and another Dream Machine arrives via Youcrate:

[bajaespuma]

...was used in many of the late fifties ranges in fact and was prominent in those wonderful GE "All-in-One" kitchens. They used it up to 1963 on some of the washer/dryer panels. To me they're as delightful (and classic) as GM Frigidaire's "Swirlies" patterns and Boomerang formica.

As you folks know, I'm very interested in industrial design, especially that of all these machines we collect, I'd love to know the providence of some of these details which is why I enjoy reading the Patents of the Day. I just think people who created this stuff deserve credit and being known. So many people have enjoyed the films "Mary Poppins" and "Star Wars" but don't realize that the matte artists Peter and Harrison Ellenshaw (father and son)were hugely responsible for the production design values of those movies.

What makes these machines so interesting to me is the creation of all the interfaces(control panels, cabinet, funky interactive agitators), some that lasted less than a model year, that distinguished each brand's product from the others. Go look at washers on a Home Depot showroom floor today, especially top loaders--they're all the same bad boring design.

 

[smartdrive]

That pilot light in the center is the suds return indicator. You would hold up the suds toggleswitch to start the return pump. When the light turned on you could release the switch.

The ballast for the lamp should be on the diagonal brace behind the back panel. Its just a small transformer. The switch needs to be held in until the ends of the bulb heat up, there is no starter. There is no dial light.

I too grew up with a '57 WA855P in white. Still have parts of it at home. Childhood memories.

 

[Timonator]

Was it Quality or Quantity or Both?

Another Nice machine Ken Has anyone noticed the number of old Ge Appliances that show up here on the Group is it because they lasted longer or that there were more sold back in the day? or maybe a combination of the two! Seems you see alot of Maytags and GE's and Kenmores...Sears Did a fabulous job of marketing and financing their products Where were most GE's sold? Small appliance stores?

 

[bajaespuma]

Smartdrive, you are aptly named. Thank you for the perfect explanation. The balast was right there on the diagonal brace, right where you said it would be.

Timonator, I don't think GE got the credit for reliability that Maytag was famous for. I remember CU washer reports in the Sixties generally gave GE high marks for repair history, but time has proven them well made. GE was quick to capitalize on incentive buying plans for builders, so alot of condominiums and apartment buildings bought the brand. Also, GE was one of the only brands that had exclusive appliance dealers. I think they started to disappear sometime in the late Seventies, but they all had a tricolor(blue, white and yellow IIRC)illuminated sign. I'm trying to track down some of those stores here in Connecticut to see if any of those old farts were pack-rats and kept a decent inventory of NOS parts. I found one in Hamden, just as it was closing, but wasn't as successful as I'd hoped. I had to crawl through his dumpster and all I got for that was some electric coil burners and three Maytag HOH dryer sprinklers.

 

[pturo]

Ken,

So glad you got the machine!
I was thinking when I spun it that the cable balancing system was out of wack, so probably you should check those pulleys and tension first, which should be easy to compare to a later model you have.

I was tempted to put petroleum jelly on the filter flow rubber spray outlet but then remembered that it could detriorate rubber. What about glycerine?

I suspect it was retired from use a long time ago and left sitting due to it's balance problem and the drain hose I removed was cracked and split very near the pump outlet which would have been undetectable unless one really looked and it looked the the pump was bad, which it wasn't.
Everything in the two family flat is/was deluxe and you just know that these people replaced things when they broke. You should see the stoves and kitchen appliances.

Best of luck with the filter flow. I can't wait to see pictures of it either!

Phil

 

[lesto]

Beautiful machine. I was wondering if the dial was illuminated too. I guess 58 was the first year for an illuminated dial. I know the 58 and 59 had them. I hope when you get it ready for another test run that the tub indexing will be minimal. Those older GEs with no tub brake tended to have problems with the tub pawl which holds the tub steady during agitation. I had that problem on my mom's old 59. The tub started spinning clockwise during wash.

Good luck. Send us more pics as the restoration progresses.

Les

 

[spinout]

FYI, a couple of things:

The early GE machines (prior to the v-series) do not use the cable suspension system many of you are familiar with, rather; the mechanism is suspended on 3 or 4 spring and snubber assemblies at the bottom which anchors to the base of the machine.

Additionally, these tubs do index somewhat while washing. This is normal for the '57 machine. Later machines were modified to reduce or eliminate indexing--there are a couple of schemes used in later transmissions to accomplish this. IIRC Unimatic1140 did a write-up on the various iterations of the early GE transmissions, which can be found in the archive.

 

[bajaespuma]

During the first trial agitation, I didn't notice any appreciable indexing. That is before I reconnected one of those springs that you mentioned back onto the clip on the base. This is why the tub was lurching forward. God Bless Phil Turo and Youcrate as I found that spring rolling around the bottom of the crate when it was opened.

Does anyone know if I can remove the cabinet from the base with the tubs still attached. I remember Robert doing that with his 950R, but the outer tub was off of the machine.