Thread Number: 93465
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
05.28.23 P.O.D. |
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Post# 1181405   5/28/2023 at 12:47 (341 days old) by pulltostart (Mobile, AL)   |   | |
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Post# 1181406 , Reply# 1   5/28/2023 at 13:04 (341 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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Post# 1181416 , Reply# 3   5/28/2023 at 15:58 (341 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806)   |   | |
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I think Hamilton even offered gas models not too long after they started to make dryers. The reason why I believe Hamilton and many others offered gas models (with the exception of GE, Westinghouse, Frigidaire) was to allow people to have a dryer without having to upgrade their electrical service since all you would have needed was a gas hookup which could be tapped into if you had gas boiler or water heater in the basement and a 2 prong plug that would plug into a nearby outlet.
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Post# 1181417 , Reply# 4   5/28/2023 at 16:23 (341 days old) by appnut (TX)   |   | |
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Post# 1181421 , Reply# 5   5/28/2023 at 17:29 (341 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806)   |   | |
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I think GE (along with Hotpoint) started to offer gas models around 1965 or 1966. They probably had to offer gas models to compete with Sears/Kenmore and Whirlpool since Whirlpool/Kenmore offered gas models from the get go in 1948 and Whirlpool by that point was the largest appliance manufacturer in the US. GE probably got complaints from customers who were looking to buy a matched GE set but were a bit discouraged when they found out they only offered electric dryers and not gas, you could easily convert a electric dryer from 240 volts down to 120 volts but running at half of the voltage would take a LONG time to dry. On the other hand, if a customer walked into Sears in the early 60’s and wanted a gas dryer, you could get the exact model of dryer you wanted.
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Post# 1181427 , Reply# 6   5/28/2023 at 19:08 (341 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)   |   | |
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J. Ross More rigged up a gasoline powered washing machine and invented what would become modern tumble clothes dryer. His original dryer was heated with oil however, not gasoline or electricity.
After few setbacks Mr. Moore got Hamilton involved and the rest as they say is history. www.findagrave.com/memori... www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/... www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/... |
Post# 1181431 , Reply# 8   5/28/2023 at 20:25 (341 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)   |   | |
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With all the recent noise about being "green" and "saving the environment" by hanging washing up to dry, people forget just what a life enhancing (and likely saving) device clothes dryers were back then.
With just wringing by hand, using a mangle or even power wringer one is still left with wash that is heavy and often sopping wet. Those heavy basket loads of wash had to be hauled out to lines (outside) or hung indoors to dry 52 weeks per year regardless of weather. Late as 1990's women like poor Dolores Claiborne knew the drill. |
Post# 1181444 , Reply# 9   5/29/2023 at 08:22 (340 days old) by Frigidaireguy (Wiston-Salem, NC)   |   | |
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My mother bought a Bendix gas dryer in 1947 - After my sister was born - She had a Bendix Deluxe bolt down washer. Drying clothes washed in a bolt down Bendix must have been a feat. Bob |
Post# 1181446 , Reply# 10   5/29/2023 at 08:42 (340 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)   |   | |
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IIRC many of these early clothes dryers had at heat settings somewhere between "hot" and "incinerate".
Bendix offered a "Super Fast" 33,000 BTU/hr. gas dryer or one could have an 9k watt electric dryer. In comparison modern gas dryers rate between 20,000 and 22,000 BTU per hour. Electric dryers OTOH range between 1800 to 5000 watts. |
Post# 1181468 , Reply# 11   5/29/2023 at 14:58 (340 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806)   |   | |
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Most gas dryers from the late 40’s and very early 50’s (mainly from Whirlpool and Maytag in the mid to late 50’s) only had a 18,000 to 20,000 btu heat output. The Maytag gas dryer with the perforated drum (before the HOH dryers) only had a 18,000 btu heat output and dried fairly quickly since it was a low air output machine, even the electric versions were fairly quick from what I’ve heard but don’t have any experience with those earlier Maytag dryers, only experience I have is with the HOH electric and gas and SOH dryers.
Out of all the dryers I’ve owned, the Maytag DG306 (soon to be DG407) is the gentlest dryer I’ve ever used, clothes and towels were always dried evenly and perfectly, even more so after I replaced the cycling thermostat back in 2020. Wasn’t the fastest dryer in the world, but certainly was gentle especially with my shirts that have graphics/decals on them since none of my new shirts had any signs of cracking after being dried in that dryer after a few months. |
Post# 1181508 , Reply# 12   5/30/2023 at 07:32 (339 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)   |   | |
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Yes, a quick plug for one of my heroes, the late great Margaret Hamilton.
That said, we moved into a farm house once (heaven) that had a 1953 Frigidaire Unimatic Custom Imperial and one of the first Hamilton electric dryers. I was too young and too callow to appreciate what fate had plopped in my lap. The dryer had a perforated drum and what looked like a rectangular web of nichrome coils above the drum that broiled the clothes. Yes, they were really, really hot
I was a Peanuts fan as a boy and it wasn't until that dryer that I got one of Charles Schulz's strips that concerned Linus' security blanket withdrawals as he waited for his freshly laundered crutch: |