Washers and Dryers of ALL AGES!!

[ericarose]

So I'm working on a design project for my internship and I'm comparing washers and dryers from all decades and discussing about how the design has evolved. I came across a few pictures from this site and thought you guys would be great people to ask. You guys really know your washers and dryers! If you guys could help me out that would be great.

If you guys have Maytag, Whirlpool, GE, or Kenmore washers and dryers that are from the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s, would you be able to post them on this thread for me? I got a few good 1960 and 1970 models. Information about year, brand, and maybe the model if available, would help extremely. Thanks so much!!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thank you for choosing washers and dryers and for visiting u

If you want to talk about design evolution, you want to start with the 50s. Then you can show how design went from really inspired with the goal of attracting buyers to a new appliance with automobile-inspired design that changed every year up through the 80s and 90s and beyond when, for the most part, washers and dryers are just another fixture in the domestic environment.

 

[maytagbear]

Tom is absolutely correct.

 

Washer design in the 50s was creative in a way that diminished by the 70s, and is utterly unknown today.  Someone, I am sure, will post the Kenmore "frog eye" design washer or dryer.  Also, there are design classics, which have never been improved upon, like the centre dial Maytag, and the less aesthetically satisfying (at least to me-) centre dial Kenmore.  And you really should pay attention to GM Frigidaire.  They were exceptionally stylish, with the "clamshell" design control panel, and other designs that no other manufacturer ever attempted.  However, modern Frigidaire is not a part of GM, but is a division of Electrolux, and their current designs rate a big "meh."

 

 

Good luck, and please let us know what you think and find.

 

 

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[goatfarmer]

Center dial Maytag set, probably late 70's. Maytag kept this basic design from about 1966, til the late 70's

 

[combo52]

WASHER AND DRYER STYLES

Automatic washers and dryers [ like automobiles ] went through an annual restyling almost every year from the early 1950s- most of the 1970s. Maytag [ like Volkswagen same poor performance also] probably did the least restyling over this time period. Manufactures started to come to thier senses as the energy crisis evolved in the 1970s and now as with automobiles the annual restyle is pretty much a thing of the past. However all this restyling and competition to be the newest and best appliance makes these three decades very exciting to us appliance collectors. Feel free to get in touch with me if you would like more information about this period of appliance design and what has happened in the following decades.

 

[strongenough78]

Probably the most beautiful set from the 50's would have to be the 57 Frigidaire Control Tower Unimatic. I'll see if I can round up a picture for you.

 

[strongenough78]

Ok here's a link to a previous thread of Robert, our Webmaster, his control towers. They're both washers, one a Unimatic the other the Pulsamatic. I know there are pics of a CT washer dryer set somewhere. I'll keep looking.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?12504

 

[arbilab]

Cynical but true I think:

The further we got from post-WW2 engineering, the more emphasis shifted from performance and reliability towards cheapness of manufacture. Major brands stuck with the same 'works' and restyled the cabinet and controls, adding cycles, speeds, temps. But nothing really changed until the 'energy star' thing happened. When was that, the 90s?

At which time cheapness of manufacture was still paramount, but the 'works' also got a redesign. Sometimes successful, sometimes not, in terms of longterm usability. Like the early electronic control modules with chronic failures and 5-year mechanics (seals and bearings) when we were accustomed to 15 years.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Another way of looking at this

It is true that when something is first made, it is made heavier than it needs to be because engineers are not exactly certain of the stresses that will be placed on the machine as a whole or on the various components. Then, when they see how things hold up, they can begin to consider if money could be saved by using less steel here and going with another material there. One of the areas of greatest change in early washers was the burgeoning field of plastics which really began rapid development after WWII. Corrosion of metal parts in early washers was a problem that led to early failure, especially with the highly alkaline detergents in use at the time. Pumps and suds valves were made of pot metal which corroded very easily. Maytag's poly pump was a great advance in extending the dependability of a washing machine as well as dishwashers as John told us about the early WP dws.

As far as advances in the machines' performance and functioning, it is remarkable to consider that by the late 50s when two speeds and hot, warm and cold water temperatures were available across the washer spectrum, washers offered all that was really needed for laundering any fabric for the next half century. The basic cycles used today were set in the TOL programmed machines. Yes capacity was increased starting in the early 60s and in the mid 70s Kenmore introduced the Dual Action Agitator, but that only helped was larger loads cleaner. A properly loaded washer with a regular agitator still washed well to the point that CU stated in a test that all of the washers they tested washed clothes well.

With dryers, by 1957 or so, all of the major brands had gone to the low temperature-high airflow method of drying still in use in dryers today. Wash'n Wear cycles offering a 10 minute cooldown after reaching the temperature needed to remove wrinkles from fabrics are still seen in today's Permanent Press drying cycles. Dryers became simpler when manufacturers discovered they could rotate the drum by running the belt around it instead of using the two belt three pulley speed reduction system. WP greatly improved their drying efficiency with the introduction of the solid bulkhead drum in the mid 60s and a few years later, the system for keeping wrinkles from developing in freshly dried permanent press loads was a great advance, especially for people whose dryers were not in the living area so the end of cycle signal might not be heard when a load was done. Capacity increased to keep up with the loads coming from larger washers. Some newer dryer designs were problematic when metal of insufficient strength was used for the drum or when the bearings and slide systems were not of the best quality or the blower for the large capacity dryer was the same size as the blower for the standard capacity dryer, but other advances such as redesigning heating elements to let them run cooler and thus last longer have improved dryer dependability and longevity.

 

[ericarose]

thanks!

Thanks everyone! I'm finding some really nice pictures of older models and its neat to see how the design of washers and dryers have changed over time.

 

[ericarose]

Photo Album

The other day I came across a place on this website that had people's photo albums with photos of washers and dryers. I can't seem to find it again. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

 

[ericarose]

nevermind!!

Nevermind....found them!

 

[Pink]

Evolution of Design

You might want to look at the manufacture's ads in the magazines of the times. These are readily available on eBay (and usually reproduced well enough that you can peruse them without having to buy them) and give you a good idea of what manufacturers thought were the best selling points of their lines.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparms=65%3A16%7C66%3A4%7C39%3A1&rt=nc&_nkw=vintage+washer+ad

 

[philr]

And you can also look for ads on Google books. Just type the year range, select "full view" and type the different manufacturer names. You can zoom ads to see many details.

 

And I'd suggest having a look at other brands than Maytag, Whirlpool/Kenmore and GE too as some brands had unique designs which stopped being produced before the eighties. Some brands like Kelvinator, Philco and GM Frigidaire had a unique washing action, quite different from anything that's available today.

 

If you're not familiar with them, have a look on YouTube, some members of this forum sent videos of their washers in action.

 

For example, my GM Frigidaire washers:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rivgs67#p/u/12/Vstdh8_2vDc