POD 8-16-15 Bendix Duomatic

[tomturbomatic]

It would be sort of sad to read the text about how much more water the Duomatic extracts compared to other combos if it were not for the fact that Bendix/AVCO tied up so many patents for not only the suspended mechanism in a combo, but even just the idea of one. Every manufacturer paid a royalty to Bendix/AVCO on every single combo that was manufactured. Most people reading the ads and spec sheets had no idea about the poor water extraction of other combos, but because of that and other factors, Bendix/AVCO poisoned the well for what could have been the most marvelous laundry appliance ever invented. If Bendix/AVCO were so serious about their better water extraction, every dealer should have been furnished with one competitor's combo. They should have let people wring the water out of a piece of fabric spun in the other brand's combo, then do the same with fabric from the Duomatic. Then they should have had a chart showing the spin speeds of all the combos compared to the Bendix. That would be the only way that their advantage could be made real for potential buyers. Bendix/AVCO also needed a better sales network. I know that every invention is protected by patents, but that patent for the suspension so crippled competition that the ability for everyone to work on the concept and come up with new ideas and better machines was as doomed as a human being born with half a heart. It also seems that the patent law stifled competition in this case.

 

[frigilux]

I'm sure the guys in legal at Bendix/AVCO were passing around the cigars, bourbon, and bonus checks when they cornered the market on suspension systems for combos. Pretty smart, really---at least in the short run. That's how capitalism works, kids; can't fault them for being greedy.

 

[tomturbomatic]

At least in the short run

That is a major part of the problem with the world today; short term thinking.

 

[jetcone]

I think the

Combo patents were around 1949, gotta check that to be sure. But GE kept going till 1970. The really sad part is that they were all  patent free by then and it was just 5 years to the Condo Boom across the country! If the Combos had made it to the Condo Boom they would have sailed along and sold like hot cakes to today.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Whirlpool was the only corporation financially able to do a redesign of their combo and that was because of the money that came from Sears' sales of combos. John's brother Jerry counted the parts in the 29" machine and the total was 1600, the same as in a VW beetle, a fact Jerry also knew. The condo boom kept Westinghouse Space Mates in production, but I'm not sure it would have worked for combos and in the 70s, we were caught up in the capacity wars for bigger and bigger capacity machines. I think that by then, builders were afraid of using them as they existed and there was no movement among the corporations that had lost so much money on combos to start over redesigning new machines and trying once again to sell the public on new combos when too many memories remained of unsatisfactory performance. Many former owners would have bought another if they had been available, but they were a minority of a minority. AVCO signed the birth certificate and the death certificate for combos. Their machines were good performers, but the reputation of the whole class of machines, along with what Philco did to the Duomatic, caused too much dissatisfaction and disappointment, both functionally and financially, for them to continue to be made.