to a startling 180 to 270 degrees depending on the load size. This ridiculous amount of indexing, though fun to watch, was problematic in two ways: It seriously reduced the effectiveness of its new dual-action agitator due to the very short clockwise power stroke and it tangled large items like sheets and tablecloths unmercifully---as I'm sure you remember. It wasn't unusual to open the lid at the end of a cycle to find sheets in one huge, tangled ball, occasionally lock-wrapped around the agitator. In fact, the machine's only strong point was its ability to spin these extremely unbalanced loads at full speed without walking. So, to be more precise about it, the logic-be-damned soft spot I have for WCI Frigidaires is limited to the early-to-mid 1980s. | ||
| Post# 821866 , Reply# 26 5/3/2015 at 10:20 (3,273 days old) by brucelucenta () | ||
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Wow! That means that Frigidaire sort of reverted back to the days of the early pulsator agitator that used to tie your clothes in knots! The knots were practically dry when it finished though. | ||
| Post# 821888 , Reply# 27 5/3/2015 at 16:40 (3,273 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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>Tub indexing increased to a startling 180 to 270 degrees depending on the load size.
Wow. I never tried to figure out how much the ones I used indexed, but it was nothing like that! I never had huge problems with tangled sheets. I think they did tangle, but I don't recall any huge nightmares. Instead, the sheet problem I had seemed to be a problem where part of the sheet would just sit above the water, sort of like an iceberg. Trips to visit the washer to make sure sheets were getting washed or rinsed properly were very much a fact of life. And I never really felt that the cleaning ability was very good. It worked OK for me, since I seldom get anything very dirty. Most laundry here is about freshening. But even there there may have been issues; I noticed differences between laundry detergents more than I have in any other washer I've used. I feel sorry for those who owned one of these, and who had really messy laundry (spouse of mechanic, parent of active three year old, etc). | ||
| Post# 821897 , Reply# 28 5/3/2015 at 16:57 (3,273 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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Another thought, too...
Unlike some here, I have generally had only one washing machine at my disposal. My tolerance of the Frigidaires might have been a lot better if there had been a better machine available. ("Hmmm...load 1 has some tough stains. Those go to the Kenmore. Load 2--sheets, yes, Kenmore. Load 3, towels to freshen. Well, I can do that now in the Frigidaire, and entertain myself watching the tub index!") At one point, I did toy with the idea of purposely having one of those Frigidaires as a second machine. At that time, I was the lucky user of an old Kenmore BD. That washer was fabulous. The only practical problem was the capacity was limited. It was enough for day to day laundry. Indeed, it was ideally sized for me and my needs day to day. But...every now and then, one needs to wash bigger loads. It occurred to me that Frigidaire tubs seemed bigger. It wouldn't work as well, but for blankets and the like, I don't need super powerful cleaning action. | ||
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Post# 822517 , Reply# 29 5/8/2015 at 04:55 (3,269 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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"MAN!" ("Woman" and "Children", too! One Frigidaire Washer ad in our P.O.D.'s, after another!!!!
Primitive-, Refined-GM, or WCI? Don't know which to go with!!!!
That is, these "One Speed, Tiny Tub" Sh-Boom ("Sh-boom, sh-boom"...) Boxes of the '50's, the "not ready for Prime Time" of the '60's, that at least have the features, including the tearin' up everything you put in 'er!, something from the '70's w/ the Capacity, but "Not All Models Available In All Colors" and the "disagreeable dashboards" that have the more they do, the less room given for the print that rubs off w/ age, or the 1980's "we're jus' gonna make these like ANY OTHER DAMN WASHIN' MACHINE w/ a CONVENTIONAL BLADE, but somehow the way they used to be, only with LOT'S'A PLASTIK!!!! junk...!!!!
-- Dave | ||
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