Thread Number: 21290
newton factory last day
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Post# 335719   3/15/2009 at 20:24 (5,491 days old) by maytagmike (Burlington, Vt)        

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if you go to google and type in maytag automatic washer and then click on last maytag washer link, you can see the last Maytag washer being made in newton. Going to take the pictures and make a book. took the tour in 2003 it was great. Mike




Post# 335720 , Reply# 1   3/15/2009 at 20:34 (5,491 days old) by swestoyz (Cedar Falls, IA)        

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My gosh - thanks for posting. In the summer of '06 I went down to Newton the day the Maytag Store closed - huge bummer. I spent some time talking to the ladies who ran the Jasper County Museum. They had hopes of getting this machine donated to them once the time came. I haven't been down since - hopefully there will be a trip planned for this summer and the machine will be on display.

Was this out at Plant 2?

Ben


CLICK HERE TO GO TO swestoyz's LINK


Post# 335722 , Reply# 2   3/15/2009 at 20:49 (5,491 days old) by pulsator (Saint Joseph, MI)        

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So very sad....

Post# 335743 , Reply# 3   3/15/2009 at 22:06 (5,491 days old) by tuthill ()        

What a shame.

LOL, you can tell those people weren't true washer fans... no money shot!


Post# 335758 , Reply# 4   3/15/2009 at 23:46 (5,491 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        

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It's in the museum. The Jasper County Museum's Maytag display was disappointing but this last washer was there. As it should be.

At the time, I thought some of us should offer to design their displays. That would be a fun weekend and we'd probably get to peruse the massive amount of company documentation and records. Just think of how cool it would be to build displays from that!


Post# 335855 , Reply# 5   3/16/2009 at 16:34 (5,491 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        
Tours?

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Mike, how did you get a tour in '03? I wrote Maytag in '02, and asked about tours, because we were going to visit my sister in law in Boone, IA. and would be in the area. They told me there were NO tours of the Amana factory, in the Amana colonies, and the only tours at Newton were school groups, dealers, etc.

Post# 335978 , Reply# 6   3/17/2009 at 10:47 (5,490 days old) by nmaineman36 ()        

What hit me the most of those pics was the human cost of what it meant to shut a plant down. Those people put alot of pride into their work. Maytag shot themselves in the foot trying to cut corners and being greedy by making shoddy appliances in its final years. Not all were bad but we all know the ones that are like the Searcy built Amanatags and the Herrin Built Atlantis machines. Not to mention the fridges that just been recalled...again.
What killed me was seeing the bozo CEO they had that drove Maytag into the ground got a nice "parachute package" when Maytag was sold off to Whirlpool. Sad to say but I have a feeling the Whirlpool may take the same route Maytag did. We already see it in products that dont seem to last more than a few years. And they wonder why people buy imports like Miele and LG and are looking at the Electrolux lines for quality.


Post# 336023 , Reply# 7   3/17/2009 at 19:37 (5,489 days old) by maytagmike (Burlington, Vt)        
Maytag Tour

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The Maytag Rep that we had at the store set up the tour for me. Its something I'll never forget as a matter a fact a couple of the people in the pictures I talked to at the factory. I wanted to take pictures but back then no camera's were allowed. When I worked for a Maytag Home appliance center, my bosses mom worked at Maytag Headquarters, that is where she met her husband who was taking training to be a Maytag tech. Mike

Post# 336064 , Reply# 8   3/17/2009 at 22:47 (5,489 days old) by johnb300m (Chicago)        

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wow that's a sad photo set.......

Post# 336112 , Reply# 9   3/18/2009 at 10:29 (5,489 days old) by maytagmike (Burlington, Vt)        
Plant 2

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Hi Ben, yes it was plant 2 where I took the tour. Mike

Post# 344090 , Reply# 10   4/22/2009 at 08:36 (5,454 days old) by davek ()        

It appears as if the coin-op Maytags are not yet Whirltags. These with non-digital panel look exactly like the ones that were in my college dorm in 1995, and they weren't new then. Each coin mech had an "odometer" like a car, and there were machines that had over 50,000 trips of the coin mech. Many had paint that was worn through on the tops and fronts but still worked. If not in Newton, where are these machines made?

CLICK HERE TO GO TO davek's LINK


Post# 344093 , Reply# 11   4/22/2009 at 08:41 (5,454 days old) by peterh770 (Marietta, GA)        

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Nope, they are WP under the hood; have been for about 2 years now. They haven't changed the look and probably haven't changed the pics on the website because a typical laundry owner doesn't pay that much attention. Some distributors may have a few orbitals in stock still.

Post# 344096 , Reply# 12   4/22/2009 at 08:52 (5,454 days old) by askomiele (Belgium Ghent)        

The commericial soft and hardmount washers are build in Tsjechië by PRIMUS, a belgian brand in professional laundry equipment.

Post# 344101 , Reply# 13   4/22/2009 at 08:58 (5,454 days old) by askomiele (Belgium Ghent)        
Oh I posted to fast!

The stacked dryers, besides the "small multple home laundry systems", aren't they build by the Alliance Laundry Group?

Post# 344891 , Reply# 14   4/26/2009 at 09:19 (5,450 days old) by andrewinorlando ()        

Yeah, if you read the machine's specs on the website, the commercial Maytags are "beltless, direct drive" machines. Whitltag. They just look like the old Maytag on the outside.

Post# 344900 , Reply# 15   4/26/2009 at 10:06 (5,450 days old) by retro-man (- boston,ma)        

I thought I heard on the news this week that this plant was shutting down, but they were converting it to start manufacturing the bases and towers for windmills. So hopefully this will be able to be possible employment opportunities for those being laid off.
Jon



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