I wondered about the origins of this machine for a long time. I managed to purchase the service manual. When I showed it to Jeff, we decided that the tranny and other things about it looked very much like a Bendix. We think that Norge had Bendix build this for them because it is like a big bolt down Automatic Home Laundry. When it was introduced, it was outdated technology compared to other automatics coming on the market, but its capacity would not be matched for many years.
POD 07/28/2010 NORGE FRONTLOADER
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gmmcnair
Well-known member
My Grandmother Had One....
...long before I was born. She only kept it a few months because she hated that washer...loved the capacity but dripping wet clothes after the spin and it had a nasty tendency to dribble water around the door seal. She still won't consider a front loading washer to this very day and it stemmed from that Norge. She replaced it with a Philco, then went to Frigidaire, and kept with Frigidaire until the WCI design came into being.
...long before I was born. She only kept it a few months because she hated that washer...loved the capacity but dripping wet clothes after the spin and it had a nasty tendency to dribble water around the door seal. She still won't consider a front loading washer to this very day and it stemmed from that Norge. She replaced it with a Philco, then went to Frigidaire, and kept with Frigidaire until the WCI design came into being.
Thanks, Mike. Yours is the first account of an actual owner's opinion of the machine. Consumer Reports did not like the poor water extraction either. It spun about as well as some combos which also left enough water in the fabrics to cause dripping if they were put on the line to dry.
amyswasher
Well-known member
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- May 25, 2009
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- 477
What year did was this washer introduced?
mrcleanjeans
New member
Wonder if you could rig it to spin faster? Looks great in all other respects. The two ft. drop of clothes plus today's detergents should do a magnificant job IF the spin was faster!
After looking at the mechanicals
TOm, I would have to agree it is a rebadged Bendix. Based on their first bolt down machine 1938! Several things catch my eye, when this came out the Tumble-Drain was a patented item of Bendix , no one could use that w/o paying rights 2) the rolled fins in the tub very early bendix, 3) the water valve is a bendix valve, 4) the timer is a bendix early timer and is even sequenced the same.
I wonder if Bendix was experimenting with a large tub bolt down but abandoned it and then sold the idea to Norge??
TOm, I would have to agree it is a rebadged Bendix. Based on their first bolt down machine 1938! Several things catch my eye, when this came out the Tumble-Drain was a patented item of Bendix , no one could use that w/o paying rights 2) the rolled fins in the tub very early bendix, 3) the water valve is a bendix valve, 4) the timer is a bendix early timer and is even sequenced the same.
I wonder if Bendix was experimenting with a large tub bolt down but abandoned it and then sold the idea to Norge??
What year did was this washer introduced?
About 1949-1950. Notice how the transmission is 100% Bendix as well.
About 1949-1950. Notice how the transmission is 100% Bendix as well.
Tumble Drain
Jon, it hardly seems fair to patent something like that when the machine only had one motor and the motor had to run to operate the pump so there was no way to have it drain without having the machine tumble. I wonder if Westinghouse got around that by having their pump operate intermittently via a solenoid whereas Bendix used a continuously operating pump with a solenoid-controlled drain valve? Westinghouse certainly decided not to pay Bendix to have the spin in between the 2nd and 3rd rinse.
When I read about the 2 foot plunge into the suds, I was reminded of the same terminology used for the Duomatics and their 2 foot diameter Filter Drum in some ads.
That water-tight plug in the soap chute was certainly a Norge exclusive.
Speaking of the tranny: If they did not already have the Bendix-designed tranny, they could have saved a lot of manufacturing cost by using the variable-sheave pulley system that was used in so many combos as the speed-changing mechanism since the Norge shared that low spin speed, but simple as it was, maybe that was still in the future for domestic appliance application.
Jon, it hardly seems fair to patent something like that when the machine only had one motor and the motor had to run to operate the pump so there was no way to have it drain without having the machine tumble. I wonder if Westinghouse got around that by having their pump operate intermittently via a solenoid whereas Bendix used a continuously operating pump with a solenoid-controlled drain valve? Westinghouse certainly decided not to pay Bendix to have the spin in between the 2nd and 3rd rinse.
When I read about the 2 foot plunge into the suds, I was reminded of the same terminology used for the Duomatics and their 2 foot diameter Filter Drum in some ads.
That water-tight plug in the soap chute was certainly a Norge exclusive.
Speaking of the tranny: If they did not already have the Bendix-designed tranny, they could have saved a lot of manufacturing cost by using the variable-sheave pulley system that was used in so many combos as the speed-changing mechanism since the Norge shared that low spin speed, but simple as it was, maybe that was still in the future for domestic appliance application.
golittlesport
Well-known member
very interesting
I wonder if Norge had Bendix build these for them while they developed their own top-load design that would be introduced in a year or two. They probably wanted to get their foot in the door of the automatic washer market that was exploding after the war.
Sort of like how Westinghouse had Easy build them top load agitator washers for a year or two while they engineered their own agitator design.
I wonder how much that 18-pound dry load of laundry weighed coming out of the Norge dripping wet!?
I wonder if Norge had Bendix build these for them while they developed their own top-load design that would be introduced in a year or two. They probably wanted to get their foot in the door of the automatic washer market that was exploding after the war.
Sort of like how Westinghouse had Easy build them top load agitator washers for a year or two while they engineered their own agitator design.
I wonder how much that 18-pound dry load of laundry weighed coming out of the Norge dripping wet!?
Rich, it would probably bring on pre-term labor if lifted all at once, or at least a hernia.
Tom
I have the annual business report for Bendix 1939, Westinghouse paid then in 1938 $125,000 for the rights to use the flush drain under the Bendix patents. In todays dollars depending on how you compute that its between $2-$8 millon!!
I don't know about the spins between rinses that was not mentioned.
www.measuringworth.com
I have the annual business report for Bendix 1939, Westinghouse paid then in 1938 $125,000 for the rights to use the flush drain under the Bendix patents. In todays dollars depending on how you compute that its between $2-$8 millon!!
I don't know about the spins between rinses that was not mentioned.
Measuring Worth - Relative Value of the US Dollar.
FLUSH DRAIN
Jon, by "Flush Drain" do you mean the one minute spray rinse otherwise known as the assured rinse? I misunderstood you in your earlier post and thought the term meant tumbling while draining. Sorry. I think I remember that the earliest Bendix and WH machines used two spray rinses, one on either side of the one deep rinse, then changed their cycling.
Jon, by "Flush Drain" do you mean the one minute spray rinse otherwise known as the assured rinse? I misunderstood you in your earlier post and thought the term meant tumbling while draining. Sorry. I think I remember that the earliest Bendix and WH machines used two spray rinses, one on either side of the one deep rinse, then changed their cycling.
