From the West Coast to the Midwest - a Bendix restoration

[48bencix]

Beautiful job

Your job is truly beautiful as is your presentation! Our 44 Bendix had a similar if not the same filter/coin catcher.

 

[luxflairguy]

Stunning restoration! Congrats!

 

[revvinkevin]

Ben,

I am honored and amazed by the amount of time, energy and love you put into the restoration of this beautiful little Bendix washer! I knew I made the right decision passing this machine on to you! I am truly in awe of your ability and attention to detail in recreating the printed directions under the control lid, just amazing!

I look forward to more full cycle videos of different wash loads!
Happy washing!
Kevin

 

[statomatic]

An amazing restoration, well done !

 

[ozzie908]

Ben if you get bored

Come over here for a year or three I have a few machines that could use your magic touch

Your Bendix looks amazing and its testament to you and your ability to revive these lovely old forgotten about machines.

Well done !

 

[lesto]

Amazing restoration! Thanks for the great video both of the full cycle and the mechanicals in operation.

 

[jetaction]

It's all in the details

Every step from the restoration, the documentation and the sharing of your process is amazing. Thanks for taking the time to share this journey.

 

[Unimatic1140]

AW Seal of Approval

Wow Ben super impressive!!! That sure was a lot of work similar to what it was like to restore a machine off of the Aberdeen Farm.

The only difference I can see in the Mallory vs Kingston timer cycle is the 1st spin seems to be 45 seconds in the Kingston vs 90 seconds in the Mallory. Both have a 90 second spin in the 2nd spin.

Great demo of the fill flume by the way, really cool seeing how the water flows in and runs down the front of the outer tub.

 

[Marky_Mark]

Great to see this, Ben.  And nice seeing the video of the full cycle, as I didn't know much about these machines.  Well done!

 

Mark

 

[combo52]

Reply # 27

Hi Mark, you need one of these washers you won't have trouble with air pockets in sheets any more.

 

John L.

 

[goatfarmer]

Another great job, Ben!

 

[swestoyz]

Thank you for the kind comments and remarks, everyone!

 

Bob, I'm glad seeing this machine running again has spurred up good memories from your childhood.  Impressive that dryer lasted as long as it did!

 

And John, I agree about it being a shame that Philco didn't continue with this platform considering the majority of the necessary parts to make these were being used to produce the Duos. 

 

Robert, I'm glad you took the time to look at the timer charts!  Yes, the Kingston timers lose out on one interval during the spin after the wash/first rinse.  They also loose out on one interval of tumble at the end of the final spin, as well.  Fascinating too that the timer chart on that post indicates that the drain value is left open for one increment during off, when in fact it does not.  But yes, this certainly felt like an Aberdeen machine restoration when compared to your '57 Kenmore restoration photo gallery.

 

There was a question asked by Jerome about what type of cycles the Bendix has.  This Gyro has the same two cycles Bendix patented and used for years - the Soak cycle and Wash Cycle.  Over time both cycles changed slightly (spray rinse changed with the top fill change, etc).   Reply 12 has the full timer charts posted, in case you're interested.

 

After I finished publishing the thread yesterday afternoon it dawned on me that I totally forgot to include photos of the power unit installed, as well as close ups of the controls and official money shots of the wash tub.  See below for extra photos!

 

Early on while working on the washer a 1955 Bendix compete specifications catalog popped up on eBay and of course I snagged it.  This would be a great addition to AE if Robert would be interested in adding it!

 

Ben

 

[Unimatic1140]

Looking a 2nd time Ben it also appears that the Kingston timer has both rinse cycles at 2 minutes 15 seconds and the Mallory has each rinse cycle at 3 minutes each. This includes the fill time, so overall the Mallory rinses at 90 seconds less over the entire cycle. It is very odd that they did this.

Another thing I noticed is the Kingston rotates 6 degrees each click and the Mallory 5 degrees with each click. I wonder if the plastic timer dial diameter is smaller for the Mallory machines? Or maybe the Mallory has a larger OFF section and they are the same size which would make more sense.

 

[gansky1]

 

 

A hat-tip to your fine work, Ben.  This looks like a new machine underneath and the control panel cover restoration is outstanding.  

 

[launderess]

Philco-Bendix washers seem like heaven.



On related note think Bendix laundry appliances were just sold too often (Bendix Home Appliances - AVCO - Philco) and got lost in shuffle somehow.

Last owner of Philco brand was Ford IIRC, and by end of things they wanted to drop consumer appliances and electronics period as they say.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In discussions, we have long lamented that Whirlpool did not buy the appliance end of Bendix. They could have sold the front loading washers through Sears and drastically cut down on water usage in our nation, plus they could have had the perfect sales outlets for the Duomatics, which suffered, as did all Philco appliances, as least in the southern states, from limited distribution through Auto stores like Economy Auto and Firestone. The dryers that Bendix developed with the full width air inlet across the back of the drum were more efficient than the WP dryers with the perforated back of the drum.

 

[firedome]

Wow... just wow!

Ben you should be working for the Smithsonian!

 

[turquoisedude]

Well done!

Ben, as usual, you've done an incredible job of authentically restoring this amazing and rare washer!  Thank you for all the details and pictures.  You may inspire to get a couple more restorations done while I still can!!  

 

[tomturbomatic]

In Decatur, GA , there was a cleaners and laundry by the name of Morgan's. When I was about 5-7, we used to go into Decatur to take Daddy's shirts and suits to the main Morgan's plant. Sometime later, our shopping center underwent an enlargement and Morgan's built a store there. It was divided into two sections, the desk for the dry cleaning/laundry part and the part where the drop off laundry was done. The laundry part had a row of machines that looked like these along the outer wall, a big extractor against the back wall and tumblers facing the washers. Whenever we took stuff to the cleaners, I would go to the very edge of the cleaning lobby which was divided from the laundry side by sliding glass doors and watch the flat top Bendix washers.

After a couple of years, the laundry side was remodeled to have Philco coin op washers and that is where we first took our throw rugs after we got the '58 Lady. The machines had little yellow knobs with a red line on them for selecting the wash water and soak/rinse water temps. These machines had the traditional side swing doors with the latch opposite the hinge. I think the glass surround was yellow and black and the door frame was chrome. These lasted quite a while and were replaced by Maytags and then big stainless steel 20 pound washers. It was amazing, the proliferation of coin laundries in the late 50s and early 60s, and the various esoteric machines I got to see thanks to the coupons in the local paper for free washing in the grand opening celebrations. Who would ever guess that Kelvinator and later, Frigidaire, would equip laundromats?

 

[launderess]

By 1960's and later post war boom in appliance sales (driven by pent up demand, post war baby boom, mass movement to suburbs and other new housing), was beginning to wane. Piled on were various social and economic issues hitting American economy such as "stagflation" of 1970's

For reasons above and others many in major appliance game decided it was time to cut bait rather than fish. Ford, General Motors and so forth streamlined by getting shot of divisions that weren't or deemed not profitable.

White Sewing Machine Company (later White Consolidated Industries) went on a shopping spree, gobbling up Philco, Westinghouse, Kelvinator, Gibson and others.

One of if not only front loading washer still about at that time was Westinghouse, and WCI got their mitts on that brand for good or bad. Whirlpool and others really didn't see h-axis washing machines for domestic USA households as anything more than what they were, a niche market. Of course we know different today.

Bendix commercial/industrial laundry division could have survived. But even there coin-op laundry sector was still dominated by top loaders from likes of Maytag, GE, Whirlpool, Speed Queen.