My first washer!
This is the exact washer and the matching electric dryer in this same color I got when I got married. I purchased both units NIB here in Argentina from a Bolivian diplomat who'd brought them from the States. These were US standard voltage units (240/115V, 60 Hz) and he wouldn't know how to connect them to our local 220V 50Hz supply.
This was in late 1977, and the seller told me he'd purchased them a couple of years before, so I always assumed these units to be from 1975. He also had on sale a TOL JC Penny electric range (ultra wide) also in harvest gold, with ceramic top (unheard of in our country in those days) which I passed, something I deeply regretted afterwards.
About a year after I started using the washer I removed the agitator for routine cleaning maintenance and I discovered a second smaller agitator was held inside the larger (standard) one. Believe me, this smaller agitator wasn't mentioned at all in the instructions that came with the washer. I just tried and tried to separate both agitators, to no avail. A couple of days later I removed a decorated round aluminum disk that was bonded to the top of the standard agitator, and below this disk there was a screw that held both agitators together. From that day on the larger agitator just "sat" over the smaller agitator, without the holding screw that originally came with the washer. I used the smaller agitator during the hand wash cycle (my guess, remember the smaller agitator wasn't mentioned at all in the washer's owner's instructions).
The washer cover had two plastic grooves where the main wash detergent receptacle would fit. If you chose prewash and used this dispenser you'd have to use powder detergent for the main wash.
The motor was two speeed, and the water filter was a round disk on top of the wash drum, full of holes all around. During the wash cycle a water jet would drain inside this filter, which drained the "filtered" water into the wash basket. This disk was automatically cleanded during every spin cycle with a clean water spray. These holes tended to clog very often, I had to clean them with vinegar and a stiff brush to free them of gunk. You could tell the holes were clogged when the disk started to overflow into the wash basket, instead of filtering the water. I found this to be a real PITA.
On the other hand, the cleaning performance of this washer was excellent, you could wash anything that could be washed in water with excellent results.
The matching electric dryer was the largest dryer I have ever seen, I would guess it was about 6 inches wider than the washer. It is the fastest dryer I have ever used, I guess it was a 6000 W unit.
I handed down both units to my mother some years later, when I purchased a new Whirpool set. My mother used them for another 15 years at least, neither unit failed during all those years.
I always thought the JC Penny set was a better performer that the Whirpools. Sorry, I have no pictures of these units.
Emilio
