Airing Dirty Laundry

[golittlesport]

...and they produced both the "deep-dish" style and the raised-tub style simultaneously for a few years. I have an old Sears catalog (1953 I think) that has the front-mounted controls on the lower priced washer and the frog-eye big-lid higher priced model that not only had the tub raised but had a rubber strip between the cabinet opening and the D-shaped metal tub guard. Probably as you said, Robert...a new design style phase in.

 

[westytoploader]

Does Neal ever use your vintage machines for his laundry or are they "off-limits?" Also, does he have any favorites?

 

[Unimatic1140]

Austin, I do all the laundry in our house and Neal mows the grass and shovels the walk. Its a perfect trade off, I hate hot weather and cannot stand mowing grass so I would much prefer doing laundry in the nice cool basement.

When I'm out of town for what ever reason, if Neal needs to do a load of wash he uses the Harmony set.

 

[jasonl]

Poor Neal

All those immaculate vintage machines and he doesn't even get to play with'em. At least he cuts the grass which I like to do as well.

 

[westytoploader]

Hot down here...

I like to mow the yard as well, but only with the riding mower...

It's practically unbearable to be outside with that Texas summer weather (100°+ temperatures and especially now the high humidity/heat index), so needless to say I'm doing most of the washing and vacuuming.

To get back on subject, did 1970's Norge/Wards washers (such as the Fedders Norge in GregM's collection) have indexing tubs?

 

[DADoES]

Hmph. I have to mow and trim my own yard. It's not quite big enough to justify a riding mower (and I seriously need the exercise anyway). I did pull out all the old shubbery earlier this year so I don't have to trim all that stuff every few months.

I don't recall that the two Catalina machines within my experience had indexing baskets.

 

[fixerman]

I don't believe any of the Norge design machines had indexing tubs. The brake is applied during agitation.

 

[jasonl]

Riding mowers

I have a tractor too. It's fun to sit on that thing and drive. So I do the laundry, vac, and mowing at my house. I'm a (not for long) single guy and I gotta do it.

 

[westytoploader]

I'm itching to find a Norge-designed machine in Houston...might need to take a little trip out to Crosstimbers again for an inventory check...;-)

The problem is they're practically bulletproof (judging by the Signature machines on eBay from time to time; used for years and still in excellent working/cosmetic condition), IMO, which obviously makes them H-A-R-D to find out here.

I would absolutely LOVE to find a Montgomery Ward portable by Norge, but that's pretty much a dream now...

 

[agiflow-action]

The Norge we had(Fedders)the tub would spin a couple of revolutions at the beginning of agitation until it locked into place.At the end of a cycle you would be able to turn the basket by hand until the brake locked it into place.

Pat

 

[appnut]

Pat, once Norge came out with the perforated tubs, they all did that rotation until it locked.

 

[agiflow-action]

I remember with the Norge machine,you could see the suds between the two tubs building up.Don't ever remember a suds lock though.Very beefy washers.

 

[agiflow-action]

Norge washers

Hi Bob (Appnut)One question about the Fedders/Norge machines.
Fedders didn't change the mechanics of the machine when they put them into production did they? I mean apart from cosmetic differences,they seem to look like the late sixties Borg washers. One more question,what year did Fedders buy Norge from Borg-Warner?

Pat

 

[appnut]

That I'm not sure about. Maybe 1969 or 1970.