Thread Number: 65891
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
POD 6/10/19 Pearl Bailey White-Westinghouse Ad |
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Post# 884375 , Reply# 2   6/10/2016 at 05:01 (2,849 days old) by moparwash (Pittsburgh,PA )   |   | |
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From the Dinah Shore Chevy Show... one of the earliest uses of color videotape
. CLICK HERE TO GO TO moparwash's LINK |
Post# 884382 , Reply# 3   6/10/2016 at 06:57 (2,848 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)   |   | |
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Discovered that Bailey/Shore video on Youtube a few years ago and have played it to death!.
Miss. Bailey has a great strong voice, and her comic skills are A #1 "Death strikes again, but he's not dead yet" "It's searching time.. down by the river don't you know". "It's getting to high for me to sing, it's too high for you too"! |
Post# 884389 , Reply# 4   6/10/2016 at 08:08 (2,848 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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When these came out in 1959 they were a huge breakthrough in performace for American FL Washers, only American combos washed any better with their huge 4+ cubic foot size drums.
The 3BWH FLWs had a 2 CF capacity and could easily wash 8-10 pairs of my jeans with NO TANGLING, I owned and rebuilt and used nearly 100 of these fun washers over the years, even used one as my only washer for over a year back in the 80s and performance was never a problem.
Cleaning was top notch for even really dirty clothing as was the lack of lint and any grit left in laundry, yes spin performance was a little worse than WP BD washer, but with a WP Gas dryer the cost and speed of turning out clean and dry loads of laundry was excellent.
Overall these are one of the best performing classic AWs from the 60s through the early 90s that you can own if you want a classic machine, performance wise these are certainly better than any MT, GE, or WCI TL washer built in the same time period.
Please note I did not say anything about reliability, LOL.
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Post# 884409 , Reply# 7   6/10/2016 at 09:40 (2,848 days old) by moparwash (Pittsburgh,PA )   |   | |
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The few loads I did in this came out great...its faster than my Neptune FL and the window and tub light provide great entertainment..'Christina' was to be the star at this years wash in..scrub scrub scrub!...She and 'Christopher' will wait till next year for their close-up!
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Post# 884411 , Reply# 8   6/10/2016 at 09:53 (2,848 days old) by RE563 (Fort Worth, Texas)   |   | |
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Post# 884413 , Reply# 9   6/10/2016 at 10:11 (2,848 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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I had one of these WH that we bought new in 1987. It was really one of the best washers I ever owned, and my favorite automatic washer. It was really fast, never any lint, large capacity (the dealer told me to pack it to the top), I could wash our kingsize down comforter in it with no problem. We owned it for 7 yrs., sold it with the house and the new owner used it for several more trouble free yrs. In fact it was one of the thing she especially liked when she looked at the home to buy it. I don't recall that the spin left too much water, in fact the dealer told us that it would spin better that a TL.
Eddie |
Post# 884552 , Reply# 10   6/11/2016 at 08:56 (2,847 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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Post# 884553 , Reply# 11   6/11/2016 at 08:57 (2,847 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie)   |   | |
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A 1987 Frigidaire-branded machine was my first front-loader and I loved it! I noticed that grimy short white socks were cleaner/whiter and that it handled large things like blankets, comforters and pillows well. I lowered the water level quite a bit and found it cleaned even better and wasn't so prone to oversudsing in softened water. Westinghouse--and subsequently, WCI--was the only game in town for quite awhile if you wanted a front-loader.
Having said all that, I agree with Bruce that new HE front-loaders are a great improvement over this vintage Westinghouse in nearly every respect: Reverse tumbling; capacity; spin speed (by orders of magnitude); water/energy usage; cleaning power, and as John mentioned, reliability. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for the old Westys. It sold me on the front-load format and made the cat jump every time the solenoid clanked loudly when it kicked into a spin. There was no balancing protocol, either. I remember seeing the machine levitate a few times when loads were badly unbalanced. Ah, nostalgia. And place me firmly in the fan-of-Pearl Bailey column, as well. |
Post# 884554 , Reply# 12   6/11/2016 at 08:58 (2,847 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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Post# 884576 , Reply# 14   6/11/2016 at 11:35 (2,847 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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Well I can absolutely attest that you could wash a kingsize comforter in a 1987 Westinghouse FL, I did so several times. In fact we are still using that same comforter that we bought in 1983, and it is still almost like new, so it didn't get all torn up like Bruce above said it would have. This is not a lie! Granted, the tub was packed full, but the door shut without any difficulty. I used this machine just how the dealer we bought it from told us to. He said pack it full and I did. Once the tub started to fill with water the comforter compressed down and there was adequete movement for thorough cleaning to take place.
Now when it would go into a spin with a load like this there would sometimes be some jumping like Eugene described in his post above. I would stop the machine, rearrange the load and we were off to the races again. And in the 7 yrs we used that machine there was never one service call. Once the soleniod got stuck and made a loud noise. I just shut off the machine and restarted it, all was OK. Someone that used a machine like this day in and day out for 7 yrs. in my opinion has a better knowledge of just how they worked than someone that used them in a commercial setting. Eddie This post was last edited 06/11/2016 at 15:29 |
Post# 884591 , Reply# 15   6/11/2016 at 14:21 (2,847 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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Oh, I agree Eddie.....when I had one, basically nothing you couldn't wash in there....
comforters(yes, king size), pillows, stuffed animals, dog beds, sneakers, chair cushions.....just about anything you could not wash in a TLer, you could in one of these.... our dealer only recommendation was to wash similar items together, like all towel, or 10 pairs of jeans...there was minimal tangling, if any....full loads washed best...but nice to know you could wash one item with minimal attention....not to mention water and detergent savings! the "weigh to save" feature was unique.....but found if you left the water level set to LOW, it added enough water for any size load.... the only down side to the front control version was no dispensers.....and you couldn't exactly use a Downy ball.... |
Post# 884597 , Reply# 16   6/11/2016 at 15:26 (2,847 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room)   |   | |
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Post# 884600 , Reply# 17   6/11/2016 at 15:48 (2,847 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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My Mom had a Pearl Bailey album that must have been from around 1961 or 62 and one of the songs I particularly remember was titled "Legalize My Name". It was a hoot! It started out, "All you wanna do is bill and coo, but you're never ready when the bill is due", but I can't remember much more of the lyrics. I used to play this album when I would be home by myself. Check out the You Tube link.
Thanks Martin for the validation! What I really liked about this WH FL was that it always did what it was supposed to do. When it was time to spin it didn't hunt around for a "sweet" spot, then eventually decide it couldn't find one, it spun damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. So if I knew that I was washing a heavy load I stayed around and kept an eye on it. As far as the lack of dispensers that wasn't a problem for me at the time. I didn't use liquid fabric softener then, and just put the detergent in machine before loading. And if I was using bleach I just added it to the tub before the clothes, no problem since I only use LBC with whites anyway. Granted, the newer FL's have many improvements, but I prefer the simplicity of these old school Westies. Actually, my Aunt Imogene's 53' slant front was what made me a lifelong fan of washers. In the 1950's it was almost like watching TV for a kid, at least for me it was. I still think that the 53' slant front Westie is the most beautiful washer ever made, mostly due to it's pristine simplicity. Thats why I bought the WH FL in 1987, because of the memory of that 53' slant front, And thats why I have always liked FL's better than TL's. Eddie CLICK HERE TO GO TO ea56's LINK This post was last edited 06/11/2016 at 16:30 |
Post# 884629 , Reply# 18   6/11/2016 at 22:46 (2,847 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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Hi Eddie, and Martin, thanks for all the memories of these fun and effective washers.
First of all new FL washers are vastly refined machines compared to these older WH [and Bendix for matter] FL washers. But I totally agree Eddie with these WH FLers there was no fooling around waiting for it to do what it was supposed to do, I couldn't begin to estimate all the time I have wasted waiting and watching modern FL washers trying to get them to do something so I could diagnose what was wrong with them. Even though these WH FL washers were not the most reliable washers by a long shot they were easy to diagnose and repair.
In 1993 I worked with a developer who took a 1982 apartment building in NW Washington DC and he converted the apartments to Condos and was selling them. We fixed [ where necessary ] every single orignal appliance in that building [ 167 apartments ] they all had an almond WH stack pair, electric dryer. The kitchens had a GE SXS with Ice&Water disp, GE GSD1200 DW, GE wall-oven with attached MW above. We not only fixed every single already 11 year old appliance, but had to give the new owners a one year warranty on all the appliances and we did all that for a little over $25,000.
Back to the 3 belt WH washers, first of all, all WH FL washers from 1959-1994 have the same tub capacity. They are around 2 CF capacity and yes I usually washed 8-10 pairs of my jeans in it, yes as many of you know I am not a really heavy guy, but what I lack in girth I make up for in length [ jean size W32 I36 ] so they still take up a lot of room.
These washers do not tangle to any appreciable degree, whether a FL washer tangles has little to do with whether it reverses or not during the cycle. It has more to do with the tub design and if it tilts it is very likley to tangle whether it reverses or not, MT Neptunes and WP slanted tub Duets both have some problems with tangling, and none of my old classic combos tangle at all even none of them reverse tumble. |
Post# 884635 , Reply# 19   6/11/2016 at 23:27 (2,847 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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John my WH FL set was a stacked set in almond, probably very similar to the ones you refurbished on that job. It was in a narrow closet. When it was installed the installer was about 5'7" and 130 lbs. He had to literally hang upside down from on top of the dryer top make the connection for the vent. Anyone that was larger would have been hard pressed to have done this installation.
I guess I must have been lucky to have never had any repair problems. I know at the time Consumer Reports always gave them a low rating for reliability and I could never understand it since our set was trouble free. But we always were careful to follow the insturctions and not abuse it either. Eddie |
Post# 884637 , Reply# 20   6/12/2016 at 00:24 (2,847 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c )   |   | |
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When they make a new frontloader that dosent stop and reverse every little bit. and make a new one that has as much water in it as a Westinghouse or a Bendix...then I will buy it! |
Post# 884872 , Reply# 24   6/13/2016 at 10:26 (2,845 days old) by delaneymeegan (Midwest)   |   | |
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I love the front loaders. I still don't get what was the big shift to top loaders in the 60s/early 70s.
That 25" wide portable Westy must have been a dream come true, at the time. I wonder how they held up.
Interesting picture of a basement washer/dryer. A White paneled washer? Did Westy make that, or was it painted for the commercial? I don't ever remember that. And that plumbing drain . Ee-GAWD. No elbow and all that sewer gas coming into the house. Can't tell you how many times I've seen that. |