POD 9/7/2017

[brucelucenta]

A last ditch effort of Westinghouse to pretty up and sell a big, heavy, oversized old time front load washer & matching dryer to the public before finally introducing their own top load machine and forever changing their laundry equipment line up. I have personally never cared for these machines and other than the obvious talent of disposing of sediment extremely well, I don't think they did a very good job and took up far too much space considering the small amount of clothes they washed. They were also problematic, but were adequate for the time period and had their own place in automatic washer history. I remember a neighbor of ours back in the 60's who had a set of these until she & her husband replaced them with Kenmore's. She used to say, "you can be sure if it's Westinghouse that is will spend more time broken than working". [this post was last edited: 9/7/2017-08:32]

 

[turquoisedude]

I have wonder if Westinghouse got in hot water with that line about 'live water washing action'....  Frigidaire was probably less than amused!

 

Performance issues aside, this series of Laundromat & matching dryer were extremely stylish.  

 

[frigilux]

The wash period on these machines was too short to clean really heavily-stained loads well using tumble action. However, increasing the wash time would have exacerbated the tangling issue caused by continuous single-direction tumbling.

I had 1986 (or was it '87) Frigidaire, the last of the solenoid clanking, continuous tumbling machines. I'd spend 10 minutes detangling a load of kitchen whites only to find stains at the center of the knot were still there.

The other issue that compromised cleaning: People using standard, high-sudsing detergents often had to lower dosages to minuscule amounts to avoid over-sudsing---especially in soft water.

They didn't spin very fast, either.

Having said all that, I loved my Frigidaire. It was the beginning of my dedication to the front-load format. The best of today's HE front-loaders are the gold standard for laundry as far as I'm concerned.

I've adjusted to the SQ toploader after about six weeks of use. It's a fine washer and does a good job...but I'm not gonna lie; I miss my 2015 Maytag 8100 pair!

 

[wft2800]

Frigilux, what did those Frigidaire front-loaders look like? I had no idea the American market was making them at the time.

 

[frigilux]

The consoles of Frigidaire front-loaders from the mid 1980s looked like those of their top-loading counterparts. The machine itself was a clone of the Westinghouse/WCI washers. Frigidaire sold them for only a few years.

I can't remember if the little compartment on top of the washer dispensed both bleach and fabric softener or just fabric softener.

 

[appnut]

Eugene, I believe that was a bleach dispenser. 

 

[frigilux]

Thanks, Bob! I couldn't recall exactly what it dispensed. I was still doing a lot of drugs back in those days, LOL.

I know at least one of my WCI-made front-loaders would sound a buzzer and pause for a minute or two right after the final rinse fill so you could open the door and add softener.

 

[peteski50]

westy / frig!

That westy / fridg is a beauty! Their was another model that had a bleach and fabric softner on top! So many would kill to have a machine like that today! They would live with the tangeling. To me it had a long enough wash time. If the clothes were really dirty you can do a prewash before hand. The only negative was the poor spinning. I have had a few customers tell me they would pay anything to get a westinghouse back compared to todays machines! I actually liked the frigmores the best of all the FL ever made!

 

[gansky1]

Though it may have disappeared after WCI took over the Westinghouse appliance division, there were TOL control panel models that had fabric softener and bleach dispensers on the top. I have both of the little doors and double frame in my parts stash, in the vain hope I'll find one someday.