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Nobody wants them??

Don’t tell whirlpool they’re Building and selling over 20,000 a day there are several members on this site that absolutely love their VMW washers.

Hanging suspension washers came out about 1972 or possibly earlier the Japanese Hitachi built GE compact washers used this system.

Virtually all top loaders use this system now and Virtually all front loaders do as well I think the only exception on the front loader front is Speed Queen has their tub assembly suspended for spring shock absorber assemblies.

Hanging suspension on the top load washer works very well. It’s very easy to replace the struts and shocks. If they do wear out, don’t tell anybody but whirlpool started using hanging suspension in 1949 on their automatics.

John
 
The model T proved that the public would accept the downfall of appliances without resistance. If everyone was like myself it would have triggered backlash and protests so profound the 4 point hanging suspension system would have been renegaded to history. The Maytag dependable care and two belt Raytheon design would make up 93% of the laundry market even to this day. 

 

This would have been the direct drive, this would have been Kenmore, this washer would have been sold under a dozen names and made increasingly more dependable. China and the rest of the world could never compete.   

 

 
GE model t

Well, GE model T was the one who started this stupid crap in the first place. They're worse than Whirlpool's older hanging suspension. Heck yeah, I wish they'd left the GE filter-flo machine alone and just beefed up their aircraft suspension.
 
The thing is, the original hanging spring suspensions, along with the mod shifting splutch actuator were all intended, engineered and reserved around portable and compact washers. The design was never actually intended to be used in full size washers. On the other hand, the average washer marketed to home buyers were built of such quality and performance they were copied with little change into commercial environments. Americans were using commercial quality washers by default and this is why I think so many members here fell in love with their now vintage machines and why so many no none sense people in general liked their washers. Having used a business-in-mind built washer the average consumer experienced respectful elegance. Sadly today the leading commercial laundry mat washers is actually labelled "commercial heavy duty" when sold for consumer (residential) use. When 30 years ago a modern TC5 Speed Queen was roughly the same as any other residential washer. US buyers literally let themselves be stripped of commercial grade machines for the consumer farce.

 

 

The model T was merely a bridge. It was, next to the WCI, the first full fledged consumer grade washers. It was both a test, and an appetizer, to get people accustomed to consumer grade washers and the coming residential economy grade washers. When it worked, the commercial orientated washers were discontinued and economy grade consumer washer were ushered in.  
 
Hanging suspension

So far that I am aware of, none of the top load machines in my family have ever been of the hanging suspension design, we haven't owned a lot, just 5 ranging from a late '50's Hotpoint to the current Speed Queen LWN432SP115TW01, with 2 Maytags and a Kenmore (Whirlpool) DD machine tossed in for good measure.

It just seems counterintuitive to be suspending all that weight with gravity fighting the entire design, the suspension components may be easy to replace, however that alone indicates a flaw in the design.

I don't ever plan on owning a top loader with a hanging suspension system, the entire concept just seems stupid to me.
 
 

PS: I *think* I still have the original washer/dryer that came with the property. It's in the workshop building.

 

Just checked... yup, it's still there, along with a number of other interesting appliances... washers and dryers... including three older Bosch front loaders...

[this post was last edited: 7/23/2024-19:22]
 
Reply# 33

I could not agree more, gravity is working against the design and will eventually reign supreme.

Another member posted that the suspension rods and affiliated components are easy to replace, what does that say about their reliability?

A similar analogy is how car hoods/trunk lids were held open in the '50-'70's, automakers used springs in the mechanism, starting in the '80's, some Einstein of an engineer decided that gas filled struts were the way to go, what an idiot.

No doubt the "bean counters" had a say in this moronic decision as well.

I would not trust either of them to replace the batteries in a flashlight, they'll figure out a way to screw that up...
 
Hanging suspension in automatic washers

Hi Jeff, you’re probably a fairly good mechanic, but you’re certainly not an engineer. If you can’t see the wisdom of hanging the washer mechanism from the top of the cabinet it makes for a much more rigid and stable machine load washer made since 1945 has had suspension, every whirlpool top loading washer from 1949 had it And it started being used again Ernest in the early 70s general electric filter flow washers all had it from 1961 through 1995 for example.

It’s a much more serviceable design , Half the Maytag dependable care machines that we are condemning today and are being thrown in the trash pile because of a lousy suspension system the dampers fail, and it does so much damage you can’t repair it easily. This won’t be true of modern washers because the struts can be changed out less than a half an hour.

As for car hood and trunks no longer having heavy springs, having worked a lot around cars. I’ve seen plenty of cars where those springs break. The hinges break the hoods break because of the stress on them the struts made much more sense and of course, the simplest and best thing of all is the hood with a hood prop. Much less weight much easier to repair. Of course everybody has seen some gas filled strut, failures, but no car is ever been junked because of a strut failure, but I have seen cars and trunks were the trunk lids and hoods literally folded and broke because the springs are hinges failed and I dare say a few people gave up on their cars when they hoods folded up from broken hinges, and springs.

John
 
No doubt Whirlpool took a lot of cost-cutting measures when designing the VMW machines, but like the direct drive that came before them, they have a lot of parts that can easily be repaired and get the washer back in service. I think many VMW's get junked early because the owner doesn't look into what the problem is and whether it can be easily and economically fixed.

For instance, my old VMW, a 2016 version of what I have now, died in early 2022 and the repair tech I spoke to automatically pronounced it irreparable due to the fact that the gearbox had failed. The machine was stuck between drain and spin, it just sat there buzzing after the water had drained out, like it was hung up between modes. I suspect that was the shift actuator that had caused that problem, a relatively easy fix, and not the gearbox at all, but I didn't know anything about how these washers worked at the time. Moral of the story, if the tech won't even come to your house to diagnose the problem, get a second opinion. If I had done that, I could very likely still have that washer today because I would have opted to have the shift actuator replaced. That component, the splutch, and the suspension rods are some of the easiest parts on this washer to repair and it doesn't break the bank either. Issues related to the gearbox/transmission or the control board would probably take this style of washer out due to cost of repair vs. just buying new.

Ryne
 
having worked a lot around cars

Sir,

I've been an automotive mechanic since 1976 and became ASE Master Tech certified in 1980, so it would be safe to say that I've worked on quite a few automobiles in my life, quite possibly hundreds more than you ever had or will.

Not once in my career have I ever had to replace a hood assist spring, the reason why hoods buckle from the mechanism is from lack of lubrication, plain and simple.

Conversely, I've replaced hundreds of gas struts relegated to the same duties.

I never purported to be an engineer as you stated, so I'd appreciate it if you were to keep your innuendos to yourself, it does not bode well for your apparent lack of intelligence.
 

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