Combo Thread!

[vacerator]

Combo's cont.

Well my dad serviced Kenmore for three decades. He told me people who had big families or a small laundry room loved these. Some actually had two of them. When they stopped making parts, many were disappointed.
He never had one in the garage to rebuild. I wish he had. He told me they had an air compressor which filled and bleed off two rubber wheels to balance them.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

Mike, that is sort of correct.

 

Yes it had an air compressor, but it was used for 2 things.

 

1. It applies pressure to the spin clutches when it's time to spin.

 

2. It was used to spray / blow water into the 3 hollow baffles in the tub, to balance the load for spin.   It was a pretty complex balancing system.  

 

Once it achieved the proper balance, it would spin at 525 rpm, instead of the more "usual" 200 or so rpm for W/D combos, as the majority had NO suspension at all.  These Lady K combos also have no suspension, but this balance system allowed a spin speed high enough to extract a decent amount of water. 

 

Kevin

 

Here's a video of a '69 Lady K combo cycle, just into the dry. 



 

 

[this post was last edited: 2/22/2016-10:04]

 

[vacerator]

Kevin,

Thanks, that was cool. I like that machine! Enzyme Super Wash with phosphates?
I'd like to get a hold of the blueprints.
LG's combo washer/condensing dryer takes 4 hours to do one load.
Clyde Ohio turned out one million washers last year in only 35 weeks.
That tells me they don't build them to last. At least their jobs are secure.

 

[hooverzanmiele]

Vintage WD's

Hi ya'll,

I've got & had numerous vintage machines, between the late 1980's & 2000.

I will provide snaps if you're interested later, as I'm popping out to the garage to film our recent 2015 AEG Lavamat Turbo Protex Washer Dryer.

Catch up with photos later (25th).

CJ

P.S. I'll include the link to my FB group for those on FB who might want to join & peruse.

http://https//www.facebook.com/groups/156946667734204/

 

[countryford]

I'm going to bring this thread back to life.

Did Frigidaire ever make a combo in the 1950's to the 1970's?

Also, who besides G.E. Made under the counter combination units?

 

[turquoisedude]

Nope, Frigidaire never made a combo.  

 

[Unimatic1140]

Frigidaire never marketed a combo, but in all it's glory they sure did design a unique jet-action combo! Picture #2 is a scream lol!

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e7/97/11/198aeff532d8da/US2881609.pdf

 

[combo52]

Frigidaire Jet-Action combination Washer-Dryer

I wonder if they built any working prototypes and from the looks of it they did not consider a gas one, LOL

 

Of corse FD, GE and Westinghouse did not make gas combinations or even gas dryers at all during the brief payday of combination washer-dryers in the US.

 

In any event this FD combination Washer-Dryer would be one cool machine. Did everyone see and understand how it used domestic water pressure to tilt and raise the tub with extra inlet valves to control this function ? And it was water condensing with no messy lint filter to clean or venting needed.

 

Very cool I wonder if a prototype is hiding somewhere to be found ?

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Easy made an undercounter combo.  We rescued a rusting hulk of a WH combo that was made a default undercounter combo by the removal of the cabinet top.  Since the controls were on the front, that was a possibility, although it made for a very narrow piece of countertop to keep from hiding the dials. It was  from a mid-50s house with two kitchens in Chevy Chase, MD.

 

WP made some early models of the 29" machine without a top-mounted lint screen that were installed under counters in some development in Virginia, I think. They used a cyclonic or centrifugal lint separation system & had a latching panel in the wash basket, like GE combos, to enable access to the final filter over the pump intake in the sump of the outer tub. When the factory modification to provide them with a lint screen came along, they were no longer undercounter machines. They also lost the ability to run the heater to heat water and preheat the load during the hesitation spin because the damper arrangement that allowed partial recirculation was eliminated and the blower could no longer operate with the pump. It was one or the other with a cute little solenoid-operated fork that moved the belt between running the pump or running the blower. One other unique thing about the machines was that they spun at 500rpm.  After the retrofit, 400rpm was the top spin speed

 

[Unimatic1140]

Another GM Frigidaire Combo!

I've actually found several different patent designs that General Motors produced to create a combination washer-dryer. Here is another super cool design, it seems to use the Apex style tub nutation for wash and dry. I know the Apex turns over clothes in the tub without any water so I know the clothes will not only tumble this way but also will be pulled off the side of the tub after the final spin with dry nutation.

I would love to see these in action if a prototype was ever built!

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/65/c3/95/11943f3513f694/US2863311.pdf

 

[thomasortega]

I made one years ago

And when I was working on that project, I had to dig and study several dusty drawings and tons of notes of both GM Frigidaires Robert posted above.

This video shows the second generation of the same washer, now with Wi-FI controls and some upgrades.

The 120v had a miserable drying performance (as expected) the 220V was a bit better, but not exactly very good with wrinkles.

 

[Chetlaham]

I'd try this on a FL washer. No spin plus a heated tumble would make for a low cost yet stellar machine IMHO.

 

[keymatic3203]

I'm fascinated

reading of the frigidaire combination washer dryer, and have to respect the lateral thinking and engineering to come up with the tilting tub design, even if it was just a concept design. If this had the wash performance and 1140rpm spin it surely have been more efficient than many of the other combination machines. Perhaps mind, with the cradle design, maybe it would have had a slower spin speed due to suspension issues. I admire the engineering of all these early machines, especially given all the restrictions of patents and technology of the time, but this design has just really got my interest.

I wonder if the designer was influenced by the savage washer.

Thanks for posting the information

mathew

 

[thomasortega]

@chetlaham

Wash, rinse, No spin and hot air drying in one cycle?

It would be the most stupid idea EVER!

I'd have D.O.E., GreenPeace, WWF and whatever other agency or tree hugger leftist NGO wanting to serve my head on a tray.

Well, technically I'm doing something like that but NOT automatic... Automatic wash, rinse, stop just like the normal Niagara operation then user removes clothes and spin in a spin dryer, then moves clothes back to the washer to dry.

It will continue being a cheap washer with all the advantages of NOT spinning (portability, price, etc) plus it works as a top load tumble dryer as a bonus.

 

[Chetlaham]

Certainly not very efficient, but it would be very low cost, simple and long lasting. Forget the supposed politics. China does a lot of stuff the west would never think of and truth be they are happily reaping the reward.

I've been thinking of such a machine for a long time and the idea appeals to me more each day.

 

[foraloysius]

A topload H-axis washer, a spin dryer and then back to the washer for drying in the same drum has been done before. Constructa had a topload combo in the 1960's or 1970's.

 

[Chetlaham]

Think of it like this. An inner and outer tub with no suspension system and no concrete weights, 16 pole PSC reversing motor, a heater for both heating the water and drying, blower and a rear air channel. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

Up to 45 minutes of fill and tumble- time determines temperature and heavy vs light/delicate.

Drain and tumble- 3 minutes

Rinse- 3 minutes

Drain and tumble- 3 minutes

Rinse- 3 minutes

Drain and tumble- 3 minutes

Rinse- 3 minutes

Drain and tumble- 12 minutes

Heat, blow, tumble- 60 minutes

Timer with 85-90 increments, each 90 seconds.

Might need an extra rinse. Temperature dependent timer advance during the dry is a good idea.

 

[foraloysius]

You can only dry half a load compared to the load you have been washing, that's so for every combo. Bigger combo's were never filled all the way to the top. For laundry that hasn't been put through a spin cycle you probably need way more drying time. You can experiment with this in your own washer with a load of towels. Don't spin them, let them sit for a while and then put them in your dryer.

 

[thomasortega]

"Drain and tumble- 12 minutes"

You would still have dripping wet clothes.

Drying times would be long as a certain part of my husband's anatomy.

And it it's 120V... Gosh... forget... 4x hours to dry at approx 1500W heating element.

 

[combo52]

?????

Chelsea, Why aren't you working as an appliance engineer ?

 

All he great ideas you keep coming up with, Washer-dryer combos that don't spin,

 

Ovens without thermostats, 

 

Adding expensive troublesome drain valves to simple DWs that have one built-in, 

 

I guess next you will come up with a clothes dryer that does not tumble and does not use a fan, you could just hang things a box with holes cut in it and the heat of the light bulb will dry everything,

 

But you wouldn't even need a timer for the light bulb. as it would just burnout about the time the dripping wet clothes dryer, LOL

 

John