1961 Duo-Matic Twin Tub

[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

 

[keymatic3203]

My take on the

autorinse cycle. Al your suggestion sound a good solution, but a bit complicated for such a basic machine, I humbly suggest, now if Parnall ever made a twin tub, I think you'd be onto something.

I'm going to suggest the rinse/spin cycle timer is along the lines of a basic clockwork tumble dryer timer, so the motor would be the motor and the heater would be the electric water valve. So replace the 120mins timer with a 12min agitator timer, both cheap off the shelf products, but combine the dryer switching with the washer clockwork timer, ok so maybe actual timings vary but you get the idea.

So transfer the wash into the spinner, hose over wash tub, turn timer to suds, spins for a minute or so and switches off.

Drain hose over the sink and cold tap would be on from when the machine was set up. Turn the timer to full cycle to give the maximum rinse, here I suspect you just get a longer spray rinse until the timer cycles through to spin dry when the water stops and the spinning continues until the timer return to the start or off position.

I would love to be proved wrong and there to be more to it, like a series of saturations and spins, but as Kieth has said, things were made to be gimmicky back then. Just look at how they turned a 4min timer into a variable fabric control, so adding lables like full cycle and suds etc made a simple spin timer
into so much more.

And yes, I agree again keith, just using a hose may well have been more effective, though with the inverted cone shape of the centrmatic spin dryer, with most holes around the base, it is a good spin drum for sprayrinsing.

Can someone find one so we can be sure lol

Mathew

 

[triumphdolomite]

My Take

On this was something similar to Mathew but I thought that full cycle might have been a timed fill with no spin followed by spin/spray rinsing at the Rinse Spin position, but perhaps I'm hoping for a bit much for my extra 10 guineas!

A thought did come to me this morning, I wonder if the Colston Autoplus resurrected this rinsing system?
Ian

p.s. Al, did you notice the hand wringer option on the Colston Cadet, that we were talking about a while ago, in the second picture of reply 82?

 

[vacbear58]

Autorinse

Mathew

If Parnall ever made a twin tub they would have combined a mechanical valve with the timer, why have a simple solution when a complicated one will do

Oh well I suppose we will have to wait until a machine or a set of instructions comes along to find out Of course we could always make our own autorinse version .....

 

[optima]

Autoplus

I'm certain i can remember the Colston Autoplus having 3 control dials. The 1st for wash timing, 2nd for water heating control & the 3rd possibly a spin timer.

 

[optima]

Autoplus

It definitely did not have a Auto Rinse function. Just a mechanical shut off spin timer.

 

[rolls_rapide]

The Rolls 'Concorde' appears to have been the next model after the 'Rapide', 'Rapide De Luxe', and the 'Auto-Rinse'.

Did the 'Concorde De Luxe' have an autorinse feature?

Or was the autorinse feature a one-trick-pony, never to be seen again?

 

[keymatic3203]

rolls concorde

I would doubt the concorde had the auto rinse, for one if it did, it would have been trumpeted in the adverts and on the machine. Also if the rinse/spin dial of the autorinse was a timer, then the concorde only having one dial which has to be the wash timer, could not have the autorinse feature, the 3 buttons can only be for the spin, heater and spin and heater.

And of course if by the concorde in 64, was the push to put resources into the automatic machine, or perhaps the autorinse didn't sell that well. Also by the time your spending 69gns you're on the way to affording a larger capacity machine from a premium brand.

By the way, been a long time since we had a UK thread run to so many replies and sharing so much new information. Thanks all,

Mathew

 

[alanlondon]

Last few things...

When I took apart one of these twin tubs when I was about 10 I seem to remember (to my surprise) that the spinner tub wasn't water tight, you couldn't fill it up like you could with my Mum's Hoover twin tub to rinse (if my memory serves me right?). When you put the wet clothes in the spinner you needed to set it going and let the pump kick in before you added any water to the top for rinsing, otherwise the small reservoir would overflow on to the floor. I'm not sure how the autorinse works, but on that basis (if they were all the same) it would be the water switching off and on and not the spinner - perhaps?

To finish off the pictures I've also attached the Colston, Colston Ariston to then Ariston Colston brochures of these machines.

Thanks everyone, really a good read.

Alan

 

[rolls_rapide]

Reply #52... photo #1

@ Ian ('triumphdolomite'):

The photo of the Newman motor appears to show the 'Duo-matic' name as a sticker, slightly askew...

Is there a name under this sticker?

I ask because donkeys years ago, I had a 'Boots' brand calculator, as in 'Boots' the Chemist. Under the Boots ratings plate (a stuck on label) was a Casio ratings plate - and I think the Casio one was actually stamped into the plastic casing.

Just curious...!

 

[keymatic3203]

More marketing talk

I see Alan in your colston ariston brochure, the automatics, LB range features the `Exclusive hydrostop action' to prevent creasing, would this be Rinse hold lol as featured on most automatics since the 60's. Mind can't be critical being a hoover fan, with Creaseguard lol.

Plus the LB616 and LB515 have the spin dry action that prevents creasing, is that the pulsed spin as we know of from the XD90 etc washer dryers. The basic LB413 I assume has a slow enough spin speed not to trouble fabrics with creasing, 400rpm I think.

These look good honest washers, it's just the gimmicky sales phrases like those mentioned earlier in the thread about the 60's machines that amused me.

Mathew