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Dumb questions

OK, going to spring the question: what is AMP an acronym for? Automatic Maytag what?

And another: why did their first design have that close double tub bolted together like that? Seems like it would fill with sand and debris over time and get nasty. And those exposed bolts would abrade clothes...
 
One hand not talking to the other...

Oh John that's too funny. I've never noticed before that the copy doesn't match the images!

Helicadrive - you're so close. Automatic Maytag Pump. During this time period the dealer could also order in a non pump version, the AM, all the way up through the 101/102 time frame.

The screws that hold the double tubs together are well above the water level. Clothes never actually interface with the screw heads during wash. Also, the two tubs can acquire a sediment buildup between them. Maytag tried to solve for this on the later versions of the AMP machines (102/140) by creating baffles between the two tubs to eject the sediment during spin.

Ben
 
Not Dumb questions

AMP stood for Automatic Machine with P for Pump. The gravity drain model was AM. The 100%  of the time lid switch was to provide a water level metering system  because of the construction of the machine which was essentially a solid tub machine when most manufacturers of solid tub machines used a timed fill which Maytag would eventually use in the 104 bol automatic without the clunky lid switches or agitator float so just the wringer washer agitator.

 

As to why they built the machines this way, I don't know and I don't know anyone who knows. Yes, they were terrible at sand disposal. Early CU reports show the machine with the perforated tub removed and the the sand sitting in the tub that holds the water. I remember neighbors coming home from a lake with a beach and running the girl's swimsuits through several warm rinses in their AMP before giving up and just deciding to hang them to dry and once dry shaking the sand out. Maytag claimed to have one tub for the clothes and one for the dirt, but unfortunately, the heavy dirt tended to stay in the tub for the dirt.

 

As others have suggested, maybe the lid switch arrangement was a way of hiding the pathetic washing action from buyers who thought that they were getting the same washing action in the automatic as they got in the wringer machines, which had very good washing action. Robert calls this a "Forbidden Cycle." Unfortunately, the same Gyrafoam agitator that worked so well in the wide tubs of the wringer machines was not the ticket for the narrow tubs of their automatics, made narrower by having the two tubs bolted together, but the red agitator and white tub looked so good on the sales floor. Consumer's Research Bulletin in an early test estimated the usable capacity of the machine to be 5 lbs.

 

About abrading clothes, the bolts were not needed for that. Many older Maytags, even beyond the AMP machines, showed the wear on the fabrics in the area of the tub opposite the high fins of the Gyrator or Lint Filter Agitator as it later was called. When heavily loaded, the turnover was so poor that the load was dragged back and forth especially in the zone of the fins. The fabrics, over the years, would wear the top white coat of porcelain away exposing the blue base coat of the tub on the tub opposite the fins.

[this post was last edited: 4/23/2019-10:49]
 
The Maytag AMP washers may have had bugs in the design, but most of them were gone by the time Maytag came out with the new design in 1958 or 1959, and yes there may have been a bug or two in that design, but Maytag pretty much kept the same design from that point on since it was very simple, and provided many years of trouble free service.
 
Tomturbomatic

I agree wholeheaetedly Maytags DO last but I have owned 5 of them Every one a terrible lemon, I have yet to own one you didn't have to babysit, they stayed out of balance and shut off, the last one I tried got out of balance and didn't shut off and tore a one foot hole in the vinyl..that did it .
 
Vinyl What?My Mom used Maytags for many years-not a lick of trouble from them.The "Maytag" VMW washer I have now is the one you have to babysit.Have to arrange things in it manually or it fills again and tries to rebalance-then tries again and again until YOU intervene.I would LOVE to have an older Maytag machine over the "whirltag" contraption I have now-At this point the DD machines weren't so bad.At least they could take care of themselves without help.
 
Growing up . . .

. . . we had a Maytag AMP machine. Our first automatic which replaced a Thor Automagic. That AMP lasted 16 years doing laundry for a family of five.

And it lasted through my tinkering when I discovered how easily the thick top would come apart. And there were the tubes with electrical connections and mercury inside that made the machine operate. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Jerry Gay
 

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