I Found This Setting in the Junk Pile...

[beekeyknee]

At Direct Maytag. The guy inside said let's go take a look. He said $10.00 and I said sold. He helped me load it, I brought it home, took the back off, blew out some dirt, did a little oiling, plugged it in and it took off.

The Air Fluff works, runs for about 10 to 12 minutes or so and shuts off with the "ding". It doesn't heat though. I'll find out what's wrong when I take the cabinet off. QS would make it August 1972 I believe.

I'm going to get the DE806 out and work on them both together. I have a new lint filter and cover. I'm going to swap the chrome knob for an acrylic one. I want the chrome one on my 806. It will still be historically accurate. I believe they were putting on both types around this time. The insert in the knob will be there too. It will get the complete cleaning, oiling, new front seal and whatever else it needs treatment. If no one I know wants the 606 I'm going to sell it, so keep and eye out if you're interested.

 

[Ultramatic]

Score!

 

 

I wonder if that is the matching dryer for my '74 A-107?

 

[delaneymeegan]

Super find

$10 for work horse like that? What a steal for an HOH dryer.

It probably needs a new element strung in, which is easy enough. Then it will be ready for another 40 years.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Set it for Damp Dry with an empty drum and see how many seconds it takes to shut off. It should shut off almost instantly. 10 minutes is the normal time for Air Fluff.

Restringing a new heating element requires removing the entire cabinet from the base plate of the dryer because the element is mounted to the front of the dryer around the door opening.

 

[beekeyknee]

I don't know, Louie. I think the 606 was considered second from the top of the line at the time but I think it would definitely work. It seems like people kind of mixed and matched back then. I've seen some odd looking combinations.

 

[beekeyknee]

Yes, Tom. I've done it before. Remember the set from Reno? They're the ones in my avatar. Thank you anyway.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Ah OK. Thanks Brian!

 

[philr]

My 1972 A-806 was originally matched with a DE-606. The dryer was gone when I got the washer but I got the original sales literature and operating manuals. I found a 1973 DE-806 to match mine.

 

A friend of mine just got a pair of Maytags for free (he doesn't collect appliances!), the washer is a small capacity A-606 from October of 1967 and it looks like a 206 from the 1970s with no chrome around the control panel. I don't remember the model number of the dryer but it's a time-dry only model.

 

[beekeyknee]

That's funny, Phil. I thought A606s were all large capacity. Here we go wrangeling around these model numbers and what they mean again. LOL. Kenmore71 (Mark) will straighten things out for us. He always does.

 

[appnut]

206 is std. capacity and 606 is large capacity--both 2 sped washers. 

 

[philr]

I was probably wrong on that!

The washer my friend got is an A-606 but it looks very basic, it has no chrome on it's control panel (silver paint), no chrome ring on the timer dial around the knob (the dryer has one), 3 water levels and a dark-colored tub.

 

I thought the tub was the small one as I saw the 3 water levels (which most early washers had) and it seemed smaller than the white ones in my two A-806 washers but it was probably a large capacity (I guess the 206 would have Small/Medium/Normal while the early 606 would have Small/Medium/Large settings?) . Because of the lack of chrome trim, I thought it was a basic A 206 model but the tag did say A-606 (and I thought only the A-106 had silver trim?). Unless it has been repainted? Both machines look very clean but I didn't look closely at the dryer. Maybe the dryer is a newer/cheaper model with the silver-painted panel and the washer was matched to it!

 

Was there any noticeable difference on the control panels of the early 206 and 606 models?  As for the dryer, it has timed-dry only and it was too dark for me to see the model number when we unloaded it from the truck. 

 

I'll have to take pictures the next time I visit my friend.

 

[beekeyknee]

Yeah, all those little changes over the years in retrospect can be very confusing. Like I just noticed yesterday when I was working on that 606. It doesn't have the chrome strip along the top of the cabinet and it doesn't have a drum light. I knew it wasn't supposed to but until you start working on one you don't think about the differences.

 

[philr]

When I got my 806 dryer, it was Harvest Gold, and since my washers were white, I decided to convert the dryer to white as it was easier to find a donor dryer for the correct white panels. The next day I got parts from a white 1975 DE407 that was already parted out and they fitted perfectly. That chrome strip was easy to add, I didn't have to drill holes or anything.

 

[beekeyknee]

Yeah, that's true the holes are already there. They made all the parts so most any machine could be made into any model they wanted. For instance, those oblong horizontal slots on the back of the late 60's and 70's cabinets are for the out of balance shut off switch for a 906. Only model they're used on.

 

[tomturbomatic]

My reply #3 was directed at reply #2.

 

[philr]

Here's the 1967 Maytag set that my friend got recently, I took a few pictures of the machines tonight.

 

 Is the washer really a large capacity model? The water level selector doesn't show "large"...  I see that the agitator has 4 holes next to the lint filter (like my A806 does), I'm not sure if the small capacity models also had 4 holes or just 3 (I know older models had 3). 

 

Also, was the DE406 the base model? 

 

I'm missing some information on these early 06 models.

 

I took a few pictures. Note that the washer doesn't have the chrome ring around the timer dial and the dryer (which has been made a few months earlier according to the serial number) does. 

 

 

 

[warmsecondrinse]

The control panel close-up reminds me of another reason I prefer vintage:

The labels for the controls tell you what the machine physically does when you activate it. There's much less ambiguity compared with today's machines that have labels such as "active wear" or "sports".

Am I the only one who sees such labels and thinks, "OK, so that means the machine does ... what?"

Jim

 

[beekeyknee]

I agree, Jim. Those stupid words they put on every kind of appliance don't mean a damn thing. And those little pictures they put around dials in cars that point to where the air is supposed to come out. Infuriating!

 

[bajaespuma]

Can't argue with the rating plate, but...

 I would have guessed it to be an A206 from the first generation of "Washpower Automatics" which is consistent with the panel, the no-chrome ring around the cycle dial, the cycle dial itself and the color of the washbasket. Both the large capacity and regular capacity machines had only 3 water level selections for that year. The agitator, however is wrong. It should be a  three-hole, black old-style flow-thru the bottom, not a power fin. The dryer was styled to go with either the 206 or the 606.

 

[DADoES]

 
That A606 in Reply #15 seems to be a mongrel-mix.  Wouldn't a 606 have a white basket, and a 206 have a gray basket?