For those of you who guessed GE, you are partially correct. I could see where the light was confusing as I had really zoomed on it. So it's not a commercial Filter-Flo, but a...(drum roll here)
1961 GE COMBINATION WASHER-DRYER!!!
Here's the story: I'm out of room as it is and needed a machine like another hole in the head, but I found this through an ad on Craigslist/Austin advertised as a "50's GE Washer/Dryer Combination", and couldn't resist emailing about it (which I'm glad I did, looking back on it). At first I thought it was one of those (windowless, oy) undercounter models that had been in a kitchen, but the lady who placed the ad mentioned that it had been sitting in the laundry room. I called her the day before to inquire more, and she mentioned that it had not seen much use. A couple had a custom cinderblock home (that looked VERY institutional from the outside, oddly enough) close to 6th Street built in 1955, and only used combinations in the laundry/ironing room (which also had a Frigidaire room A/C mounted in the wall), so this was probably only the second one in the house. It had not seen any use in over 30 years because sometime in the late-60's/early-70's, the husband became ill with cancer and with that came hypersensitivity to sound, and could not stand the noise of the combination so the wife just took the clothes to the laundromat, which went on even after he died. It just sat in the laundry room for all those years, and then it was moved into the garage last year. Now the house was sold and the last of the belongings were being cleared out, including this, and if a new home wasn't found by next week it was going to the Krusher. She also said that it had lots of chrome on the control panel and a
round window, which led me to believe it was from the late-60's. So yesterday we all went to Austin to pick it up, and I just about passed out on the spot when I saw it because not only was the window
square, it was a 1961 machine with the pedestal controls!!!
Loading it was a CHORE to say the least (I'm guessing it weighs 250-275 lbs.), but we somehow pulled it off and got it home to the shed in one piece. Mom & I did a preliminary cleaning and it cleaned up VERY well! I'm definitely surprised about the overall condition, especially since it's in the so-called Land of Rust! There is not much rust; just some on the black painted panels close to the base. I peeked in one of the vents in the back panel, and the mechanicals look very clean as well. The lady did say the last time they turned it on, it did work and the drum turned, but it was leaking water from the door. The door seal is still nice and pliable so I'm thinking it might be the window seal that needs attention. I'm going to remove the back panel and do more cleaning/tweaking on the mechanical side of it, and when we run a 220 line in the shed soon I'll be able to fire it up and see what happens! But overall it appears to be in nice shape.
--Austin
