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NOS Maytag Washer Button Switch Part No. 4201-16
- Thread starter Ultramatic
- Start date
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So a Maytag washer with this circuitry would always drain the wash water through the suds hose and if you did not want to save it, you just left the plug out of the drain in the set tub? This was in the late 50s, right? By the time of the A500S in the mid 60s, there was a switch to select SAVE SUDS or DRAIN SUDS and a SUDS RETURN position at a triangle on the timer dial. So approximately when did that changeover occur, please?
I remember when mom had the Kenmore with the sudsaver and my aunt had the sudsaver Maytag. Doing laundry was an intensive operation with load after load being done in close succession before the wash water cooled. Loads were sorted onto squares of newspaper on the floor of the basement. My aunt had the 57 Highlander and I remember that there were two toggle switches, one was for selecting hot or warm wash water and the other had to do with the sudsaver, but I don't know what the selections were. Given the time period of the machine, it must have always sent the wash water out through the suds hose so maybe the selections were like those of the buttons on the switch above. When we got the 58 Lady without a sudssaver, we gradually stopped having a laundry day and just did laundry when a load accumulated. Once we got a dryer, we did not have to depend on daylight for hanging out wash so we could wash and dry during the night like if one of us kids got sick.
I remember when mom had the Kenmore with the sudsaver and my aunt had the sudsaver Maytag. Doing laundry was an intensive operation with load after load being done in close succession before the wash water cooled. Loads were sorted onto squares of newspaper on the floor of the basement. My aunt had the 57 Highlander and I remember that there were two toggle switches, one was for selecting hot or warm wash water and the other had to do with the sudsaver, but I don't know what the selections were. Given the time period of the machine, it must have always sent the wash water out through the suds hose so maybe the selections were like those of the buttons on the switch above. When we got the 58 Lady without a sudssaver, we gradually stopped having a laundry day and just did laundry when a load accumulated. Once we got a dryer, we did not have to depend on daylight for hanging out wash so we could wash and dry during the night like if one of us kids got sick.
December 1956 Let's Talk Service
This is a pretty rare switch, PN 2-913. It's for the early version of the fabric/switch of the 140S, AMP-style washer.
After a certain serial number run they changed the timer from the standard AMP 2-14 timer to a unique timer (2-1057) for just this washer, apparently due to a change in the suds return pump/system with the added "Return Suds" as part of the timer function, and switched the fabric selector switch to what we know and love as "Save Suds/Drain Suds", PN 2-1060.
I can't imagine many of these flew off the shelves, which might explain why this seller happen to run across a few.
Ben[this post was last edited: 1/21/2019-09:51]
This is a pretty rare switch, PN 2-913. It's for the early version of the fabric/switch of the 140S, AMP-style washer.
After a certain serial number run they changed the timer from the standard AMP 2-14 timer to a unique timer (2-1057) for just this washer, apparently due to a change in the suds return pump/system with the added "Return Suds" as part of the timer function, and switched the fabric selector switch to what we know and love as "Save Suds/Drain Suds", PN 2-1060.
I can't imagine many of these flew off the shelves, which might explain why this seller happen to run across a few.
Ben[this post was last edited: 1/21/2019-09:51]
Ben, Thank you! So my Aunt's Highlander would have had the Save/Drain switch. From what I remember from the manual that came with mom's 58 Lady, the Sudssaver model had a similar selector switch to either save or drain suds, but it was called Suds Miser which was the name WP used for the feature so it was a mistake and every place that word was printed in the book had black mark unsuccessfully (at least to an inquisitive kid) obliterating "Miser." I don't know if that was the first appearance of the suds switch in a Kenmore. Anyway, the switch was labeled as above with a dark place on the control panel where the word "Miser" should be and it had the "ON" and "OFF" positions, I think, so Sears made it more complicated than necessary.
If you had double set tubs, the switch was not as important as if you had a single suds tub not connected to the plumbing like we had with our waterfall front Kenmore after we moved to Georgia. With our arrangement, it would have been nice to automatically send the wash water down the drain instead of doing the contortions we did. Our house had the sewer line going out about 4 feet above the floor because there was so much granite from Stone Mountain underlying the area that they could or would not go through it to lay the sewer lines any deeper. Daddy bought the tub so that we could continue using the sudssaver. Most of us have seen them in the Sears catalog. It was square, had wheels, a shelf just above the wheels to hold the legs together, and a cover
Thank you again and Happy 2019.
If you had double set tubs, the switch was not as important as if you had a single suds tub not connected to the plumbing like we had with our waterfall front Kenmore after we moved to Georgia. With our arrangement, it would have been nice to automatically send the wash water down the drain instead of doing the contortions we did. Our house had the sewer line going out about 4 feet above the floor because there was so much granite from Stone Mountain underlying the area that they could or would not go through it to lay the sewer lines any deeper. Daddy bought the tub so that we could continue using the sudssaver. Most of us have seen them in the Sears catalog. It was square, had wheels, a shelf just above the wheels to hold the legs together, and a cover
Thank you again and Happy 2019.
Leave it to Sears to make something complicated.
I’m really glad you asked this question when you did. Over the last few weeks I’ve been diving in 50’s Maytag service lit, and your memory about your aunt’s Highlander ended up in revealing something new to me.
For the model 123S, and oddly for the latter rebadged 100S, Maytag uses a one model only “system” for triggering the timing of the saving suds action, provided totally via mechanical means. The bean counter in me wonders how this trip lever system with a mercury switch was cost savings vs an extra cam in the timer and electrical switch, like the 142/700. This was totally new for me to learn today. Would love to see this in action!
I also discovered that the back side of all Highlander timer dials have the ecenrtic modeled into the plastic. Yet another way that Maytag saved $ with their supplier!
Service explanation:[this post was last edited: 1/21/2019-21:31]
I’m really glad you asked this question when you did. Over the last few weeks I’ve been diving in 50’s Maytag service lit, and your memory about your aunt’s Highlander ended up in revealing something new to me.
For the model 123S, and oddly for the latter rebadged 100S, Maytag uses a one model only “system” for triggering the timing of the saving suds action, provided totally via mechanical means. The bean counter in me wonders how this trip lever system with a mercury switch was cost savings vs an extra cam in the timer and electrical switch, like the 142/700. This was totally new for me to learn today. Would love to see this in action!
I also discovered that the back side of all Highlander timer dials have the ecenrtic modeled into the plastic. Yet another way that Maytag saved $ with their supplier!
Service explanation:[this post was last edited: 1/21/2019-21:31]
Timer dials - this example is from an A200S, which utilizes it own self canceling mechanism!
