1967 Hamilton 800 washer and dryer

[angus]

What a beautiful set and so unusual to find something in such mint condition. I don't recall the history of those, but would be interested to know where they originated. Now for my follow up question. In the first pic of the set, immediately to the left of the washer, I see a piece of what appears to be a red appliance with a "Norge" escutcheon near the bottom. What might that be?

 

[repairguy]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

 

[rickr]

Thanks for the interest and comments. The dryer is gas and works very well. The rollers have flat spots from sitting for so long, so you hear "thump, thump, thump" as the dryer runs. It gets a bit better as it warms up, but it never goes away. The dryer also has a standing pilot, so I close the gas valve after using it. Pilot door is on the top of the dryer, so it is easy to light, before using. The other machine, which is red, is a 1958 Norge that I finished a couple years ago. I will take some pictures of it and post at some point. Kenny (Goatfarmer) is the person that found these Hamiltons at an estate sale. If it were not for him, this set would have most likely been scrapped, or placed in a rental house somewhere, until they were destroyed. So, Kenny is the person that deserves the credit for the preservation of this rare set, and the one that should be thanked as well.

 

[joelippard]

Very Nice and unique too, thanks for sharing these pictures!

 

[peteski50]

Hamilton!

Rich best of luck with this nice matching set. Can you take closeups of the dryer!

 

[repairguy]

Thanks Kenny!

 

[angus]

I second that!!!

 

[maytag85]

Silly question but why are the comments off on YouTube?

 

[goatfarmer]

when I got 'em

Paging the Hamiltons! (automaticwasher.org)

 

 I know they went to a good home, Rick, they still look great! That's going on almost 6 years ago!

 

[qsd-dan]

Yeah a 65 second spray rinse is definitely long.

I counted exactly one minute. That's a long spray rinse if you own a Whirlpool/Kenmore or other poor rinsing machines but that's just a normal everyday occurrence for Maytag and GE Filter Flo users with machines built from the late 60's to the mid 90's.

 

[DADoES]

 
It's curious that the long spray rinse impairs spin RPM, presumably related to the pump-out rate.  Is that normal for this machine, or due to high water pressure?

 

[appnut]

I've had Maytag center dials with a full load of towels do this during the spray rinse too.

 

[maytag85]

I’ve had my Maytag A606 water-lock before where the pump couldn’t pump the water out fast enough when it was spinning out a normal load of towels once and yes the belt tension was adjusted correctly. Was a fluke thing since it happened once but didn’t happen again which interesting.

 

[lotsosudz]

Spin RPM please

It appears they spin pretty fast, once up to speed. What is the spin RPM?

Hugs,
David

 

[rickr]

Hi David

I don't know the spin speed, and I doubt anyone else does either. It is faster than my 58 Maytag, so I would guess around 800.

 

[rickr]

DADeOS

You were spot on about the pump out rate. I looked behind the machine to find the drain hose kinked. I will do another load in this machine on Thursday, and I bet the spin won't stall out on the long spray rinse.

 

[rickr]

Kenny

Thank you again for saving this set. Please let me know when you are in Fort Wayne next time. We can have lunch again, make a trip to A-1 Marks for the heck of it.

 

[swestoyz]

Spin Speed --

Service manual indicates the spin speed is 600 RPM on regular and 400 on slow, with 70 oscillations per minute for agitation on regular and 47 for slow.   Cycle chart for the Programmer Washer (800) below.

 

The service manual still shows this washer being made under the name of Hamilton out of Two Rivers, so it's definitely before being gobbled up by WCI but using a Franklin transmission/drive.  I have to wonder if this was built in Webster City, IA at the Franklin Manufacturing plant.  Does anyone know if the earlier Norge-Hamilton washes were made in Wisconsin or out of a Norge factory? 

 

Thank you Rick for posting the videos.  Fascinating and beautiful machine!

 

Ben

 

[qsd-dan]

70 oscillations per minute

That's entering Norge territory.

 

[seeitrun2006]

Hamilton appliances

The 1st clothes dryer my family had was a middle of the line Hamilton dryer with a “D” shaped window.
It was converted to use propane gas. They purchased it the fall of 1969 from the propane gas company my dad worked at. It was paired with a 1971 one cycle Hotpoint washer . That dryer dried clothes for 7 people until 1976. The dryer would run for 30 minutes then stop. Wait 45 minutes it would start back up. No one could “seem” to fix it.

The washer started leaking profusely and started to give an electric shock if you touched the dryer and washer together. My mom then purchased in December 1976 a Maytag model 408 with a Maytag auto dry gas dryer.

The Hotpoint washer went to the junk yard. The Hamilton went to the basement. I went down to see if I could fix it. The long copper colored thermostat bulb in the vent was encased with a 3 inch wad of lint from end to end. When it was drying the wad of lint would get wet, then get super hot and the thermostat would cut off the dryer. After I fixed it daddy gave it away to a widowed aunt. She used it until she passed away several years later. It was a good dryer!!!