POD 6/10/19 Pearl Bailey White-Westinghouse Ad

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maytagbear

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Were there more of these print ads? I only remember two, this one for the Laundromat and matching dryer, and an ad for room/window air conditioners.

The copy for the air conditioners was along the line of "why cool the whole house, if you're just sitting in the living room?"

I do love Pearl Bailey's music....there's a fun video at YouTube of Pearl and Dinah Shore tearing up "Mack The Knife."

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
As far as the Westinghouse front load washer of this vintage, it wasn't much. Didn't wash very well, didn't spin very well, didn't hold much. They were adequate at best. The one good thing about them, is that they had much less linting. Only turned in one direction, so things would roll up into a ball.
 
Great minds think alike!

Discovered that Bailey/Shore video on Youtube a few years ago and have played it to death!.

Miss. Bailey has a great strong voice, and her comic skills are A #1

"Death strikes again, but he's not dead yet"

"It's searching time.. down by the river don't you know".

"It's getting to high for me to sing, it's too high for you too"!
 
3 Belt Westinghouse FL Washers

When these came out in 1959 they were a huge breakthrough in performace for American FL Washers, only American combos washed any better with their huge 4+ cubic foot size drums.

 

The 3BWH FLWs had a 2 CF capacity and could easily wash 8-10 pairs of my jeans with NO TANGLING, I owned and rebuilt and used nearly 100 of these fun washers over the years, even used one as my only washer for over a year back in the 80s and performance was never a problem.

 

Cleaning was top notch for even really dirty clothing as was the lack of lint and any grit left in laundry, yes spin performance was a little worse than WP BD washer, but with a WP Gas dryer the cost and speed of turning out clean and dry loads of laundry was excellent.

 

Overall these are one of the best performing classic AWs from the 60s through the early 90s that you can own if you want a classic machine, performance wise these are certainly better than any MT, GE, or WCI TL washer built in the same time period.

 

 

Please note I did not say anything about reliability, LOL.

 
 
Pearl also

was in another magazine add for 70's Westy Kitchen appliances.
Let's Make a Deal from the 80's featured lot's of Gibson items, but that was about the time White Consolidated was going to sell to AB Electrolux.
I was going to invest in Electrolux back in the early new millennium, but I learned the Wallenberg family owned about 80% of the shares, so the return dividends were not very good.
 
We had the baskets out of a WH and a GE V-12 in the shop at the same time. They were almost the same size when you consider that the GE does not fill up all the way and has to have room for the agitator so the volumes were very similar. I am sure that the WH FLs could have been made better, but a lot of them went a long time on their original bearings. There was that run of bad seals in the 80s, I think, that caused a lot of early bearing failures, but most of the machines made it to the end of their expected 5 year life and could last longer with reasonable care to prevent rusting. WH gets points for persevering and keeping the production of front loaders going in this country. BTW: She made an ad for their ranges, also.

Were any front loaders produced in Canada or imported in the mid to latter part of the 20th century?

BTW:
 
I had one of these WH that we bought new in 1987. It was really one of the best washers I ever owned, and my favorite automatic washer. It was really fast, never any lint, large capacity (the dealer told me to pack it to the top), I could wash our kingsize down comforter in it with no problem. We owned it for 7 yrs., sold it with the house and the new owner used it for several more trouble free yrs. In fact it was one of the thing she especially liked when she looked at the home to buy it. I don't recall that the spin left too much water, in fact the dealer told us that it would spin better that a TL.
Eddie
 
for one thing, the front control models offered so many installation configurations than any other machine out there....

compact enough to fit in the same footprint as a washer alone, plus the stacking dryer on top......people could have the option to add both when space was an issue..

 
A 1987 Frigidaire-branded machine was my first front-loader and I loved it! I noticed that grimy short white socks were cleaner/whiter and that it handled large things like blankets, comforters and pillows well. I lowered the water level quite a bit and found it cleaned even better and wasn't so prone to oversudsing in softened water. Westinghouse--and subsequently, WCI--was the only game in town for quite awhile if you wanted a front-loader.

Having said all that, I agree with Bruce that new HE front-loaders are a great improvement over this vintage Westinghouse in nearly every respect: Reverse tumbling; capacity; spin speed (by orders of magnitude); water/energy usage; cleaning power, and as John mentioned, reliability.

Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for the old Westys. It sold me on the front-load format and made the cat jump every time the solenoid clanked loudly when it kicked into a spin. There was no balancing protocol, either. I remember seeing the machine levitate a few times when loads were badly unbalanced. Ah, nostalgia.

And place me firmly in the fan-of-Pearl Bailey column, as well.

frigilux++6-11-2016-08-57-6.jpg
 
To each his own I guess. I used several of these in the past in a commercial setting. They were quite good for smaller loads of dark colored items and left nearly no lint. They were bad about letting stuff like change or things in the pockets get under the tub and then you had to clean it all out periodically. I washed and starched jeans in them too, but NEVER 8-10 pair of them. The only way that many would fit in there and actually wash without completely rolling into a ball would be if they were child jeans no bigger than for a 10 year old. I used to wash no more than 6 pair of jeans in one. So that is absurd. They DID tangle with larger loads especially because they rotated in just one direction. To say that never happened is ridiculous and I can't imagine why anyone would. As far as a king size comforter washing in one, NO WAY that would be possible without tearing up the comforter and the machine unless it was tissue paper thin. The entire reason I bought the super capacity set I did was to wash a king size down filled comforter. This machine would NEVER have been able to do it. They were good for getting rid of lint and not creating any more, but were not all that great at getting really grimy clothes clean. They got rid of sand and sediment really well and had nearly no redeposition on clothing, but so say they were the best choice back then is simply not right. If they were so terrific why did Westinghouse design a top loading machine that replaced the larger capacity machines back then and make only the space savers ones? There were many better choices for cleaning and spinning out the water in clothes and more reliable machines than these. I never found them to be all that reliable, but then some will tell you how reliable the speed queen top loader is now too. Sorry, but some of the stuff that has been said on here is certainly not been my experience at all.[this post was last edited: 6/11/2016-11:23]
 
Well I can absolutely attest that you could wash a kingsize comforter in a 1987 Westinghouse FL, I did so several times. In fact we are still using that same comforter that we bought in 1983, and it is still almost like new, so it didn't get all torn up like Bruce above said it would have. This is not a lie! Granted, the tub was packed full, but the door shut without any difficulty. I used this machine just how the dealer we bought it from told us to. He said pack it full and I did. Once the tub started to fill with water the comforter compressed down and there was adequete movement for thorough cleaning to take place.
Now when it would go into a spin with a load like this there would sometimes be some jumping like Eugene described in his post above. I would stop the machine, rearrange the load and we were off to the races again. And in the 7 yrs we used that machine there was never one service call. Once the soleniod got stuck and made a loud noise. I just shut off the machine and restarted it, all was OK.
Someone that used a machine like this day in and day out for 7 yrs. in my opinion has a better knowledge of just how they worked than someone that used them in a commercial setting.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 6/11/2016-15:29]
 
Oh, I agree Eddie.....when I had one, basically nothing you couldn't wash in there....

comforters(yes, king size), pillows, stuffed animals, dog beds, sneakers, chair cushions.....just about anything you could not wash in a TLer, you could in one of these....

our dealer only recommendation was to wash similar items together, like all towel, or 10 pairs of jeans...there was minimal tangling, if any....full loads washed best...but nice to know you could wash one item with minimal attention....not to mention water and detergent savings!

the "weigh to save" feature was unique.....but found if you left the water level set to LOW, it added enough water for any size load....

the only down side to the front control version was no dispensers.....and you couldn't exactly use a Downy ball....
 
I'm not very familiar with Pearl Bailey's music, although I am interested because of one song: "Five Pound Box of Money", which is a Christmas-themed song. Enjoy Christmas in June:

 
My Mom had a Pearl Bailey album that must have been from around 1961 or 62 and one of the songs I particularly remember was titled "Legalize My Name". It was a hoot! It started out, "All you wanna do is bill and coo, but you're never ready when the bill is due", but I can't remember much more of the lyrics. I used to play this album when I would be home by myself. Check out the You Tube link.

Thanks Martin for the validation! What I really liked about this WH FL was that it always did what it was supposed to do. When it was time to spin it didn't hunt around for a "sweet" spot, then eventually decide it couldn't find one, it spun damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. So if I knew that I was washing a heavy load I stayed around and kept an eye on it. As far as the lack of dispensers that wasn't a problem for me at the time. I didn't use liquid fabric softener then, and just put the detergent in machine before loading. And if I was using bleach I just added it to the tub before the clothes, no problem since I only use LBC with whites anyway.

Granted, the newer FL's have many improvements, but I prefer the simplicity of these old school Westies. Actually, my Aunt Imogene's 53' slant front was what made me a lifelong fan of washers. In the 1950's it was almost like watching TV for a kid, at least for me it was. I still think that the 53' slant front Westie is the most beautiful washer ever made, mostly due to it's pristine simplicity. Thats why I bought the WH FL in 1987, because of the memory of that 53' slant front, And thats why I have always liked FL's better than TL's.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 6/11/2016-16:30]

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Westhinghouse FL Washers

Hi Eddie, and Martin, thanks for all the memories of these fun and effective washers.

 

First of all new FL washers are vastly refined machines compared to these older WH [and Bendix for matter] FL washers.

But I totally agree Eddie with these WH FLers there was no fooling around waiting for it to do what it was supposed to do, I couldn't begin to estimate all the time I have wasted waiting and watching modern FL washers trying to get them to do something so I could diagnose what was wrong with them. Even though these WH FL washers were not the most reliable washers by a long shot they were easy to diagnose and repair.

 

In 1993 I worked with a developer who took a 1982 apartment building in NW Washington DC and he converted the apartments to Condos and was selling them. We fixed [ where necessary ] every single orignal appliance in that building [ 167 apartments ] they all had an almond WH stack pair, electric dryer. The kitchens had a GE SXS with Ice&Water disp, GE GSD1200 DW, GE wall-oven with attached MW above. We not only fixed every single already 11 year old appliance, but had to give the new owners a one year warranty on all the appliances and we did all that for a little over $25,000.

 

Back to the 3 belt WH washers, first of all, all WH FL washers from 1959-1994 have the same tub capacity. They are around 2 CF capacity and yes I usually washed 8-10 pairs of my jeans in it, yes as many of you know I am not a really heavy guy, but what I lack in girth I make up for in length [ jean size W32 I36 ] so they still take up a lot of room.

 

These washers do not tangle to any appreciable degree, whether a FL washer tangles has little to do with whether it reverses or not during the cycle. It has more to do with the tub design and if it tilts it is very likley to tangle whether it reverses or not, MT Neptunes and WP slanted tub Duets both have some problems with tangling, and none of my old classic combos tangle at all even none of them reverse tumble.
 

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