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Maytag Dependability VS. Maytag's Unreliable Competitors

Funny how a washer that needs the "fewest frequency of repairs" is the easiest to open! (From the FRONT!!!!)

Whereas anything that's less "dependable" you would have to dismantle & get at from the bottom & the rear & be more of a "grease monkey" than you'd be fixin' CARS!!!!!!

-- Dave
 
GREAT COMMERICAL

MT was very clever to come up with and run this ad series so long. The public has a very short memory and by keeping the same theme people really remembered it, although they didn't always remember the MT brand as I must have been asked if I liked being the Lonely Repairman when I was rearing my WP uniform about a thousand times LOL.

 

But like most commercials the reality was a little different, probably only thier automatic washer and wringer washers were the most trouble free in the US market. And even on these we were far from lonely, when I think of all the warranty parts we processed in the mid 1970s for MT appliances. However the biggest offenders were often the parts that MT did not build, the motors, timers, and inlet valves.

 

Unfortunately Maytag never achieved the top reliability that they advertised. And we got busier and busier as they brought out thier DW and Garbage disposers. And all hell broke loose when they bought Hardwick stoves, Adrimal refrigerators, and Norge laundry, the MT man was never lonely again. LOL And by the mid 1990s things had gotten so bad WP threatened to expose the lye in thier advertising about being so reliable that MT dropped the old lonely campaign and they became The Innovation company.

 

The great thing about Maytag was that they always tried to build a better product and when a customer had an excessive amount of problems they would usually provide no cost replacement parts or in the case of thier early DWs they would often replace the whole machine.
 
I'll never forget the snowy, December, late afternoon, j

when driving through an old abandonned commercial area, and in a cement recess near a truck dock, I couldn't believe my eyes. There, among a choas of debris, was the highly coveted Maytag Cadillac laying on its side, given up for dead: aliminum goose neck yanked out and missing, front right foot missing, and a broken coupler in the wringer.

Brought it home, plugged it in, and it WORKED. Brought a big smile of Maytag Dependable satisfacton, and of course, how could I not help but think of the Lonely repair man. This machine will never die. Here she is borrowing--I should say sharing--a wringer with her sister.

mickeyd++12-12-2011-15-17-23.jpg
 
Here is a French language commercial from Quebec Canada. I cannot translate it for anyone unfortunately.

 
MT REVERSE RACK DWs

The one to buy in the first place, clever ad as most people never liked the loading of these if they had had a regular machine before. But we had many customers that loved thier RR MT DWs if it was thier first DW as they didn't have anything to compare it to.

 

But the RR design was hurting MTs DW sales so much that they changed to more conventual rack design, but the wash arms were still a holdover from the RR machines and never made much sense as they still didn't have a real wash arm under the top rack [ like every good DW in the world currently has ]. Finely when MT introduced thier Tall Tub machines they got the wash arms in the correct places, but DW performance in general had been dubbed down so much buy this time that it was not a great machine overall [ like almost all current DWs ]

 

What a shame that MT wasted all those years trying to do something different rather than just trying to go head to head against WP, KA, GE and WH DWs and actually building a better DW. And keep in mind this was all done under Maytag control, you can't blame any of this on Whirlpools buying out MT.
 
The audition tape

Then we have here the person who should have got the job as the Maytag repairman when they were looking for a replacement back a few years ago

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?37683_50

Now I wonder who it could be (I am kidding I know who this is this is our own Jetaction Don Shier)

 
That dishwasher looks to be the same series as Nate's current daily driver.  I was very impressed with its performance when I was there over Thanksgiving.  Unlike its MT clothes washer contemporaries, the dishwasher is quite loud, but it's a very solid and powerful sound, and rather satisfying.
 
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