There was a time when consumers expected 2 or more decades out of a major appliance.
Today's consumer shops by price, and that changes everything.
Today's consumer shops by price, and that changes everything.
Modern makes of vintage Washers and Dryers
- Thread starter Chetlaham
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Consumers are too cheap to pay for quality these days since they have to have it NOW and can’t wait until they have the means to save up for appliances that will last for decades. There is the saying “the customer/consumer is always right”, NOT in my book since they are complaining about the very problems they created in a way and make it more difficult for those who want decades of trouble free service.
Speed Queen domestic washing machines both top and front loading are not far from OPL or otherwise commercial use. Thus Alliance can spread costs along a much wider array of offerings.
If Alliance only offered domestic washing machines and dryers they'd be up against WP and rest, thus you'd likely not see same sort of build quality and so forth they have today.
Alliance/SQ does brisk business with US military (units installed on bases all over USA), well as route multi-family housing (those washers and dryers found in apartment building laundry rooms). So again they have a much wider reach to spread things around.
If Alliance only offered domestic washing machines and dryers they'd be up against WP and rest, thus you'd likely not see same sort of build quality and so forth they have today.
Alliance/SQ does brisk business with US military (units installed on bases all over USA), well as route multi-family housing (those washers and dryers found in apartment building laundry rooms). So again they have a much wider reach to spread things around.
potatochips
Well-known member
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- Sep 9, 2016
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I've purchased and picked up lots of free old appliances and I can safely say in my experience, I never found wiring on a WP, MT, or GE machine that was thinner than 14 wiring. The WP world washer uses nice and thin wiring throughout. Does that mean it's junk? No, because these washers aren't burning houses down, but rather it's a clear indication of cost savings interest. There is an exponential cost savings going from 14 to 16 AWG if you're producing hundreds of thousands of machines per year.
You have to understand that the cost to produce a helical drive or DD machine is insane compared to the modern machine. The transmissions alone in these machines are packed full of thick, heavy metal and the cost to buy, machine, and install that metal is not cheap. While the DD and helical machines look like theyre not expensive to produce when you compare them together, they are expensive to produce when you compare them with modern designs. It's like comparing the BD to a FF, probably not very much production cost difference. But the reality is these older machines are not cheap to make, and production costs are above all else because it either eats up, or makes profit margins per machine.
The exterior, changeable door panel on my belt drive reverse rack Maytag dishwasher is thicker than the whole tank of a modern dishwasher on sale today.
Sure, it may seem like one dishwasher with thinner spray arms that are shorter, thin gauge tanks, thin gauge wiring, 1/8 inch less insulation, and thinner racks can't possibly lower production costs, but when you make 100,000 plus of these a year, it adds up. Look at airlines, the cost and drive to save one pound of weight on one flight seems stupid, but when you fly seven hundred flights per day, every day of the year, it adds up. Quick. And appliance production is no different.
WP canned the helical drive production because why would they make the DD and helical drive next to each other? It's called internal competition. Plus there is union labour savings, the labour costs on a helical drive were different than that of the DD. Plus the helical drive was not a cheap machine to make. WP bought MT, a poorly ran company with bad finances, so instead of being drug down to MTs financial ineptitude, WP had to cut things that don't make money.
Laundress is right. The market for SQ quality washers today is there, but its so so so so so small, but the vast bulk of their business if commercial. Thats where SQ is making its money, commercial, not resi. Resi for them, is a nice to have, and it certainly wont ruin the company if they stopped selling to resi markets.
"the overall pessimistic view of how vintage appliances are view on this forum", that is not true. Everyone is here for one reason, we all love appliances. But no one in the Imperial forum is "pessimistic" of old machines. We love them. If you start playing the "what if" game and creating posts asking if "they" will "bring back" old designs, you lose sight on how fun older machines were, you become distracted. Those designs are long gone, and for understandable reasons. Deal with it, and start enjoying what they were, and enjoying that its a way we used to do things, and that because the design is gone, it becomes that more valuable.
You have to understand that the cost to produce a helical drive or DD machine is insane compared to the modern machine. The transmissions alone in these machines are packed full of thick, heavy metal and the cost to buy, machine, and install that metal is not cheap. While the DD and helical machines look like theyre not expensive to produce when you compare them together, they are expensive to produce when you compare them with modern designs. It's like comparing the BD to a FF, probably not very much production cost difference. But the reality is these older machines are not cheap to make, and production costs are above all else because it either eats up, or makes profit margins per machine.
The exterior, changeable door panel on my belt drive reverse rack Maytag dishwasher is thicker than the whole tank of a modern dishwasher on sale today.
Sure, it may seem like one dishwasher with thinner spray arms that are shorter, thin gauge tanks, thin gauge wiring, 1/8 inch less insulation, and thinner racks can't possibly lower production costs, but when you make 100,000 plus of these a year, it adds up. Look at airlines, the cost and drive to save one pound of weight on one flight seems stupid, but when you fly seven hundred flights per day, every day of the year, it adds up. Quick. And appliance production is no different.
WP canned the helical drive production because why would they make the DD and helical drive next to each other? It's called internal competition. Plus there is union labour savings, the labour costs on a helical drive were different than that of the DD. Plus the helical drive was not a cheap machine to make. WP bought MT, a poorly ran company with bad finances, so instead of being drug down to MTs financial ineptitude, WP had to cut things that don't make money.
Laundress is right. The market for SQ quality washers today is there, but its so so so so so small, but the vast bulk of their business if commercial. Thats where SQ is making its money, commercial, not resi. Resi for them, is a nice to have, and it certainly wont ruin the company if they stopped selling to resi markets.
"the overall pessimistic view of how vintage appliances are view on this forum", that is not true. Everyone is here for one reason, we all love appliances. But no one in the Imperial forum is "pessimistic" of old machines. We love them. If you start playing the "what if" game and creating posts asking if "they" will "bring back" old designs, you lose sight on how fun older machines were, you become distracted. Those designs are long gone, and for understandable reasons. Deal with it, and start enjoying what they were, and enjoying that its a way we used to do things, and that because the design is gone, it becomes that more valuable.
pierreandreply4
Well-known member
i wonder how a modern 2023 version of this set would look?
I wonder how in 2023 a modern version of this vintage set would look like wuth out the vmw tech and fancy electronic but still keeping the classic look and style? inglis whirlpool
I wonder how in 2023 a modern version of this vintage set would look like wuth out the vmw tech and fancy electronic but still keeping the classic look and style? inglis whirlpool
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