Do maytag A608 clean just as good as a direct drive Kenmore/Whirlpool ?

[paulwash]

Hi all happy Memorial Day ! I bought these two summers ago they have been in my garage. I got them for a good price $200. I have never been a Maytag fan .. they just seem boring and I have had bad experiences with them was not to impressed with the capacity and the speed of the dryers.. the washers are small capacity too and not dramatic! Enough like my 70 Norge and direct drive kenmore. I swore I would never let a Maytag enter my home. But I’m curious to try. Any suggestions. Maytag seems boring.

 

[Chetlaham]

People on here will tell you DCs don't clean as well as other washers, but truth be unless your clothes are very heavily soiled it should not make a difference. If anything you're clothes will last longer. The key is slightly under-loading these washers as the agi moves water through the clothes rather than beating them to a pulp or relying on plastic on cloth abrasion. The concept is misunderstood by many, including service techs/sales reps who don't realize that too many clothes will stifle the intended operation of these beautiful machines leading to poor wash results as would be expected.

 

The other option would be seeing if this washer can take another type of agi, however I can not confirm. Other members are much more knowledgeable in that regard. 

 

Which takes me to capacity. It should not be a problem either- I personally sort and wash smaller loads based on type. At 30 minutes per cycle two loads will take less time than one 70-90 minute load in a modern machine.

 

The rest is a no brainier. There is simply no better washer ever created or in existence IMO.  If everyone was like myself, 89% of all washers in North America would be these, 10% Raytheon SQs (80s design to modern), the other 1% BDs, FFs and whatever else the free market has to offer. DDs would be viewed as rude and crude knock offs reserved mostly to portables.  The Galaxy / Capri / Sears / Kenmore / Kenmore Elite lineup, Admiral, Jenn-Air, Magic Chef, Amana, Norge, Crosely, Neptune, ect would all be Dependable Care Maytags built nearly identical to the 70s machine pictured above. Whirlpool would be at a loss on how to break it big into the top load market.

 

Regarding your dryer buy one of these:

 

https://www.maytag.com/washers-and-...inkle-prevent-dryer-7.0-cu.-ft.med4500mw.html
 

Simply the fastest and gentlest dryer you'll ever own. You'll have an unbeatable pair, one that will last you many years while having you smiling each load.

 

[thatwasherguy]

As someone who grew up with a 1976 set…

I will say that as long as they are not overloaded (Maytags are very sensitive to this), they clean very well. Your dryer is somewhat of a mystery to me, as it sports the older blue console (1974 and back) on the stream of heat (1976 and newer) dryer body. The consoles 1975 and after were the same color as the washer’s gold one AFAIK. In regards to the dryer’s cycle time, I have found my 1978 SOH dryer to be just as fast as anything else of the time. I will say, however, that due to the washer’s extremely short (~30 mins) cycles, the dryer’s cycles feel longer. As for making the washer more aggressive, you could install a 50 hz motor pulley to speed it up. You could also install a different agitator and an orbital transmission, although the latter would require much more effort. I’ve included a link to a machine operating with a 50hz pulley on a 60hz motor.
Enjoy your machines,
Thatwasherguy.

 

[qsd-dan]

I recommend selling them to someone who will appreciate and enjoy them. If you go into something with a negative mindset, the outcome will be negative.

 

[nmassman44]

Maytag washers if loaded loosely and only to the top row of holes for a full load will do an amazing job washing. I have use both Maytag long stoke and Orbital machines and they both do a great job. I have also used Direct drives that do a good job as well but the Direct drives tend to wear clothes out faster if they are overloaded. If they are at capacity then there are no issues. Linting on a direct drive is a tad more though in my experience with them I find. The Maytag washer seen here with the PowerFin agitator moves an amazing amount of water thru the load. I have never had a load emerge from the my A510 or LA613 not being clean. White socks always come clean with no tell tale floor marks or embedded dirt. Also what you use for a detergent makes all the difference as well.

 

[circlew]

Dryer

The dryer looks to be the D106 series, with the matte finish silver trim on the control panel instead of bright chrome. These stayed the blue color, while the other models got the Sungold paint.

 

[combo52]

Maytag, dependable care, cleaning performance, etc.

When are used to work for Maytag in the 70s even the sales reps from the company with downplay the cleaning performance of their washing machines saying that all washers were alike never claiming they were superior to any other.

They use this line of reasoning because it may take a very good performing dishwasher in there Did extensive training showing us how much better they are dishwasher worked than other popular dishwashers.

But overall Maytag washers were average or slightly poorer than average in performance, any other national brand out performed in Maytag, pretty Handley, Norge Ge Filter Flow, Whirlpool in Kenmore, etc. Frigidaire as well.

Maytag was a pretty conservative company and they did use a little less energy than the other brands they had a smaller, less power-hungry motor, shorter wash. And they had a little smaller capacity and used less water overall so they were a little more economical and certainly did an adequate job.

The last decade or so of dependable care washers, the performance did improve somewhat. The capacity never did however, and they were still the least advanced machine. No self leveling legs still had an old fashion on balance switch so the machine wasn’t truly automatic, etc.. They were much harder to do major repairs on that whirlpool products, and GEs for example.

John

 

[maytag85]

I’d say Maytags probably clean a bit better than the direct drives since the have a 1 minute spray rinse which helps knock down the suds. The early direct drives did do a spray rinse on the first spin but for some reason, Whirlpool did away with the spray rinse on the first spin which was a somewhat of a foolish move to make, the only other direct drives that did a spray rinse on the first spin was the Kenmore Elite series direct drive washers in the early 2000’s.

As for Maytags being boring, they can be at first when you are used to Whirlpool belt drives and other machines but the trade off is they run for many years without any major servicing.

As for servicing major components like the transmission, I’ll agree with John on this one since I’ve worked on my ‘63 Whirlpool at least 20 times in the 2 years I’ve owned it, removing the transmission and disassembling it is a absolute cinch. Only downside is you have to move the machine into an open garage or possibly in a driveway to have access and working room to do the various repairs or adjustments you need to do to it.

Maytags do perform well BUT have to be careful on your detergent dosages since they can be a bit sensitive to the amount of detergent you use. The Whirlpool belt drives can be sensitive to detergents as well since they can kick up a lot of suds even with HE detergent and will cause a suds lock and have had that happen to my Whirlpool a few times.

 

[bradfordwhite]

boring? yep, Id say so.
No cork-screw agitators, few had lighted consoles, no "filtering now" lights on the panel, no fun to play with filter pan with recirculating water, no changing of the console style almost yearly by the manufacturer, no triple dispensers and flip up "garage door" to cover the controls. No electronic controls. Never a single bit of simulated wood grain to brighten things up.

Sure they came in the typical colors and when the panels changed from a blue color to a gold with crystal knob that was an improvement....

But, yeah, when they leak oil out the bottom it gets all over. It can actually spin oil out onto the floor and out passed the edges of the machine and you can end up stepping in it when approaching the machine.

When MT's were in their prime back then, they were considered one of the top of the line machines and priced accordingly. However, as is typical with such appliances/trends/furnishing/etc. ...they don't age well. And the truth comes out.

There was once a time that asbestos was considered a miracle product. Electrolux tank vacuums and Kirbys were once considered a premium brand. Actual wood furniture that's polished and looks like wood was considered desirable, not something to throw out.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Put 4 pair of filthy jeans in the machine and I think you'll be impressed with the results.  The old 2-belt Maytag washers wash well, rinse well, and extract well.

 

[combo52]

Only four pairs of jeans????

I would never wash less than eight pairs, and usually 10 in a super capacity direct drive or of course, my frontload Speed Queen‘s.

I suspect that Maytag would do a good job on four pairs of jeans, but 10 gallons of water for a pair of jeans is ridiculous.

John

 

[good-shepherd]

Never a single bit of simulated wood grain

The 10 Series machines had wood grain consoles.

 

[wayupnorth]

My 1984 511 washer and 410 dryer do have the faux wood grain consoles.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Show me your wood

Does your machine look like this? That's not wood, that's just brown.

Impress me with pictures of your wood.

 

[bradfordwhite]

No wood here

 

[maytag85]

Reply #9

You could probably get away with washing 4 pairs of jeans on a medium load in a Maytag with the load sensor agitator in it. Since I have a Maytag Load Sensor agitator in my Maytag A806, I can squeeze quite a bit in without putting extra strain on the transmission or tub break. I can literally put a whole months worth of shirts in, and approximately 10 pairs of shorts, I basically can get away with doing a few loads of laundry a month vs doing laundry on a weekly basis.

 

[wayupnorth]

My Maytags are the generation before those. No box around the logo and no Heavy Duty, off white push buttons. But the consoles are more brown now than any woodgrain like the brochure showed.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Tub Brake unless, you know, broken.

 

[bradfordwhite]

beige buttons.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

combo52 wrote: "Only four pairs of jeans?"

"10 gallons of water for a pair of jeans is ridiculous"

This is a small tub Maytag so it wouldn't be 10 gallons per pair.

I suppose it depends on what type of jeans you wear. How many pair of heavy Carhardt jeans 36 X 34 would you wash in a small tub Whirlpool? There's no way in hell that you'd get 10 of them in a super capacity Whirlpool top loader.

 

[combo52]

How many pairs of dirty jeans washed?

Hi Ken, the thread was about a super capacity Maytag so it’s always good to list what you’re talking about. The jean size is a good idea as well.

So we’re down to 7 1/2 gallons of water still a huge amount of water

My jeans are smaller I wear a 32,34, my partner wears 34,36.

An older belt drive 18 gallon standard capacity tub whirlpool with easily wash six pairs of your jeans.

A dual action agitator super capacity direct drive machine will easily wash 8 to 10 pairs of the larger jeans we’re talking about.

My three year old Speed Queen frontload machine will still easily do 10 pairs of even the larger jeans you’re talking about in a load, they will be double washed and triple rinsed for around 2 gallons per pair of jeans and be much cleaner and better rinsed.

John

 

[kenwashesmonday]

If you're wearing Wrangler jeans, an 18 gallon Maytag tub will wash 6 of them without breaking a sweat.

 

[qsd-dan]

19 gallons is the factory setting for large capacity washers.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

That would only leave 2 gallons for a 1-minute spray rinse?

 

[DADoES]

 
A test of ten pairs of jeans, probably 32" or 34" waist, 32" length.  The full wash period isn't shown, it was probably 18 to 20 mins.  If a little F&P with a toy straight-vane agitator can handle it, then a robust Maytag or WP direct-drive surely can do so!

Note:  The video was taken in 2002 with an ancient camera.

 

[norgeway]

Ok my opinion...

I wouldnt have a direct drive or a Maytag, ive owned 6 Maytags the first being a brand new 1984 model Mother bought, after about a year She handed me her checkbook one day and said Go get us a washer that i dont have to babysit, I have tried to like them, ive had 5 more every single one stayed out of balance, not a one would wash more than 3 loads without being out of balance! , Now for the DD , if i want a deep narrow tub i have to stand on my head to get something out of, ill go to the laundromat, I dont like that thrashing short stroke, Im using a 40 year old Hotpoint rimflow that washes whatever i pack into it, rarely gets out of balance and in the 5 or so years ive used it has never required any service.that being said I wouldnt trade a belt drive Whirlpool or Kenmore for everyday dependable service for anything else.

 

[bajaespuma]

Respect must be paid

In my humble opinion:

 

The Maytag family won US service awards for aircraft parts that helped the WWII effort; don't forget the significance of that when talking about their appliances which were some of the finest stuff the US has had to offer. And Maytag made and sold some of the best-cleaning, most capacious and best designed automatic dishwashers of the late 20th century.

 

Some points to consider:

Cons:

<ul>
<li>One could describe washers' performance and mechanics as "boring"; not a lot of drama.</li>
<li>Not good at heavy duty cleaning</li>
<li>Stingy rinses</li>
<li>Never had the most convenient dispensing systems like TOL Kenmores or Norges when accommodating extra rinses, soaks or pre-washes.</li>
<li>Bad handling of even slightly overloaded washes.</li>
<li>Inconvenient panel trim to clean (sorry, old CU review joke)</li>
</ul>
Pros:

<ul>
<li>Quietest washing machine on the market in its time</li>
<li>Compact design; simple controls</li>
<li>Low water use in comparison to other perf-tub machines.</li>
<li>Classic (boring?) industrial design using "circle in the square" geometries</li>
<li>Most accessible cabinet design for servicing until the Frigidaire 1-18s.</li>
<li>Very good spin effectiveness</li>
<li>Decent manual lint filter: important to those of us who have septic systems where it isn't good to flush more inert waste (lint) down the drains.</li>
</ul>
Not my choice for a daily driver (especially now that we have machines like Mieles out there) but one of a good many American appliance brands that existed before they were sold out to the uber-corporations (who regard US consumers as patsies) that deserve credit and respect as icons of what WAS good about our industries.

 

 

[qsd-dan]

Stingy rinses

I wouldn't call a 1 minute spray rinse stingy, that award goes to belt drive Whirlpool/Kenmore washers. Even GE FF's spray rinses are 1 minute through the most of the 80's.

 

[combo52]

Older, whirlpool spray rinse

Belt drive whirl pools had four spray rinses in each spin. And the water came out at the rate of 9 gallons a minute three times faster than Maytags stingy one minute spray rinse with only 3 gallons a minute in only the first spin period Before the deep rinse.

John

 

[maytag85]

Reason why Whirlpool did a total 4 spray rinses for about 6 seconds each is the pump on those machines can only pump out so much water at a time, I’ve had my Whirlpool water lock a few times even though everything is adjusted and set properly. Usually it’s towels or anything that holds a bit of water that can cause that.