"Kitchen Appliance"-names in the Laundry Room

[daveamkrayoguy]

So how well did Kitchen Aid washers & dryers hold up before K/A went back to exclusively only making kitchen appliances? And Magic Chef washers & dryers before the "MC" name went back to being seen only in the kitchen?

I know it took a company like Whirlpool to manufacture Kitchen Aid washers & dryers and Magic Chef washers & dryers to be made by a division of Maytag, but when we're they finally discontinued?

 

[tomturbomatic]

KitchenAid laundry appliances were very good. They were TOL WP with added things like sound insulation, but that three speed motor and the big-finned dual action agitator really made the wash action much gentler than the WP machines with the blitzhacker agitation. I don't know if the dryers were much different than WP at all. My pair with the electric dryer is still going since the early 90s. The gas dryer is a little newer, lives outside and has a 37,500 BTU burner and is still working, but only during warm weather so each dryer gets maybe 6 months use a year. They share my house with other washers and other dryers so the use is spread around, but they are well designed, well built machines.

 

[yogitunes]

Nice clean look machines, does seem quieter than most direct drives, theres something about a WP, KM, KA dryer, clothes fluff up really nice and minimal wrinkles....I like the oven door window with the light on with the room dark

 

[pierreandreply4]

my godmother had a kitchen aid washer and dryer and they where quiet during the 1998 ice strom i was staying at my godmother 's place and had to do my laundry there and it was so quiet hardly notice it was working

 

[DADoES]

 

I have a KA pair bought in late 1992.  To confess, the dryer hasn't been used since 2004, and washer last ran a load around Dec 2006 ... although they are in working order.  The dryer has never had any repairs.  The washer has had the motor coupler and agitator dogs replaced.

 

My parents have a 1994 KA set.  Dryer had one of the thermal fuses replaced (I don't know if air duct or element housing).  The washer has had a couple couplers, lid switch (bypassed), agitator dogs, and the pump (which I replaced as a preemptive measure so can't say how long the original might would have lasted).  Interestingly, this washer has developed considerable rusting around the top panel tub port, which my 1992 hasn't.  We treated slathered it with POR-15 several years ago.

 

My KAWE760B washer has an insulation panel for sound deadening in the base beneath the motor and mechanism.

 

[washerlover]

I thought Norge manufactured Magic Chef washers & dryers...

 

[jaytag]

Kitchen Aid Washer and Dryer Supurba

My 93 Set is still going strong. In our 2009 constructed home, sits our almond set. I bought them back in 1994, they were floor models and paid $1100 for them. The washer has had new dogs and needs the springs lubed. The dryer needs a new thermostat but still works fine on timed dry. They look new like the day they did when I bought them. I wanted the electronic set but they were discontinued. They are still so quiet you can barely hear them running.

 

[70series]

Washerlover:

The Magic Chefs were Norge built, and then Maytag bought Magic Chef in the late 1980s if I recall correctly. My sister had a Magic Chef set in her vacation house. The house was built in 1987 as part of a community so they were a package deal, and they sure were Norge built...noisy and powerful. She had them in the vestibule which was right above the bedroom where I would sleep when visiting. You could hear that washer loud and clear through the floor. She eventually replaced them with plastic GEs which you could not hear at all.

Have a good one,
James

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

OK, maybe "Kitchen BRANDS" in the Laundry Room...!!!

"Yogitunes": There hasn't been a "Window'd dryer" since the '60's!--& how DO you get the light to be on w/ the door closed? (Maybe a manual switch? Or is the light on inside when the dryer is in operation? Maybe we need a separate thread on lighted drums in dryers w/ windows...)

I do remember a TV advertisement on Magic Chef washers & dryers--obviously trying to convince the very skeptical who were wary of buying a name, obviously for a CHEF, or suggesting a KITCHEN appliance--, "that it out-cleaned THESE BRANDS:" and just about every make was named in these blocked letters (MAYTAG, among them!) which were "in animation, knocked out by a blocked-letter MAGIC CHEF logo"!

Maytag, made Magic Chef, at least from the self-proclaimed "A division of Maytag" the promotion of M/C products got (Norge, Admiral, Montgomery Ward, too--or at least were "a division" in the sense that they could all be serviced, while this "umbrella" existed!)...

Thanks all, for the very unexpected (while the future of my topic looked a bit moribund! --LOL) response!!!!

-- Dave

NP: Blue Oyster Cult "Transamericon MC"

 

[tomturbomatic]

No, KA introduced a windowed dryer door briefly sometime in the 90s, I think. I got the parts #s and several of us made our own to put on older WP dryers. The glass is even double-pane like an oven door window. Just like on the Cabrio dryer there was a light switch on some KA dryer control panels that would allow you to have the drum light on while the dryer was operating.

As for no dryers with door windows, haven't you seen the new dryers with doors that match the washers?

As for Magic Chef laundry, the name did not morph to "Tragic Chef" for nothing.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

OK, I wasn't thinking about the new "Shhhh-Boom" boxes! --Yes, they have Windows on BOTH the washers & dryers...!

Well, I have wondered about whether the old dryers w/ windows (& front loading washers had a manual switch to view your clothese being washed or dried, or if just "the natural outside light" was adequate, that's all...

I know, that the '70's Westinghouse front-loaders (and newer, White-Westy's) had a tub-light switch, so I speculated that angle on other washers & dryers that had windows on them, that's all...

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

Unless you were in a group of appliance sorcerers and had the wiring to the door switch modified, Westinghouse washers did not allow for operation of the tub light while the door was closed and the machine in operation. The switch for the light was so that the light could be turned off while the door was open for the machine to dry out after use. Our 1965 590 did not have this and you had to unplug it to keep the light off while the machine was airing out.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Oh, well thanks for the info, Tomturbo... I was curious about lights in windowed machines & there operation in terms of whether the machine was on, off, door opened, or closed...

I know the reason is obvious in non-windowed washin' & dryin' boxes; to illuminate the interior...

Now are there top-loaders that have tub light? (Aside from a certain Maytag which I saw & commented on?)

-- Dave