Thread Number: 2560
The Golden Age of Washers-Comment |
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Post# 72368 , Reply# 2   7/5/2005 at 15:38 (6,840 days old) by mrcleanjeans (milwaukee wi)   |   | |
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p.s. welcome Rinso |
Post# 72456 , Reply# 7   7/6/2005 at 00:05 (6,840 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)   |   | |
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I also have to take exception to the notion that seems to prevail about Maytag having mediocre performance ability and that the Dependabilty reputation was invented by them to sell inferior products. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the more I've studied Maytag, the more I've come to look at them a little differently. I spent many a washday during my childhood with my thumb depressing the lid switch of my grandmother's Maytag Highlander washer watching every cycle over and over. We had a GE at our house which also provided hours of splashy water-play fun for a young washer nut, but that Maytag in my grandmother's laundry room was just as much fun. Little did I know at that tender young age that her Maytag was probably one of the best built and reliable washers ever made. It has only been in the last few years that I have come to appreciate the high level of craftsmanship and attention to construction details that went into those Maytag appliances. Being in the heart of 'Maytag country,' it doesn't take a lot of research to understand why the loyalty to Maytag washers thrived and market penetration of the Maytag brand was consistently double or more than any other brand. It certainly wasn't because of our proximity to Newton, Iowa, but more significantly because this is an agriculture-based economy with a rural population that depended on reliable and well made equipment from threshing machines, tractors, planters, plows, combines, etc. which naturally follows that there would be a demand for household equipment equally as long-lasting, easy to use and work on if necessary. In the mid-1920's you could buy a Maytag washer with a gasoline powered engine that not only would wash your clothes cleaner, but also churn your butter, grind meat, make ice cream (if you had ice) and even run the pump to pull the water out of the well to use in the washer. This was a boon for the rural farms of the time that were still 25 years away from having electric service. The reputation for "Maytag Dependability" was not dreamed up around a conference table in an advertising agency in New York, it was earned from many years of manufacturing high quality washers that the name Maytag became synonymous with quality and reliability. Maytag proved their mettle, the ad agencies just expanded it into one of the most sucessful advertising campaigns of all time. A good example of this Maytag quality was just found two weeks ago at an estate sale here in Omaha. I brought home a model 160 Maytag washer that was still hooked up and in use when we found it. Had I not found it, I have no doubt that someone would have snapped it up, took it home and start washing clothes. I think that speaks volumes for a washer that is 45 years old that had only two sets of belts needed over that time. I'm not saying this type of story is exclusive of Maytag, nor is it the rule, but as Steve said earlier, we are still finding 20, 30, 40 year old Maytag washers and dryers that are still running strong, very nearly as well as they day they rolled off the factory line. Of course Maytag has made some mistakes through the years, lets not even talk about the last 15+ years, but the reality is, that if the machines didn't get clothes clean, people would not have bought them, much less paid a higher price for them. Maytag used a very similar agitator design in their washers, wringer and automatic, for many, many years because it did work. 54 strokes per minute with that solid-fin agitator got things moving and churning in that tub even if you can't see a lot of drama going on at the top of a full load. Set your Maytag to small water level and see what's really going on at the bottom of the tub - the clothes aren't just laying around down there and remember, the rate of turnover is not necessarily an indicator of good washing. Maytags were just as susceptible to overloading and incorrect usage as any other washer, overload a Frigidaire and see what happens - turnover all but stops and the load just bounces up and down. Overload a belt-drive Kenmore and it can't dissolve the detergent poured on top of the load until the spray rinses - you get the point I'm sure. ;-) With the WashPower automatics intro'd in 1966, Maytag increased the agitation strokes to 63 per min to accomodate the large capacity tub and also to compensate for some of the power lost to the flexible fins but necessary to move a load in their deeper, 'large capacity' tubs.
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Post# 72527 , Reply# 12   7/6/2005 at 15:07 (6,839 days old) by partscounterman (Cortez, Colorado)   |   | |
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Where is there a video of an AMP Maytag? Did I miss something? |
Post# 72538 , Reply# 13   7/6/2005 at 16:28 (6,839 days old) by Gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA)   |   | |
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David, thats what I am thinking!!! Where is that AMP video? |
Post# 72539 , Reply# 14   7/6/2005 at 16:47 (6,839 days old) by PeterH770 (Marietta, GA)   |   | |
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Post# 72553 , Reply# 15   7/6/2005 at 18:09 (6,839 days old) by partscounterman (Cortez, Colorado)   |   | |
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I've found that those huge video files don't go into my email box |
Post# 72861 , Reply# 16   7/8/2005 at 22:44 (6,837 days old) by laundramatt (Youngstown, Ohio)   |   | |
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Peter, please send the video to me. Thanks,Matt mattstar49@yahoo.com |