1961 Duo-Matic Twin Tub

[rolls_rapide]

Duomatic Motor

Ian, in your photo #1, it shows the ratings plate. Notice that the "Duo-matic" name is slightly displaced - like a stuck-on label.

What does it say under this 'sticker'?

 

[rolls_rapide]

Bloom's Crisis

Dated Monday, July 20th 1964.

Courtesy of littlereddog and of course the Daily Mirror.

You might find it a tad clearer following the link, and clicking on their magnification.

http://www.littlereddog.info/images...e-1960s-daily-mirror-newspaper-for-sale-a.jpg

 

[rolls_rapide]

And two days prior...

Courtesy of littlereddog and Daily Mirror.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Link

Here's the link I missed out for the 18th July paper.

http://www.littlereddog.info/images...e-1960s-daily-mirror-newspaper-for-sale-a.jpg

 

[rolls_rapide]

Rolls Automatic...

Courtesy of: "The Quistclose Trust: Critical Essays" edited by William Swadling.

It appears that the Rolls 'Robot' automatic never made it to the doorstep of the housewife.

I had wondered if the Rolls 'Robot' advert (posted further up this thread), if it was even a real product. I had considered that it might have been a gimmick published by Rolls, in order to deflect interest away from Duomatic's 'Automaster'.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Referencing Thread Number: 28764

And Gary's (aka 'electron1100')'s Burco '21', Al ('vacbear58') included a Which? Report from October 1967.

There is a make of twin-tub called: Latham 'HJL-707 Mk V'.

A footnote says: "Sold mainly in London and Home Counties - also sold elsewhere as Anglia, Collier, Crown, DES, Duomatic, Kerstar, Osprey, Reliance, Twinmaster and Winsten."

 

[jamiel]

Could someone make a quick summary of exactly what happened-the chronology and situation is kind of scattered over this thread? From what I can gather, Hoover was the class-act in the twin-tub space; then two low-end competitors came out and did each other in (with a direct-selling model), leaving Hoover relatively unscathed. Or, is there a link to a business-school case or something? It sounds a little like Mad Man Muntz and television in the US in the mid to late 50s.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Hoover was the market leader in the 1950s, and was joined by AEI-Hotpoint. They were the two big players.

Rolls Razor/Rolls Electromatic then launched cheap machines around 1960, countered by Duomatic Organisation.

Snapshot #2 below, the text starts off "The major manufacturers, Hoover and Hotpoint... "

Courtesy of The Quistclose Trust: Critical Essays.
Available via Google Books, but Google's preview is a complete pain (pages edited out of certain views).

 

[rolls_rapide]

Apparently Which? criticised a competitor machine in April 1964...

 

[rolls_rapide]

The criticised competitor machine...

Would appear to be Duomatic.

Al's Which? 1964 (Reply #12, photo #5) says that the Duomatic machine was badly designed and constructed, failed 15 of the British Standard requirements, and failed the earth leakage safety test.

 

[keymatic3203]

Rolls Robot

Hi Rolls rapide

I did meet a lady who had a rolls robot. I was collecting a Parnall dryer some years back now, from somewhere near Reading. I met both the owner and her daughter and when we got talking about why I was interested in the dryer, they told me about their first washing machine, does rolls robot mean anything? well of course I knew a version of the story that Rolls went under trying to launch an automatic, but this was long before I'd known anymore. Obviously asking more, she was looking into what washing machine to buy (bearing in mind she already had the dryer, it was the 50's model, so would presume looking to replace a wringer type). The rolls man came, but said the company had gone into liquidation, he had a few of the robots on the van he was selling off cheap for cash with no guarantee, so she thought the price was worth taking the chance on. So in what numbers, probably very few, but they did exist.

Apparently they had good service out of it, before her husband cut the cabinet up to build a boat, like you would lol. She laughed and said at their golden wedding, she'd been married to him for 30 years and that boat for 20.

Always good to hear these real life stories.

Mathew

 

[rolls_rapide]

Wow!

Mathew, thanks!

The husband vandalised a good machine? Tut tut!

So a few did make it to market, but in very limited numbers.
It's good to know that you can't believe everything you read (regarding the official accounts of the case).

 

[rolls_rapide]

Duomatic brief history

Courtesy of "Company Law in Context: Text and Materials" by David Kershaw.

 

[alanlondon]

Some more literature

Fascinating read here, really enjoying it. Thought I'd add some bits and pieces I have, one leaflet I saw you have as well Keith on the other post. I have a parts book (40 pages, so have been selective). And then finally the Colston Concorde, the last guise of this machine I believe. Cheers Alan

 

[alanlondon]

Few more pages...

 

[rolls_rapide]

Alanlondon

Thanks for the brochures. My gran must have had the Rolls 'Rapide de luxe' because it definitely had the oval red heater lamp upon the control panel.

And you're perfectly correct, it is a fascinating read, finding all the separate bits of info dotted about all over the place. Some of the information supplied by some of the more official sources of the period have proven not to be correct (eg the Rolls 'Robot') - supposedly none had appeared - but Mathew says he met a woman who had that very automatic!

 

[keymatic3203]

Thanks Alan

for more great reading. I'm familiar with the rapide de luxe as I have both the book and machine, but have whilst knowing about the autorinse, never read about it before.

I had always assumed it was just in essense a spin timer, with a jet flowing over the spin dryer. Can you or anyone else confirm whether it had a valve that controlled the water flow and switched off after rinsing or as I presume the operator would have to turn the tap off when the timer got to the end of the rinse time, therefore not being quite the autorinse it may be sold as. I know a parts wholesale I knew well, worked on rolls and subsequently tallent machines in the late 60's and said a lot of people spent a lot more money just to get a water jet, but couldn't remember, but doubted it actually switched the water on and off.

I suppose this in today's terms would be classic up selling.

Mathew

 

[alanlondon]

Auto rinse

Hi Keith, I've looked in the service manual and can see a wiring diagram that hints that there perhaps was a valve for this auto rinse, but then on the exploded views there's no sight of such an arrangement...so bit of a mystery?

 

[alanlondon]

Yes I think there was a valve!

Just looked again at the picture and you can see it connected to the tap!

 

[keymatic3203]

Thanks

again, this is great to see, I agree that tap connection looks more robust than the usual rubber funnel shape hose ends.

Now for an exploded view to see the jet arrangement. lol oh just great to have these questions answered.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Autorinse

The photo in Reply #78 shows a mixer tap with a substantial tap adapter (i.e. to keep the hose on the end of the tap).

Reply #77 shows the wiring diagram where the valve is electrical - thus it must be situated in the machine.

The question is: is the Autorinse function like the Hoovermatic type, where the water level gets to a certain height and is spun out automatically - until the user turns off the tap?

Or is it more like an automatic washing machine valve, which switches the flow on and off? This might explain the beefier tap adapter.

Mysteries everywhere...! Lol

 

[triumphdolomite]

Rolls

I think it is as Mathew said earlier that the control is a timed operation. The wiring diagram doesn't seem to show a pressure switch, like a Hoovermatic, so I'm guessing the timer switches the valve and water runs into the spinner, it then switches the water off and spins out. The things I'm not too sure about is the difference between 'full cycle' and 'rinse spin', whether the spin motor is running throughout the whole cycle and how many times it would do this.
What I do find interesting is in Alan's reply 73 picture 11 shows the price comparison with the fully automatic machines.
I certainly didn't expect the purchase of the Duomatic to provoke such a wealth of information. It'll be interesting to see what else surfaces.
Ian

 

[optima]

Duo-Matic

Really enjoying this post. Colston Twin Tubs have always hit the spot for me. Gorgeous looking & performing Machines.

 

[vacbear58]

The gift that keeps on giving .....

What a lot of interesting information coming out of this thread ....

I derive a different understanding of how the auto rinse worked as I dont think it had a water valve at all. There appear to be two controls - one for heat and wash time. I think the other is just a simple timer albiet with a valve (which is shown in the diagram in reply 77) which controls the OUTLET water supply rather than the inlet.

Consider the close up of the control in reply 73 picture 4 and the words on picture five. I think the time simply cycled the spinner on an off with a manual control (i.e. turning the tap on and off) to control in water inlet - after all this was basically the mechanism used in the Hoovermatic and HP Supermatic although in these the cycling of the spinner was controlled by a pressure pot.

Going from the longest to shortest:
Full Cycle
Spin Rinse
Spin Dry
Suds

So I reckon the operation is as follows:
When clothes are first loaded in the spinner close the lid and turn switch to suds. As the spinner starts the water valve is activated to send the sunds to the re-circulation flume in the was tub
Having done this, move the switch to Full Cycle and turn the water on. The water valve sends the waste water to the emptying hose and the spinner cycles off and on for several intervals. I think Spin Rinse is the end of this cycle so perhaps one rinse and spin cycle (for handwashed items for example). At the end of this segment the water is manually switched off and the spin proceeds for several minutes - Spin Dry. It is not clear if the cycle would stop at the end of Spin Dry or proceed through the suds section - even if the water valve was sending the spun water back to the wash tub it would only be a dribble at this point. So, not quite as automatic as it was made out to be, but then it was the same on all the twin tubs of this style.

Thats my take on it anyway.

There are actualy quite a few Rolls machines knocking around one way or another but the Colston Coronet (the successor machine which would have been in production for may 13 or 14 years) remains elusive - I cannot recall seeing even one on ebay over the years I have been looking. I have NIB examples of both the Colston single tub washer and spinner in the collection as well as another washer which has been used. A third went to Ian some months back. I have seen an example of the last Ariston iteration of the twin tub machine which by my recollection was somewhat larger (certainly taller) machine - more of the scale of a Supertwin although there was no indication that the washing capacity was any larger.

The price comparisons are complete bollocks as in most cases the machines are much more advanced or fully featured and in several they are fully or semi automatic machines so not comporable at all.

Al

 

[keymatic]

Hi Al,

Sounds like a good thinking plan of how it could possibly work, some of these things were very gimmicky at the time, and 9 times out of 10 was just easier to spray rinse the load in the spinner.

There were many variations on the "Rolls" concept / design, including the Frigidaire Mastertwin.

Cheers
Keith

 

[rolls_rapide]

Keith

I actually never realised that the Frigidaire Mastertwin was a Rolls copy. I do like the pale blue wash tub interior.

 

[vacbear58]

Pale Blue

As I remember it the Colston Coronet had the same colour tub (my brother bought one for his wife in 1975 - it was something like £66 - I remember telling him he should have asked me first (naturally!!) as I would have pushed him towards an Indesit L5 which was around £75 and as much as they could have afforded) and the knobs look similar to the Coronet too although in a different position. As Keith says, there were a great many different versions of these machines although towards the end of the 1960s they seem to die out leaving just the Colston - this may just be an early sign of the decline in popularity of twin tub machines

 

[rolls_rapide]

It's quite amazing how the twin tub machines took Britain by storm. The variety and competition between the manufacturers is unbelievable - each criticising others' wash actions, giving away free gifts - or not, in the case of Duomatic Ltd!

The housewife definitely benefitted from these machines - it got her out of the cold wash-house, and away from the copper boiler, into the warmer more comfortable kitchen, where she could multitask.

 

[ozzie908]

Keith your thread # 84

Frigidaire twin tub does your model have a self rinsing feature and a separate hose to fill the spinner?

Its a lovely looking machine

Austin

 

[keymatic3203]

mastertwin

If I remember correctly, from Keith's thread, the master twin had the rolls type wash tub and the Frigidaire spin dryer.

I agree it was a time of great competition in a growing market for a product that would transform the lives of the housewife like no other. Some may look down on twin tubs, yes Automatics were a dream again, but when compared to lighting coal fire under the copper and mangles in the yard, the demand is easy to understand. I suppose the only similar example I can think of is the mobile phone, started as a luxury for a few, then what seems like in retrospect everyone having one within a year or so.

Mathew