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Thread Number: 79649
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Bendix Duomatic - 465 pounds!! |
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Post# 1035462 6/16/2019 at 11:06 (1,768 days old) by LowEfficiency  (Iowa) |
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Today's Picture of the Day (6/16/2019) is the Bendix Duomatic combo washer-dryer.
I couldn't believe it when I read how much the unit weighs - 465 lbs for the gas machine, and a whopping 492 lbs when crated!! Holy cow! And the electric version isn't very far behind - 446 lbs for the machine, and 473 lbs in its crate. How in the world did appliance dealers of the day manage these units?? Even if you assembled a team of strongmen to move them, you're going to be damaging wooden stair treads with the dollies going up or down. And I can only imagine the apprehension of inching down some rickety basement steps, wondering if they will hold up to a thousand pounds of man and machine. The brochure talks about its installation location flexibility due to its compact size (relative to a separate washer/dryer pair), but I can imagine most folks (or installers) had to plan ahead and be more selective for these... Anyone have any stories or insight?
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| Post# 1035465 , Reply# 1 6/16/2019 at 11:32 (1,768 days old) by twintubdexter (Palm Springs) | ||
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Post# 1035469 , Reply# 2 6/16/2019 at 12:02 (1,768 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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 When we moved my '55 Duo to the basement some 20 years ago, I removed the cabinet trim piece from the front edge and we slid it down the (carpeted) steps on it's side and let gravity do the work. Two of us stood under it to slow it's downward momentum. Lucky we weren't both killed. He still rants about how heavy it was. | ||
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Post# 1035471 , Reply# 3 6/16/2019 at 12:30 (1,768 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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 I had a beeyatch of a time getting my electric Duomatic down the stairs into the Ogden laundry...it took three of us to manage it! Years ago when my father worked as a delivery person for the Eatons department store, he had a major hate-on for all things Moffatt because of their washer-dryer combinations (they were rebagded Bendix machines in his day). People ordered them and more often than not refused delivery because the units either didn't fit or could not be transported up 3 flights of twisty, rickety stairs!! | ||
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Post# 1035482 , Reply# 4 6/16/2019 at 15:12 (1,768 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Laundry Appliance Weights
They were heavy, however a new Speed Queen stack weighs nearly 400 pounds, a few more for gas.
Any decent staircase can easily support 1000+ pounds, in fact each step can easily support that much weight. These early Duomatics were actually quite slim and would easily go through narrower doors than many new washers & dryers will today. John L. | ||
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Post# 1035517 , Reply# 5 6/17/2019 at 03:15 (1,767 days old) by neptunebob (Pittsburgh, PA) |
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Kind of related... I have been watching the show 600 Pound Life about a doctor who deals with people of extreme weight. My sister who is a nurse works on a bariatric unit in our area and that their building dates from the 1960s. She tells me that there are cracks in the floors, creaking when more than one person walks near each other and constant trouble with their elevators from all the heavy weight. Perhaps appliances weigh less now, but it seems some people weigh more today than in the past. When bariatric patients have to be moved, especially if they are bed bound, it can take 6 to 8 people to move them, maybe that many people had to move appliances in the past. | ||
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Post# 1036499 , Reply# 7 6/27/2019 at 12:48 (1,757 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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