Time, Monday October 3rd, 1983
They were bulky and loud and could squeeze unwary fingers, but millions of Americans relied on them for clean socks, shirts and underwear all the same. Since 1909, Maytag (1982 sales: $440.8 million) has turned out nearly 12 million wringer washers from its plant on the edge of downtown Newton, Iowa. But automatic washers and dryers have drained away much of the business for wringers, and Maytag will stop making them by the end of the year. "We're experiencing a great sense of loss here," laments a company executive. "The wringer was our only product for 42 years."
Maytag, a leading maker of home appliances, dubbed its first wringer "the hired girl" and cranked out some 2,000 machines a day during the peak production year of 1948. Workers put in 60-hour weeks to fill the demand for washers that cleaned the diapers for the baby boom. Now output is down to several dozen a day.
Those few wringers, however, have been finding some buyers. The machines use little water and can be handy in places where water or plumbing is in short supply. Maytag sold 2,000 wringers to Saudi Arabia just five years ago. Consumers will be able to buy new wringers even after Maytag drops its line. The Chicago-based Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers says two other companies will still make wringers.
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That said, I am 99% positive that Speed Queen continued to make wringer washers until at least 1995 or so. Our Speed Queen dealer "Town and Country Speed Queen" here in Lansing Michigan, always had a demonstrator, hooked up to show you how it washed, and how to use it.... IIRC there used to be multi-colored pieces of material in clear water. The swathes of fabric were large enough so you could see how to properly wring the clothing out as well...
You had to special order them tho,and IIRC they were around $600.00 by that point. However for a brief period around 1992, Speed Queen/Raytheon...offered a Sears badged wringer, (clearly it was Speed Queen) that sold for $449.95 thru the catalog.
And now you can still get them under the trade name Laundry Queen as noted, just built elsewhere.
I believe in another Maytag article describing the shutdown of thier wringer washer line from that period named Dexter Company of Fairfield? Iowa still making wringer wahsers for public consumption.....
Chad
P.S. In reguards to the Kenmore badged Speed Queen wringer.
This made the wringer option "more" expensive than many Kenmore automatics, and a few dollars shy of the TOL Kenmore from that period. This would have been during Sears Brand Central heyday, only a few short years after BC's debut in around 1988-89 or so. You can see, becasue of the price issue,that many people, even die hard wringer washer usesrs may have stayed away from a new machine becasue of the ridiculous prices asked....
