Sometimes you just cant win with maytag..

[vintagekitchen]

As some of you remember, I recently got a Maytag atlantis, which worked perfectly, but needed a new thrust bearing kit. After I replaced that, it was awesome, until today.

I had a good deal of laundry to do between my own and my gramma's. After the first load or 2, I noticed water in the floor in front of the washer. Not good. Not good at all. Popped off the front, took a look, and it apears that the tub seal is leaking. Great.. That would explain the noisy spin, which I was writing off as cheapish construction.

Being the determined stubborn sort, and needing to finish the laundry, I threw down some towels, and plodded on. I'm going through 2 or 3 towels a load, not not good.

Called about, and all but 1 place refused to touch it, and they said it will be at least 300 dollars, possibly as high as 400. Damn. No way I can afford that.

 

[roscoe62]

Maytag??

I often wonder about these after being the owner of two Neptunes.The first one worked excellent even with regular detergent.After it was destroyed in a flood it was replaced with the same model that had a quirky performance.
Nothing was consistent, it may take 20 minutes + to balance the load to finish the cycle, or rinse poorly because it wouldn't spin long enough after the wash cycle, etc.
Maybe it is just the luck of the draw when buying anything ?

 

[appnut]

Now you know why I called it a piece of junk.

 

[tomturbomatic]

It is as much a Maytag as I am a Martian. Maytag bought Norge to get a large capacity top loader without having to engineer one themselves. All they did was put their name on it and sell it as a Maytag, but the quality was not there and by failing to tell buyers that it was not a real Maytag, they poisoned the brand or pissed in the whisky as moonshiners would say. This was part of their corporate strategy like putting their name on POS Admiral refrigerators and POS Hardwick ranges. Some have speculated that they did not want to invest the money in a large capacity top loader because they knew that regulations were coming that would essentially do away with top loaders so they went the quick and dirty route with the washer. What they did to the company was what Fred and son would never have allowed: they gave it a bad name. It was bad enough that the real Maytag top loaders had the smallest capacity in the market. Then they had to go and buy companies whose factories and designs were outdated. The only reason the companies were for sale was that they needed massive infusions of capital to modernize EVERYTHING. Maytag was not about to invest that kind of cash so they tried to sell this old crap to the public. The Admiral refrigerator and freezer doors on the side by sides could not be made to line up. The stoves had PAINT above the oven door. These actions by management looking only for short term profits for themselves and the shareholders killed the company. While members of management probably made out OK and were able to go plunder other companies, the workers, as is usually the case, suffered. WP was smart and ruthless in shutting down the factories, but shutting down the Newton operation hit the town hard. The Newton factory, of course, had long needed updating also. That is a short narrative in how a company that refuses to innovate dies. All you need is a "conservative" company whose family ownership dies and whose board brings in a crook who knows nothing about appliances to run it.

How did you come to own this washer? Didn't you use the search function in this forum to see how terrible these machines were?

 

[vintagekitchen]

How did you come to own this washer..

Totally by accident really, lol. I had never actually seen one outside of the ads when they were new, and modern not normally being my thing I hadnt read about them on the site.

I was at a yard sale, and it was sitting there with a 25 dollar price tag, looking very shiny, and repairable, and said Maytag. (To me that was a short thought process. Maytag=reliable+easy repairs+low cost parts). I know now that I didnt actually buy a real maytag, but at the time I was an innocent lil lamb going on faith.

In other words, I goofed.

 

[whirlcool]

Well, at least you didn't end up with the dreaded Amana-tag!

Can you fix this yourself? It will be way cheaper than having someone else do it.

When the top part of our dual action agitator died on our Whirlpool machine we called around and were given the same run around. Anywhere from $250-350. Most just said to throw the machine away and buy a new one.

So I joined aw.org and learned it was the agitator dogs that were worn. I bought an agitator overhaul kit which included the dogs and repaired it myself in 20 minutes. Total cost $25.00 including shipping. $300, my as*.

I think some companies(like a/c companies, auto repair companies, appliance repair companies) prey on people knowing that the general public has no idea how things work.

When my BMW X5 died recently it was a fuel pump. Price to repair? $1,100. I could have gotten the work done at an independent garage for about $700 had I known. But when you have a car that is not at your house and won't start you don't have the luxury of shopping around!

 

[tomturbomatic]

The best thing he can do with that washer is give it a new address at the recyclers. If he were to fix the seal, there is a list of other parts waiting in line to fail.

 

[e2l-arry]

I've read that all the front loaders have a life expectancy of only 7 years. After the novelty wore off I regretted paying so much ($1000.00) for a machine with that short a life span. I just bought a Maytag wringer off CL for $25.00. That will have to offset the amount I paid trying to "go green" with a HE front loader.

 

[tomturbomatic]

All WHOSE frontloaders? My Creda is from the 1990s and it is far from down for the count.

 

[jmurray01]

They should call it the Maytag Dyson, eh ?

 

[super32]

I made alot of money fixing these washers. I got to where i could drop a tranny in about 45min start to finish.

They were not the most reliable, but easy enough to work on. At the time considering what else was on the market, it was about as good as it got.

 

[rockland1]

Maytag Co History

Boy, Tomturbomatic sure told it like it was. I sold Maytag for 30 years. What happened to them was just as he stated. A real pity a company as good as they were at one time had to disappear. They were EVERYTHING to Newton Iowa.

 

[tecnopolis]

I love my Maytag Atlantis and Neptune, problems included. Pretty soon when everything says "Made by Whirlpool" or every time you tell someone the name of your new shiny Asian front loader they think you sneezed and hand you a tissue, your gonna be praying that there's an old Maytag out there to show you how it used to be back in the good old days of the "water hogs".
I cannot comment on what happened to Maytag's corporate culture, causing them to become a takeover candidate, but it is a sad dark story that is being repeated all across this country.
Fix your ATLANTIS.

 

[tecnopolis]

.

 

[pierreandreply4]

i think your better off fixing your atlantis washer as it is now a historical washer and one of the last true ever made maytag as now maytag is made by whirlpool and they chnage the desing so in a word they keep the maytag name but inside the parts are all whirlpool parts
if you look at this top load maytag washer it may have the maytag brand name but under its body and look its a whirlpool washer with the maytag name so in other word its only a maytag in name not look.

http://www.maytag.ca/en/ProductFeatures/MVWC200XW.html

 

[maytagbear]

I am so glad

that my washer and dryer are Dependable Care machines!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[DirectDriveDave]

Where my bro used to live (2006-2010) has one of the performa models (I believe thats what it is as it has the standard looking cabinet and not the angled tops that the Atlantis's have), machine itself has been there since mid 2006. The house is now leased and he is the landlord. The renters are always very good of informing him of anything that is wrong within the house or if they may need to use something more than often (like watering the lawn or something).

Maybe only a couple of months ago, he talked to them and asked how everything was and they said that everything in the house is working perfect with no problems.

So far, for almost 6 years now, it has been running just fine. But I have absolutely no idea if there is, by any chance, any quality differences between the Atlantis or Performa, or if there are those few out there that seems to hold up well.

 

[alr2903]

The "Atlantis" is the Herrin IL made norgetag  prior to the Whirlpool acquisition of Maytag?  alr

 

 

[launderess]

"Front Loading Washers Have A Lifespan Of Seven Years&#3

Really? That is news to me.

Perhaps these plastic outer drummed, all in one tub assembly with more plastic inside them than a Las Vegas stripper, but am here to tell you older and even vintage front loading washing machines lasted *DECADES*. You can find them all over eBay (mainly commercial/laundromat machines) in the USA but domestic units on similar sites from the UK to Greece.

When designed as such front loaders can be totally broken down and rebuilt. You can find Wascomat,Milnor, Dexter and other commercial front loaders still running built in the 1970's. Yes, they may have add a tear down, bearing change etc, and may not be the most pretty thing on the block, but they still run.

Front loading washers have always cost more to design and build because of their nature in particular keeping the water inside the tubs (no leaks). Which historically accounted for their costing more than top loaders. In order to bring modern offerings of H-Axis washers down build quality has suffered. Instead they are loaded with lots of cheap to make electronics that give the illusion consumers are getting a deal.