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Comment by Lio | Hacker News Reader

I'd never heard of Maytag before and had to look them up[1].

For anyone as naive as me, Maytag is an American home appliance brand. That's "white goods" like washing machines, fridges, etc.

I suspect it's just me, as they seem to have sold internationally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag

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Maytag was US-only as far as I knew. It had a reputation for extreme long life and reliability, much like the reputation Volvo used to have for cars. And, like Volvo, this reputation was then squandered.

Back in the 1980s Maytag used to run commercials on television featuring the "Maytag Repairman", who never had anything to do because no one ever called. Americans still remember these commercials fondly.

> Back in the 1980s Maytag used to run commercials on television featuring the "Maytag Repairman", who never had anything to do because no one ever called.

The Gordon Jump era (which are the commercials most often recalled today) actually lasted until 2003:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-...

Maytag was sold in the UK too although distribution was limited. UK urban and suburban homes, especially, have more space constraints than the US. The market was limited to commercial and larger homes (built by owners, mansions, etc.)

We got a Maytag top-loading washer around 1996 and it was still running fine in 2020 when my mother moved out of our family home. I wonder how far away from UK and EU energy and water use requirements it was.

Maytag was/is sold in Canada.

Sure, but Canada is just the US with a health plan. :-) Canada! The Maple Leaf State!

Canada is a southern suburb of Detroit.

Geography is fun. Besides the fact you can go south from Detroit to arrive at Canada, there's also [at least one] part of the US that you cannot drive to without driving through Canada first:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Point+Roberts,+WA+98281/

Alaska?

I suspect dreamcompiler had in mind points in the "lower 48" which are only accessible via Canada, though yes, Alaska is an exclave.

Three others would be the Northwest Angle, Elm Point, and Buffalo Bay Point, all part of Lake of the Woods County, MN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elm_Point,_Minnesota

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Woods_County,_Minn...

Via those Wikipedia entries, there are apparently six non-island exclaves of the US lower 48 states within Canada in total, one in Washington State, the three mentioned in Minnesota, and two more in Vermont: Alburgh Tongue and Province Point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_b...

Classic ruined Americana.

Neither MayTag or SpeedQueen seem available here in Denmark - at least if I check it on pricerunner.dk, I knew both brands but that was because of having grown up in the U.S.

It's probably just you - but it's curious how many brands that are known to millions and export can still be unknown to people.

Next you'll say you think Whirlpools just exist in oceans. :D

Not quite. I had never heard of Maytag until I moved to the US. It isn’t a widely known brand in mainland Europe.

Whirlpool is, though it seems that it has been displaced a bit from the market by LG and Samsung.

Maytag is not a well known brand in the UK. This may be because top-loading washing machines are not widespread here. Front-loading washing machines are the norm in the UK and in other European countries. It's unusual to see top-loading washing machines for sale.

Maytag is common in UK launderettes but I've never seen a domestic one.

I’ve never heard of Maytag before either. I guess they are not on the European market?

They were available per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag#Maytag_International. The problem is that they didn't fit with typical requirements in a European home with their cost and space requirements. This relegated them to commercial usage or custom homes with dedicated space for a washer and drier.

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