Why did GE abandon the filter flo design?

[washman]

Mom had a filter flo in the early 80's

however living in a mobile home on concrete blocks meant that when the thing went on spin, look out. Indiana was never known for earthquakes but I swear I felt one with the GE on spin!

Having said that, we had to get rid of it and replace it with a well used Kennmore. That GE was a cleaner let me tell you. No BS about the agitation, the stuff got MOVED around that tub.

The Kennmore eventually gave way to a Whirlpool that lasted 18 years with no repairs at all, washing filthy clothes from 2 men who worked in factories, sawdust from all the wood we cut, plus good old hard Indiana water thrown in for good measure. It just worked and worked and worked.

How sad it is to see the how junky and cheap machines are today compared to what I recall as a child.

 

[bajaespuma]

Obsolescence: sad and true.

IIRC in the early 1990's the new Whirlpool/Kenmore DD designs were scoring higher in CU's ratings consistently enough that GE went the way of the bean-counters and abandoned the FF design as well as the Louisville factory and its community of designers and workers and went with the competitor's lead. CU always maintained that lint removal in a washer was not such a big deal and measured "linting" propensities as well as "lint removal" abilities. No surprises here.

 

The Filter-Flo design became obsolete (remember who is writing this). When European horizontal axis designs landed on our shores, finally, with augmented capacity, near-ideal water economy and truly automatic dispensing (admit it, you have to look hard to find an American top-loading washing machine (almost always exclusively TOL's) with a synthesis of dispensing and cycles that really allows the user to load and set the machine and never return to it until the load is ready for drying). I know some folks criticize the use of too little water, I haven't noticed that water amount in these machines makes much difference to the final cleanliness of the load. And no vintage machine that I know of can hold a candle to one of the front-loaders that can heat water to any temperature above 150 degrees especially when laundering very dirty white chef uniforms.

 

I suppose if I had a dog and didn't own a dryer things might be different although these days I'd probably use a Filter-Flo just to wash the stuff the dog uses. Ticks are hardy little monsters and it wouldn't surprise me if they are able to survive a complete cycle. They would, most likely, end up in the filter pan.

 

I'll never forget how shocked I was the day I figure out how to lift the cabinet top off of our Filter-Flo to watch it while it agitated. I couldn't believe how much water was just sitting there in that outer tub, just for the ride.

 

You all know how much I love most vintage machines, especially FF's, but daily driving is daily driving.

 

[toploader55]

I agree 100%

For Whites ... And for the most part.. Only Whites... My Miele is Superb.

If I use the Pre-wash, Extra White, Water Plus and Extra Rinse, That program will take almost any stain out.

I used the Sanitize Temperature once. And it destroyed the elastics in my socks.

But did make everything extra Clean.

My Mom bought a 1962 I think was the first V-12. It had the big V-12 Decal on the front right top corner of the Washer. That washer was under my bedroom. It kept me awake for years with the "KaChunk, Ka Chunck " of the activator and the Loud Thunder Spin. It didn't take much for that machine to catch a slightly off balance load. But when it was perfect, the machine was nearly silent.

 

[jamiel]

GE re-thought the dishwasher in the 1977-78 timeframe (moving to the PermaTuf tub) and needed several years to make sure that the good benefits they were getting were permanent (profitability/volume/winning OEM contracts/...) before taking on laundry. In the mid to late 80s for laundry they had an expensive (double porcelain tubs when Whirlpool moved to direct drive/plastic outer tub), inefficient (space between tubs with as mentioned, lots of lazy water), complicated (Filter-Flo piping and pumping; a separate Hotpoint structure) design. Whirlpool was successful taking cost and complexity out of the mass-market; GM Frigidaire left the market leaving Maytag unchallenged at the top of the market (remember they had not experienced the Neptune or UK debacles at the time; plus had just reduced cost of their design). Their initial plasti-tub design did come from Louisville. I worked for GE from 1989-1992, and they were looking in 1990 for employees to take on one of the new design machines for testing. (In those days we got a discount on any GE appliance--there were huge booklets with the discount amounts for every model). They also at that time moved small-capacity and large-capacity dryer production to Canada (Camco) so they really had only Louisville and Chicago/Milwaukee (former Hotpoint...believe they made the last porcelain dishwashers along with stoves and refrigerators there).

 

[gelaundry4ever]

the answer

It was all about money. That's why GE killed the filter-flo to support their greedy stupid shareholders who know nothing about laundry whatsoever. Things have only gotten worse since then. I am surprised the plastic tubs somehow held up well. Keyword: somehow.[this post was last edited: 2/22/2024-14:36]