White-Westinghouse front loaders

[johnrk]

From the time I went off to college in the early 70's, I wanted one of those White-Westinghouse front loaders. I really wanted the one with the conventional controls at the back, but I'd have taken any one of them, including the ones branded under other names. Sadly, I never could afford one then. However, I remember the Consumer Reports at the time consistently stated that they were the worst in washers for reliability.

I know these days that they used belts and apparently some pulley arrangement to do the job. Does anyone on here have familiarity with working on these? If so, what part(s) caused it to be unreliable? I still think they're cool...

 

[tomturbomatic]

General lightness of construction. The porcelain was thin. They used paint when they should have used porcelain, like on the inner door where the paint was too thin, too. The gauge of the metal was too thin in places like the sump and that, coupled with the thin porcelain which rusted through caused the screws holding the baffle over the pump strainer to pull loose which let the baffle get dragged between the inner and outer tubs, doing damage. As I stated earlier, they were made to last a certain time, although with light use and good care, they could last longer. They went through a period of bad seals on the tub bearings in the 80s that caused premature tub bearing failure and a lot of people did not bother to have the bearings replaced because it required the machine to be taken into the shop where the old bearings were pounded out and new ones pounded in. Some of that seal failure could have been attributed to the awful detergents of the period, with the lack of phosphates and the difficulty in finding true low sudsing detergents,too.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Another problem occurred when they switched from the cast iron tub weights to the cement ones. They were not as heavy and allowed the suspended mechanism to travel farther at the beginning of the spins. Sometimes the tub snubbers slipped off the friction plates. Damage often resulted if not caught quickly. The shock absorbers used earlier, while more expensive, were better.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

They started out being the industry standard...

Then came, as you'd said, not so superior materials, along w/ top-loaders just being more in-demand...

So declining quality really led to their demise, and being the single-most brand (along w/ the clones by Sears/Ward/JC Penny), until the recent times that front-loaders quickly became resurrected again--only this time by Maytag (trying to sell you on "dependability people" and "the lonely Maytag man", to assure you that you'd be getting the same quality as in the days of old, but as time went on, not so)...

-- Dave

 

[brucelucenta]

By the time it became WhiteWestinghouse they had cheapened these units to the point of them being unreliable and they broke down easily. If one knew the pitfalls of these machines, they could usually be easily fixed, but if you did not, they could be a real problem. All of the problems listed above were serious deficiencies in those machines and the average person would have many problems with them. If compared to a automobile, it would have been like one of the Chrysler K cars of the 80's. I unfortunately had one of those too.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
That's damning with faint k's!

 

[ea56]

We bought a White Westinghouse stacked set in 1987, brand new. Used them, for 7 years without one single problem. We sold them with the house and the new owner rented out the condo and these machines continued to work for many years after we sold them. My aunt had a 1953 set of slant front Westies she bought new, she also used hers for 11 years without any problems and she sold hers with the house when they moved.

Either you liked these machines or you didn’t. But most people that I knew of that did own them loved them. They were fast, dependable in my experinece and they cleaned very well. I never noticed that they left the loads excessively wet, in fact the salesman that sold us the set said they extracted better than a TL. And I never found that they tangled excessively. I also used to be able to get a cal king down comforter in the washer and it washed it with no problem.

If they still made FL’s like they used to, that used a decent amt of water and finished a load on 35 to 40 mins I’d buy one in a hot second.
Eddie

 

[brucelucenta]

Which goes to show, if shit's what you're raised on, shit's what you crave.

 

[ea56]

Bruce,

was that really necessary? I thought that AW.org was a place where it was OK to relate our opinions and experiences we’ve had with different washing machines. My bad I guess huh, to differ with your opinion?

Just one question though, what were you raised on that made you so nasty?
Eddie

 

[johnrk]

Agree with 'Eddie'

I'm relative new on here, but this 'lenta' sure sounds like a nasty piece of work and with a filthy mouth on a public forum to boot.

 

[brucelucenta]

Sorry, I forget how delicate some folks are.....

 

[johnrk]

'Delicacy'

No, 'lenta', courtesy and good manners aren't synonymous with "delicacy". We all know all the words, we should all know when, if ever, to use them. That makes us civilized.

 

[brucelucenta]

You take things WAY too seriously. Besides, there was a reason that consumer reports pretty much condemned these machines. Having had several throughout the past, I certainly understand why.

 

[speedqueen]

Beside the point!

This is a public forum not a riot. Mr. Lucenta you proceeded to criticize Eddie not his opinion. This website is designed to forward educated discussion about vintage and modern appliances. This place is not to criticize another's opinion with a personal insult. We all have opinions and I could very well do the same to yours.

I'm all for freedom of speech but in this case the forum rules take precedent.

"Inflammatory posts or Personal Attacks: Public Forums: There will be no posts meant to offend or hurt any other member, in a manner which is offensive or inflammatory."

We all appreciate your knowledge provided in your daily POD thread. You seem to always have personal knowledge on machines many have never even heard of. We appreciate your wealth of knowledge on items many of us younger members could ever even see via video.

 

[brucelucenta]

Touchy touchy touchy.....I will try to do better.

 

[norgeway]

I personally

Would LOVE a Westinghouse set! They, unlike modern front loaders, use enough water to actually wash and rinse,I don't WANT my clothes spun to death, it sets in wrinkles if you dry things on a line, I could care less if they take 15 minutes longer in the dryer!And they wash properly, ONE DIRECTION, these new FL washers set still more than they wash , turn one way...stop....turn the other way.Stop..USELESS!!!As for the slant fronts, they DO tangle , BUT, if the clothes are tangled up, you know they have actually been scrubbed, unlike a Maytag or early GE , in which the clothes never move unless you really load them lightly.Westy dryers are really good in my book, the later cross vanes really are effective in not balling up sheets and things..We had a early 50s dryer that we got second hand from my Aunt and Uncle who bought it new, we used it from 67 until the 80s and it was wonderful.

 

[westingguelph]

White-Westinghouse Front Loader

My mom had this machine from 1976 until they sold the house in 1987. It performed flawlessly during this time. It washed very well...much better than the Maytag she had before. Lint extraction was amazing.

 

[moparwash]

W quality..

They should of used thicker metal, more paint, and made the front and door porcelain, as a leaking boot made the door opening rust. Fortunately, there was enough of the metal left for me to fix it. Another problem I had was the baffle over the sump bent upwards, causing the screws from the paddles to score the baffle and make screeching sounds. I had to remove a paddle, drill a hole in the baffle and tub, and seal with epoxy to fix the issue. The service manual shows a piece to hold the baffle in place, but this was not on my machine. Issues such as this caused a lot of these to be scrapped, as it was easier to replace it with something else. [this post was last edited: 10/14/2017-08:41]

 

[brucelucenta]

After reading all the comments on here about these machines, all I can say is amazing......