Free Maytag DE806 to a good home!

[d-jones]

The other day I got a call from someone looking to unload a pair of Harvest Gold 806's. He just wanted them gone, and since neither machine is working correctly at the moment he was willing to give them away. Well, even though I don't have a need for them myself I figured someone here would, so I went and picked them up this afternoon. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out quite as I'd expected. While the dryer is an 806, it's a DE806, not a DG806 as the guy had said it was. Here's a photo of it sitting in my garage here in Burbank. It's free to any member of this board willing to come and get it. The only flaw it has (apart from the numerous scuffs and scrapes on the cabinet) is that it doesn't shut off until the door is opened. This isn't a difficult issue to sort out. These are very simple machines, so I'll let the new owner deal with it.

[this post was last edited: 3/11/2014-23:37]

 

[d-jones]

Now for the washer.

This was supposed to be the matching A806, and at first glance it does look like one. But if you're paying attention.....................well, I left the lid off so you can see for yourselves. Clearly something is very wrong here. In addition, the cabinet is a complete basket case with deep dents and severe scrapes from being badly mishandled a few times when moved. And just to add a little extra fun the motor doesn't seem to work, though with a little troubleshooting, the problem there could turn out to be something simple. Still, all things considered I'm just going to disassemble this thing, keep what I need and scrap the rest.

[this post was last edited: 3/12/2014-01:07]

 

[hippiedoll]

"Clearly something is very wrong here".....

there's no bleach dispenser!!!

 

[d-jones]

"there's no bleach dispenser!!!"

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! Congratulations to Christina, aka hippiedoll. I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was when I saw that. Even stranger still, this machine has been with the same family since it was purchased new, and they have no memory as to when this <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">vandalism</span>, I mean "modification" occurred. They were quite surprised when I pointed it out to them. Tomorrow I'll open it up and have a look at it's innards. I'm hoping to find an 806 outer tub, but with no tub light lens fitting on the tub cover that's not likely.

 

[arbilab]

Well you have to admit, the removal of the bleach dispenser was a VERY clean alteration.

 

[hippiedoll]

hmmmm??

do you think that maybe the cabinet was changed at some point?? did they say they had to take it to an appliance shop for repairs or something?

i did notice that this is the control panel with the lower blue/aqua colored panel. so that makes this washer the ones made between the mid-1960's to the early-1970's. did these early A806 models have the bleach dispenser and or tub light also??

 

[scoots]

Hippydoll may be on to something here...

I bought a matched Harvest Gold W/D set at a secondhand store in the early 90s (A207). It shortly became obvious why it was up for sale... the washer was a very slow leaker that eventually had a transmission failure. Nobody wanted to repair it and I wasn't going to throw it out so I found a White A206 next to a dumpster and did a cabinet transplant.

The only thing that didn't work out is that my gold cabinet HAD a bleach funnel, and the old tub had noplace to admit the bleach, so it went inoperative.

I realize that the family says "we don't remember this happening", but the switch happened somehow...

 

[goatfarmer]

Possible there was a cabinet change, or just the top. Pull the front, and you'll know for sure!

 

I could use the dryer to match an oddball HA 806 I have, but shipping would be prohibitive.

 

[DigAPony]

No chrome lint filter or front panel trim on the washer either.

Frankenstein surgery was obviously performed on that machine.

 

[easy]

DE806

David,

If you get no takers, would you be willing to part it out? I'm looking for the lint filter and the electronic control (assuming that they are in good shape...)

Thanks, David

 

[d-jones]

Having had a chance to work on these today, I can tell you exactly what happened to the washer. The data plate on the back of the machine says its an A606, so essentially, someone mounted an A806 control panel to an A606 washer. More than likely this was done so that the washer and dryer would continue to match, but it's hard to fathom what could have gone wrong with the original washer to make this necessary. Oh well. This is whats left of it now, and I'm not quite done yet.

 

[d-jones]

I also cleaned up the dryer some to make it more presentable. It's not perfect, but I've seen people that are quite proud of machines that look much worse.

 

[d-jones]

Here's a closer look at the control panel. It's nearly flawless.

 

[d-jones]

Hey there David(easy). There's an electronic control unit and a lint filter for sale on eBay right now if you need them. So far I'm not thinking of parting this dryer out. If it turns out that no one here is interested, I'll donate it to Sav-On-Appliance down the street here in Burbank. In the mean time I'll likely play with it a bit and see if I can get it working properly.

 

[hippiedoll]

OH WOW!!! d-jones...

you really "got down" on that dryer and made it shine & sparkle!!! you got it looking beeeeeeeeautiful!!! that's a very impressive looking dryer now. you did an "OUTTA SIGHT" job on spiffying up that dryer!!!
me likes........
)

as for the washer, i'm kinda confused.....
so, does that mean that the A606 washers didn't have or come with a bleach dispenser feature???
/

 

[d-jones]

Why thank you, hippiedoll. It's amazing what a damp rag, a little Windex, and some rubbing compound can do, isn't it? Care to drive out to L.A. and claim this one?

As for the bleach dispenser, I believe that feature was only available on the TOL models, which from this period means the A806 and the A906.

 

It really is a shame about this washer, but I'll clean up and store every part for future use except the cabinet, top panel, and outer tub. It isn't shown in the photo's above, but the top panel has a massive chip on the right hand upper surface that's about two and a half inches long and easily an inch or more wide, so it's toast. On the other hand, the 806 control panel it had is really nice, and since I have another HA806 with severe pitting on the control panel chrome, I'll go ahead and swap it out. I was also thinking of going through the transmission before packing it away in storage. Then if either my washer or my parents washer should develop a transmission problem, a replacement will be ready to go. So even though this didn't play out quite the way I'd expected it to, it isn't going to be a total loss.

 

[danemodsandy]

David:

The bleach dispenser was an upper-crust feature at this time, as you note. However, when the second series of "New Generation" machines was launched, the feature was extended much farther down the line; the 206 had it.

I think the reason was not so much that Maytag felt all God's children deserved a bleach dispenser, as it was that it was cheaper to make and inventory one top assembly and one outer tub assembly than it was to make different ones for dispenser and non-dispenser models. Inasmuch as the second-series "dispenser" was nothing more than a hose and a funnel, putting it on all machines was probably a net savings.

 

[combo52]

The Reason Maytag Added Bleach Dispensers to most Models

Was MT was inundated with clothing damage complaints that were often caused by bleach burns, it seems that many users followed only part of the directions on the bleach bottle, LOL. They would wait till the washer was filled and washing for a while and they would lift the lid and poor a little bleach directly in the washer as they always did with their old washer.

The problem for MT was that the agitation stops when the lid is raised and some undiluted LCB would hit some of the clothing that was floating on top. While we all know this is not the correct way to add bleach, the reality was that this procedure worked just fine on the users old KM, WP, etc.

This was just one more design deficiency that MT laundry appliances had that made our lives difficult as service men in the 1970s, we had far fewer problems with WP laundry appliances with consumer satisfaction issues. MT also added the LCB dispenser because they were constantly promoting the use of LCB to help counter the cleaning complaints that many new owners of MT washers had. These were normally customers that bought their first MT washer and were complaining about dingy clothing mainly brought on by the poorer cleaning, shorter maximum agitation time, Poor turn over and the spin draining that left more of anything that was in the wash or rinse water in the clean clothing.

 

[hippiedoll]

ah OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

shame on you d-jones....
tempting me with that beautiful dryer!!

unfortunately, we already have an electric dryer (mom's newer whirlpool) and there is only one dryer plug. and the backroom (of the kitchen) where we have the "laundry" room, is soooo full, that i've been trying to clear it out cuz it really looks BAD!!! i would take pictures just to prove it, but i am ashamed of how it looks!!!

but i thank you for the kind offer/suggestion/temptation. that definitely is a shining beauty you have there.

on another note, wasn't there 2 other members looking for 806 dryers to match their washers?? but i'm kinda thinking they had white washers?? i can't remember who, but it wasn't too long ago, just last month, if i remember correctly??
hopefully they will see this thread and take you up on this once in a lifetime offer, a free DE806!!!