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[combo52]

Westinghouse markets their first top load automatic washer, this machine came out around 1964 or 5 and was sourced from Easy I never saw a matching dryer for it. This easy built automatic was a solid tub washer.

Within two years, Westinghouse came out with their own top loading automatic. It was a perforated tub machine that initially did a neutral drain, but they cheap ended it to do a spin drain pretty quickly. Westinghouse went on to make this washer for around eight years before they sold out to white industries and this design disappeared completely.

It’s a shame Westinghouse didn’t invest the money in their front load washer, and improve that instead of wasting the money on this top loader, it was only ever mediocre machine And like all Westinghouse appliances by this time they quality had declined so much they weren’t very reliable.

Westinghouse had some great styling and interesting engineering and features, but they just couldn’t compete with general electric whirlpool and even Frigidaire. They lost the builder market pretty quickly and the only builders that continued to use Westinghouse were lower end builders in the late 60s and early 70s .

John

 

[swestoyz]

The model number for the Easy sourced, first Westinghouse top loader was LTC-27, with C designating the model year of 1962.

Westinghouse's first in house top loader design was LAF-xxx, and I believe the F model year was 1964, if I'm not mistaken.

Ben[this post was last edited: 6/4/2024-10:31]

 

[neptunebob]

Some who worked for Westinghouse...

Thought the front loaders were expensive for them.

Living where Westinghouse had a lot of plants, a number of neighbors could get discounts on Westinghouse appliances and it seemed no one had the WH front loaders. My aunt Mac had one, but she just had to have the best of everything and paid "top dollar" and guilt-tripped people about it. Even the engineers who were making good money (Rudineers in our neighborhood) had the top loader. One had a matching FL set and then the TL when it was replaced.

I think a lot of it is that the FL did not clean kids clothes all that well and the thought was that a TL did a better job.

If you didn't work for Westinghouse, Pittsburgh was a Sears Kenmore town. Well off people had a KitchenAid dishwasher. I seldom saw GE, Frigidaire, or even Whirlpool unless we traveled outside of the area.

 

[gyrafoam]

Robert-------

The early slant-fronts had a reputation for seriously tangling. Also, most detergents and all soaps were high-sudsing back in the day. The conundrum was, if the kids clothes were very dirty, and you needed to add extra detergent, you got sudz-lock and likely still had a tub of suds when the cycle ended. The option was to just wash the load twice, with a regular amount of detergent, which was time-consuming and used more water and detergent. This issue was exacerbated if you lived in a soft-water area.
When the slant-fronts went away, then taller people griped about having to bend down to the floor to see if they had retrieved all of the laundry from the tub at cycles-end. This became a selling point for the top-loaders. Also, before the 1970's, most Americans still used a clothes-line and the lame water extraction of some of the fl's was an issue. The Westy Combo in particular although few people bought them.
The Bendix fl's could extract water at least as good as the tl Kenmore/Whirley's of the day.

Ben------ Those re-badged Easy/Westy tl's must have all died-hard, because I never saw one that I could remember. Have you ever seen one? Anyone have one dead or alive?

 

[Unimatic1140]

Those 2 or so years that Westinghouse used Easy to build their top loaders they contained Easy's Velva-Power transmission. I never like the Velva-Power as it had the abosulte worst designed spin clutch in all of early washer history. It simply used a clutch spring that would lock the brake down solid on the spin shaft when the pulley was turning in the agitation direction. For spin the motor would reverse direction and allow the clutch spring to slip against the spin shaft causing "sympathetic" friction like we see with indexing tub washers. With only this minor slipping spring friction it took the transmission over two full minutes to bring the tub up to full speed (650rpm). While this would have been fine had they put more thought into the timer cycle, but with only a 4 minute final spin the clothes were not properly extracted as well as they should have been. Even Consumer Reports mentioned below average extraction in 1962 about the Easy. I've seen three Velva-power machines and they all did the same thing so I know it was they way it was designed.

 

[swestoyz]

Anyone have one dead or alive?

I imagine that the Westy badged Easys are even more rare than an actual Velva-Power Easy, which in itself would be a speck of dust in a haystack.

 

[combo52]

Reply number five Hi Ben

I saw one of these Westinghouse top load washers built by easy on the junk pile when I worked at the Maytag home Appliance center in the mid 70s, I remember looking at it, but I left it on the junk pile to be recycled.

Since my families first two automatic washers were solid tub machines I never really had much interest in them Ironically they’re a little more energy efficient and maybe they should’ve made them longer.

I only ever saw about two easy machines as well.

When I was in Australia in 1990 we ran across an old beat up laundromat that was still using easy velvet power Washers and we washed our clothing a couple of them.