autowasherfreak
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I know what most of you think about today's front loading washers, but what about the front loaders of yesteryear? Were they better than todays?
Today's Pic of The Day
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IMO, yes.
They used plenty of water------what a concept.
I think the Bendix machines were the best of the best.
They used plenty of water------what a concept.
I think the Bendix machines were the best of the best.
autowasherfreak
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I would like to find a Whirlpool front loading combo like Roberts. I watched the short video of it and thought it might be a good machine to have, but probably hard as heck to find one. I've also seen the video of the Bendix as well. I like my Frigidaire front loader with the exception of washing whites. Unless I run them through a soak cycle with a a half cup of bleach, they tend to smell funny after they are wet.
programcomputer
Well-known member
Were they better than todays?
Well,
My gran had this machine, or the LBB 30 which had no bleach dispenser in the top, and come to think of it...had no dispenser at all IIRC. Someplace i still have the repair master they used to use with notes in it describing what they did to her machine over the years. I't either buried in a box ,or I've lost it along the way.... Anyhoo... She owned this Laundromat along with the matching dryer for quite some time and was very pleased with them for what they were. When I asked her about them years later, she said that she got her set on sale, thru some promotion Westinghouse was having to clear out the 1963's. And back then with the discounts, and his emp. discount the Laundromat was actually cheaper than the Maytag automatic she wanted to have. Her only major beef was that occasionally the washer would drip water on the floor, and that sometimes things came out in a tangled ball. Things I came to understand when I had my SpaceMates set in the late 1990's.
She had a Maytag master Wringer washer before this. My grandad after putting his hand thru the wringer INSISTED on getting her this set, and he was working part time as a sales person for Eshtruth's, the hometown appliance store where my dads family is from...
My grandfather always worked part time, and for one year only later "full time" selling by then White-Westinghouse and Maytag and General Electric in our hometown of Grand Ledge Michigan. He stopped working for the State of Michigan in 1983, and then entirely in 1984 retiring from Eschtruth's when he decided he had enough saved to do so.
My gran always used to my knowledge, and she told me either Rinso, Occasionally Tide, but later when I was around to see things going about, she was using the huge drum full o Amway laundry powder that smelled lemony, and that CHEAP pink TopCrest Fabric Conditioner. She also used Cling Free dryer sheets as well. Before my grandad was done working, they had replaced the Westy's, as the washer kept having issues, and leaked pretty good by then with a MOL Maytag Fabric Matic Set. The dryer she said still worked properly but she chose to get all new becasue grandad kinda convinced her to do so....
I asked her WHY she did not get a current set of White-Westinghouses Fl's which they were selling right along with the others, and she said, she had enough years of bending over dragging stuff out the little hole. And also she remarked that the Maytag set was actually cheaper then the then current W-W-house Fl's. I found that last part hard to believe.
I have many fond memories of that washer, and just love when it comes up for pic of the day....
An interesting sidenote is: When they built their new house in 1961-62, they equipped the whole kitchen with General Electric built ins. The stove and cooktop were built in as was the refridgerator. Or the way the walls were built around it, it appeared built in as well. Suprisingly they had a General Electric full size, yet portable dishwasher, instead of a built in one. It was an Americana series all in Coppertone or Coppertan wheatever the color was called by GE. She stated to me that she would not loose one ounce of cupboard space for a dishwasher, and that's why they opted for the portable. She used that dishwasher until she died in 2004. End
Chad
Ann Arbor Michigan
Well,
My gran had this machine, or the LBB 30 which had no bleach dispenser in the top, and come to think of it...had no dispenser at all IIRC. Someplace i still have the repair master they used to use with notes in it describing what they did to her machine over the years. I't either buried in a box ,or I've lost it along the way.... Anyhoo... She owned this Laundromat along with the matching dryer for quite some time and was very pleased with them for what they were. When I asked her about them years later, she said that she got her set on sale, thru some promotion Westinghouse was having to clear out the 1963's. And back then with the discounts, and his emp. discount the Laundromat was actually cheaper than the Maytag automatic she wanted to have. Her only major beef was that occasionally the washer would drip water on the floor, and that sometimes things came out in a tangled ball. Things I came to understand when I had my SpaceMates set in the late 1990's.
She had a Maytag master Wringer washer before this. My grandad after putting his hand thru the wringer INSISTED on getting her this set, and he was working part time as a sales person for Eshtruth's, the hometown appliance store where my dads family is from...
My grandfather always worked part time, and for one year only later "full time" selling by then White-Westinghouse and Maytag and General Electric in our hometown of Grand Ledge Michigan. He stopped working for the State of Michigan in 1983, and then entirely in 1984 retiring from Eschtruth's when he decided he had enough saved to do so.
My gran always used to my knowledge, and she told me either Rinso, Occasionally Tide, but later when I was around to see things going about, she was using the huge drum full o Amway laundry powder that smelled lemony, and that CHEAP pink TopCrest Fabric Conditioner. She also used Cling Free dryer sheets as well. Before my grandad was done working, they had replaced the Westy's, as the washer kept having issues, and leaked pretty good by then with a MOL Maytag Fabric Matic Set. The dryer she said still worked properly but she chose to get all new becasue grandad kinda convinced her to do so....
I asked her WHY she did not get a current set of White-Westinghouses Fl's which they were selling right along with the others, and she said, she had enough years of bending over dragging stuff out the little hole. And also she remarked that the Maytag set was actually cheaper then the then current W-W-house Fl's. I found that last part hard to believe.
I have many fond memories of that washer, and just love when it comes up for pic of the day....
An interesting sidenote is: When they built their new house in 1961-62, they equipped the whole kitchen with General Electric built ins. The stove and cooktop were built in as was the refridgerator. Or the way the walls were built around it, it appeared built in as well. Suprisingly they had a General Electric full size, yet portable dishwasher, instead of a built in one. It was an Americana series all in Coppertone or Coppertan wheatever the color was called by GE. She stated to me that she would not loose one ounce of cupboard space for a dishwasher, and that's why they opted for the portable. She used that dishwasher until she died in 2004. End
Chad
Ann Arbor Michigan
mikepaquette
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I am sure they were
We have a set 8 years old & they are so tinney compared to the vintage ones. Not happy with todays appliances. Quality is all gone Mike
We have a set 8 years old & they are so tinney compared to the vintage ones. Not happy with todays appliances. Quality is all gone Mike
easyspindry
Well-known member
Older front loaders
The Bendix and Westinghouse front loaders of years gone by used a good deal more water for washing and rinsing than the front loaders do today; but at the same time, they used a great deal less water than the top loaders of that day.
The Bendix had no suspension system, therefore had to be bolted to the floor to keep from running around the room. I can remember the whole house shaking, dishes in the cabinet rattling when it would spin if it was bolted to a wooden floor.
The Bendix spin was pitiful, but nobody cared. You could put in a load of laundry and go about your business while the automatic did the work as opposed to having the put the clothes through a wringer and rinse them in wash tubs and then wring them again.
The Bendix wash action was great. The clothes tumbled through the water, were lifted and dropped into the soapy water.
The fact that the Westinghouse tub was slanted caused the clothes to be badly tangled. They would be lifted and dropped into the water, but at the same time churned in a circle much like batter in a mixing bowl; thus the tangling.
Both of these vintage front loaders did a wonderful job, but on much smaller loads. They were great machines.
The Bendix and Westinghouse front loaders of years gone by used a good deal more water for washing and rinsing than the front loaders do today; but at the same time, they used a great deal less water than the top loaders of that day.
The Bendix had no suspension system, therefore had to be bolted to the floor to keep from running around the room. I can remember the whole house shaking, dishes in the cabinet rattling when it would spin if it was bolted to a wooden floor.
The Bendix spin was pitiful, but nobody cared. You could put in a load of laundry and go about your business while the automatic did the work as opposed to having the put the clothes through a wringer and rinse them in wash tubs and then wring them again.
The Bendix wash action was great. The clothes tumbled through the water, were lifted and dropped into the soapy water.
The fact that the Westinghouse tub was slanted caused the clothes to be badly tangled. They would be lifted and dropped into the water, but at the same time churned in a circle much like batter in a mixing bowl; thus the tangling.
Both of these vintage front loaders did a wonderful job, but on much smaller loads. They were great machines.
I also had a Westy in the 80s. I purchased a top of the line White-Westinghous front loader in May 1985. It used more water than the front loaders of today. It had pushbuttons on the console to set the water temp. You could also adjust the water level. Also had a fabric softner & bleach dispensers on top I had those machines for more than 20 years and never had an issue with them. How I miss them!
hilovane
Well-known member
I like my Asko a lot, despite the fact that, unlike the old Bendix and Westinghouse machines of yesteryear, the Asko doesn't have a spray or deep rinse; it has a minimum five tumble rinses (with an option for two more) on any regular cycle. I notice that for its Wool/Handwash cycle, it uses the ammount of water that should be used for a final rinse (this cycle can work quite effectively as a soak cycle).
My point is, if these newer "green" washers had a spray rinse after the wash cycle, and used one deep rinse (instead of several rinses using less than half the ammount of water), then they'd quite likely be able to run in a shorter ammount of time (total cycle) without using any more water than they are now.
My point is, if these newer "green" washers had a spray rinse after the wash cycle, and used one deep rinse (instead of several rinses using less than half the ammount of water), then they'd quite likely be able to run in a shorter ammount of time (total cycle) without using any more water than they are now.
My LG front loader is not a "cookie-cutter" machine. I can honestly say it's the best cleaning, most efficient washer I've ever used in this country (an old Miele in France was better--you could set it to boil laundry, and because it ran on 220V, it was much faster). Maybe because it was such a new model both to LG and to the market, it was built with the same attention to detail and overall quality that many of the vintage machines we cherish featured.I also appreciated that the designers at LG had the good idea to feature many models, like mine, that have the look of vintage machines with a back splash and computer controls that are large, easy to read and laid out like the old machines were. It has the best dispensing system I've ever used or seen. Is it as colorful or as much fun to own or to watch as it works as the vintage models, no. But it's the only washing machine I've ever known, in this country where I can, truly, "set it and forget it". and even then I've figured out how to "customize" cycles and defeat certain protocols in the programs.
hilovane
Well-known member
Did you know that that now that LG model (or one similar to it)is available at Sears under the Kenmore badge?
electron800
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One question about Westinghouse Laundromats
I know the original Bendix machiens had a 300rpm spin speed, but I'm sure I heard on here that the Westinghouse machines had something like a 180rpm spin! Is this true? If so, how dry do they leave the clothes?
Also what was the top speed of the later White-westinghouse front loaders of the 80s up to the mid-90s?
Thanks
Matt
I know the original Bendix machiens had a 300rpm spin speed, but I'm sure I heard on here that the Westinghouse machines had something like a 180rpm spin! Is this true? If so, how dry do they leave the clothes?
Also what was the top speed of the later White-westinghouse front loaders of the 80s up to the mid-90s?
Thanks
Matt
ronhic
Well-known member
Keymatic...
My aunt had a Keymatic from 1966/7 ish until she replaced it with a Hoover Zodiac 475 in about 1984. She loved that machine and actually cried when it was replaced, but she had been quoted a rather large sum to sort out age related problems (bearings and a water leak).
My aunt had a Keymatic from 1966/7 ish until she replaced it with a Hoover Zodiac 475 in about 1984. She loved that machine and actually cried when it was replaced, but she had been quoted a rather large sum to sort out age related problems (bearings and a water leak).
