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Thread Number: 80217
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
POD 8-14-19 WP Combo Ad with Dachshund |
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Post# 1041684 , Reply# 1 8/14/2019 at 06:26 (1,717 days old) by DADoES  (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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Post# 1041686 , Reply# 2 8/14/2019 at 07:30 (1,717 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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My friend's mother used a cap of Wisk to wash a load, back when the cap was the small yellow one on the metal can. Looking through the round observation window placed on the front of the sump to show the water line at midpoint on the glass, the suds level was a quarter inch thick on top of the water. | ||
| Post# 1041709 , Reply# 3 8/14/2019 at 10:52 (1,716 days old) by golittlesport (California) | ||
old is new again | ||
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Post# 1041710 , Reply# 4 8/14/2019 at 11:16 (1,716 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany)) |
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This machine is one of the reasons US washer history is so absurd to me... Given 40 odd years of innovation on that design and the US would have a more than capable design of highest efficiency FL washer... Yet it just vanished... | ||
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Post# 1041744 , Reply# 6 8/14/2019 at 15:13 (1,716 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Issue is very complicated 
First and foremost Bendix owned and tied up many patents related to front loading washers in USA market. Other companies either had to pay royalties, or find ways around, all of which costs money for an appliance that wasn't in high demand.
You forget that prior to WWII many top loading washer designs were also popular in Europe for domestic use. It wouldn't be until post WWII that front loaders came to dominate. By that time American housewives had long grown used to top loaders both semi (wringer washers), and fully automatic. Until low froth detergent came about post WWII soap was dominate on wash day. Soap and front loaders don't exactly go together which is why Bendix and others were dinged in ratings back then. Top loaders are easier and cheaper to design/build, also sell (until rather recently), so American appliance makers stuck to what they knew would move. Westinghouse sold front loaders well into the 1980's or so, but the market was very small so no one else bothered. | ||
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Post# 1041749 , Reply# 7 8/14/2019 at 15:38 (1,716 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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 I can literally count on one finger how many Westinghouse/WCI front-load washers I saw as a kid. A neighbor of a friend in high school had a new set of them and was able to fiddle with them while she was babysitting once. With basements and fewer condos/apartments than on the coasts and larger cities, the need for stacking sets was pretty rare, and then mostly favored the Whirlpool/Kenmore and Frigidaire skinny-mini type. | ||
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Post# 1041758 , Reply# 8 8/14/2019 at 17:23 (1,716 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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There was a Westinghouse dealer in the next town over. Can't say how many were sold locally there but I only ever saw two (SpaceMates) sets in my home-town. One set was in my (private) kindergarten teacher's garage. The classroom was attached, with a restroom out the back door directly into the back of the garage where the set could be seen (and it was pink). The other was in a cubby-space at the front/left of the garage at the local Chevy dealer's house (white). | ||
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Post# 1041775 , Reply# 9 8/14/2019 at 19:51 (1,716 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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 There were some front loaders in my life growing up. Friends of my parents had a Bendix in their kitchen that was probably about 1950 (modern looking cabinet). My "other mother" had an L110 Laundromat. Good friends in Dallas bought a low-end Westinghouse to replace a water fall filtered frog-eyed Kenmore. Her mother had a 1954 or 1955 Bendix with the flip-top front over th3e console. There was the 1960 and 1965 LK Combos next door. The townhouse I had an earnest contract to build/buy (before I found out 2 weeks later I was being transferred across town) in 1978 was to have a W Westinghouse stacked set. A buddy of mine from college bought a Galleria area 1-bed room condo that had a space mate set. He called them the suzy home maker washer and dryer. When I moved here in 1986, one of the engineer's wife had a mid-1960s full size side-swing door Laundromat and it was just about rusted out. He'd kept it running all htose years. It died about 12 years later. she cried because she couldn't get another front loader and it was all she'd ever had as well as all she'd grown up with from her mother's house too. Saw one pink spacemates set in like 1962 or 1963 in a house at the back of the subdivision. And the Norge combo at the end of the street.
I just remembered, there was a secretary when I started working, her husband was an engineer and their family was buying their first home. They ended up getting a Kenmore Combo (dryer non functional) but they used the washer part as their washer. And another admin/financial person, they rented a house in West University and the house had a LK Combo too. This post was last edited 08/14/2019 at 21:21 | ||
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Post# 1041776 , Reply# 10 8/14/2019 at 20:05 (1,716 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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I recall visiting there, one of dad's school friends living in Missouri City area (IIRC as to where we were, it was a different house than they're in now) had a KM combo of some late 1960s vintage stashed in their finished porch/mudroom coming into the house. I don't think it was functional. Could also have been in Crosby area, depending on which friend we were visiting (many years ago and I've slept at least twice since then, LOL). | ||
| Post# 1041779 , Reply# 11 8/14/2019 at 20:47 (1,716 days old) by IowaBear (Cedar Rapids, IA) | ||
 The only FL I ever saw in a residential setting was the Westinghouse with the oval window.
It was installed in a mobile home. An older couple my parents occasionally played cards with lived there. I was fascinated by it. It was one of the models that made a really loud "clunk" as it went through the cycles.
This would have been around 1974 or 1975.
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Post# 1041781 , Reply# 12 8/14/2019 at 20:54 (1,716 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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By 1970's there was only one front loader
Game in town; Westinghouse.
Things would largely remain so until a decade or so later when various European imports (Creda, Miele, Bosch, Asko) began showing up on this side of pond. Then you also had combo units from Equator and Malber arriving as well. Then came Maytag with their "Neptune" washer. Less said about that hot mess, the better. Pity once WCI got their mitts on Westinghouse appliances things began going down hill IIRC in terms of quality. Interestingly CBS still technically owns Westinghouse trademark. Though now Electrolux (who purchased WCI) makes appliances with that brand name.
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This post was last edited 08/14/2019 at 22:15 | ||
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Post# 1041810 , Reply# 14 8/15/2019 at 08:22 (1,715 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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Funny you should mention that, Tom: My second front-loader, a Gibson-branded WCI was purchased at the local natural gas company. This was probably 1989 or early '90. I'd had an '86 or early '87 Frigidaire rear console model that was old-school Westy. It started tumbling in one direction when you set the cycle and didn't stop until the end.
Anyway, that set was sold when I moved to an efficiency apartment for a year. Following another move to a huge warehouse apartment I had a KitchenAid top loader for a few months, but when the Gibson stack appeared in the storefront window with easy payments tacked onto the gas bill, I went for it. This model had reverse tumbling, but no dispensers. A buzzer would sound and the washer would pause when it had filled for the final rinse. You'd open the door and pour in some fabric softener. It came with a 2-quart pitcher to dilute liquid chlorine bleach which was poured in after the wash fill. The gas company had a storefront in our little town back then. These days, one has to jump through hoops just to talk to a living human being on the phone...somewhere. | ||
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Post# 1041833 , Reply# 15 8/15/2019 at 16:50 (1,715 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Did any of these vintage combo/front loaders | ||
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Post# 1041836 , Reply# 16 8/15/2019 at 17:20 (1,715 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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Post# 1041845 , Reply# 18 8/15/2019 at 18:27 (1,715 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Thor "Cylinder" washer reversed as well. | ||
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Post# 1041855 , Reply# 19 8/15/2019 at 19:28 (1,715 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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US Combination Washer-Dryers From 1952-1972 There were 10 different Combo designs during this time, only GE combos reversed at all in their 3rd redesign models [ 1964-1972 ] and none of these combos tangled at all except the Easys with their slanted tub.
Reversing has no benefit when it comes to possible tangling, it can very slightly improve the washing pattern and how evenly items dry in small or over crowded dryers, although the worlds best dryers all have one thing in common, NONE reverse.
John L. | ||
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Post# 1041866 , Reply# 20 8/15/2019 at 21:09 (1,715 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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Dryers that reverse: The first Electrolux-built Frigidaire reversed. The drum was SO small that a maximum capacity load from the washer filled the dryer almost 3/4 full. The warehouse apartment had only a gas connection in the designated laundry area. It reversed about every 6 minutes. The electric version reversed much more often—maybe every 2 minutes.
That dryer scorched two queen-sized comforters (yes, I was stupid enough to try it again) and a few times I noticed the ends of fibers on bath towels were scorched. The only benefit of the reversal was the flat sheet and six pillowcases never bunched up inside the fitted sheet. The second version of the pair had a bigger drum and no reversing. Still, it was maybe only 5.5 cubic feet. It wasn’t until the 2010 redesign that their dryer finally had something close to a 7 cu. ft. drum. | ||
| Post# 1041867 , Reply# 21 8/15/2019 at 21:09 (1,715 days old) by Maytagbear (N.E. Ohio) | ||
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Back to the original post I love this ad, too. The Doxie is so adorable! Lawrence/Maytagbear | ||
| Post# 1041878 , Reply# 22 8/15/2019 at 23:38 (1,715 days old) by IowaBear (Cedar Rapids, IA) | ||
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I wondered about the cost of this WH FL, found this ad from Feb 1974.
$399 for the pair or about $2200 in today's dollars.
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