Hotpoint Combos

[paulg]

Hello all! This is my first entry ever to this forum. Glad to be amongst you all. Have been visiting the website for a long time. The POD is the second thing I do every day at work to get a fun jump to the day.
Was looking at Tomturbomatic's profile. He mentions that he is looking for Hotpoint combos. Sorry cannot provide anything but a story. Dad worked for Hotpoint home laundry engineering in Chicago from 1948 forward. He told a story of their Hotpoint combination that didn't fare well. Supposedly it had a propensity to catch fire (?) He said everyone who had this unit (don't know the model) was offered a washer and a dryer delivered in exchange for the combos. All combos were returned and crushed. He remembers people fighting to keep their Hotpoint combos as they loved them. Dad gone so cannot revisit the story. However, is that why tomburbomatic wants this combo? Are these rare rare? At any rate - if any of y'all find one, use care. However I can see you guys and gals are the best of the best and probably can make the unit clean, dry and probably sing a tune (how dry I am...). Best wishes to all. Hope you meet ya soon ala convention or equiv.

 

[oldwasherguy]

cool story,and welcome

 

[toggleswitch]

Welcome!

 

[launderess]

Hmm, the Hotpoint story has me wondering if that was the reason for the Maytag recalling all their combos, never to see the light of day again.

Great story, PaulG. Welcome to the club!

 

[filterflo]

Hi Paul, welcome and nice to meet you. I, too am a Philco lover and am lucky enough to have a couple of them in working condition.

 

[tomturbomatic]

WOW! Paul Thanks and welcome. Yes, the Hotpoint combo was out less than a year and then it was gone. John Lefever and Greg Nunn were looking over the design of the Hotpoint Combo and the design of the Speed Queen combo and came to the conclusion that somebody must have jumped ship from Hotpoint to Speed Queen and taken the design along because even though the SQ is not as wide a machine as the HP, it is deeper. So much of the mechanics are the same, it has to be more than a coincidence. In the last few weeks we were talking about front loading washers and the problems that arise when the diameter of the tub is increased because it gets more difficult to distribute the load evenly around the periphery for spinning. Even things like the Duets, LGs, and others that have fairly good suspension systems, but too damn many sensors for everything, have trouble balancing for spining. Miele has both 5kg and a 6kg machines, but the width of both is the same and the tub diameter is the same. Only the depth changed. The SQ combo is narrow for a combo, but it is very deep. As you might have read, Bendix tied up every patent right since they made the first combination. Because they thought up the idea of the washer-dryer, everyone who made one had to pay them a royalty on each machine. If that sounds like blood sucking, it was, but the killer was the patent on the suspended mechanism, the only sure way and the easiest to deal with the forces produced by spinning. Nobody else could have a real suspension system with springs and shock absorbers like the Duomatic, so very few extracted water very well before the dry cycle started. I would look at a Westinghouse combo and wonder why a company that had been making tumbler washers for a good many years made that combo that looked like they had never heard of a suspension system. The answer is the Bendix patent. We speculate that the folks at Speed Queen figured that by keeping the tub diameter down but increasing the depth, it was easier to achieve a more balanced distribution of the weight of the load allowing faster spinning with less vibration. Bendix, a division of AVCO, Aviation Corporation, poisoned the well with what they did and the sad thing is that AVCO sold Bendix to Philco within about 5 years of introducing the Duomatic and within 2 years Philco reduced the size and the capacity. But almost everyone tried to market one and most were stinkers so the machines got a bad rep for performance and reliability and even Philco had trouble selling their combos. They discontinued their combo by 1969. Kenmore and GE followed them in a few years.

I am sorry you lost your dad so early. I am sorry that we don't have him around to answer our questions and share his good stories. How neat that you and your dad shared this appliance thing; probably not in the same way, but still it's something. I really, really thank you for your contribution on this topic and for solving the mystery of the Hotpoint combo. It was a beautiful as their stoves were back then with lighted pushbuttons and all of the features Hotpoint could offer.

Laaundress, Maytag recalled their combos because they did not perform well and they did NOT live up to Maytag dependability standards. It got to where it did not make sense to keep making parts to keep them running, so everyone got a nice new pair of Maytags for their combo, except for a couple that we know were still working in the early 80s and, obviously, Greg's treasure.

I am sorry that Hotpoint destroyed those beautiful machines. If GE could make their piece of crap combo safe, you would think that Hotpoint could. It seemed like in one of the ads I read that it had a fairly good top spin speed. I would have hidden my machine somewhere outside my city or state if I had a Hotpoint combo and knew that they were coming for it.

Thanks again Paul,
Tom

 

[paulg]

Thanks for the information. The combo story always intrigued me. I'm sure you know more of the relationship between GE and Hotpoint then I. However, during the early years (60s,70s,)the paychecks certainly came from GE, but the factory and signage on the buildings were very Hotpoint. Although the companies were certainly related - it seems that Hotpoint still retained its independence, successes and failures for a time. That's just my impression and certainly not gospel (remember, I was a kid at the time). Perhaps that is why the GE combo fared better. Perhaps GE told Hotpoint to sink or swim on their own combo... and they sank. It was weird to me that GE was on the paychecks, Edison Electric was carved in stone over the door - but once you went into the building it was Hotpoint everywhere.
Regarding relationships with other companies - I didn't hear the SQ story. However, all I do know is that the same factory was OEM for some EASY, JCPenney brands and probably some GE (when I wasn't looking). I'm sure they squeaked out tons of private-label. I think EASY was based in Chicago. At first I didn't understand what he meant by "they make some EASY", but I get it now.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Paul, Hotpoint was a subsidiary of General Electric, which was originally Edison Electric then Edison General Electric and finally GE, I believe. As I related elsewhere, GE bought Hotpoint after Hotpoint invented the Calrod sealed rod heating element in the late 1920s. Hotpoint's combo was obviously of a far more ambitious design than GE's.

All of the GE giant dryers, as well as the Hotpoint and Pencrest versions were made in the Hotpoint factory. For a long time, Hotpoint's washers were made by Easy, so that might explain why you heard the Easy name.

 

[bajaespuma]

Fascinating history.

I was just looking at ads for Hotpoint Irons, Hotpoint/Edison ironers and Hotpoint/Hughes stoves. And I saw one of the original ads for the Calrod unit.

What years were Hotpoint washers made by Easy?

 

[mayken4now]

Welcome Paulg

You will have fun here

Steve

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hotpoint's washers were made by Easy.

Hi Tom, I have no documentation to know for sure but I thought it was the other way around that Easy's washers were made by Hotpoint? While I don't know for sure, but Hotpoint came out with their Co-Axial design in '58, and Easy was producing their own Velva-Power design until about '66 when they started using the Co-Axial design for Easy as well. Could it be that Easy bought the Hotpoint design and then started producing it for both Easy and Hotpoint?

It would be interesting to find out more the history between the two.

 

[gansky1]

From the service manual

The Hotpoint combination

 

[gansky1]

panel shot

Small pic, but there was a water heating option for the wash cycle. This machine used a two belt & pulley system plus a chain-drive (think bicycle chain) system for the drum, wash/tumble speed of 54 RPM and top spin speed was 365 RPM. There were two "airplane style" shock absorbers and springs that provided suspension for the drum assembly.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Robert, I guess I remembered it backwards from when you were talking about the BEAM machines and what they became through the years. It was EASY that made the first Westinghouse top loader. Maybe that got me confused, but didn't Hotpoint have the "sorta Spiralator" in their later solid tub machines? Solid tub Hotpoints and Easy washers were similar in some ways.

Greg, you know what I bet? I'll bet that because of the shocks and springs that made it possible for the Hotpoint to spin at 365 rpm, Bendix busted them and they either had to destroy those machines or face a huge patent infringement law suit. Fires were the cover story.

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Fun Stuff!

Wow!
What a great looking machine! Thanks for posting the pictures Greg.
Was the dryer on this combo a condensing type? Or were they gas or electric?
Brent

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hi Tom, Hotpoint sure did use a Spiralator, but as you said they were slightly different, the Hotpoint agitator is on the right...

 

[Unimatic1140]

More Hotpoint Combo Stuff...

 

[Unimatic1140]

#2

 

[Unimatic1140]

#3

 

[launderess]

I Want One!

A combination washer/dryer that heated wash water AND ran on 30amp/220v service? I WANT ONE!!!!!!!

L.