polkanut
Well-known member
I sure wouldn't mind finding a nice combo like the one in the POD under my tree. Santa, please make mine an electric version though.
POD 12/24, RCA Whirlpool combo
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1958 RCA WHIRLPOOL GAS COMBO
Thanks to Robert Seger we have the exact RCA WP gas combo in our collection. The gas versions were much faster drying than the electrics due to having a 37,000 BTU gas burner and as the ad mentioned this was the only gas combo that would actually boost and or heat the water with gas as the heat source. Actually with the electric ignition and the low water use of this machine I may ask our local utility company for an Energy-Star rebate when we hook it up.
Thanks to Robert Seger we have the exact RCA WP gas combo in our collection. The gas versions were much faster drying than the electrics due to having a 37,000 BTU gas burner and as the ad mentioned this was the only gas combo that would actually boost and or heat the water with gas as the heat source. Actually with the electric ignition and the low water use of this machine I may ask our local utility company for an Energy-Star rebate when we hook it up.
The 37K gas drying 33" combo
You want to make sure you have it on a concrete or stone floor though. The heat from the 37K burner left nasty charred wood underneath the burner cone. All of that heat next to the empty porcelain tank or outer tub tended to destroy the porcelain at and below the water line, causing it to crack then flake off the steel letting the tank rust out. Whirlpool did not offer the Kenmore option in the TOL electric model of having them connected to 50 amp service which considerably speeded up the drying, however the electrical wattage fell short of the almost 11,000 watts (10,843.6 to be exact) it would take to equal 37K BTUs of heat from the burner. In thinking about that amount of energy, consider that most one and two bedroom apartments with resistance electric heat have two 5KW strips of heat in the air handler.
Take one more look at where the Stewarts installed their combo. Floor length sheers next to it? Maybe someone was trying to dress up a utility room or breezeway to the garage. People with the Stewarts' money would not have this very noisy machine in their living quarters. With these machines it is not just a question of increased noise while spinning like with most front loaders and the Bendix Duomatic. Everything in this machine is mounted to the base and all the while the motor is running all of its noise as well as the noise from the speed changer assembly, the blower (which ran during the whole cycle in the gas models) and the periodic thud when the load happens to fall as a lump to the bottom of the cylinder is heard and felt for quite a distance. While the 29" combos were very much refined over the first design, this was still noticeable when I had mine in the kitchen on a concreete floor, especially when the sudden thud punctuated the usual sounds.
You want to make sure you have it on a concrete or stone floor though. The heat from the 37K burner left nasty charred wood underneath the burner cone. All of that heat next to the empty porcelain tank or outer tub tended to destroy the porcelain at and below the water line, causing it to crack then flake off the steel letting the tank rust out. Whirlpool did not offer the Kenmore option in the TOL electric model of having them connected to 50 amp service which considerably speeded up the drying, however the electrical wattage fell short of the almost 11,000 watts (10,843.6 to be exact) it would take to equal 37K BTUs of heat from the burner. In thinking about that amount of energy, consider that most one and two bedroom apartments with resistance electric heat have two 5KW strips of heat in the air handler.
Take one more look at where the Stewarts installed their combo. Floor length sheers next to it? Maybe someone was trying to dress up a utility room or breezeway to the garage. People with the Stewarts' money would not have this very noisy machine in their living quarters. With these machines it is not just a question of increased noise while spinning like with most front loaders and the Bendix Duomatic. Everything in this machine is mounted to the base and all the while the motor is running all of its noise as well as the noise from the speed changer assembly, the blower (which ran during the whole cycle in the gas models) and the periodic thud when the load happens to fall as a lump to the bottom of the cylinder is heard and felt for quite a distance. While the 29" combos were very much refined over the first design, this was still noticeable when I had mine in the kitchen on a concreete floor, especially when the sudden thud punctuated the usual sounds.
I notice that the Stewarts were wearing mostly dry-clean-only clothes. So maybe they did not make as much laundry and the combo would be enough. I imagine for a family, not being able to wash and dry at the same time would make for a long washday.
cfz2882
Well-known member
drug home and stripped one of these(i think it was a '61)in
1979-lady who gave it to me said it would not spin,the cable
from the little gearmotor to the varible sheave was broken...
machine was otherwize in good shape,electric heat version BTW
Would love to have this today...
1979-lady who gave it to me said it would not spin,the cable
from the little gearmotor to the varible sheave was broken...
machine was otherwize in good shape,electric heat version BTW
Would love to have this today...
The Stewarts had sons so they had laundry. What is not known is how long they kept a combo or if it was in the pool house and if there was a separate washer and dryer in the house. This stuff with movie stars was so fake. One of the shelter mags did an article on the Long Island home of the Arthur Murrays. They talked about having the children and grandchildren come to swim and how the (RCA Whirlpool) combination washer-dryer handled the resulting laundry so well. This was under a picture of one of the daughters in front of the machine, pouring a whole measuring cup of TIDE as if she was going to add it to the load. Probably nobody but the housekeeper really used that machine. You are right that the nice clothes were probably sent out, maybe the sheets, too, but that picture with the TIDE was the fakest of posed pictures I have seen. Of course, it was not an ad since WP would never allow that product to be shown with a combo, but still some home equipment editor really fell on her ass not to catch that. And don't forget that clip we saw of Bette Davis entertaining and loading dishes into her GE dishwasher. Like that happened every day.
With a combo you did not wait to do it all in one day. Doing a load or two a day was a way to keep up and light weight fabrics like sheets and shirts did not take long to dry. From the very first Duomatic owner's manual it was stressed to spread the laundry out to a daily instead of weekly task since it did not need as much attention.
With a combo you did not wait to do it all in one day. Doing a load or two a day was a way to keep up and light weight fabrics like sheets and shirts did not take long to dry. From the very first Duomatic owner's manual it was stressed to spread the laundry out to a daily instead of weekly task since it did not need as much attention.
One thing I wonder is what would have happened if Whirlpool made a washer-only version of their "Combo". We would have had something like a Duet a long time ago.
laundromat
Well-known member
We did 3 loads a day. Every day.We used Dash or All, Final Touch and Clorox bleach.Sometimes we'd get Staypuff softener but it was real diluted and pink.
Whirlpool did make a washer only version based on their design for the combo for their coin laundries. It was called a "Whirlpool Wash-a-Lot". Google Whirlpool Poly Clean Center and you might find a mention of it. They also used the design of their combination for their coin-op dry cleaner. Nobody was looking for a tumbler washer at that time. Consumer testing magazines had so poisoned the waters for tumbler washers that Philco and Westinghouse barely managed to hold a tiny market share. People who used and owned them loved them, but their reputation to the population at large was one of poor cleaning ability and, especially in the case of Westinghouse, not so reliable machines. As you have read, Philco sold the commercial laundry line to Dexter. They stopped making combos in the late 60s. I do not know when they ceased making tumbler washers, but soon it was only the Westinghouse machine and that was kept in production largely because of the apartment and condo construction and the replacement market for the stacked Space Mates in apartments and condos. Once the energy conservation folks started talking front loaders, the market for them began to increase, but there was not a market for a Duet type machine in the late 50s.
What could have made a market for tumbler washers and maybe helped washer-dryer combinations take a huge share of the laundry equipment market is if Whirlpool had bought Bendix when AVCO sold it. Philco got it instead, but if WP had bought it, Sears could have had tumbler washers and the only washer-dryer design that was really successful because of the patents on the Duomatic. Philco never had much market share and certainly not like Sears. Whirlpool never had the market share that Sears did, but they made their money selling to Sears. The selling volume of Sears was the reason that Whirlpool could invest money in the redesign of the combo. It's for damn sure they were not investing money in redesigning the top loader.
What could have made a market for tumbler washers and maybe helped washer-dryer combinations take a huge share of the laundry equipment market is if Whirlpool had bought Bendix when AVCO sold it. Philco got it instead, but if WP had bought it, Sears could have had tumbler washers and the only washer-dryer design that was really successful because of the patents on the Duomatic. Philco never had much market share and certainly not like Sears. Whirlpool never had the market share that Sears did, but they made their money selling to Sears. The selling volume of Sears was the reason that Whirlpool could invest money in the redesign of the combo. It's for damn sure they were not investing money in redesigning the top loader.
People who used and owned them loved them,
When I moved here in 1986, there was a tech support guy that worked down the way from me. he found out I loved appliances. I found out they had a Westinghouse front loader. It was one of the ones that had the side-swing door. So you can imagine what the age of the machine was. His wife loved it. Her mom had had nothing but front loadders ever since she had an automatic washer and I assume they were all Westinghouse machines. Anyway, Dan had nursed this thing along for several years with the help of parts from the loacl repair place. But it finally succumbed to being badly rusted. the door hinges were the worst. Much to their chagrin, this was in the period after WCI ceased producing the Westinghouse design and there were no more new ones on the market. We all later found out the design for the Fridgemore was being worked on by Elux. So grudingly Dan had to go buy a Shredmore. They hated it, but there wasn't anything else of a front loader to choose from. And the Fridgemores and Neptunes arrived on the scene before I was laid off in spring of 1997. The Fridgemore & Neppies were just too expensive for them at the time. I"ve often wondered if his wife ever got one of the new frontloaders. Dan died of prostate cancer probably about 6 years later.
When I moved here in 1986, there was a tech support guy that worked down the way from me. he found out I loved appliances. I found out they had a Westinghouse front loader. It was one of the ones that had the side-swing door. So you can imagine what the age of the machine was. His wife loved it. Her mom had had nothing but front loadders ever since she had an automatic washer and I assume they were all Westinghouse machines. Anyway, Dan had nursed this thing along for several years with the help of parts from the loacl repair place. But it finally succumbed to being badly rusted. the door hinges were the worst. Much to their chagrin, this was in the period after WCI ceased producing the Westinghouse design and there were no more new ones on the market. We all later found out the design for the Fridgemore was being worked on by Elux. So grudingly Dan had to go buy a Shredmore. They hated it, but there wasn't anything else of a front loader to choose from. And the Fridgemores and Neptunes arrived on the scene before I was laid off in spring of 1997. The Fridgemore & Neppies were just too expensive for them at the time. I"ve often wondered if his wife ever got one of the new frontloaders. Dan died of prostate cancer probably about 6 years later.
launderess
Well-known member
"Washes Clothes *With* Water, Not In Water"
Lucy, 'splain! *LOL*!
Lucy, 'splain! *LOL*!
"With water" that is sprayed onto and into and through the tumbling clothes. The bottom of the cylinder was above the top of the three gallons of water in the base of the tank so the tumbling clothes fell into the wash stream, but the water immediately drained down through the holes in the cylinder into the pool below giving the wash action of the water hitting the clothes, but providing no cushioning to the impact when they hit the bottom of the cylinder when they fell so never "in water." WP also made reference to never sloshing around in linty water. Lint was a big buzz word in laundry advertising from the mid 50s. If you did not have a lint filter, you were SOL, unless you were Maytag with 926 Lint Remover Holes in the Lint Remover Tub or Bendix with the Big Filter Drum in the 1956 Duomatic. In the WP combination, the water went through a lint filter before being sprayed so the clothes were not washed or rinsed in linty water or even with linty water.
Interesting Reading Here...
I just wish that WP would take the knowledge and engineering of the past and add it to the engineering of today to come up with a combo.
I would love to have a modern, huge gas WP combo today!
We all know they could do it!
Dang them!
Brent
I just wish that WP would take the knowledge and engineering of the past and add it to the engineering of today to come up with a combo.
I would love to have a modern, huge gas WP combo today!
We all know they could do it!
Dang them!
Brent
would love to have a modern, huge gas WP combo today!
Or an electric one that's 220v.
Or an electric one that's 220v.
hilovane
Well-known member
I wonder how feasable the "Filter-Stream" principle would be today; I would have to believe that even with today's reverse-action tumblers, there has to be a way that a continuous spray could work.
Hey everybody, it's Bing Crosby!
Bub bub bub bah booo.....
Bub bub bub bah booo.....
So when he was not beating his sons and driving two to suicide, he was hawking Duomatics. Note the American Kitchens cabinets. Again I wonder whether a home such as he would have would feature a laundry appliance in that setting.
He was peddling Philcos since the late '40s, and Oldsmobiles by 1959. He may have owned such an appliance, but probably in a less showy setting. No doubt left the boys or their housekeeper to run it.
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