Whirlpool Open House 1953 - 16mm

vmw

Another thing I hate about the VMW is the poor wash action especially with dirty construction clothes and the machines will goo out of balance.

whirlpool huge plant

I never knew that plant at whirlpool was huge back then. I know about today.

 
I'll cite again our 1962 WP that had numerous repairs through its 15 years.

Mercury lid switch bracket rusted off.

Wigwag.

Pump.

Belt.

Water valve hung, flood (in the garage).

Bearings.

Centrifugal motor start switch went flaky ... would hang in run-mode, not reset to engage the start winding, particularly on low speed after the first spin so rinse agitation wouldn't start immediately.

The bakelite agitator cracked, although that presumably was related to some sort of problem with the threads in the agitator shaft that may have occurred during the bearing replacement, which had the servicer replace the chrome cap with a stack of washers of graduated size (larger on the bottom, smaller toward the top) and a bolt.

Bearings bad a second time led to its replacement.

It had very heavy use in a family of 5, to be fair, including cloth diapers for three kids and dad owning/operating a service station, sometimes showering/changing at noon-time.

I’ll side with Robert in reply #19. The only repair I’ve had to do to my 1973 Maytag A606 was a inlet valve back in 2023, only repair my Maytag DE806 needed was one of the wires to be re-spaded to the cycling thermostat, that’s about it. The 1979 Maytag A806 hasn’t needed a repair in nearly the 3 years I’ve owned it, that’s with it doing on average 1 to 2 loads a day, only work it will need in the near future is a re-paint of the cabinet and some cosmetic work, that’s literally it for that machine.

All in all, can’t really complain too much.

I’d say the average lifespan of machines back then was a good 15 to 20 years, could get 30 to 40 if you babied the machine and were diligent with loading practices and washing items with like items, turning the timer slowly to prevent wearing out the cam assembly.

rapid growth of whirlpool

I remember reading something about the rapid growth of whirlpool when they came out with their design 2000 in 1985 or that's when the New York Times article was posted when they took a dozen years to develop this design.

There are people who hate the direct drive design with a passion.

I'm not one of them as I've never had anything damaged in one.

Whether you love them or hate them, the direct drive design was probably the greatest advancement in top load agitator washing machines.

There are still loads of them out there in daily use and on the refurbed market.

Got one with a three-speed motor and you will have a very versatile machine, especially if it's a Kenmore with an ultra rinse system or a KitchenAid Superba.

 
Jerome, direct-drive introduced under the Kenmore brand in late 1981.  WP's first was 1982 model-year LB5500XK, as I recall and per the hardcopy service manual I have which references it and is dated 1981.

kenmore

I've never had anything shredded in a direct drive Kenmore. I never knew that the same agitator would be found in a maytag until years later.

Here is a question I've wanted to ask and was curious about. Has there been reports of a whirlpool belt drive EVER having a catastrophic failure of the hanging suspension breaking and falling to the ground ? I've never heard about it, but I'm sure it probably has.

Maybe after spending years in a damp basement and the rusty springs break all at once during an unbalanced spin. Otherwise, it was probably rare.

Sounds like a plausible scenario. Big difference between the quality of those old hanging suspensions compared to what WP produces now.

 
<blockquote>qds-dan:  Maybe after spending years in a damp basement and the rusty springs break all at once during an unbalanced spin.</blockquote> Seems you've not examined a classic belt-drive Whirlpool/KM.  There are no springs involved in the hanging suspension design.

Since I took mine apart last year, there’s 3 suspension rods with a rubber ball at each end (6 in total), there’s a snubber which puts pressure on the tub ring to create some resistance so it can’t move around as easily in either agitate or spin. Without the snubber, it would go off balance fairly easily which can hit the off balance switch (if it has one), or could bump the off balance switch during agitation which would get annoying fairly quickly, though I imagine that wasn’t entirely common either.

Seems you've not examined a classic belt-drive Whirlpool

Last time I saw the guts of one was in 1986, many moons ago.

Crazy as this sounds, I’m probably the only one or very few people in my age demographic who has more experience with the belt drives than I do with the direct drives despite growing up with them back in the 2000’s.

While the belt drives aren’t entirely perfect, at least they don’t have transmission issues like the direct drives with neutral drain pack which can fail putting more stress on the spin clutch wearing it out prematurely.

Once I get the consoles transplanted on, shouldn’t have to worry about anything for a long, long time. Packed the center post full of grease to make the bearings last a bit longer.

Whirlpool belt drive hanging suspension system

Was probably about the most rugged suspension system any suspended washer ever used, however, I have seen a failure twice one time the front left rod rusted so badly at the bottom from a leaky bleach dispenser that it broke and let the unit fall a little bit the other time, the little steel tab at the end of the rod broke at the top That was the right rear of the machine. The machine where the weld failed was easy to fix the other machine was so rusty down at the base plate area. That machine was just recycled.

The suspension system in the belt drive machine was very rugged and simple. It was not good at reducing vibration so they couldn’t get the spin speed very fast, it’s generally not a good idea to only have three suspension points. You’re not gonna get very good even damping and control.

This was one of the big problems with dependable Care Maytag. They should’ve had four or maybe six springs they always went out of balance too easily and could not control an off balance load, which is why they had to stick with an unbalanced switch to keep the machines from being uncontrollable.

Hi Sean, whirlpool belt drive washer transmissions had plenty of failures and they were much harder to remove and repair than the direct drive transmissions so most times the machines were just junked when you had a transmission problem.

Packing more grease in the bearings of a belt drive machine will not make the bearings last any longer keeping water out will, the only reason the bearings ever fail on just about any washing machine is when water gets into them.

John L

Whirlpool/Kenmore belt drives

I did have experience with Whirlpool/Kenmore belt drives. One thing I didn't like about them was one time, I did a load of wash and the machine would fill, struggle to agitate, then drain and repeat. The soap didn't get rinsed out effectively so I had to transfer them to the direct drive commercial Kenmore. This was in roughly 2003. They were good for the most part, however. At times you could hear the belt struggling to move at times whereas the direct drives didn't.

 
Belt-drive snubber ... IMO doesn't have as much effect as may be perceived.  Service literature of the 1950s/1960s vintage that I've seen states that it should prevent tub/cabinet impact when spinning a (whopping) 4-pound weight, although the tension may have later been strengthened.  The old-style porcelain tub cover without a splash guard flange would have the snubber inundated with slippery/soapy splashes of water at lower fill levels which greatly reduced the friction.

 
Jerome, the machine you used apparently had some issues.

“Were much harder to remove and repair than the direct drive transmissions”

Since I’ve removed and installed mine quite a few times, it’s not all that bad. Even rebuilt the transmission about 4 years ago, was fairly straightforward. My Whirlpool according to Strictlybojack who I bought the machine from was in service from 1963 to 2005, only repairs it had from what I could tell was general things like the belt and pump, a few other odds and ends.