I think the L110 is one of the two most beautifully styled Laundromats every produced!!
Westinghouse Laundry Brochure 1958
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The dryer shut off at 250 degrees F., completely off with a drum of clothes at 250 degrees. Talk about too hot to handle. That's like trying to handle things out of a Filtrator without letting it go through the cool-down.
A great brochure!
my 'Program Computer' dryer sends its thanks for this brochure!
Can anybody tell me what year it is?...I looks newer than the 59's, but younger than the 63's..
my 'Program Computer' dryer sends its thanks for this brochure!
Can anybody tell me what year it is?...I looks newer than the 59's, but younger than the 63's..
gfm8959
Well-known member
Wash and Dry Laundromat
This would SEEM to be an ingenious idea. Why didn't they ever catch on? Does anyone here own one?
This would SEEM to be an ingenious idea. Why didn't they ever catch on? Does anyone here own one?
Nice brochure - and beautiful machines.
Remember these machines that were on ebay a couple of years ago? What a pair they were!
Remember these machines that were on ebay a couple of years ago? What a pair they were!
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I had a WD-3 Wash & Dry Laundromat, now residing in Maryland. It was a fun machine to play with for a while but it was a pretty abysmal performer.
combos : automatic wash plus dry cycle
"Why didn't they ever catch on?"
Combos can wash and dry automatically in a single cycle only half loads, cause while drying it is necessary at least the double of place than while washing.
If you want to wash a full load, at the end of wash you have to divide the load into two batches.
So a separate washer and dryer work faster than a combo and manage a double amount of laundry in the same time.
not to mention that at those times some toploaders span @ about 1000 rpm while Westies span @ 300 rpm . This made a remarkable difference in drying times.
Modern combos can spin even @ 1600 rpm but always have the "bottleneck" of the double drying cycle
"Why didn't they ever catch on?"
Combos can wash and dry automatically in a single cycle only half loads, cause while drying it is necessary at least the double of place than while washing.
If you want to wash a full load, at the end of wash you have to divide the load into two batches.
So a separate washer and dryer work faster than a combo and manage a double amount of laundry in the same time.
not to mention that at those times some toploaders span @ about 1000 rpm while Westies span @ 300 rpm . This made a remarkable difference in drying times.
Modern combos can spin even @ 1600 rpm but always have the "bottleneck" of the double drying cycle
The main reason the combination washer-dryers failed was that Aviation Corporation which owned Bendix and all of the patents they developed, patented the concept of the combination AND, most importantly, patented suspending the inside mechanism that needs to move to properly absorb the vibration and dynamic forces during spining. This meant that manufacturers who marketed a combo had to pay royalties to AVCO for each machine sold and were also prevented from designing a machine that could effectively spin at high enough speeds to remove as much water as a separate washing machine before the drying process began. So after the expense of designing a new machine, part of the money that could be used to redesign improvements is taken away in royalties. Then a promising market is dealt a fatal blow by the machines that don't perform efficiently and often need service because of primitive mechanical technology, like the water seal for the heater box in the Westinghouse combo that Greg wrote about. The material available for the seal at the time could not withstand the high temperatures to which it was subjected. When that combo was in use, the seal became damaged by the heat during the drying, allowed water to leak into the heater box which rusted out and needed to be relaced. Unfortunately, at the time, there were not better materials for the seals. This is just one aspect of the types of problems they encountered. The best combos were the early Bendix and the 36" wide Philco combos. Avco poisoned the well for other manufacturers and in so doing, damaged the reputation of all combos, even their own later machines. Of course, AVCO did not care. They sold off Bendix Appliances to Philco which was later bought by Ford Motor Company. AVCO was only interested in Bendix because of Bendix Radio which they needed for airplanes. They bought Bendix, used it, helped it, held it long enough to be able to break it apart to get what AVCO wanted and got rid of the rest. That is why it seems so stupid in retrospect that Whirlpool did not buy Bendix. They would have been able to put a fully functional combo as well as tumbler washers in Sears stores and the history of laundry machines in this country would have been far different than it is. The Bendix Duomatic was a remarkably simple machine as were the Bendix tumbler washers. With nation-wide distribution and service, which Bendix never really had, front loading washers would have had a huge market share and probably challenged the supremacy of top loaders in the industry.
Front Loading Washing vs Drying
Require two different tub sizes for their different purposes.
In order for the average size wash load to dry in a tumble dryer, it requires a vastly larger drum than what it took to wash. So unless one under loads the washing machine, and or removes part of the load, drying results will be poor with combo units.
Aside from small apartment dwellers and or others living in close quarters, an automatic or washing machine was more important than a clothes dryer. Up until rather recently it was rather common to see laundry hung on clothes lines, draped along terraces and such in any urban area. Indeed in parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world things are still done that way. It is really only the wealthy USA where mod cons are easily had that the practice died out. Well that in zoning and or other local laws drove consumers to laundromats or to find other arrangements.
Even in Europe most consumer reporting magazines do not give very high ratings to most modern combination washer/dryer units.
Require two different tub sizes for their different purposes.
In order for the average size wash load to dry in a tumble dryer, it requires a vastly larger drum than what it took to wash. So unless one under loads the washing machine, and or removes part of the load, drying results will be poor with combo units.
Aside from small apartment dwellers and or others living in close quarters, an automatic or washing machine was more important than a clothes dryer. Up until rather recently it was rather common to see laundry hung on clothes lines, draped along terraces and such in any urban area. Indeed in parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world things are still done that way. It is really only the wealthy USA where mod cons are easily had that the practice died out. Well that in zoning and or other local laws drove consumers to laundromats or to find other arrangements.
Even in Europe most consumer reporting magazines do not give very high ratings to most modern combination washer/dryer units.
The American machines were very large at first and while they had drums that, in some cases, were 24 inches in diameter, they were compromised compared to the size of most dryer drums. They washed better than tumbler washers because the drum was bigger, but the drums were not as large as most dryers of the time. I have seen good tumbling during drying in most of the vintage combos I have used. I satisfactorily washed and dried a full set of king size bedding in both my 52 Duomatic and my 29" Lady Kenmore combo. The king size bedding washes and dries fine in a GE combo and in the big 33" WP combo and the similar Kenmore combo from the late 50s. When I had my 27" wide Philco Duomatic, I dried the bottom fitted sheet and the pillow cases in one load and the top sheet by itself, but all were washed together. When the combos were invented, the average washer load size was between 5 and 10 pounds. Even the Halo of Heat dryers were designed for the smaller tub Maytag washers. The capacity of the big combos was greater than the small machines from overseas marketed today and many easily handled 8 pound loads from start to finish. In spite of the poor water extraction in all but the Bendix machines, the fact that the vintage combos used 230 volt heating elements or gas for heat during the drying part of the operation, meant they were still faster than today's 115 volt combos with better water extraction.
