Heads Up! PHILCO-BENDIX DUOMATIC WASHER & DRYER

[launderess]

In California

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7600255083&indexURL=4#ebayphotohosting

 

[tomturbomatic]

That last picture, bottom right looks like it was taken from inside the drum. If anyone here does buy this, make sure that the mechanism is braced before it is shipped. The machine has large cast iron weights at the front that can do serious damage to the cabinet if they were to crash into it when the machine is tipped. You also do not want to damage the very sensitive damper arrangement that opens over the gas burner when the dry cycle starts. Another thing that can happen to it if it is tipped up too far on one end is that the pleated rubber hose leading from the detergent door to the outer tub can tear. This needs to be transported as gently and as professionally as a 90 year old grandmother with osteoporosis who is very handy at using her cane as a weapon and is a travel agent for guilt trips.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Colour

Hi Tom, you sure know how to paint a picture...LOl

What colour is this combo?? on my screen the top looks "Pretty in Pank" or is it my eyes??

How quick did these take to dry with the gas burner??

Mike

 

[gansky1]

It does look PANK in the pictures. The model number would tell us for sure, pink would have been CGV-CZ. (X = green, Y = yellow, Z = pink)

 

[tomturbomatic]

Mike, the gas drying models were about as fast as the electric condensing models in these big machines. They both had a good fast spin speed (500+ rpm) and were able to dry clothes at a low temperature safe for even synthetic fabrics. The gas burner was attached to the base plate of the machine on the left side and this rectangular duct came down from where the heater box was in the electric version (upper left quadrant of the tub)like an elephant's trunk and ended just above the burner. This allowed a steady mounting for the burner and a separation between the burner and duct that allowed the mechanism to move on its suspension. Bendix had to work out a lot of logistics to make the gas model combo and it was introduced to the market months after the electric model made its first appearance in December, 1952, just like my brother. Time Magazine had a small partial page of "What's New" in business news back then, and in one of the December, 1952 issues, maybe the last one of the year, there is a picture of the Duomatic and an announcement of its entry into the market. The burner had electric ignition because they were very worried about water putting out a pilot light. The (hopefully)water tight (in theory) damper up near the opening into the outer tub opened when the blower came on and then the burner lighted. Mr. Underwood in Conyers, Georgia who sold me Brenda Bendix back in 1969 was not a great fan of the gas ones. They were more complicated and had more places where they could leak. My mom had a fellow Home Economist friend who worked for the gas company in Illinois, and she kept trying to sell mom one of these. I must have been between 3 and 4 when I remember sitting beside her on the couch while she had the book open to the sales brochure for this. She thought just the door knob in the center of the door interested me. HA! Little would she ever know. We already had the Kenmore and mom did not like dryers (or anything else that made life easier until we sort of pushed the dishwasher on her. It was November of 1971 before we had a PHILCO Duomatic in our laundry room. By that time, Brenda, who had originally been hooked up at a friend's house in their laundry room, was in our basement all covered up in a corner, bugging the hell out of my father just because she was there. She stayed there until the summer of 1982 when my brother and his partner drove up on the way to Maine with my piano and Brenda. Dad got rid of the combo and my mom got the piano out of her living room.