What made Norge VHQ so special?

Bud, the VHQ advertising campaign at Norge was an attempt to sell the idea that Norge washers were more reliable than past washers. Norge washers had chalked up one of the worst reputations for durability from the beginning of their automatic washers. And I will say by the time the VHQ washers were out they had made some significant progress in the reliability area.

Automatic washers from their beginnings in the 1950s were very trouble prone appliances, television sets were the only other expensive home item that gave so many problems and had such short life spans. As a result most appliance manufactures really improved their appliances in terms of reliability in the 1960s and these efforts were often touted in their ads. Westinghouse was the first to use the term Heavy Duty on their laundry appliances in the mid 1960s, Frigidaire started calling their washers The Sturdy Washer around 1963, Whirlpool beefed up their transmissions, water pump and went to a 1/2 HP motor in 1964, GE and MT also made significant improvements in laundry appliances throughout the 1960s.

I keep hoping that this type of quality wave will surface again in major appliances, this time the sales promotion could be that the appliances are greener because they are designed to last much longer that other similar products. Speed Queen could start this type of wave if they wanted to start advertising their laundry appliances.


Forum Topics & Rules Manuals & Literature	New users Click-here to sign-up

Post# 673322 4/17/2013 at 00:30 (4,024 days old) by qualin (Canada)
Checkrate/Likes As per the topic... What made Norge VHQ washers better than their standard lines? Was it just all marketing or did they really do something which made their machines stand out from the rest? Just was curious as a result of the last POD. Thanks.

Post# 673327 , Reply# 1 4/17/2013 at 00:46 (4,024 days old) by mrsalvo (New Braunfels Texas)
Checkrate/Likes I think it was the larger capacity over the older models. My mother had a Montgomery Ward Signature from around 1969. It held an amazing amount of laundry, and it all came out spotlessly clean. It was a loud washer, all business. I remember that it WASN'T a water saver per se. I've wondered how Norge, if they were still in business, would have designed a HE machine in todays market.

Post# 673329 , Reply# 2 4/17/2013 at 00:50 (4,024 days old) by jaxsunst ()
Checkrate/Likes 1 Funny thing, I worked for Monkey Ward in the day. The salesmen steered people away from Signature. We also carried GE and Maytag. I asked one of of sales guys why. Was told too many of them come back broken down.

Post# 673330 , Reply# 3 4/17/2013 at 00:52 (4,024 days old) by jaxsunst ()
Checkrate/Likes If it came back within six months as a customer refusal, they had to forfeit their commission.

Post# 673333 , Reply# 4 4/17/2013 at 01:00 (4,024 days old) by jaxsunst ()
Checkrate/Likes 1 I still mourn the loss of Monkey's as we called it.

Post# 673335 , Reply# 5 4/17/2013 at 01:06 (4,024 days old) by westingman123 ()
Checkrate/Likes *Montgomery Ward* Did you work in the big department-store MW? I only ever saw one of those in Kansas City, when visiting my aunt. We had a small, rural store out home. I suppose it was a catalog outlet, but all I really remember is they were like a hardware store with cool appliance displays. The MW in (I think Oak Park Mall?) Kansas was more like a JC Penney to my wondering eyes.

Post# 673339 , Reply# 6 4/17/2013 at 01:30 (4,024 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay)
Checkrate/Likes 3 *Jackson Comes Through!* Nothing like hearing it from someone who was on the inside. I gave you a check mark for reply #2. As for water saving, I think even the Snorge 18 pounders were better than a lot of others with water. Those savings came with a price, though. I remember my mom's beastly '67 Snorge would barely cover the agitator vanes with water when the level was set to "Extra Low." Even a pair of Levi's would have trouble surviving such a crude and ruthless thrashing. Conversely, on the infinitely more refined '74 Kenmore 800 that replaced the Snorge, the lowest you could get the water level was half way up the tub. Having been raised on Ward's junk, having witnessed my dad cursing it both when it was missing parts in the beginning and again when it prematurely failed, having worn "Brent" underwear as a kid while riding a "Hawthorne" bike with a front wheel bearing that went bad early on, put me down in the column with the heading "NO LOVE LOST FOR WARD'S."

Post# 673374 , Reply# 7 4/17/2013 at 06:17 (4,024 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Using a Norge washer was like riding in the old cars on the Philly subway, lotsa noise, but they got the job done and delivered you to your destination. The old subway cars lasted much longer than the Norge washers though.

Post# 673384 , Reply# 8 4/17/2013 at 07:21 (4,024 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *VHQ Norge Washers* Bud, the VHQ advertising campaign at Norge was an attempt to sell the idea that Norge washers were more reliable than past washers. Norge washers had chalked up one of the worst reputations for durability from the beginning of their automatic washers. And I will say by the time the VHQ washers were out they had made some significant progress in the reliability area. Automatic washers from their beginnings in the 1950s were very trouble prone appliances, television sets were the only other expensive home item that gave so many problems and had such short life spans. As a result most appliance manufactures really improved their appliances in terms of reliability in the 1960s and these efforts were often touted in their ads. Westinghouse was the first to use the term Heavy Duty on their laundry appliances in the mid 1960s, Frigidaire started calling their washers The Sturdy Washer around 1963, Whirlpool beefed up their transmissions, water pump and went to a 1/2 HP motor in 1964, GE and MT also made significant improvements in laundry appliances throughout the 1960s. I keep hoping that this type of quality wave will surface again in major appliances, this time the sales promotion could be that the appliances are greener because they are designed to last much longer that other similar products. Speed Queen could start this type of wave if they wanted to start advertising their laundry appliances.

Post# 673678 , Reply# 10 4/18/2013 at 06:43 (4,023 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes The MW at Oak Park Mall is about as upscale a MW as ever was built--that mall was on the edge of town in 1976 when it was built (Sears and Jones Store were 2 miles further east at Metcalf South which dated to the early 60s). Believe Oak Park had MW, Macy's and Stix Baer and Fuller (from St. Louis) in the day...

Post# 673633 , Reply# 9 4/18/2013 at 00:11 (4,023 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)
Checkrate/Likes 2 1950's TV-These were at least REPARAIBLE compared to TV sets made today.TV's from the 50's are surviving today with repairs like recapping and replacing tubes,cleaning the tuners.Do you think TV's from today will "surface" and be repairable 50 years from now?Same sort of thing with other 50's type machines-they were made to be repaired and last longer than machines made today.