What you don't say about the Economats was that many young families of soldiers back from the wars lived in apartment houses where they could not have washers that spun to extract water because of the vibration, nor washers that needed bolting down, nor washers that needed permanent plumbing connections. The Economat-type washers were inexpensive because they only needed a wringer washer transmission and they could be hooked up to the sink so they did not need permanent connections; just the ticket for young families in apartments. For women with children, the machine sure beat having to try to get to a coin laundry with children in tow.

I thought that the POD (Brand and description would be nice in the heading) was the 36" Duomatic which was the most successful of the combination washer-dryers and even liked by the consumer testing magazines. They were tested with 8 lb loads and performed well, washing as well as the Whirlpool top loader in the 1954 CU tests. I'm wondering how much actual experience you ever had with the original design Duomatics. The larger tub greatly improved washing performance over the tumble washers with the small tub. The Magic Heater kept the wash water hot and the full speed spins between water changes gave good rinsing results.