White-Westinghouse front loaders

[firedome]

we had an early 80s W/W in a house we bought to rent out...

and it was near 20 yrs old when we bought the house from a family friend who'd bought it new, and still working fine. After a couple of years of use by tenants we saw a good deal on a lightly used WP and preemptively replaced the W/W, sold it on CL, still working well, no complaints. Kind of wish we'd hung on to the W/W, just because it was different.

I second those who bemoan lack of civility, AW.o is no place for that, no matter what excuse such posters may think they have, sorry.

 

[gyrafoam]

I purchased my FriGEMore back in about 1997 brand-new. It has a rear console. When it was about two years old some stupid movers let it free-fall down a flight of stairs. It tore the knob off of the front door and took out a chunk of a parquet floor. The machine has a dent on an edge of the console.
It was modified to use more water so it fills up to the window.

It has never needed a repair.

 

[syndets2000]

I have always loved Westinghouses...I've had the opportunity to see even earlier ones I thought didn't exist nowadays. Yeah, they tangled, got suds locked easily, and had dramatic off balance spins, but I grew up with one, so they r a special part of my past. I have a bunch of 50's Laundromats, and now that I have a usable laundry room, I'm planning to bring my L102K back into service...I also helped rebuild a mid 70's WW that we used and it was alot of fun..the only slant front I'd truly like to see is an LS-7...
..

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Coincidence that a better-made COMMERCIAL model Westy F-L is Pic of the Day?

-- Dave

 

[circlew]

My mom had 2 Westinghouse FL washers; the first a '55, and then a '64. I don't remember any rust on the '55, but the '64 developed it after about 3 or 4 years, at the bottom of the door (inner & outer panels), and the bottom service panel. This was due to water dripping out in use. This unit had a door that was inset into the front of the machine, but later they went back to using the older style door like used on the slant front models from the early 60's, which had less problems. By the time we got the Maytags in '73, the bottom of the door had a hole in it.

 

[losangeles]

White-Westinghouse Front Loaders

My Mother had a Westinghouse Combo when is was a kid.  It was Pink.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  I was so excited about that my mother washed a load right after it was hooked up.  Just watching it was a dream come true.  Her only complaint was the low spin speed.  Took a longtime to dry.  She would dry the sheets for 30 minutes then hang them on the line.  BTW.  Does anyone still use clothes lines anymore?  I do weather permitting for every thing except for PP which I still use the dryer for.

Final comment.  I would hope if I ever make an inappropriate comment personal or otherwise you guys, and ladies would call me out on it.  Thanks, Tommy

 

 

 

 

[ea56]

RE: reply #24

Tommy, it was my Aunt’s 1953 Westie Slant Fronts that started my life long fascination with washing machines. To a little boy in the early 1950’s it was almost as good as watching TV. They sat in her garage, where my 3 cousins and my bro, sis and I used to play when the weather was bad. I could sit for hours watching them both. She had the dryer hooked up to 110v instead on the usual 220v because she said the clothes didn’t shrink as bad. Remember, in those days most clothing was cotton, and if it wasn’t “ Sanfornized” articles of clothing were apt to shrink alot. My Grandpa was always after her to “hook it up to some real juice Imogene”, but she wouldn’t here of it.

When I was able to buy a matching, new washer and dryer it was my dream come true to get a new White-Westinghouse FL and dryer. Even though Consumers Report gave them a bad rating at the time I knew I would be happy with them, and I was. I wanted to take them with us when we sold the condo, but the buyer wanted them included with the deal, because she liked them too!

I know many members in my age group had similar experiences with these slant fronts when we were kids. Yes they had their issues, but what product doesn’t? Nothing is ever perfect, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and these machines had a unique, simplistic beauty to them that has stood the test of time.
Eddie

 

[combo52]

WH 3 Belt FL Washers 1959-fall of 1988

These were very good performing washers [ great cleaning and lint and sand removal ], and we worked on hundreds of them, they were generally easy to fix, but they were never a top reliability brand always near the bottom in terms of frequency of repair.

But one of the good things about them was they were easy to repair and as a result we did not have to condemn them nearly as often as machines like SQ TLers, WCI and WH and Norge TL washers.

John L.

 

[losangeles]

Westinghouse Front Loaders

Eddie,

How wonderful of you to share that story.  My mother-in-law had a Westinghouse slant front probably a 1955-56 year model.  She had this machine when I met my wife.  At that time I was embarrassed to show any of my enthusiasm of all things washing machines so I stole glances when ever I could.  It was still operating when it was sadly replaced by a new WP washer and Dryer set.  I could have easily had the machine had I not been afraid of coming out of the shadows with my deep interest.  Now since joining AW in Sept. I am not afraid of anyone knowing.  Thanks again for sharing.  Tommy

 

[johnrk]

Stories

I want to thank all of you for sharing your stories about these front loaders. My parents' first home was frame and built with a masonry foundation. My mother had a Bendix in the kitchen. I was too young to know or remember what kind except that it had a window. It was bolted to the floor and that whole home, which wasn't small, would shake when it would spin! As a very small child I'd play in the kitchen in front of the window on that machine for hours, while my mother would be working in there. They built a new home and we moved in when I was in second grade. The Bendix stayed with the old home and we had a new Frigidaire and a dryer in the new utility room. We always had cleaning ladies coming in a couple of times a week when I was growing up and one went to prison for murdering another woman. But the one I remember best was a huge, loud woman who was strong as the proverbial horse. After she broke the timer on my mother's washer twice, she wasn't allowed to touch the controls. She'd have to load the washer and dryer and call my mother to come set the machines and turn them on!

Does anyone else on here remember those little perforated shaker caps that were made to fit on a Coke bottle? That's what our cleaning ladies used to moisten clothing while ironing. My mother had one of those famous GE irons that weighed as much as an anvil. Wrinkles wouldn't dare to stay!

 

[askolover]

This?  My grandmother used one of them too.

 

[ea56]

These old spriklers were much better than a spray bottle because the water went mostly on the clothes or sheets, not all over the surface they were on or surrounding areas. It was my job to do the ironing when I was a teenager. And all our cotton sheet s were ironed as well as the clothing. I would sprinkle 2 or 3 laundry baskets full of ironing, roll up each item and let them set to get uniformly damp, and then iron for hours. I still use an old Proctor Silex steam iron from about 1970. It gets hot as the hinges of hell and gets the job done fast. We have a Rowenta too, it doesn’t hold a candle to the old Proctor Silex.

Before I retired I used to starch all my work shirts. I used liquid Vano in a spray bottle mixed 50/50 with water. If I had a lot of clothes to iron I would sometimes starch in the washer, setting the water level to the lowest setting, letting it fill, add a good glug of Vano let it begin to agitate and add the dry articles to be starched. Let them get uniformly saturated with the starch, then set it to spin. Put the clothes in the dryer for a few mins until they are damp, then iron. Very easy to do. And when you starch I think its easier to iron too, Some West Coast members may remember the old Vano TV commercial, “If your not Using Vano, your working too hard”.
Eddie

 

[johnrk]

Proctor Silex steam iron

Eddie--I have an old Proctor Silex, bought NOS on EBay a couple of years ago! I seldom use it simply because I don't iron much that I don't do in the Swiss Elnapress. What's really cool about it to me is that the electric cord can be set to go out either side of the base. You just take off a piece, swap sides, and then put the piece back on. Being left handed, it's great. Of course, no Teflon or any of that mess on it. And yes, it gets hot as Hades.

One of my mother's sisters used to pay me a dime an article to do her ironing for her. I never minded ironing and it was an easy way for a kid in the mid sixties to make some spending money. She had an ancient non-steam iron that again weighed like an anvil. I don't remember the brand, and yes, I used one of those little sprinkler things on a Coke bottle like another member posted.

I have a little collection of around 30 vintage blenders, just an appliance that always fascinated me. My mother had that Nutone kitchen center built into the counter, that had the weird plastic pink-tinged blender. I have an NOS Silex blender from the 50's, when it was still a separate company. I have an NOS Iona blender from the 50's when they were still in business. I have one of those rare 23K gold plated Osterizers from the 70's that were given out as company awards to management. If I were indeed wealthy, which I'm not, I swear I'd build one of those metal warehouses and just fill it up with appliances!

There's just one kitchen appliance that I never have liked: electric can openers. I don't own one now. They just always seemed to be more trouble than they are worth, and people tend to let those little cutting wheels and the gear to get full of food crud.

Proctor Silex always marched to a little different drummer; these percolators with the removable glass carafe are a perfect example. Believe it or not, you can still find NOS ones on EBay from time to time, and reasonably priced, too.

 

[rayjay]

Model LT800E

I had a White Westinghouse front loader purchased in 1984. This by far was the best machine I ever had. I had it for 8 years, and then the dispensers for fabric softener did not work. I then put the machine aside and then had an AEG Bella. This was a fine machine, however with a baby coming along, it was too small of a tub. I then went back to a Maytag toploader. The machine was okay, but I miss my Westinghouse LT800E.