A Time-Fill 1-18 Frigidaire Washer with a Control Tower?

[Unimatic1140]

So I just posted some beautiful 1976 Frigidaire brochures to Ephemera Library, thank you Ben!! What is interesting about the '76 washer line is there is a new budget model introduced, model WA. I doubt this model was produced for more than a year but it's gone from the next years sales literature. It has a single control dial mounted on a box kind of like a control-tower. What's most interesting is it has the 1960's Deep Action agitator in a 18lb perforated tub with a timed-fill. It does have a pressure switch but according to the technical information I posted in the .pdf file after the brochures the machine is the rated for 12lbs. It seems the pressure switch is simply to prevent the user from resetting the dial back to the beginning of fill to add more water Wow! You only paid for a economy budget washer and no adjustments allowed LOL!!!

1976 Frigidaire Automatic Washers, Dryers and Skinny-Mini Laundry Center Brochures with Model WA Technical Document
1976 Frigidaire Undercounter and Mobile Dishwashers Brochures
1976 Frigidaire Cooking Appliances Brochures

 

[arbilab]

no adjustments allowed LOL!!!

Reckoned without buckets, didn't they?

 

[repairguy]

I have one of the Frigidaire washers you are speaking of. I got it a little better than 20 years ago and It hasn’t been operated in about that much time. It’s hard to remember but it seems the tub only filled about 2/3 full for the smaller jet cone.

 

[frigilux]

I'm going to have to spring for this set! The Frigidaire dealership in our little town was very strong when I was growing up. I remember seeing the first touch-screen wall oven at a neighbor's house. No dials! I was floored. I do recall their dishwashers from the mid-70's rusted quickly and were often replaced with KitchenAids (which the Frigidaire dealer also sold). I was also impressed with the refrigerator that dispensed orange juice. Always great styling from the design wizards at GM, as well.

These brochures are from '76, so the WCI disaster was just around the next bend. [this post was last edited: 8/21/2019-11:22]

 

[frigilux]

Just spent the better part of a half-hour going through these great brochures. Now that I'm a portable dishwasher guy, I was impressed to find three full-size portable models to choose from. These days, your choice is a BOL Whirlpool that's loud--although it cleans very well, even on the 1-hr. cycle--or an even louder, poor performer from GE.

Love the styling of the upper-end ranges, washers and dryers. Gorgeous. It would certainly be fun to see a complete cycle of the BOL washer with the smaller, standard Jet Action agitator pulsating away in that giant tub.

Thanks for providing the source materials, Ben. Well worth the $11.97 spent and highly recommended!

 

[appnut]

Melvin, how exciting.  A rare jewel in Texas!!!!

 

[gyrafoam]

Back in the late 1970's, I wandered around an appliance store in Tampa and saw something similar.
I do not recall the controls looking like that and do not recall whether it was a timed fill or not.

What I remember was a very Bol looking 1-16 with a Deep Action Jetcone.
I thought it looked pretty silly at the time. I remember thinking that Frigidaire must have wanted to unload a lot of surplus agitators.

 

[repairguy]

I hardly ever throw anything like that away and when I got the machine I didn’t know anything about it. There was a Frigidaire dealer in the area but these machines were long gone even 25 years ago. If memory serves me right, I was told that an elderly couple got this washer and didn’t like it but for some reason kept it but didn’t use it. When I hooked it up it wouldn’t do anything but fill and then the motor would hum. I sat there and manually spun the mechanism until it would work on it’s own. It has a plastic lid and I never thought it was a good looking machine but I had it working and it worked good. Now it’s been buried in a sea of other machines in a humid Texas shed for the last 15 years where it sits now. Had I known it was rare, maybe I would have tried to take better care of it. It probably has all kinds of issues now, like dry rotted seals and plenty of rust from humidity. But this new information now has my interest piqued. Maybe I’ll have to dig it out and see if it’s salvageable.

 

[peteski50]

Frigidaire time fill washer!

The reading is so great. I never saw that model washer with the timed fill. I think it was kind of stupid to use a big tub when they could have used one of their smaller solid tubs on this model. Or maybe they didn't want to reproduce the smaller tubs again, Frigidaire once they started building the 1/18 never kept producing smaller tub models like most only manufactures did and had machines come in 2 sizes. Or I cant think of another company that did this. Norge, Maytag, whirlpool / Kenmore, GE all had 2 sizes. The only thing Frigidaire did was make the skinny mini that was a smaller size!

 

[peteski50]

Frigidaire Dishwashers!

The brochure brought back some fond memories. You can really pack those machines with dishes and they were fun to load! They were just average cleaners. I wish they would have lasted longer and made this into a superior machine!