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combo52

combo52

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50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md
We realized a long heal dream to add two significant Combos to the Museum collection.

Thanks To Ben and Cory in Iowa and the generous help of my neighbor Tom who was also the one who inspired the idea for an appliance museum in the first place, We have added a Maytag 340W and the only known to exist Norge Combo, the Norge is the orignal WD600 model.

Both machines are the electric condenser models and are white, this combination was easily the most popular way these machines were sold.

The Maytag Combo and the Norge on the right.

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OH!  Congratulations John!!  Now if I could only find you a Moffat version of the combo... 

 

Be careful with that Maytag though.  If I remember my 'Green Acres' correctly, that's a 5, so you can't plug in more than a 2 with it, dahlink.. LOL
 
What a wonderful find . . .

. . . and addition to your collection. That must be the only Norge combo anywhere.

I would give anything to see your warehouse/museum.

Thanks for sharing this great news.

Jerry Gay
 
Congratulations! Are there still US brands of combos that you don't already have now?

 

With this Norge and your nice VHQ set, you'll need to get a Norge ball to display at the museum!

 

www.flickr.com

The norge ball

Dedicated to the legendary Norge Ball laundromat sign. For a nearly complete, and fantastic list of Norge Balls in North America, go here Thanks to Vintage Roadside This group will be lightly curated.
www.flickr.com www.flickr.com
 
John,
The Norge is such a beautiful Beast! What a great looking machine!
Amazing find!
The Maytag looks to be in such great shape also!
 
The One And Only Norge

This machine has always been a mystery to me as I had never even seen one. It like everyone of the US designed and built combos during the 20 year span that combos were produced [ 1953-1973 ] had some very interesting design features.

Because Bendix beat everyone else in development and getting a combo to market, every other manufacturer had to come up with a way to wash and dry clothing in a combo style without infringing on Bendix's patents. To me this is what makes combos [ and many other mechanical things ] so interesting.

Norge and other makers in designing their combo borrowed design ideas from their separate washer and dryers. The really interesting thing Norge did with this combo was to use a huge Bakelite fan in the back of the drum that runs at full motor speed during the drying phase of the cycle. And even more unusual [ like their separate dryers ] they actually put rollers under the front of the wash basket to help support the basket at the front, these were exposed to water, and as far as I can tell this was the only front loading washer or combo ever built to try such a thing.

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Interesting John!
Where did the air actually escape from the huge fan?
Also, did this machine spin between each fill for rinse?
Brent
 
The big fan sucked air through the drum and blew it against the back wall of the outer tub where cold water flowed down in a sheet for condensing. From there the air moved forward to the front of the outer tub where a heating element cast into a finned aluminum housing heated the air. Even though the Norge water extraction was crippled by the low spin speeds of most combos, the drying system was so powerful that these machines turned in good drying times of under an hour for mixed cotton loads, remarkable for a non-Bendix condensing combo.

In 1960-61, I used to visit the WD600 one or two afternoons a week on the floor at the Rich's store in Belvedere Plaza while mom went to Kroger's; all of those appliances and Superman reruns on the two tiers of TVs on display. It was a great spot.
 
Still trying to pick up my jaw off the floor. The Maytag is rare enough to warrant raves--especially in that condition--but that Norge is certainly the Holy Grail of combos. Thanks for the photos and explanations, John. Freaking amazing!
 
Phil, as far as we know only the Hotpoint combo which seems to have been universally recalled by the manufacturer and the big gas combos marketed by O'Keefe & Merritt, One Minute and Automatic are missing. The big gas combos are the ones that did not spin at all and used a close to 100,000 BTU burner to dry the dripping wet load. If you had a spinner to use with it, it probably would have dried loads fast. It would be interesting to see the venting requirements for a 100,000 BTU appliance, I wonder if 5" double wall flue pipe was needed.
 

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