3 Speed Direct Dr. washers
Whirlpool introduced the first three speed motor on their 1964 whirlpool imperial Mark 12 and on the 1964 lady Kenmore.
The extra low speed was a real boom for washing extremely delicate things. Most other manufacturers followed suit on their top-of-the-line machines and briefly at least had a three speed washer. I think only Maytag never did this, and of course, Maytag with one of the harshest washing machines ever built half of their machines with only a one speed motor And did an intermittent agitation, which is not the same thing.
Chet as usual you just make up crap. This was not a cheap feature to put on. Do you have any idea how expensive a three speed motor is, and whirlpool would have to get credit because they built far more three speed motor washing machines than any other manufacturer ever, but it was not an inexpensive feature to have. It wasn’t simple to do.
The good news is today with variable speed three phase motors in both front load and top load machines. You can get extremely gentle washing. The VMW style washers are extremely gentle when you use the delicate settings so there’s no longer any need to go to the expense of an expensive eight pole split phase motor anymore, I think the last washing machine sold for home use in the United States is the Speed Queen TC5 that still has a four and six pole motor split phase motor, bear in mind. These older split phase motors were extremely inefficient, and not that durable with their cheap sleeve bearings, motors in washing machines today will outlast the split phase motors by several times over.
John L