Vintage Amana washer dryer set questions

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2 minute pause between cycles

This is normal. Before a machine can go into spin a half dozen contacts must open and close in the correct sequence. Typically the pressure switch bypass contact must close first, the motor run contact must then open, both wash fill contacts must open after that, and then the first motor reversing contact must break from the line side of the timer bus and afterwards make contact with the neutral side of the timer bus, then the second motor reversing contact must break contact from the neutral side of the timer bus and then make contact with the line side of the timer bus. Finally the motor run contact must close. All this must take place in the correct sequence with a broad enough timer increment to assure everything opened and closed in the right order, in full fashion. For example if the motor run contact closed before both reversing contacts had the opportunity to close into their respected polarities the motor would just hum for several seconds before the motor's thermal protector trips out. The pause is essential in assuring the correct switching sequence is not left up to chance. 
 
@dadoes: Most likely I did- that would be my mistake. 
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This is where my ignorance shows. Can you fill me on how WP/KM did Type 1 and Type 2 Cool Downs?
 
 
Early Wash-n-Wear, begins at 26:15.  Lower water level and/or faster fill rate would possibly garner more than two water changes, although user instructions (WP and KM) advised to always use a high fill.  The cool down refill levels are too high, apparently a glitch with the pressure switch.  This cycle is Super Wash-n-Wear which includes a prewash, pause, partial drain and refill into the main wash period.


Kenmore Perm Press version, four two-minute timer increments.  Begins at 15:02.  First increment drain, refill begins *with* (low) agitation on pressure switch reset, which I believe was unique to KM, never saw a WP agitate during the refill.  Second increment agitation (and timer) stops, fill continues until the target level is reached, agitation and timer resume.  Third and fourth increments are a repeat of first and second.  Whirlpool was a double cool down except pause for remainder of the drain period (first & third increments), refill didn't begin until the timer advanced (second and fourth increment).


Begins at 7:35, this is the same as the above but water pressure is high so the target fill level is reached *before* the first (and third) increments advance which triggers drain to resume until the timer advances, which isn't long enough to reset the pressure switch again, so the water level is lower when agitation resumes on the second and fourth increments.  Note that it isn't intended to function that way.  The fill level is also a bit low (pressure switch needs adjustment) which, along with the high water pressure, is the reason it happens.


Begins at 15:10, a Kenmore (or WP) single-stage cool down (both with no agitation until after refill) when water conservation steps came into play on belt-drives.  Whirlpool models with a dedicated Knits cycle did the single-stage on it, even earlier when PP was double.  Direct-drives also did a single agitated cool down on Perm Press until further water reduction eliminated a drain/refill cool down for a spin spray.
 
I forgot about these cool down variants!  Thank you for posting them.

 

 

BTW- I love the cool down and the sprays in the first rinse. I forgot these had essentially two different types of cool downs
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When can modern washers be like this again?
 
Amana update

Ok, just wanted to give an update on the Amana washer/dryer combo. They have been sitting idle in my garage for over a month now while I do some home renovations on my new fixer upper house and especially the bathroom where these two units will reside.

The washer needed some new belts so I went ahead and ordered . the two needed thanks to the helps of the folks here. Pretty easy job to loosen the tension adjustment mounts, slip the old cracked belts off and put the new ones on. I also lubricated the idler bearing on the main tub drive with a few drops of oil for good measure (hard to reach, but managed to deposit a few drops of oil onto it).

As for the dryer, I followed your guys advice and looked under the hood. I took off the front panel and then the duct that funneled air from the removable lint filter to the blower fan. Glad I did because as you can see it had quite a bit of built-up lint inside. Broke out the shop vac and thoroughly cleaned the entire insides best I could get the vacuum nozzle into the guts. The motor and pulley and belt seemed pretty inaccessible buried deep behind the drum. Kinda looked like I'd have to remove the entire sheet metal box enclosure to get to it.

Didn't want to deal with that hassle, so I looked for another way. I could see there was only one little bolt holding the exhaust vent onto the back so I took that off and voila - a nice hole in the back of the dryer that provided a "window' into the inner workings inside.

The belt looked fair to ok, not really sure because it was hard to see clearly from that angle. The idler seemed ok, and as per ya'lls advice, I lubricated it with a few drops of oil (again hard to get to completely, but did the best I could). I stuck the vacuum nozzle and hose deep inside and removed as much residual lint as possible. Overall looked pretty clean and orderly when I was done. The drum spun freely and quietly, everything looked great (the previous owner said it always worked fantastic). I turned it on after reassembly and it seemed to purr like a kitten. Heated right up too, in just 2-3 minutes it got hot inside. So the dryer seems to good to go.

After that I used my hand truck/dolly and wheeled both units into their permanent home. Hooked up hoses and drain line and now we're all set for our next load of laundry. The wife just did a load just 2 days ago at the laundry mat, so we'll have to wait a little while before the christening wash and dry cycle. Looking forward to it and possibly adding some sound insulation to the washer after getting an acoustic baseline in situ.

Thanks to all for the tremendous advice and assistance in figuring this set out. Presheate it dudes!

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Amana - Speed Queen, washer and dryer

Glad you’re getting these all in shape. Hope you get some good use out of them, when you service the dryer, you just take the front off and then the front shroud off and the whole drum just lifts out allowing access to the motor idler and rear rollers it would be great if you could get a few drops of on both rear roller shafts as well. Other than that I think you’ll get some good use out of these.

John
 
Thanks John! Ahhh I should've known, the whole drum just pops out! Darned, I was thinking there had to be an easier way to get to the motor and pulley system. Well at least now if something does go wrong with it, I'll know how to deal with it next time. Thank you so much again for the tips and expert advice, this website is an awesome resource.
 
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