POD, 1/28/11 Maytag Fabric Matic

[tomturbomatic]

Don't you love the promises about the big tub washing big loads? Lots of people thought it would and then found out it sorta washed about as much as a standard capacity WP, certainly not as much as a Super Capacity WP.

Maytag was on to something with the Fabric Matic for delicates. After the fill, there was a brief period of agravation at the regular speed since it was a one speed machine. Then it soaked for a period, then a bit more agravation then drain with a brief spin followed by the rinse. It was a way to give fabrics a longer period of time in the detergent solution without subjecting them to agitation and, I guess, proved that modifying timers was cheaper than two speed motors. The brief periods of agitation got the fabrics under water and forced the water through them to make the soaking process more effective. As CU found out in the early 70s, the Power Fin agitator was not to be trusted with open weave casement-type fabrics at the single speed, but for other delicates, it was probably safe. Of course, for about the same money or maybe less, you could have a two speed Kenmore or other brand.

In her late 80s, when my mother could still walk with a walker, I called her style of walking Fabric Matic. She would take a few steps, pause, then take a few more.

 

[bajaespuma]

My Sister polled me extensively before buying appliances for her first kitchen, 20 years ago and then, just like her Mother before her, low-balled on everything so instead of getting the 606 she ended up with a Fabric-Matic that ended up giving her good service although she totally misunderstood the concept. Where she really f**ked up was she should have gotten the classic GE double oven with the Meat Thermometer and the Rotisserie and the two self-cleaning ovens and got the MOL with one and one and, IMHO it was a "lose-lose".

 

I think the Fabric-Matic was a good idea but I also think that when Maytag switched to the gold-paneled Center-dials it heralded the beginning of the end for tags. The only good thing that came out of that change were the new dryers that worked better than the HOH's and certainly featured more capacity for that fer-cocked 28-inch cabinet.

 

[DADoES]

 

I recall a brief discussion some years ago with a couple long-time friends while at a haircut appointment.  Something cane up about washing machines.  Linda mentioned she tried a Maytag and would NEVER make that mistake again.  She wanted a machine with a delicate cycle that could handle her knit tops and sweaters (like the previous Whirlpool had done successfully).  The salesman assured her this Maytag model fit the bill.  Nope, said Linda.  The delicates were immediately ruined, twisted and stretched.  She found out it wasn't a two speed machine and insisted the dealer take it back.  Her advice:  ALWAYS make sure it's a REAL TWO-SPEED machine.

 

[tomturbomatic]

If you will remember the buttons on the all push button Maytags, the only cycles on which you could select a partial fill were the two cottons cycles. Delicates, Wash'n Wear/Permanent Press and Woolens all used a full tub of water and that was with a 2 speed motor. I would imagine that it was easy to ruin delicates in the Fabarbaric Matic if you used less than the Large water level for a half load of laundry. If they were doing so much with the timer to compensate for the lack of a two speed motor, they should have made it so that the Delicate cycle only worked with the Large and Extra Large water levels. Promoting a single speed machine seems a stupid move to make for a company that, in the 50s, ran two page magazine ads for how well their washer handled woolens with cold water and their gentle speed, but then it was not the same company in the 70s; the cars full of screaming riders had already gone over that first drop. Lots of frightening management decisions lay ahead.

 

[appnut]

Another POD with Fabric Matic...

heralding in the advent of Maytag con-op washer with the ability to handle all your washables, including delicates and woolens.  When I was a freshman at a dorm in 1973-1974, my floor laundry rooms had the very same washer--all the way down to the avocado color.  Remember, this was still the age of polyester and double knits.  You can imagine my horror the first time I put said type of load in the machine on delicates and rgular agitation.  I nervously cringed through those 2 or 4 timer increments of aggravation inbetween the soak/pauses.  I waws very careful after that initial bout of laundry how I washed those fabrics again in the Maytag.  But here's what totally turned me off to Maytags in the future for when I had to buy my own set.  That very said laundry room set of 'Tags did another number on some other stuff.  Mind you, being a college student, the parents provided for only a "reasonable " set of towels and undies.  That, between gifts and their purchases, ended up with about 2-3 weeks worth of tidy whites (don't think I was wearing undershirts back then) and about 7 bath towels, wash cloths, as well as 2 or 3 hand towels.  Mind you, all the towels, except for one, were std. size--what 24" x 48".  Two of those towels & wash clothes went in with the whites.  The rest of the towels were their own other load.  I had one of the two essentially white towels and one of the dark towels, in their respective loads, have a nice big hole ripped in them because they got caught in the fins of the power-fin agitator (as in inbetween the agitator base (skirt??) and one of the fins.  And these were not crowded loads in those std. capacity machines _trust me I saw many a load that would choke a horse stuffed in them).  To say I was pissed was an understatement, doing that to two of my brand new towels.  I still have one of those towels today, it's been used for car washes and cleaning rag all these year.  Thus, I never wanted a Maytag.  And those commercial HOH dryers were very hot also. 

 

Tom, I'm suree you've seen a user manual for one of these FMs.  For delicates, woolens, and knits, it instructed the owner to use no less than the large water level on the ex-cap machines and to not fill it more than about 1/2 full of fabrics when using the "delicate" cycle and the fullest water level on said load.

 

[rp2813]

", , , there was a brief period of agravation . . ."

That almost sounds more like a Norge description.  Except for the "brief" part.  :-D

 

[appnut]

I have to admit, every time I see this POD, I wonder, why did they limit the $25 rebate to only the A308?  Was iut simply because they had such a huge stockpile of this model vs. the even cousin A408 that was larger and had a bleach "dispenser" as well as push buttons for the fabrics vs. just simply the dial (and the 30 minute soak cycle) and these weren't selling?

 

[maytagbear]

I never knew

 

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">I never KNEW, never imagined that there were ever so many Maytag haters here.</span>

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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">In my 18 years with my A208, I never, ever had fabric damage.  Nor in the 14 years I have had my current LAT9806.</span>

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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">I never knew.</span>

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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">Lawrence/Maytagbear</span>

 

[toploader55]

Hmmm...

Between the Tension Building Turquoise Maytag Thread and This Maytag Thread seems like the Planets are Out of Whack.

Venus is Spin Dry and Mars is in Final Rinse.

 

[rp2813]

I think there are far more Maytag owners, current and former, who will tell you they've never had a problem with their machines ruining anything or developing mechanical issues.  Far, far more than the dissenters here, who definitely do  have valid complaints that I respect.    By now, most people know how I feel about Norge washers, but those machines have a fiercely loyal following.   Both makes have characteristics that some people find appealing, while others would not.  It seems to me that the dissing of the subject machine stems from Maytag's attempt to pass off a one-speed machine as having two-speed capabilites.

 

I had the same vintage dorm machines as Bob, also in avocado but they never wrecked any of my laundry.  I had to create my own perm press cycle by opening the lid about 1/3 of the way through draining the wash water and filling an old percolator shell at the sink with cold water to dump into the tub for a "cool down" process.  They were seriously basic machines, and I had left behind my mom's new Kenmore, one of those off-beat '75 models with the gold and rust dial color scheme, maybe the first model down from the LK.

 

I will also add that the best, quietest, most efficient, easiest to use dryer I've ever owned was a mid-70's electronic control DG806.  CR always gave the HOH dryers a low rating compared to their consistent top-rating of the washers back in those days, but no dryer I've used before or since made me smile like that little HOH job.

 

[westingman123]

OMG, Eddie between you and Steve I'm gonna laugh myself to death tonight. Venus and Mars, indeed. My laundry room is a nice integrated neighborhood, the Maytags and Whirlpools and Westys gossip amongst themselves; about me, I suspect!

Let's face it, we all love machines. Everyone has a preference, some STRONG preferences, but in the end, isn't it the love of the machine that we share?

Keith

 

[tomturbomatic]

I don't hate Maytags, indeed, I have a couple in the lineup, but I am well aware of their shortcomings. No machine is perfect. Nothing in the physical world is perfect. Even if the instruction book for the 308 gave instructions about the water level for the "Delicate" cycle, the instruction book was often not read completely by new owners and if anyone but the one who read the instructions were to use this cycle and do the logical thing of either filling the tub more than half full with delicates or using a lower water level for a smaller load, fabric damage could result.

Sears was smarter on their one speed machines with more than one cycle. They labeled the other one "Short" with reduced agitation and spin periods, but no true automatic conditions for delicate fabrics.

For gentler action, I pull the Power Fin agitator out of my Maytags and use one of the short finned Orbital Tranny agitators on slow speed for dress shirts.

 

[combo52]

A308 MAYTAGS

The reason that MT just offered the rebate on the A308 was they were trying to prove that MTs weren't as over priced as many people assumed. After CRs rated the WP LAA5800 a best buy in 1975, MT was under a lot of pressure to keep prices down. In fact our sales rep told us that the MT company no longer wanted us to display the 806 pair on the floor, because when people were considering STEPPING UP to MT they often would ask for the price of the TOL pair. Then when they compared the total price to the pair price of TOL GEs or LKMs they often decided that MT was too expensive and bought some thing else. Growing up with 11 sets of aunts and uncles scattered around Pennsylvania and Maryland all of whom were well educated not one of them ever had a MT laundry appliance, I fact I barely ever saw a MT washer or dryer till I went to work for MT in 1973. MT was much more of a lower middle class product that people aspired to own when they got a little money under thier belt, a little like the sort of people that bought Cadillacs. I don't hate MTs and we have more than 18 MT built washers & dryers in the Museum dating from the 1950s -2004. But because of the just average performance and the fact that I can so easily repair appliances that MTs best feature [ its reliably ] I have never kept one in my home laundry room very long. IF you didn't see it already see the last post on 1979 MTS by Edward repair-man as he obviously has a lot of experience with MTs and other popular brands of washers.