Whirlpool Open House 1953 - 16mm

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

Since I took mine apart last year, there’s 3 suspension rods with a rubber ball at each end (6 in total), there’s a snubber which puts pressure on the tub ring to create some resistance so it can’t move around as easily in either agitate or spin. Without the snubber, it would go off balance fairly easily which can hit the off balance switch (if it has one), or could bump the off balance switch during agitation which would get annoying fairly quickly, though I imagine that wasn’t entirely common either.
 
Seems you've not examined a classic belt-drive Whirlpool

Last time I saw the guts of one was in 1986, many moons ago.
 
Crazy as this sounds, I’m probably the only one or very few people in my age demographic who has more experience with the belt drives than I do with the direct drives despite growing up with them back in the 2000’s.

While the belt drives aren’t entirely perfect, at least they don’t have transmission issues like the direct drives with neutral drain pack which can fail putting more stress on the spin clutch wearing it out prematurely.

Once I get the consoles transplanted on, shouldn’t have to worry about anything for a long, long time. Packed the center post full of grease to make the bearings last a bit longer.
 
Whirlpool belt drive hanging suspension system

Was probably about the most rugged suspension system any suspended washer ever used, however, I have seen a failure twice one time the front left rod rusted so badly at the bottom from a leaky bleach dispenser that it broke and let the unit fall a little bit the other time, the little steel tab at the end of the rod broke at the top That was the right rear of the machine. The machine where the weld failed was easy to fix the other machine was so rusty down at the base plate area. That machine was just recycled.

The suspension system in the belt drive machine was very rugged and simple. It was not good at reducing vibration so they couldn’t get the spin speed very fast, it’s generally not a good idea to only have three suspension points. You’re not gonna get very good even damping and control.

This was one of the big problems with dependable Care Maytag. They should’ve had four or maybe six springs they always went out of balance too easily and could not control an off balance load, which is why they had to stick with an unbalanced switch to keep the machines from being uncontrollable.

Hi Sean, whirlpool belt drive washer transmissions had plenty of failures and they were much harder to remove and repair than the direct drive transmissions so most times the machines were just junked when you had a transmission problem.

Packing more grease in the bearings of a belt drive machine will not make the bearings last any longer keeping water out will, the only reason the bearings ever fail on just about any washing machine is when water gets into them.

John L
 
Whirlpool/Kenmore belt drives

I did have experience with Whirlpool/Kenmore belt drives. One thing I didn't like about them was one time, I did a load of wash and the machine would fill, struggle to agitate, then drain and repeat. The soap didn't get rinsed out effectively so I had to transfer them to the direct drive commercial Kenmore. This was in roughly 2003. They were good for the most part, however. At times you could hear the belt struggling to move at times whereas the direct drives didn't.
 
 
Belt-drive snubber ... IMO doesn't have as much effect as may be perceived.  Service literature of the 1950s/1960s vintage that I've seen states that it should prevent tub/cabinet impact when spinning a (whopping) 4-pound weight, although the tension may have later been strengthened.  The old-style porcelain tub cover without a splash guard flange would have the snubber inundated with slippery/soapy splashes of water at lower fill levels which greatly reduced the friction.
 
“Were much harder to remove and repair than the direct drive transmissions”

Since I’ve removed and installed mine quite a few times, it’s not all that bad. Even rebuilt the transmission about 4 years ago, was fairly straightforward. My Whirlpool according to Strictlybojack who I bought the machine from was in service from 1963 to 2005, only repairs it had from what I could tell was general things like the belt and pump, a few other odds and ends.
 
cadman said:
Re#5: Isn't that demo washer great?! And of course there was the matching dryer. And you're correct, these are silent films, often the only copy made. But I do have some commercially produced films with soundtracks in the pipeline.

Re#8: The Benton Harbor / St. Joe facility was absolutely massive. When the highway was realigned in the mid-50's to avoid driving through the factory campus, they actually built the new road as a straight shot -over the top- of the facility (top left corner of the pic below). The 1953 film captures this mid-way through construction, where they had finished the first elevated portion (in Part 2 there's a still image of a firetruck, and in the background is the elevated road and staircase employees would use). But you can see in Part 1 (where the "day's production" of all the boxes lined up) that the road ends in dirt.

Don't bother google-mapping any of this. It's all gone.

View attachment 308714
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if the Clyde facility has grown since then and through the decades including the 80s when the direct drives came out.
 
agiflow said:
Well, that's because making washing machines was Whirlpool's primary business. After all, that's what they started as, as a washing machine manufacturer. General electric was much more diversified.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised if the Clyde facility was huge during the direct drive era and GE was small potatoes even into the 90s when they adopted the dual action agitator compared to Whirlpool.
 
agiflow said:
Well, that's because making washing machines was Whirlpool's primary business. After all, that's what they started as, as a washing machine manufacturer. General electric was much more diversified.
Click to expand...
That may explain why the whirlpool direct drive was built and sold by the millions. They built the Maytag line years later until 2011.
 

Similar threads

Unimatic1140
An Open Discussion about Copyright, automaticwasher.org/vacuumland and the Internet
2
Replies
31
Views
319
aldspinboy
aldspinboy

Latest posts

Back
Top