Thread Number: 24
Maytag Combination Washer-Dryer Found!!! |
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Post# 44579   9/6/2004 at 20:13 (7,462 days old) by gansky1 ![]() |
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One of the rarest machines of all was found by one of our members while on a visit here last week. He called and let me know where it was so I went to pick it up today in, of all places, Newton, Iowa! I was told by the person selling it that it was removed five years ago from a house (kitchen I believe) where it was used rather little - and it shows! I still can't believe it and keep peeking out in the garage to make sure it's not a dream! I gave it a preliminary sponge bath for a photo shoot but I'll put a cord on it later and give it a spin and see what sort of work we're in for. This will be a fascinating machine to restore and even more fun to watch running! Let's give a very big Discuss-O-Mat Thank You to Jerry for the tip on the location - I've always said 'if we ever find a Maytag combo, we'll find one in Iowa - in or near Newton' and there it was! Oh, did I mention it's yellow?? We've spent a total of 20 hours in the car this weekend but brought home some beautiful things from Tulsa and Newton so it makes the exhaustion all worthwhile! I have a couple of very cute photos that Jerry shared with me to post soon from when he was 8 years old in 1959 playing with his washer "toys" that are really adorable and I also have pictures of the Tulsa trip - namely the "Holy Grail 1-18 set" and a couple of stunning jukeboxes in Bruce's collection that I will post soon. For now, step through the Maytag Combo Door and enjoy! CLICK HERE TO GO TO gansky1's LINK ![]() |
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Post# 44581 , Reply# 1   9/6/2004 at 20:30 (7,462 days old) by appnut ![]() |
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Post# 44582 , Reply# 2   9/6/2004 at 20:35 (7,462 days old) by Unimatic1140 ![]() |
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GREG, THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! YOU DO REALIZE THAT THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT VINTAGE APPLIANACE FIND OF 2004! Congratulations 100 times over! Looks like I'm going to have to take another trip to Omaha this year to see it in person, and in sunny yellow no less. I can't wait to see more pictures. This is another video in the making for sure. |
Post# 44585 , Reply# 4   9/6/2004 at 21:24 (7,462 days old) by peteski50 ![]() |
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Post# 44589 , Reply# 7   9/6/2004 at 21:58 (7,462 days old) by Bendix5 ![]() |
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Post# 44590 , Reply# 8   9/6/2004 at 22:08 (7,462 days old) by tlee618 ()   |   | |
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OH MY Greg, I am so happy for you, funny to that we were just talking about there having to be a least one of them in Newton on our recent trip there!!I can't wait to see this beauty in action!!Congratulations. |
Post# 44593 , Reply# 9   9/7/2004 at 00:41 (7,462 days old) by earthling177 ![]() |
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That's so cool! Congratulations and good luck! |
Post# 44595 , Reply# 10   9/7/2004 at 02:25 (7,462 days old) by foraloysius ![]() |
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Post# 44602 , Reply# 11   9/7/2004 at 06:19 (7,461 days old) by Gyrafoam ![]() |
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Wow! What a find, and in beautiful condition! I've never seen one before. What vintage would it be? Early '60s? Congrats on your find! |
Post# 44603 , Reply# 12   9/7/2004 at 06:50 (7,461 days old) by spiralactivator ()   |   | |
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Congratulations! Those Eva Gabor Maytag Combos are rarer than hen's teeth! May it bring you years of faithful service. |
Post# 44605 , Reply# 13   9/7/2004 at 07:01 (7,461 days old) by Jetcone ![]() |
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O h Greg its beautiful just beautiful! I'll be in that Jeep with Robert!!! That drum has the same access door like the GE Combo?YES,NO? AND IS THAT--COULD IT BE---COPPER on that backsplash??? WHAT A FIND WHAT A GREAT SUMMER! We've all had super finds but this is the Rarest of them all! I told Robert we should have detoured around Des Moines but-- NO what do I know!! Its so freaky that you were just there a few weeks earlier and probably less than a mile from it and it was sitting there all along! Advance Scouts thats what we need , we need to train the public as advance scouts and give them extra points when they find something!! Get that power cord up and mounted and give me a call! Congratulations Greg I am very happy for you and I am checking airfares!! jon |
Post# 44613 , Reply# 14   9/7/2004 at 07:22 (7,461 days old) by appnut ![]() |
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Post# 44616 , Reply# 16   9/7/2004 at 09:11 (7,461 days old) by agiflow-action ()   |   | |
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Congratulations Greg, what a beauty that combo is.Looking forward to seeing pics of the machine going through it's paces. Happy washing! PC |
Post# 44623 , Reply# 17   9/7/2004 at 12:47 (7,461 days old) by JerseyMike ()   |   | |
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Congrats, Greg! What a beautiful machine! What a great find. I agree this has been a wonderful summer. Good things come to those who wait! Mike |
Post# 44624 , Reply# 18   9/7/2004 at 13:37 (7,461 days old) by christfr (st louis mo)   |   | |
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Post# 44639 , Reply# 20   9/7/2004 at 20:08 (7,461 days old) by maytagbear ![]() |
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What a find!! I am very happy for you! If I am not totally mistaken, Maytag combos were condenser dryers. |
Post# 44643 , Reply# 22   9/7/2004 at 21:08 (7,461 days old) by gansky1 ![]() |
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Hi all and thanks for the well-wishes on the new baby! It is a beauty and I'm very lucky to have one in such nice condition. I wired a cord to it last night - 30A/240v - and fired it up. There were two distinct squeals, more like screams, from the mechanism. One was from the pump and the other was the blower pulley rubbing against the transmission housing. I suspect the previous owner used it mostly as a dryer so there is probably lots of lint and hard water scale from the condenser system jammed in the pump and around the blower and baffle system. Maytag used an interesting method for their "Sealed In Climate" condenser dryers, it has a blower spinning at 2150 rpm which a stream of water is directed to at the rate of approx. 3 1/2 pints per minute. When that stream of water hits that spinning fan/blower, it gets smashed apart and creates a mist effect to condense the warm moisture being drawn in from the drum. The cooled, dry air is then directed back through the heating elements and into the drum. This same design was also used in their condenser stand-alone dryers up until the introduction of the '06' models in 1966. The good news is that the transmission seems to work fine in tumble and spin modes although judging by the years-old oil mess on the base plate, looks like it needs to be refilled with oil. The controls for the washer are fairly straightforward, there is a chime that sounds at the end of the wash phase and again at the end of the drying phase when Wash & Wear is selected and there is no heating of the clothes during the final spin on the W&W or Delicate cycles. W&W defaults to cold rinsing no matter what wash temp is chosen. There is a spray rinse and three deep rinses, the timed fab. softener dispenser is activated in the final rinse of all cycles. The bleach dispenser is a simple holding tank that is flushed in the main wash and emptied during drain (connected to sump). The dryer timer is the small tab on the control dial which selects the drying time after the wash cycle. I found the service manual for this model 340W combo on ebay a while back so I'm also very lucky to have all this information. Even though it's in good cosmetic condition, I'll still have to disassemble it to make sure the blower/condenser assembly is clean and inspect/repair the pump, etc. which will probably all add up to no small job. I'm anxious to see it running (there is a tub light that will undoubtedly be wired "on" whenever the machine is running ;-) so I will take pics all along the journey to it's first load. |
Post# 44647 , Reply# 23   9/7/2004 at 22:29 (7,461 days old) by lightedcontrols ()   |   | |
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GREG! I BOW TO YOU!!! MOST HOLY ONE!!! WHAT A FIND!!!!Mark |
Post# 44671 , Reply# 27   9/8/2004 at 09:22 (7,460 days old) by Laundromat (Hilo, Hawaii)   |   | |
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Greg,I am so glad to hear that you found a Maytag combo!!!!!When I was a child and would go to the appliance graveyards nearby,I would see them and admire their design.I never got to bring one home but always hoped once I was collecting them that I would find one of these creatures but to no avail.From what I have seen on line of your other classics and how you have made diamonds out of rocks,I can hardly wait to see the unvailing of your most beautiful peace of art seen in decades.Many thanks for your passion,interest,care and knowledge in appliances especially washers and dryers!!Take us all for a spin sometime!!!!
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Post# 44684 , Reply# 28   9/8/2004 at 12:57 (7,460 days old) by PeterH770 ![]() |
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Post# 44685 , Reply# 29   9/8/2004 at 13:02 (7,460 days old) by PeterH770 ![]() |
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Post# 44697 , Reply# 30   9/8/2004 at 17:58 (7,460 days old) by gansky1 ![]() |
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The Bendix combo used about a gallon per minute for drying so the Maytag is a bit more thrifty that way. The washing/rinsing was about the same if not a little more with three deep rinses and the flush/spray rinse. I'm very curious as well to know what catastrophic problems led Maytag to finally recall or buy back all those machines. Westinghouse did the same thing with their combo as well, and around the same mid-late 60's timeframe. At the owner's option, Maytag (and Westy) would give you a new washer & dryer to replace the combo. I've heard they were frought with troubles, timer, tranny, etc. in addition to higher the labor costs to repair, etc. We'll have to do more research on this, unfortunately many of the people who would know were "relocated" to keep the secret forever - just kidding! ;-) |
Post# 44789 , Reply# 32   9/10/2004 at 00:05 (7,459 days old) by gansky1 ![]() |
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They had a brand new combo at the Maytag historical display in the Jasper County museum in Newton and another in the Maytag factory store. Here is the inside of the one at the factory store - with the box of Dash still inside! The link is to the pics of the trip to the store last year, nearly all the machines on display were new - never used! CLICK HERE TO GO TO gansky1's LINK ![]() |
Post# 44807 , Reply# 33   9/10/2004 at 08:26 (7,458 days old) by jetcone ![]() |
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Hi Greg: I like the fact you need to get into the machine. I always like to get into a machine because it makes you familiar with it and that makes it your machine. When I get a washer that needs no work and just runs I never feel like its mine. Reading the service "doctrine" and disassembling the unit gets you familiar with how it works so when it fails again you have a pretty good idea of what is wrong before you even open up the mechanism for repair. I envy you the pump & blower repair that is the fun part. Has anyone seen any recall literature from Maytag regarding what the reasons were, Maytag might have told their dealers why they were going to recall these machines?? I will check with Grays here in Melrose they have been in business for 75 years as a Maytag dealer they may have all the service beacons. |
Post# 44822 , Reply# 34   9/10/2004 at 12:38 (7,458 days old) by tlee618 ()   |   | |
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I hope that you can find something Jon, I have been wondering myself if anyone had any of the actual recall letters or knew anymore about it. Keep us posted. |