Combo Thread!

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Here's our Splendede . . .

2000 washer/dryer in our camper. It's 11 years old and has done its job flawlessly all that time. It runs on 120 volts. Spins at something like 1400 rpm.

Currently we are in the camper out of town. But as soon as we get home, I want to include a picture of my Duomatic.

Very interesting thread. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jerry Gay

easyspindry++11-26-2011-09-33-51.jpg
 
Hi Revin Kevin and Sharples

Hi there do you guys have any more photos of your philco duos ie control panel shots or of the dispensers, and insides, they look similar to my uk bendix and i keen to see how they are different.

thanks

Richard
 
 

 

Hi Richard, 

 

This is not my combo (unfortunately) so I can't take any more photos of it (it's across the country).   But here is a closer up of the control panel.  I hope it helps!

Perhaps you can post a photo of inside the dispensers on your Duomatic?   I remember what this duomatic looked like when I lifted the lid, but I didn't take a photo of it.

 

Kevin 

revvinkevin++11-27-2011-00-35-3.jpg
 
no dispenser as such

Thanks my duo only has access to a chute for adding soap etc and a dryer filter screen. the automatic dispenser seems a great idea !

in this picture it needed some repair work as there was a plastic tray over the hole but i left it off as moisture was collecting underneath.

thanks again

ricky5050++11-27-2011-05-02-58.jpg
 
So interesting that the machines were redesigned almost every year! Much like cars of the era, if they did not get a new look then at least a very heavily face-lifted one! Love how many of them have lighted control panels. Those still would come in handy! Thanks everyone for sharing the pics.

Duane
 
Graham's "Fruitful" Possession

Graham, I sure do love your 1966(JUST like in my 1966 brochure!)avocado Duomatic!
Is it electric or gas drying? I am not sure about the combos, but the regular two top-line model 1966 Philco dryers have reverse-tumble, and I sure love that feature. It is called "Criss-Cross Drying". I wish I lived closer to you to be able to watch these wonders in action, but I do take I-78 to US 15 when I go to my friends in No. Virginia.
 
Has anyone seen a Kenmore Combo that looks like this

This scan is from a Sears ad that appeared in the Washington Post on May 14th, 1970. Has anyone ever seen this combo model in person?....PAT COFFEY

appliguy++11-30-2011-09-10-23.jpg
 
Yes. It does not use the roto-spray for washing and rinsing. Because it fills to a higher water level than the machines which used the roto-spray it tangles--a lot. It uses the same water balancing to enable it to spin at 400rpm. As you can see, it does not have the dispensers. The dial to the left allows selection of wash only, wash & dry or wash & air fluff.
 
Kenmore Combo and Bendix Combo

I saw a kenmore combo like that at the Winchester dump in the 80s but couldnt take it because my truck was full.When I was four a neighbor who did my mothers hair had that Bendix in her basement shop and i used to watch it run .One of my best childhood memories...
 
I estimate the Bendix . . .

. . . combo takes about an hour to an hour and a half to wash and dry a load. So many times I have put a load in, set the controls, and then forgot about it until hours later.

I can save time by skipping the soak cycle. And, like you have said several times earlier, in cold weather, the dryer does a faster job.

If I happen to be around when it finishes the wash cycle, I take out the clothes and put them through my SpinX. When I do this, it will dry the load in 30 minutes. Without the SpinX, it takes 45 to 50 minutes to dry.

I think this is a 1959 model and am amazed that it works at all. Of course, the diving bell sitting next to it was installed originally in 1944, and it still moves right along with no problem.

Combos are very interesting. Part of the problems that caused their demise was that housewives could not get away from doing a week's worth of laundry in one day -- Monday was wash day and Tuesday was ironing day -- and it would take a combo all day to do the family wash. Now that people do smaller loads more often, they probably would be much better accepted.

Thanks for your inquiry.

Jerry Gay
 
Jerry, Thank you for the information. When Consumer's Research tested this machine they said it took a very long time to dry and when I looked at the dry timer, I could see that it could not even be set for more than 80 or 90 minutes so I was very curious. Thanks again.
 
Gary, that's a great front-load center you have there

must be a lot of fun, and it's so cool that the "diving bell" is still diving just fine after all these years.

 

Wondering what the rinsing procedures are on those two gems.
 
Both have essentially the same Bendix rinse formula set up by the late 40s: After the wash drain there is a spray rinse followed by a spin. Then a deep rinse, drain & spin followed by a second deep rinse. The washer goes into the final spin, but the Duomatic does a pre-spin then stops so that the load falls away from the drum, then restarts tumbling and goes into spin. The pre-spin (mostly) keeps the load from sticking to the drum after the spin so that everything gets fluffy dry.
 
HI TOM

The Westy coin-ops at Chrystal Beach, Ontario did a flush rinse after the tumble drain when, as a boy, I was privileged to take the laundry there when we rented a cottage every summer for a few weeks. It was bliss watching them work. It seems as though the Norge has an extra trick up her sleeve with the spray rinse during the spin, agile little girl that she promises to be. Other tricks too, perhaps, unless some of it is ad hype. I think I read about 5 rinse maneuvers.

 

 

OOPS: edit error, thought I was in Marty's thread.

[this post was last edited: 12/2/2011-13:00]
 
HELP!!!!!

On the same day that I posted pictures of my Philco/Bendix Duomatic, I did a load in it and discovered a leak -- horrors.

It appears that whenever water is entering the tub, there is a drip. This makes me think that the hose going to the water entrance at the 2:00 position just inside the door is either cracked or is coming loose.

Does anybody know how to get the top off so I can check out the connection? Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jerry Gay
 
How to get topless

Hi jerry gay

On mine a uk model you use a slim metal blade ie metal ruler or fish slice and push it in the gap between the front and the top panel not to prise it up but to release a metal clip don't use a screw driver or any thing thick it will crack and chip the enamel , there may be screws at the back of yours but mine is a tuck under the control panel type.
Lift off and you squeeze the soap Shute out off it's connection to the drum. When re fixing you may have to remove a soap guard to fix it back in to the drum
If you watch my video clip at about 18 seconds the camera pulls back to show the full machine with top removed you can just see a small black metal clip on the front edge this is what your pushing back

This is only a guess yours may be different so please check the gap with a flashlight and don't force anything good luck and please post some topless pics !!

Richard

 
If you start trying to remove the top, remember that you have to release the bellows in the detergent chute between the top and the outer tub. I would look at the back of the machine first. In the older combos, you had to remove screws in the back in order to slide the top forward to release it. Yours is the first of the 27" models so I am not sure how they constructed it.
 
Thanks for these pics & this thread! And also worthy of ment

Looks like the woodgrain front/coppertone body is a take on Whirlpool doing that w/ their washers & dryers (available in coppertone & avocado) that year, too!

Great pics & if I may, quote Charles Klamkin in saying that "the concept of washing & drying in the same machine is a sad history, as there had been many class-action suits & customer's complaints & manufacturers' inabilities to compound service problems had led to the demise of an otherwise worthwhile appliance", or something to that effect, as in his 1973 book, Klamkin lightly goes over "Combination washers & dryers", of which at the time only GE & Kenmore had been making them, but cites how their reliability is questionable, in addition to them being "expensive to buy & costly to maintain", while mentioning Philco/Bendix had built a sound machine before abandoning the laundry business altogether... His other book from 1970, IF IT DOESN'T WORK, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS goes over them in the same fashion, and I agree, that this design really needs to be more universally tried today...

-- Dave
 
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