What Leaves YOU Cold?

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danemodsandy

danemodsandy

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Joined
Dec 6, 2006
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I thought I'd stir up a little polite controversy here, by asking what vintage machines people don't like? By that, I mean, what do you see other people here rave about - and you can't get interested in to save your life? I do not intend for this to be a bashing thread, just one where people can't get excited about machines other people love.

With me, it's G.E.s - nice machines, my aunt swore by them, I never had a bad experience with one. But I can't work up any affection for them, and it's strange, because I love G.E. ranges and reefers. The console styling doesn't do anything for me (in any generation), and I never cared for the Filter-Flo.

This group has taught me to appreciate many different kinds of machines, even if I wouldn't want to own all the ones I enjoy seeing. A Unimatic, for instance, is a machine that belongs in the hands of a mechanically inclined owner who has the patience and the pockets to chase down HTF parts. I enjoy seeing them, but I wouldn't be the right owner for one.

Anyway, what don't you covet, and within the bounds of civil discourse, why?
 
I personally don't like ANY of today's toploaders, except Speed Queen. Today's front loaders also leave me cold. Two drops of water, dinking around till they finally spin, short lives. Speed Queen front loaders are the exception , They are built like a mac truck, spin easily and last. However, I would HAVE to raise their water level up about 2 1/2 gallons per fill to make me happy.WCI really DID ruin Frigidaire. I loath WCI- Frigidaires.
 
Vintage!

I think we can all pretty much agree on today's toploaders, and a lot of us are not fans of current frontloaders. What I meant was, what VINTAGE machines don't people care for?
 
OK, I for one am not singing "we're off to see the WIZARD" as in the 1950s ones. Frigidaire, Maytag, Speed Queen, Kelvinator, and others have the Wizard beat by a mile. The Hotpoints started to ugly out in the seventies when they went to a perforated tub. The JC Penney version was to me especially gawdy.
 
The anemic spin of BD KM/WP washers. They were so close to being perfect in almost every other way.

Maytag AMP machines. Astonishingly crude, even for that time.

The WCI acquisition and subsequent destruction of Frigidaire.

The Norge, Halo of Lint positive airflow dryer

Cheap GE dishwashers, contractor grade, that lacked food particle filters

And the vintage appliance horror of all horrors, the Philco-Bendix Squeeze-o-Matic rubber tub washer. What were they thinking?!?!?
 
I don't like center dial Maytags. They are everywhere, like the Plague. I think they're ugly. I also don't like those 80's Kenmores, or White Consolidated machines. Which ever ones those are. The ones with the black control panel with timer to the right side and various knobs to the left. You know the ones. I also do not like gas dryers. For some reason I do not want my dryer to be gas. The only things gas I want are Furnace and Stove.

I base my taste in antique appliances by appearance only. Not performance. If they look good to me, then that's that.

The only vintage washers and dryers I like are:

57 Frigidaires, 55-56 Kelvinators. And I own NONE of them. I wish I did. (wink wink)

~Tim
 
So true Rinso, the rubber-tub Philco Bendix RUINED their reputation. They were awful! I would love to play with one however since they are so weird! And I have always lamented cheapy contractor GE dishwashers with their filterless design. Talk about redeposition city.If they could sing, they'd proclaim "Yibbles n Bits ,Yibbles n Bits, I've got to spit out some Yibbles n Bits".
 
Rubber-Tub Bendix

Oh, brother. My mom's first washer was one of those, and it was semi-automatic, not fully automatic. She absolutely hated the thing, and I honestly believe the Bendix knew it. It fought back with a malevolence that you had to have seen first-hand to believe. When its hinky rubber tub gave way, she told my dad to find her something - anything - else. He obliged her with a '51 Kenmore that he found through someone at work. That machine had its own problems (it was very used when we got it), but it was nothing like the floods and other hassles of the Bendix. BTW, we also had a Bendix dryer, and getting shocked by it was a very common experience. Dad (an electrician) never could find out the root cause of the problem, either. Eventually he found the mate to the '51 Kennie, and we had those machines for several years.
 
I did'n't care for the Top loading Kenmore/Whirlpools,Wizard,Easy,solid tub SQ's,or Westinghouse.Compairing them to the Kelvinator,Norge,Frigidaire,Philco Bendix,Apex and ABC top loaders,which,I believe to be the best brands back then,is like the difference between clean and dirty clothes.

While the first set above would swish the clothes around,back and forth,the later set would have your wash realy washed.Thoroughly rinsed and spun out.

I now love Maytag's older machines but,due to my youth's innocent ignorance and dissapointment not being able to actualy see them operate due to that damned rear lid switch,I was not able to realy see them work.Now that I finaly figured it out back in the 70's,I have aquired a nice,joy in restoring them and watching the beauty of their design and performance along with the charactoristics they have.The two I got today are pretty rock solid and very quiet considering their age.All the lettering on the dials and buttons is intact and very ledgeable.

MAYTAG-------The Dependability People.

However,the Hamiltons and Franklins,I believe are,and always will be my least favorite.
 
New front loaders at the laundromat......

I had a lot of laundry built up and since my W/D set is in storage due to no hook ups in my apartment, I had to go to the laundromat. The brand new front loaders they had there finished the complete cycle in only 14 minutes! Now as much as I don't like front loaders, I do prefer the ones that take 30 minutes or more when I absolutely need to use one. I prefer the 2 wash and 3 rinses so I know my clothes are free of soap residue. Needless to say I won't be using them again. And the spins seemed to be slower than any others I've used, or that are even advertized for home use.
 
I'm gonnna have to be completely oposite of Tim

I don't really care as much about styling as performance and results, that's why we all have different tastes and why various appliances appealed to various people and that's why they sold. But:

Frigidaire Spin Tube dishwashers--an abomination that lived--what a joke in suberbia with kids all over the place in a household and limited capacity

Frigidaire SuperSurege (??) dishwashers--incredible capacity, but couldn't take chocolate milk off the bottom of a tall glass.

Youngstown Kitchens dishwasher--had to be OCD just to load the thing JUST SO--NICE WINDOW TO WATCH INSIDE THOGH

Any KD15, KD16, and K17. Everyone I knew who ghad one, it was stricly only a dishwasher and that's it (in real-life aplication). All pots, pans, mixing bowls were washed by hand because otherwise to load properly things took up too much space. And even loading properly (and very full) , breakfas dishes with scrabled eggs, yielded yibblets on everytihng in thye upper rack or put a saucepan in the top rack that had had rice boiled in it, came out with rice still in it. Our Kenmore RotoRack cleaned circles around all these new KitchenAids and I could load it anyway I wamted with anything that fit in it.
 
Bendix rubber tub machines

These machines were a compromise from the beginning. As to what Bendix was thinking; they were trying to offer a low priced automatic or semi-automatic that apartment dwellers would be able to use in a time when many young families were living in wooden-frame apartment buildings that prohibited the installation of washers that used spinning to extract water. They did not permit bolt-down machines and did not want the possibility of noise and vibration transmission through the building. The automatic and semi-automatic version of this machine offered no more vibration than a wringer washer and enabled the laundry to be completed in one tub, unlike a wringer. Cost was kept down by the fact that the machines used a wringer washer transmission and needed no outer tub or suspension superstructure. When they were working properly, their extraction was not worse than the early Bendix bolt-down front loaders or many wringer washers. Even though the agitator looked like a perforated Maytag Gyrator, the wider tub made for vigorous agitation with great rollover. The "Undertow" agitation was so powerful that it pulled suds underwater. In the owners instructions, the steps for starting the washing were: fill the machine, add the soap or detergent when agitation started then check the suds level by unplugging the machine to allow the suds to rise to the surface. A two inch layer of suds was indicative of sufficient detergent. The machine was then reconnected to the outlet and the load added. Once the owner knew the amount of detergent to use, the intermediate stopping of the agitation was not necessary. I tried it and when the agitation was stopped the suds did rise to the surface. These machines were not marvels of heavy construction. They were not meant to last a long time, but to provide laundering convenience to people who were living in temporary, they hoped, housing. A couple of families in our mid-50s neighborhood moved from apartments with these machines. In one case, seal failure allowed water to get into the transmission. It was replaced by a 1958 Lady Kenmore. In another, the lid springs eventually did not hold the lid tightly closed so the son had to sit on the machine to make extraction possible. Their financial situation improved and then everything in the place was Sears TOL.
 
Was the Bendix Economat?

My parents had one, but it was replaced right after I was born with a kemore60 or 70 series. It lasted only 5 years! Does anyone have a video of one running or pics? I would love to see what it looked like. It apparently was notoriously known for loosing the suction in the tub very quickly, and seemed to be their demise.
 
Norge

I've always thought of Norge as being a less desirable brand, one for those that couldn't afford any better. Perhaps because the local Norge dealer was the Bargain Barn, a place that sold junky furniture, and they probably only had the lower priced models on display. Some of the Norge appliances I've seen on here (especially the beautiful electric range) have proven they made some very nice products at one time.
 
Monkey Wards Almost Anything

My parents were Wards people through and through. And my dad was constantly fixing various home appliances purchased there as a result. He had to replace the transmission on the '68 Signature washer less than two years after purchase and I can still see and hear him cussing up a storm. That machine was the loudest, clunkiest (literally) washer we ever owned, and the belt pulley etched a circular imprint into one of the ceramic floor tiles below the washer, which remains there today.

Unlike a lot of members, I like machines that are seen and not heard. Signature/Norge machines don't fall into that category.
 

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