POD Ward Signature Washer

[rinso]

Back in the early 80's, my late partner and I bought this TOL washer made by Norge for Montgomery Ward along with the matching linty dryer. The set was beautiful and the washer was perfect for my work clothes with its aggressive wash action. The only issues were the noise level of the washer and the "linty-ness" of the dryer. We sold them with the house when we moved.

 

[DADoES]

 
Noise level ... which led me to ponder when I saw the pic come up in the rotation this morn whether the End of Cycle Signal feature is of much benefit.

I always found the TOL Wards to be nice-looking machines and coveted them.

 

[appnut]

The extra rinse option is a joke considering the fabric softner dispenseer is agitator mounted and not timed like on our 1964 Norge. Norge did it once, they should have done that for their TOL models still.

 

[tomturbomatic]

That fabric softener dispenser is puzzling. On the side of the washer opening, there is a little rectangular covered dispenser and the note beside it says Automatic timed bleach and fabric softener dispenser. Then there is what looks like their standard, agitator-mounted FSD. Strange.

 

[ea56]

There’s also a standard bleach dispenser in  the lower left hand corner of the washer opening?  

 

Eddie

 

[DADoES]

 
The bleach dispenser is at the left of the loading port, timed release.

The Fabric softener dispenser is centrifugal on the agitator, automatic as such in that respect but not timed.

The ad editor should at minimum have revised the text as "Automatic timed bleach dispenser, and fabric softener dispenser."

 

[appnut]

In the picture of the ad where the timed bleach dispenser on the left side of the lid opening, is where our timed FS dispenser was on the 1963/1964 Norge Dispense-o-mat washer. The timed bleach dispenser was on the corresponding right side of the lid opening.

 

[mrsalvo]

That picture was for marketing no doubt. We had a 1969 model, with the lint tray towards the back of the tub. I don’t recall that it trapped a lot of lint, it didn’t have the burpolator agitator.
It was one of the best washers we ever owned, but it broke down in the 70’s and we got another brand afterwards. That Norge could hold a lot of clothes with ease, and they were always clean everytime. I don’t recall it being any noisier than any other machine. Clothes were always rinsed well too, even using Tide or any other high sudsing detergent. They were genuine water hogs.

I would take one of those machines in a heartbeat over anything else.

Barry

 

[appnut]

Barry, Norge still had the filtering system with the tray that clipped into the slot at the back of the tub. the filtering system wasn't changed until Norge redisgned the system with the burpolator and agitator mounted filter pan and new agitation system. Our 1964 Norge had this filtering system as did our neighbor across the street with the similar Monkey WArds MOL model from 1964.

 

[rp2813]

You All Knew This Was Coming

A 1969 model that "broke down in the '70s." 

 

And

 

"The only issues were the noise level of the washer . . ."

 

[ea56]

In the Fall of 1985 right after I went to work for the County Human Serv. Dept. we bought a brand new Magic Chef W/D set that was Norge based.  I’d been doing our laundry in the Maytag A50 twin tub which did an excellent job, but the 10 hour days and heavy traffic commute made me  want to  go back to an automatic and since we had WD hookups in the garage of our rented duplex this seemed like the best way to go.

 

I went to the Maytag dealer in Petaluma, Calif, with the intention of purchasing a new Maytag set, but the price was just too high at that time.  The salesman showed me the Magic Chef set and I was sold  on it.  He told me that it would be as good a performer or better than the Maytag.

 

We used this set for two years and I loved both the washer and the dryer!  The capacity couldn’t be beat and the washer cleaned everything well.  

 

Two years latter we bought our first condo and there was only room for a stacked W/D set so we couldn’t take the Magic Chef set  with us, which I was truly unhappy about.  I sold the set to a  co worker for $400.00 and she was very pleased with them too.  She was replacing a 20 year old Norge and wanted another Norge based machine.  The  last time I saw her was about 24 years ago and she was still  using the Magic Chef set that was 15 yrs old by that time.

 

These were very good machines, but they were real water hogs, but 37 years ago this wasn’t a concern.

 

When we moved into the new condo we bought a White-Westinghouse FL set with a gas dryer.  I didn’t want one of the new at that time stacked TL’s.  I also loved that White-Westinghouse set.  I’d always wanted a set like them and moving into that condo with room  for only a stacked set allowed me to fulfill a long time dream.  But that Norge based magic  Chef was a helluva a good washing machine too,

 

Eddie

 

[mrsalvo]

I’ve often wondered that if Norge was still in business what wash platform they would have. developed with all the new water and government regulations that have been imposed now. I guess it’s neither here nor there now.

Norge was an excellent cleaning machine.

Barry

 

[mrsalvo]

 

[repairguy]

Great machines for sure. Thanks to Todd I have a more middle of the line version in service.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The nice thing about watching a video of it is that the volume cam be turned down.

 

[rinso]

Our Norge set was great for our laundry and had a reasonably fast spin. The matching dryer, a positive air flow design, put all the lint back on the clothes that the burp-a-lator filter removed. I do have to mention that of all the laundry pairs we experienced back then, this set would get us through laundry Saturday morning more quickly than anything else we owned.

 

[washerlover]

Hey Melvin! Nice to see you are still enjoying that Wards Signature set. They are looking good. Too bad someone left the dryer in the sun too long as it's difficult to read the controls but other than that, the dryer works great!

The washer in the POD the other day is truly my holy grail of machines...

 

[repairguy]

Todd I’d like to have the one in the pod also in copper tone. You’re right the dryer runs great. It handles very large loads of laundry in record time with the positive airflow. I’d like to find a gas model as well.