Thread Number: 86480  /  Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
GE Combo
[Down to Last]

automaticwasher.org's exclusive eBay Watch:
scroll >>> for more items --- [As an eBay Partner, eBay may compensate automaticwasher.org if you make a purchase using any link to eBay on this page]
Post# 1110589   3/8/2021 at 11:08 (1,144 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        

sarahperdue's profile picture
Hi All,

I'm down in the country working on the house. My plan is to install the GE combo John fixed for me in the kitchen and have a stacked washer/dryer unit in the bathroom for the main laundry center. I have an old Frigidaire Gallery stacked machine I've been planning to use, but it's starting to have issues.

It will be a while before we are continuously occupying the house, and I'm wondering if the combo would work as our only washer over the next 5-10 years before we move in permanently. I would expect to use the clothes line for drying most of the time. How well can I expect the combo to extract water during spin?

I'm getting closer to a house...
Sarah


  View Full Size



Post# 1110591 , Reply# 1   3/8/2021 at 11:16 (1,144 days old) by turquoisedude (.)        

turquoisedude's profile picture

Sarah, this generation of GE combo spun a bit faster than the first run but you may find laundry still pretty wet and heavy when hanging it on the line.  It depends on what you are laundering - most shirts, table linens, and sheets seem fine, but towels and jeans still seem pretty soaked to me.  But I have the 208 RPM spin model, so.... 

 

I line-dry most of my laundry in the summer and combo loads will be dried if I get them out early enough.  You may not think this, but our part of Québec gets very sticky and humid in summer, so line-drying is sometimes not enough!  


Post# 1110592 , Reply# 2   3/8/2021 at 11:21 (1,144 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Bad

Aren't these spinning at like 225rpm max speed or so?
Less than 400 most certainly.



Pretty close to the definition of drip dry for cotton.

At least no creases I'd say.



Energy usage shouldn't be much of an issue.

Water usage might be more of a question.
Think something like 30 or 40gal for the entire cycle.
Half of that hot I think.

A drying cycle would use the same amount of water as the wash cycle would use on its own, upwards of 20gal certainly.




My main fear on a 50+ year old machine would be major breakdowns over that time.

Mainly timer issues could mean a huge issue...


Post# 1110618 , Reply# 3   3/8/2021 at 18:08 (1,144 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)        

yogitunes's profile picture
well if I was going to gain advice, it would be from Paul or especially JohnL, the master of combos, who else knows them better, not to mention the guy who rebuilt that machine for you....

you may want to select an external spinner/extractor used in combination with your machine.....they really can spin a lot of water out of load....helpful for line or machine drying...

a wringer might be fun too for your country house until you get the daily driver set you want....


Post# 1110660 , Reply# 4   3/9/2021 at 05:53 (1,144 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

If you  had something like the GE portable washer or any real washer for final spinning, it would be practical to hang out, but hanging out clothes with that much water in them will result in quite stiff  laundry and they will drip for hours. I remember an article about combos in a shelter magazine in the late 50s or early 60s where a reader wrote in wanting to know why her laundry was so stiff when line dried out of the combo. The editors suggested that she at least partially dry the loads in the combo before hanging out.  The early Lady Kenmore combos had a setting on the dryer timer for "Line Dry" to dry some of the excess moisture from heavier fabrics. before putting them on the line.  On your combo you could set the dryer for "Damp Dry." One suggestion I would make is that you dry the last load of your wash day all of the way in the combo to make sure that the seals around the tub bearing get dry so that  you do not invite moisture getting into that area. These machines, like horses,  were not designed to be put away wet. 

 

If you have a washer, it would be more economical and would save time to spin loads in  the washer after the combo's final spin to remove the quart or two of water left in heavier fabrics rather than baking it out in the dryer.


Post# 1110675 , Reply# 5   3/9/2021 at 08:41 (1,144 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.)        

bradfordwhite's profile picture
I've said it in other threads.
Harvest the fun part- the front panels for decorative purposes. Possibly the side panels if practical.

Ditch the rest in a metal scrap bin. It's just a nightmare of problems.
There's a good reason GE stopped making these.


Post# 1110721 , Reply# 6   3/9/2021 at 15:12 (1,143 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        
Sooo

sarahperdue's profile picture
If the clothes are sopping wet after the spin cycle how on earth does the dry cycle dry them?

I did the wash and dry cycles when I test drove it, and the clothes came out nicely dry. Does it take enough electricity to supply a small African nation every time one runs the full wash & dry cycle?

Oh, wait, Henrik, did you say the energy usage won't be substantially more to run the dry cycle? We've got plenty of water--a deep well in an area that doesn't frequently have droughts.

And, yes, I will definitely ask John Lefever for advice. He built the machine for me.

A wringer does sound kind of cute, really cute.

Sarah


  View Full Size
Post# 1110723 , Reply# 7   3/9/2021 at 15:31 (1,143 days old) by turquoisedude (.)        

turquoisedude's profile picture

Sarah, that's fortunate that you have a deep well with plenty of water - one big factor in condenser drying is the temperature of the cold water coming into the machine.  Down in Ogden, the ground water is cold year-round but in winter it's like having ice water piped to your faucet; that being said, I do notice that the ol' 56 Combo dries faster in the winter months, no doubt because the water vapor generated by the heated clothes is dripping of the condenser plate faster.   My hubby yells at me when I use the dry feature of the combo because of the water it uses but we've never run out of water or flooded the septic system...  (he's remembering the issues we used to have with the well in a previous house).  


Post# 1110770 , Reply# 8   3/9/2021 at 20:02 (1,143 days old) by jeb (Mansfield Ohiio)        

a wringer may sound cute, but are labor intensive and won't remove as much water as a spin cycle.They make small laundry spin dryers, I would look in to those. Small very efficient and quick. Spin at over 3000 rpms. Some clothes come out ready to iron (if you still iron!) in less than 3 to 5 minutes. New close to $150.00.

Post# 1110780 , Reply# 9   3/9/2021 at 21:11 (1,143 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.)        

bradfordwhite's profile picture
Excellent product regardless of what type washer one uses.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO bradfordwhite's LINK


  View Full Size
Post# 1110803 , Reply# 10   3/9/2021 at 23:50 (1,143 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        
Spin dryer

sarahperdue's profile picture
Our rec center pool has them in the changing rooms. They are brilliant.

Thanks,
Sarah


Post# 1110808 , Reply# 11   3/10/2021 at 00:20 (1,143 days old) by warmsecondrinse (Fort Lee, NJ)        

IIRC, patent issues limited GE (and all but one other company's) combos to 280 max rpm.

I got a chance to use one once. IIRC is was a mixed load 2 or 3 pairs of jeans with T-shirts, socks, & underwear to make a full load. I recall everything including the jeans drying more quickly than I'd expected given the low spin speed. Nothing was stiff or creased.

I'm one of the few people to have had an Equator that actually worked as designed. Dry times were def lower in the winter.




Post# 1110818 , Reply# 12   3/10/2021 at 06:59 (1,143 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Oh no

Energy usage will be significant, no question.

But given the circumstances, and US levels, not really I guess?




This unit should have somewhere north of 4kW of heating power.

So each hour the machine runs drying will use about 4kWh, plus minus.
Plus the 15+ gal of cold water.

But given it already uses like 15gal of hot water, drying will use probably not much more or less compared to what a wash cycle uses including energy used to heat water.




It's a fun machine but just not up to what would be considered normal today.

Not that it has to.

Really depends on how often you run it.
If you only stay there a couple of weeks out of the year and run only like a load or 2 a week it might be ok.
If it's more like a couple of months out of the year and you run a load a day, just go out, buy a cheap stacked throw away set and set it up somewhere where it doesn't matter, maybe outside?


Post# 1110822 , Reply# 13   3/10/2021 at 07:45 (1,143 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Design patents held by AVCO (Aviation Corporation) which owned Bendix, prohibited any other washer dryer combination from using a suspended (springs and shock absorbers) mechanism which limited the spin speed to one low enough to keep the machine stable on the floor.  Even at that if the unbalance switch failed, the combos could walk.  Whirlpool had cases of the combos walking to the length of their connections and blocking doors to laundry rooms. Your GE has a speed limiter switch in the left front foot. The machine rides up and down on this and if the spinning causes the machine to ride up and down too fast due to an unbalance, the switch returns it to a tumble to redistribute the load. You can override it by sitting on that corner of the machine.

 

When the engineers at Whirlpool redesigned the original combo to the 29" combo, they put in the water balancing system which used the three baffles in the drum as tanks to hold ballast water. The water was injected into the tanks from a spray at the front of the tub. A diverter valve that normally fed the filter stream switched to feed water to this balancing mechanism ring. The flexible frame around the machine would flex when an unbalanced load pulled it to the upper left hand side.  When that flexing occurred, there was a little flag in the spray that moved to divert the water spray into the tank opposite the heavy spot at the 10 o'clock position. In so doing, it also bled off air that was being pumped into the clutch on the front of the transmission to keep the speed from increasing until the balance was perfect so there was a chugging acceleration  to get an unbalanced load up to speed.  Originally, the spin speed was 500 RPM, but the machines underwent retrofitting and there were big changes. The spin speed was reduced to 400 RPM . Think of the dynamic forces of that basket with a load of laundry and water in one or two of the tanks spinning along at 400 RPM.  If somehow that tub broke loose, it would do serious damage. The water was held in the tanks by the centrifugal force of the spinning of the tub. When the spin terminated, there was the initial rush of water down the drain that was sitting in the sump of the outer tub followed by the water draining out of the balance tank or tanks as the tub slowed. This was the only domestic washer-dryer combination that was able to achieve a spin speed that came close to a Bendix Duomatic.  Decades later, the ZUGG combination from Switzerland did a similar balancing routine, but they used fresh, not recirculated, water. That would eliminate one of the situations I encountered with a piece of lint making it past the lint filter and hanging up on the little diverter flag in the balance spray system causing the water to spray toward the tanks all the time resulting in the machine balancing then unbalancing itself. It was a complicated machine.  John's brother Jerry counted that it had as as many parts as a VW Beetle and in a much smaller space.

 

Very cold water did indeed help speed the drying in condenser combos. In Atlanta, our water came out under a dam and it was cold all the year around. If you entered the Chattahoochee River Rambling Raft Race, you wanted to make sure that your raft was water tight and sea worthy because you did not want to be thrown into that frigid water. The laundering instructions on my parent's London Fog and Misty Harbor raincoats said to rinse them thoroughly in cool water and that was about the only time we used the "Cool" water temperature setting on the 1958 Lady Kenmore. I still remember the difference between that tempered water and the stinging cold of the tap cold water.  

 

One way that GE and some other combos boosted the water extraction abilities was by pausing the spin a few times to allow the load to drop from the tub and be repositioned with different items against the tub for the next spin period. It was described as similar to how you can squeeze more water out of a sponge if you grab it in different positions each time you squeeze. GE and other combos also switched on the dry heater during the final spin to not only heat the load for drying, but also to soften the fabrics and make them squeeze easier to give up more water in the spin. If a HOT wash was selected, the three rinses in a GE combo were COLD, WARM and HOT for the same reason.




This post was last edited 03/10/2021 at 10:58
Post# 1110823 , Reply# 14   3/10/2021 at 08:26 (1,143 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)        
Tom

foraloysius's profile picture
I'm scratching my brain to think of what Zug combination that was, but I can't remember any Zug combo. Was it perhaps another Swiss brand?

Post# 1110838 , Reply# 15   3/10/2021 at 11:13 (1,142 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

I remember there was quite a bit of discussion here. The UK contingent with Chestermikeuk posted a lot about it.  The water came into the tanks at the back, I think.

 

There was discussion back in 2013.


Post# 1110846 , Reply# 16   3/10/2021 at 12:52 (1,142 days old) by cadman (Cedar Falls, IA)        

cadman's profile picture
Another vote for a portable extractor. We only wash with vintage machines, but have a little modern extractor (designed by an AW member) we use with most loads. It cuts dry time significantly for both line and electric dryer. You should see the water that drains off of clothes out of the GE combo!

Post# 1110953 , Reply# 17   3/11/2021 at 13:02 (1,141 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)        
Tom

foraloysius's profile picture
I found a photo that Mike posted. It was of his washing machine I think. I was a bit confused since you mentioned a Zug combo, but they never made one. They used the system on their frontloaders.

  View Full Size
Post# 1110960 , Reply# 18   3/11/2021 at 14:49 (1,141 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Louis, I apologize.  I was more than a bit confused since I thought that they did. Sorry. Tom 


Post# 1110961 , Reply# 19   3/11/2021 at 15:00 (1,141 days old) by thomasortega (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de Porciúncula)        

A spin-dryer would definitely make a whole world of a difference, regardless of the washer you have.

And, not that I'm trying to sell my fish but..... When the Ninja (The model that replaced the Mega) was designed, I focused on all the Panda's (my competitor) drawbacks.

I succeeded in four key areas:

1) Extraction performance (different drum design, better extraction performance using the same 3200RPM)
2) Less noise
3) Impressive durability and expected life. (27 thousand cycles vs 1200 cycles from Panda). It's, virtually, a spin dryer that can last forever. (or at least over 30 years)
4) Usability: The DSS suspension system (Only The Laundry Alternative has that) is way more tolerant to OOB loads, minimizing the need to stop and rearrange the load.


Post# 1111012 , Reply# 20   3/11/2021 at 22:51 (1,141 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)        

foraloysius's profile picture
No worries Tom, at least now your V-Zug knowledge is up to date again. :-)

Post# 1111040 , Reply# 21   3/12/2021 at 04:16 (1,141 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
VZug

That system is somewhat different though.

They use something called a "rotating union" (at least according to Google that's its name in English).
So the paddles are directly connected to the water supply.

The machine has a special sensor that senses both the drum speed and the drum position.
In union with the 3D acceleration sensor it can directly inject water in the right paddle.




Basically an electronic version of the old mechanical system.


Post# 1111041 , Reply# 22   3/12/2021 at 05:31 (1,141 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Thank you, Henrik!



Forum Index:       Other Forums:                      



Comes to the Rescue!

The Discuss-o-Mat has stopped, buzzer is sounding!!!
If you would like to reply to this thread please log-in...

Discuss-O-MAT Log-In



New Members
Click Here To Sign Up.



                     


automaticwasher.org home
Discuss-o-Mat Forums
Vintage Brochures, Service and Owners Manuals
Fun Vintage Washer Ephemera
See It Wash!
Video Downloads
Audio Downloads
Picture of the Day
Patent of the Day
Photos of our Collections
The Old Aberdeen Farm
Vintage Service Manuals
Vintage washer/dryer/dishwasher to sell?
Technical/service questions?
Looking for Parts?
Website related questions?
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy
Our Privacy Policy