research help: why did front loaders drop off from 70s-00s?

[kbailey]

Hi all,

I am working on a project on the history of washers and came across this website during my desk research. The photos of all of the vintage washers have been a great help.

Something I am wondering (and hopefully someone out there has an answer or speculation) is why front loaders essentially vanish from the main market from ~70s-00s. The early washers had models with top and front loaders. But then front loaders vanish until recent years. Why is this the case? Why the ~30 year disappearance?

This community seems to have a lot of expertise, so that's why I posted this question here. Sorry if its not in the right forum or if this post is out of place.

Any response would be great. Thanks so much!

 

[coldspot66]

Top loaders had the advantage of not stooping to load and unload. Also you could add items easier with a top loader. Westinghouse/Frigidaire/WCI ALWAYS made front load washers up until the late 90's , when they retooled for the porthole style Frigidaire models. For the size load that these Westy front load washers could hold, I don't think they used that much less water than a top loader. Also Consumer Reports said they did not clean as well.

BTW I grew up in Cambridge, Ma.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

I don't know that front loaders vanished completely during that time, they simply weren't a popular as the "normal" toploader.   I know one manufacturer, Westinghouse / White-Westinghouse continued to build and sell they're front load set which could be used stacked or side by side. 

 

I'm not sure there were many other options until the later 90's when the Westinghouse FL was replaced by a Frigidaire set.   (I've had one of these Frigidaire FL sets since 1997)   Not long after this Maytag came out with the ill-fated Neptune.

 

This set in the photo is (I believe) from the early - mid 70's.  Even though they have a "water level switch" I feel they used more water than necessary.     I also have a 1990 version of this Westinghouse set.

 

[tomturbomatic]

A few observations

I have an even better observation for you. If not for the apartment & condo market, front loaders would probably have disappeared entirely during that time. It was builders giving a stacked washer and dryer in 27" of space and the replacement market that kept them in production. I don't know that the design with a control panel ever completely disappeared, but by far the majority of the Westinghouse front loading washers sold were the stackable Space Mates with the controls on the front. The lack of a market for low sudsing detergents needed by front loaders became so bad that Sears detergents and powder formula All were the only two widely available low-sudsing detergents for a few years.

Only Bendix and Westinghouse made front loading tumble action washers in this country. Neither were liked by the testing magazines in the early years of automatic washing machines because of several factors, including the washing products available then. Until after WWII, soap was the only laundry cleaning product and it makes lots of suds which are not good in a front loaders because they cushion the drop of the clothes into the water. It is hard to rinse soap suds out of a tumbler washer without leaving soil and scum on the load. Soap is just fine when using a wringer washer because you lift the clothes out of the sudsy water to the wringer and the rinsing tubs. Getting rid of that in the small tub of the Bendix was more difficult so the rinsing was not as good as with a wringer. The water extraction was not very good either. So these were the early judgements of magazines people looked to for information about expensive purchases. Despite those judgements, however, women loved the idea of an automatic washer and formed a ready market. Bendix eventually sold the rights to make their machines to Philco, a company that did not have really wide distribution in the US so the washers did not receive much advertising, virtually a fraction of the advertising for their top loaders. Another factor in the 50s and early 60s was that low sudsing detergents were judged not to clean as well as regular sudsing detergents like Tide and front loaders needed low sudsing detergents. The ironic thing was that there were many owners of front loaders who were very happy with the machines and the results they gave. Neither brand had the dependability record of Maytag, either.

Westinghouse, by 1960 had redesigned their washers to perform better and in 1964, Consumer Reports rated the washing ability of the machine as average, but the top capacity was judged to be 8 lbs. when top loaders were claiming capacities almost twice that. Westinghouse did little advertising of the front loader at this time. Once they came out with the top loading agitator automatic, that is what they featured in most ads until the mid to late 70s when they began running ads in national magazines for the front loader featuring Pearl Bailey. This was when all of the manufacturers were striving for larger and larger capacity top loaders. Consumer Reports went about 10 years without testing a WH front loader until in a report of washers, they printed a letter from a reader asking if front loading washers were still being made in the US. This was during the first energy crisis. So they tested a WH washer and reported that it was pretty water efficient and washed pretty well with modern detergents. After that they did include them in more tests, but the nation's eye was on giant capacity top loaders. During the period from 1964 to the late 80s, Westinghouse did not make major changes to improve their machine. They were hanging on, but not spending money on modernizing the washer. Also in that time, the company's ownership changed hands. It is a testament to owner loyalty and to the builder market and replacement market that production continued through that time.

 

[kbailey]

thanks and another question

OK wow, thanks for the responses. If anyone else has more to add, feel free.

Another question I've been thinking about:
So teal / pink appliances were popular in the 50s and avocado green / harvest gold were popular in the 70s. Does anyone out there know why these were the popular colors?

 

[fido]

In UK the opposite happened. Most people didn't have automatic machines until the '70s so before that they were using twintubs, separate washers and spinners or even wringer machines. When autos became popular they were nearly all front loaders because they had to fit in small UK kitchens and a front loader allowed you greater worktop area. I was quite astonished when I saw on here, photos of front loader machines with a control panel at the back of the top. Nobody in UK would have wanted a machine like that as they could not shove it under a worktop.

 

[philr]

About colors. I don't know exactly why but they switched from the almost pastel colors like turquoise, yellow and pink to more earth tone colors around 1967/68. I guess the tones did fit better with the new kitchen styles often featuring colonial style dark wood tones.  The same also happened (but not as clearly) in the auto industry around the 1968 model year.

 

See the picture in the link (and comments on the Flickr page) for a style that became popular in the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies.

 

[launderess]

My Late Grandmother Had The Same Set As In RevinKevin's

Installed when she had her kitchen redone during the mid to late 1970's so yes, front loading washers were always around.

Appliance Colors:

Pink was *HUGE* during the 1950's. In various shades and hues it was everywhere from appliances (small and large), cars, women's fashions, interior design, poodles, hair tint, and so forth. You name it and aside from most men's fashions it came in pink. Many feel this was part of the post war era with it's return to femininity and by extension motherhood and nurturing. Remember the 1950's ideal woman was all about curves (Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, Jane Mansfield, etc), and softness.

 

[machinehead]

Gotta love the Poppy!

Frigidaire, that is-- and not the dull brick that I believe was a later design change. That flaming Chinese red wasn't that popular (yes?) but it looks reel good on a 1-18! Like an old vette-- maybe the red hot rod of washers, at least in paint jobs!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Colors are sorta determined by a color board somewhere that forecasts what will be hot and what is not. They pick colors for homes and home furnishings. I think that after a while people get tired of the same colors and what seemed attractive and or sophisticated begins to look tacky and dated because nothing new is offered in the old colors which makes replacing old appliances in a discontinued color such a party. Some colors have more longevity. Coppertone appliances, in the right setting, don't seem to me to look as immediately of a certain period as do pink or turquoise. In fact, when the world was deep into avocado and harvest, coppertone stayed on and then became coffee. Another color and a neutral brown that still can look good is the GE/Hotpoint color Woodtone Brown.

 

[danemodsandy]

Colors:

"So teal / pink appliances were popular in the 50s and avocado green / harvest gold were popular in the 70s. Does anyone out there know why these were the popular colors?"

The Harvest/Avocado popularity was an offshoot of the era's interest in things that were "natural." These earthy colors seemed more right for the times than pastels, that's all.

I would like to gently and with all loving kindness correct something. The color you refer to as "teal" was not ever referred to by that name in its day. It was called turquoise, and it was hugely popular at the time. My cousin Betty Ann had a full set of Westy majors in turquoise in her kitchen, plus an early-60's Lady K laundry pair in the same color. The washer and dryer were not nearly as reliable as a politician's promise, but that's another post. Our family had turquoise countertops in the kitchen, plus a turquoise '56 Chevy in the driveway, and my bedroom was painted that color.

 

[pdub]

Question re: color and times

This relates more to kitchen but also some to laundry appliances.

I know white has always been considered a "standard" no frill color that has always been available and remains today.

The 50's to mid 60's were known for the pastels. Then mid 60's to late 70's were the earth tones. Then the 80's brought about almond and what some called the black mirror finish. Almond and white seemed to go into the 90's with black still an option.

Then we were hit in the mid 90's with stainless steel being all the rage. I keep waiting for it to die out and be replaced by something else or revert back to some of the retro shades but for the kitchen, it seems like stainless is still going strong.

Any opinions as to why? Have the design trend setters run out of ideas or is the American public tired of replacing based on colors of the times?

Just wondering!

 

[mattl]

I seem to recall reading that pink was popular in the '50s due to Mamie Eisenhower's love for the color.  I recall that there was a lot of pink in the White House at that time.

 

[mickeyd]

Regional Differences

Coming of age during the 60's and checking out the washers in the basements of virtually every person known to me, just as many other members here have done, I can only report sightings of 3 front loaders out of about 50-odd machines observed. The Balls, the Conleys, and the Meegans had them, a Westinghouse with maroon dials, a Westinghouse programmed washer matching moparwash's dryer, and a Bendix Combination, respectively. A very fertile time for automatics, I saw almost every brand and most models manufactured at the time.

 

Citing other writers in the thread, the front loaders' lack of popularity was threefold: stooping to load, small capacity, and weak spinning, or so the urban myth went.

 

When I was about 15, I went to my Great Uncle Frank's BF's house for the first time. Immediately in the basement, I was soothed by the distinct aroma of Fels Naptha Bar Soap, and there on the line, were the bell-bottom jeans, a boatneck summer shirt, over-the-calf socks, and a pair of underwear that he had worn the day before and washed that morning,

 

Over in the corner was a very small old Bendix, which I now can identify as the first year run, When I asked him why he washed by hand when he had such a cool-looking little washer available, he said: "Oh, I like washing by hand, and that machine is more bother than it's worth. I have to wring the clothes by hand anyway." I thought he was crazy not to want to use that weird little beast.

 

Fast forward to 1995 when my brothers and sisters rented a cottage that had a stacked Westy pair. It didn't do a great job: loud shaky spinning, small capacity, oversudsing (our fault). Of course I loved it anyway, but would never want to do the family wash in one forever.

 

Rewind to 1963, the Westinghouse Laundromat in southern Ontario had round slant fronts that were fabulous, interesting machines; they even worked with the door open. Heavenly. Small capacity, but that meant more machines to fill and play with. Not one of the other Laundromats around the Buffalo, NY area were Westinghouse.

In the Northeast, front-loaders never caught on. In hindsight, peer pressure, of the "keeping-up-with-the-Jonses-" vintage may well have been a factor. Even now, manufacturers are bending over backwards to refine top-loaders to meet the requirements. One way or another top loaders are here to stay. Around here no one wants a front loader. But, then again, I mainly only know old people, and what do we know?

 

K, what are you doing this research for, a course, work, what? Love to know, and glad to help.

 

[arbilab]

I want my 1973 Panasonic compact twintub back. I like to DO laundry.

My 1998 FL is a 2nd choice. I grew up with slant Westys. Today's quarter-fill toploaders? You couldn't give me one.

In the era under study, US makers of frontloaders (Bendix, Westinghouse) found themselves in an awkward position. They were underrepresented at dealerships and in advertising, and their low sales volume didn't justify updating their production facilities. Which fell behind making them even less competitive. Whirlpool, Maytag, and GE held 90% of the market. Of the remaining 10%, they either just gave up or got acquired by White.

There is some rounding off in that last paragraph, but it's the big picture.

I think economics unsold US frontloaders, rather than the design itself doing it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Westinghouse did not initially offer turquoise, but more of an aqua green color that was lighter and less blue than turquoise. I don't know when they made the transition to turquoise and do not remember seeing turquoise WH appliances except in sales brochures.

 

[DADoES]

 
House my parents built in 1964 had orange Formica countertops in the kitchen, turquoise wall oven, cooktop, range hood (all Martha Washington brand), and porcelain sink.  Refrigerator was a white Philco bottom-freezer.  One side of the Hollywood bath had a lilac sink & toilet, and the bathtub was lilac.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

DaveAMKrayoGuy is doing Research, too!

My research is based on Charles Klamkin's recommended appliances in his book, HOW TO BUY MAJOR HOME APPLIANCES, in which he recommends WESTINGHOUSE FRONT LOADING WASHERS, as "Best Made, regardless of price"... (Maytag is best top loader, and there is a GE, which I would guess as a reg. cap. T/L and a Whirlpool, which according to CONSUMER REPORTS is a lg. cap. T/L, but he cites it as a 14-pound mach, & the GE as an 18 lb., as well as a Sears Kenmore w/ the same features as the Whirlpool, recommended...

The book was published in 1972 and I would guess W/H made only a few front loaders by then! (One reg. cap. and maybe two lg., one designed like the W/H TOL top loader, except for the front-loading door & dispensers for det. bleach & soft. on top to make use of space there & compete w/ what ever other makes were offering that in their 'Best' machines!

I really should have bought the Daily Doctrine Dispenser w/ the 1966 Westy machines, but there were a whole lot of different models & might have made my research too complex, (at least if my memory serves!) & the 1969 Westy one only featured top loaders, so that's why I dismissed both...

I did purchase/download both Norge washer & dryer ones (the large & reg./Stow Away models) since only one model Norge dryer was listed under both electric & gas configurations, while Maytag made 'Best regardless of price'...

The whole point of my research is to see if it's possible for a household (from 8 to 16 to 24, actually) to each have a: Refrigerator, Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher, Separate Freezer & Stove (or B/I cook top & wall oven) in each of the four colors offered at the time; and I think the more knowledge I would gain from what I learn here, the more I would "unlock the Zen"--just for fun! (And at least ONE of those households would get the one compact refrigerator--a SANYO! While as for garbage disposals, only a GE made the list (they're both under "Compact Appliances & Garbage Disposals" chapter) but there is the ISE Badger, and a few "off brands" to fill in the cracks, as there would be Amana, Litton & a few of the Japanese makes if any oor all of those households had Microwaves!)...

-- Dave

 

[kbailey]

now what about laundry spaces?

--> noted about the word turquoise used in the 50s instead of teal, thanks

I like the cultural reasoning behind the color trends: return to femininity in the 50s (pastels) and the desire of things natural in the 70s (earth tones).

Also thanks for the info on the vintage front loaders. All of your information has been a great help.

Another question that I've been pondering is where the laundry was done in each decade. I know it's hard to generalize, but if anyone wants to take a stab at general trends, feel free. I know these days the trend in new homes is to have a laundry room or nook on the second floor near the bedrooms. Some vintage ads from the 60s and 70s sometimes show the washer and dryer in or next to the kitchen and I was wondering if this was the actual case. That might just have been for ease of advertising all of the company's appliances in one go and not actually what consumers did.

Thoughts on the location of the washer and dryer, reasoning behind the colors of the machines, and front vs. top loaders are all welcome.

Thanks for the help everyone.