It is kind of amazing that GM/Frigidiare ever came up with the idea of a pulsating agitator to begin with. I think probably because it made sense that since a plunger could work that way, so could an agitator. I believe if they had put the dividing quadrants diagram instructions on the early machines, they possibly would have been the leaders of the appliance industry. The early automatic washers were built like tanks and lasted for long periods of time with little servicing. They actually out performed every other automatic washer in every area other than sediment disposal. Westinghouse had them and every other machine beat on that count, but were poor performers at washing and spinning. The Jet Action cone agitators were different in the fact that they actually pulled the clothes down with the agitator and not so much the pulsator at the bottom, which caused more linting than the earlier models. They were still good machines and fairly well built. The transition from solid tub to perforated tub brought more troubles with designing. But by then the big boom of automatic washers was over. Most people had an automatic washer by then, so mostly were replacements or first time buyers. In the beginning, there were certainly a lot of different companies and designs of automatic washers and dryers. By the end of the 70's all automatic washers were either top load agitator machines that moved back and forth or front load machines. Gone were the solid tub machines too. Speed Queen was the last to abandon the solid tub.
