1981 Maytag A710

My most recent washer acquisition, and one of the nicest machines I've come across. I found this at an estate sale in Westlake (in a VERY nice Contemporary-style house built in 1964) earlier this month, along with an Amana Radarange RR-4B from the same year. Being on a 2nd floor laundry room for the last 27 years made this machine remain like new inside and out, with virtually no rust. It also came with the original documentation including a period Maytag brochure from the era, which shows the A710 as a 2-speed large-capacity machine, one model down from TOL in the lineup. When I got this machine it ran perfectly on agitation but made a scraping sound on spin, thanks to an improperly aligned tub cover. I recently took it apart (removed the tub cover, spin basket, and mounting stem), cleaned/lubed all seals underneath, and re-aligned the tub cover. Now it runs great! The tapping sound you hear on spin might be coming from the out-of-balance control; I defeated the lidswitch but left the OOB assembly intact.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Maytag
• washer
• washing
• machine
• vintage
• 1981
• A710
• agitation
• Power
• Fin
• agitator

[brthdan]

The orbital trans debuted in July of 1986

[westytoploader]

Thanks for the information, I read some Maytag service literature from 1989 which showed the introduction of the Orbital tranny, but 1986 is also very plausible. Will check again and see what I can find, it's been a while since I first saw that...

[Ilovewashers]

What year did the Orbital replace the Helicals?

[westytoploader]

The Orbital transmission was introduced in October or November of 1988 I believe for the 1989 model line.

It's a common misconception that the Newton-drive trannies are called "helicals". Both types utilized the same helical drive pulley; it was just the design of the transmission itself that changed. The Orbital tranny was smaller, had fewer moving parts, and also didn't need that big-ass counterweight like the Newton Drive did. So cheaper to produce too, as always happens...

[westytoploader]

And even though as a collector I prefer the Newton Drive, the Orbital isn't as bad as it is made out to be. No different from the DD Whirly-Kenmo's everyone always bitches about. Both have been proven to be extremely reliable, long-lived designs like their predecessors, even under heavy commercial use...that speaks volumes.

[TheLucasMollet]

@CossacksChampion between 35-40 minutes

[CossacksChampion]

I am European. We don't have such washers here. I would like to know how long do these washers take from the beginning to the end to clean the laundry?

And comparing to the european washers, would you say these maytag machines clean the laundry properly ?

[fgbags]

i would like to see the dials on this machine. looks to be in perfect condition.