A little history of swedens machine testing facility and how un-swedish machines was treated

[fredriksam]

Hi there. I just realized i never have told about much about our machine testing facility here in Sweden and why some american machines wasnt popular here in Sweden.

NOTICE: This is not written against our testing facility on any way. I have reserched the facts here alot and it consist of several interviews i have done with some people at the testing facility plus four former washing machine sellers/repairmens. I hope you will like it for what it is.

The testing facility opened in november 1956 and was called "Konsumentverket". The reason why it was opened was because two brothers genius thoughts. One of them had buyed a very bad washing machine and was very unhappy. It is not stated what machine it was.

He then talked to our consumer help desk which couldnt help him. The other brother, however already had an idea that he should start a facility where they would test machines and stuff, so no one had to buy a bad machine.

One day he asked for a grant to start this facility. It took a while the worker at the consumer desk talked to the manufactures and seller of the machines. At least they agreed that the manufactories would "loan" out the machines so they could be tested.

They began build this facility in Stockholm. The great big city in Sweden. It took almost 1,5 years to build it. At least it was finished and the doors opened. The tests was to published in a weekly magazine that cost about 1 dollar.

The first thing they tested was 10 stoves, then in the next number 12 refrigiators and then 12 washing machines. 4 Agitators, 4 pulsators and 4 frontloaded machines.

The frontloaded machines had the best results (highest rating. The magazine become very popular, never would anyone have to buy a bad machine. In fact, the magazine was highest on the magazine top for quite a while.

One year later (1957) they tested 20 washing machines. The tests clearly showed some thing they later added to check on all tests.

1 Machines with emanel drums was bad and should not be sold (Bendix, Westinghouse Miele! etc)

2 Coins always got stuck in the machines and broked them down

3 Machines with boil wash was bad because the temperature was to high for our standard. 85 celsius was the highest that was acceptable. (at least until 1970)

4 All wash/dry machines was extremly bad, because they could overheat and start a fire (RCA Whirlpool, the only one that was sold here)

5 Agitator/Pulsator machines was extremly bad and shouldnt be sold. Even Hoover Keymatic 3224 was considered as extremly bad.

6 German machines always jumped when they spun???? (except for Miele)

7 Swedish machines was always the best ones.

In 1959 the first Westinhouse was sold here. The consumer tests was very negative on this one. Emanel drum, the drum only moved at one way, machine was jumpy when spun and coins could destroy the drum.

In 1960 there was NO agitator or Pulsator machines aviable anymore because they had gotten so bad results. Also Swedish machines was the ones that was most sold.

In late 1960 Miele 505 began to sell here. However because of suspicious on new machines, they had to do a deal with Electrolux so that the machine was sold as Elux-Mile. The consumer test of it wasnt so great. Why?
1 it had an emanel outher drum
2 it had boil wash

In 1961 the Hoover Keymatic 3224 come out and it was totally "destroyed" by the tests. No one wanted an Keymatic. Why you ask. Again: Emanel drum, could rust through, plus it has an Pulsator action in it.

Miele 420: Same as Miele 505. Weird. I,ve never seen an Miele 505 or 420 that has rusted through

Constructa K5: To high temperature selection plus it could "jump".

The funny thing is when we think of how it is today

Then: We considered the machines would last at least 10 years and if they didnt, well then we took contact with the local consumer help desk and demanded we would at least get some money back.

Now: We HOPE the machines at least last 8 years and if they just last 3 years, we just shrug our shoulders and buy a new one. The magazine is no longer very popular either.

 

[spiralator60]

History

Thanks for the report. Which brands were the best performers in the first test?

 

[rapunzel]

And the moral of that story is 'if it wasn't Swedish, it wasn't worth buying.' Hm, sounds like the Swedish appliance market was unduly influenced by two enterprising brothers.

 

[rolls_rapide]

It does sound mighty suspicious and not balanced at all.

Off topic: Sorry, but I couldn't resist this - "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" LOL

 

[foraloysius]

Very biased opinions IMHO. What's new what's different. LOL

 

[fredriksam]

Even in my eyes it sounds very suspicous that they was so "evil" to non swedish machines.

I do have some thought about of some of it.

1 The emanel drum: The thing was that they throwed in various stuff in the machines to check if it was easy getting out foreign objects in the machines.

Among the things they throwed in (plus clothes) included: Coins, various small metallic stuff (like keys or such), papers, small plastic toys.

If the machine had an emanel drum the metallic things could damage it and create rust. They thought people didnt check their pants enough.

2 Boil wash: Here in Sweden we had an own standard for washing temperatures. It was called VDN. It even had a special colour for the temperatures. Red, Yellow and green.

The red was about 30-40 celsius, Yellow 60 and green 85 celsius. The reason why we didnt have higher than 85 was also because the detergent overflowed if you washed over that temperature.

3 Agitator, Pulsator or Cylinder: Here in Sweden we called frontloaded and toploaded machines with a drum in it, Cylinder machines. There were also Agitator and Pulsator ones also.

The reason why Pulsator and Agaitator machines wasnt poular was because: According to the tests, they didnt washed clean enough. The strain on the clothes was also bigger.

4 Hoover Keymatic: I did a check on that test again and i think i found the biggest reasons why it failed here.
It used much more water than unusal, had pulsator action and according to them, didnt cleaned well enough.

However, when they did the tests they didnt go out and maked the clothes dirty. Instead they used a labaratorium where they had different kinds of dirt that would work as real dirt.

But, they never thought of that not many people had THAT dirty clothes on them. So for "general" dirt the machine cleaned it well.

5 Rca Whirlpool: Fire?. According to that test it could overheat and start a fire. It is stated that the test was run on the highest temperature, on the highest dry temp and they had put in some other stuff just like always. According to the tests, they didnt remove the "extra" stuff before the dry period.

They didnt cleaned the lint filter. It is strange, the version of the machine that was sold here, it only had cold rinse aviable.

The four Frontloaded machines that was tested in 1956 were:

Osby Automat kf 12
Wascator Junior
Junomatic PP 9
Nimo ES 124

The Osby and the Wascator had the best results in the test. Junomatic was good but the security was not the greatest. Nimo had poor rinse results plus it moved around quite alot when spinning.