Built in October of 1936 and originally “medium dark green” in color, you knew you had something soecial during the tough times of the late-1930s when you had a gas engine for your washing machine. This 1936 Maytag Model 92 washing machine engine is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Clintonville, WI, and the seller is asking $275 starched. I mean, firm. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for this washtub-turning tip!
The seller lists this Maytag engine, or motor, as being built in October of 1936, and the number 749754 stamped on the flywheel confirms it as having been made in October of 1936. It’s amazing that there’s any information about these single-cylinder motors out there, when some vehicles don’t have really any information at all on the entire internet. Maytag produced almost 600,000 of these washing machine engines in the 11 years that they were made.
As most of us know, not everyone had electricity in the early part of the 20th century, especially rural areas. If you didn’t live near a stream where you could beat your dirty laundry on a rock in the water, which wasn’t quite as effective as a $1,500 modern washing machine but a lot more scenic, you could have gotten a gas-powered machine. Maytag started making gas engines for washing machines as early as 1911, and the Model 92, as seen here, was made from 1927 through 1937.
Maytag Washing Machine Company, out of Newton, Iowa, was founded in 1893 by Mr. Frederick Maytag, and the name was changed to Maytag, Inc. in 1925. The company got out of the gas-powered washing machine market in the 1950s, not long before satellites were orbiting the earth, believe it or not. We still have a Maytag washing machine from the early 1980s, and it works like new. I don’t see a need to upgrade to a new, complicated, expensive, and trouble-prone front-loader when our 45-year-old Maytag top-loader works perfectly. That’s not good for business, but Maytag was bought out by Whirlpool in 2006, so it’s not like they’re hurting for money.
The Model 92 was the company’s first “kick start” gas washing machine motor. The washing machine that used the earlier Model 82 motor had a kick-start, but it was mounted to the machine; this is the first one with the start pedal attached to the motor itself. This is a 3.5-hp two-stroke single, and the seller has a great video in their listing showing it running, so you can hear and see it in action. My dad restored an old kick-start Maytag washing machine motor 50 years ago and mounted it on a board with a little gas tank. We still have it. This thing is fantastic. I would love to restore this one back to looking like new again, just for fun, but I’ll keep doing laundry inside the house with a machine that doesn’t smoke quite as much. Are any of you into collecting or restoring small gas engines like this?
Wow! Would make for a neat retro go kart!
In the 1950’s my Dad built me a go kart that used one of these for power. It wasn’t fast, but we mostly rode around on the sidewalks hoping that no one would call the cops on us.
I saw the opening photo……. And I just KNEW IT!! I figured this was written up by Scotty. $275 Starched… Thats a good line. This find it absolutely amazing, and leaves me wondering where the rest of the machine wound up. Thats really so.ethinh else your Dad had restored one 5 decades ago too. Sounds like a fun project. I’m guessing not too many of these were installed in peoples basements, or at least, I hope not. Love that kick start feature too. This is a great find Lothar and write up too Scotty.
Fun write-up SG. Very cool piece of machinery.
:D,,well, we asked for the unusual, and how a site can go from a Ferrari to this, can only mean one thing, Scotty helps keeps it in check. I think by the late 30s, things had recovered some, obviously 600,000 people had enough money for a gas powered wash machine. I read, typically, these wash machines cost about $140 new, a lot of money when a new Ford was about $650. That pretty much cut out rural folks, that still used wringer models. Then the smell, can you imagine this thing running full tilt? The fumes alone, not to mention the noise, no question as to when mom was doing the wash. As electricity became more widespread after the war, these were used for many other “jobs”, and did a lot more than wash clothes. I saw a documentary about a man who was a kid in the 40s, lived on a rural farm in Wis. and he said, after the war electricity finally came to the farm, and changed everything. After watching the video, I’m not sure how this thing even runs at all?
And another one coming right outta left field by Lothar and finishing the play, SG! Crazy and interesting stuff, you guys-next we know you’ll find a gas powered dishwashing machine of similar vintage to match!
While living in Madrid the wash was all done by hand on a scrub board. When we got a wringer upright electric washing machine our neighbors were amazed.
To that end, the knife sharpener came around once a week with his circular sharpening stone mounted on the front of his bicycle, resetting a belt to the bike pedals to turn the stone. How he would’ve appreciated an engine like this!
Since this is a “Dirty Laundry” post, this must be said. It, like car prices, shows how crazy the world has become. Scotty has heard it and was equally as flabbergasted. My apt. complex has an on site laundry, but I prefer the laundromat. The only one in a 30 mile radius. I only go maybe twice a month, so not a big issue, but they recently redid the whole place with all new machines, a huge investment, I’m sure, and with that, an increase in price. The smallest washer was $4.00, went up to $4.50, okay, so I put my clothes in, add detergent, select “hot”, ( I like hot water for wash), get this, the price now says $4.75!! WHAT? You miserable so and so, you’re charging me extra two bits for hot water? I mean, isn’t a laundromat supposed to have hot water included? My old man had a laundromat in the 70s, and I remember wash was .25 and drying was a dime. And so it goes,,,,
Excellent write-up, as usual, Scotty. Very informative and intereresting. Lots of research here. Thanks!
Great write-up, Scotty. To echo the others, I knew it had to be you.
My dad often shared stories of snagging these little engines off of defunct washers and getting them to run again. I also remember frequently seeing these things at flea markets for $5. Hard to believe how much they are bringing now, and also amazing how readily available parts are, just about anything you need.
Apparently they were also used on small go-karts called the “Maytag Racer”.
Cool stuff.
The Maytag racers are worth a Google search. Maytag made just under 500 of them between 1934 and 1941.
My brother gave me one he found in an old shed. It’s pretty beat up but still has the cast aluminum grill and cast steering wheel that says Maytag. 2 of the wheels are original. I saw a nicely restored one at a tractor/steam engine show. The owner was part of a Maytag racers club and when I showed him a picture he said ” now we know of 34 of them”
That is pretty awesome, Turbojet!
I dare you to restore this and post it here.
I did go down several rabbit holes after googling Maytag Racer. Spent several hours I didn’t know I had.
I would definitely like to see more small engine posts.
In our museum we have an actual pile of these things. Boxes of parts and two complete washing machines, one with an electric motor and one with gas in our Maytag display.
Up and down the Appalachians, these were as common as the dirt they washed away. Many areas ET,WNC and the Virginias, didn’t get electric ’till the ’50s. Many Maytag collectors in the area and you’ll see them at the Steam and Gas meets. A friend who is a collector has all the attachments including a butter churn basket. His wife made him a set of pantys out of and old sheet so big he can hardly hold them up, he’d set up at the shows, soap bubbles boiling out of a machine, he’d kick it out of gear, pull those pantys out , hold them up and say I wonder if these are done yet? We have one on the back porch that’s been changed to an electric motor we use to wash greens for market.
I have one that is completely restored, down to the decals. Grabbed it on a whim. They’re also called “hit ‘n’ miss” engines. Run one and you’ll see how they got that nickname. Wow, $275 unrestored? Suddenly I feel like mine is a “running when stored” high bucks proposition. (sarcasm alert)
They had a long flexable exhaust tube that could be run out through a window and were very quiet. Ask me how I know? I grew up in rural Wisconsin!
Those long flexible exhaust tubes are also selling for a small fortune in KS.
I restored both the single cylinder and twin cylinder model – which replaced these single cylinder models in 1937s until the end of the run in 1952 – for a friend and they were really fun projects and so simple. I had always wanted to mount one on a radio flyer wagon along with one of the hand crank ice cream makers with a pulley mounted in place of the hand crank and use it to make ice cream.
Someone made a comment about the smoke probably making the clothes stink – they originally came with a 15 foot coil of flex pipe and a cast ball end muffler so you could direct the exhaust away from the laundry.
Short video I made for the single cylinder rebuild 13 years ago. https://youtu.be/uIWLDI1CCQU?si=8hsNmQ_YosGXDkK1
Wow! What a cool nugget of history! Thanks!
Central Wisconsin thresherees have a robust hit and miss engine community. This is the only offering on Barn Finds that has fewer than 8 cylinders, hence the only one I’m interested in.
So not only did you commune with nature beating clothes on a rock. You still had to commune with nature to use a washing machine. (If you didn’t have the optional exhaust pipe) So no washing done when it was 10 below “0”. I imagine that there was quite a buildup/backup of dirty laundry in/from January! And we had the same experience with the junk front loaders.
My wife’s been asking me to build her a gasoline powered blender for years…
Cool! I had no idea, thank you!
Ya just never know what you might see on BF. Invariably the latest arcane item such as this; will trigger a memory or a random thought rattling around in the old cranium. Example: I remember my grandmother telling me and my wife about how thrilled she was when granddad brought their first washing machine after WW2 which of course was a Maytag, electric version. The kind with a wringer that had to be bolted to the floor so it wouldn’t walk away. Of course drying was courtesy of mother nature. Never mind that she was a mother to five children and a husband who mowed his lawn with a manual mower. As Bob Dylan sang: The times are a changing. You know what, I think I’ll go run a load of laundry today. Most of the dirty clothes are mine anyway from sweating my old tukus off redistributing “snowcrete” by the coal shovel full for the past week and a half. Heating with coal? Perish the thought. Bless oil heat. Sure did miss my snowblower that was rendered useless this past week. Somewhere grandad is chuckling. Come on Spring! The Plymouth needs a run.
actually a lot of people used these on the porch and routed the exhaust under the house to rid it of varmits. Most houses in those days here in the south just sat on rocks or railroad ties so wasn,t varmit proof. Ralph Nadar would have soiled his pantys