ABC history from the granddaughter of Mr. Altorfer

[abcomatic]

I everyone, I just got off of the phone with the granddaughter of one of the Altorfer brothers who founded ABC. She is going to send to me a lot of information about the company; I will forward that on to us here at Automatic Washer.org if anyone is interested? She said she may bring her grandchildren up to my house to do laundry! lol
She did tell me that ABC was number 3 in the washing machine industry at one time? Does that sound right? She also said that her mother told her to NEVER buy Maytag for obvious reasons. After ABC went out of business, she bought a set of Maytags and while they were being delivered, her mother drove by. She was not amused! lol Bye for now. Gary

 

[polkanut]

Sounds very interesting,

post away!

 

[autowasherfreak]

Yes, by all means post away. I'm always interested in learning about machines that I'm not that familiar with.

 

[beevac]

ABC trivia (hearsay)

The Frigidaire repairman that used to repair my folks #WI-56 ( the 2nd to the last time (before they gave up & got a 1964 Lady Kenmore) told me that Kelvinator (which he mentioned belonged to American Motors (Rambler) ) bought out ABC. He said he didn't like Kelvinators. I have a 1957 ad for the Kelvinator laundry pair. I was told that the ABC had an eccentric agitator action to it. This is all I know & I realize this might not be credible. I have never seen an ABC washer hope to someday. I hope I was of some help here.

 

[rickr]

Mark aka Lighted Controls, has a matched set of 1955 ABC's in Pink.

 

[swestoyz]

Did somebody say Concentric agitaton? "Shampooing" wash action? Magic Minute?

I don't know the complete details, but AMC Kelvinator bought the rights to ABC sometime in the mid 50's. I'm not surprised that the Frigidaire repair guy didn't like Kelvinators - they were just too easy to work on! ;-)

Any information that you would learn from her would be a great conversation piece. Thankfully she has an appreciation for what her family did for white goods in the 40's and 50's and is willing to share this! Keep us posted,

Ben

 

[tlee618]

Gary that will be wonderful and I will sure look forward to seeing it.

Ben that is one beautiful washer!!

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Gary,

I think we need to show the Altorfer granddaughter the 1930's ABC Spinner Washer that you and I picked up in Crystal Lake, Illinois last summer. It's been sitting in my garage, but I've spend a little time cleaning it up a bit. There is a lot of rust on the lower frame, and a little rust in the bottom of the washer tub. The agitator is showing mostly corrosion on the lower half plus a little rust, most of which should come off when I'm able to work more intensely on the cleanup.

I believe that this washer was built at the ABC Washing Machine factory in the 900 block of West Main Street here in Peoria, just about one mile from my current home.

I'll be anxious to see the material that the Altorfor Granddaughter is able to provide, to learn more about the company.

Mike

 

[dishwashercrazy]

More photos...

Based on the condition of the agitator, I believe that the cap and the shaft are stainless steel or chrome plated. The lower half of the agitator is aluminum.

The washer tub and the spinner tub are cobalt blue porcelain, and in near perfect condition.

The washer top, lid, and spinner top assembly are aluminum as well.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

More photos...

The top of the spinner assembly would swivel 180 degrees so that the spout could swing over the wash tub to return sudsy water, swing over a rinse tub to empty rinse water.

From what I've been able to discern by looking at the spinner dissembled, under normal operating use, water should not spill from the spinner tub down inside the outer spin tub housing. I can tell this because portions of the transmission are exposed in the bottom. So I'm not as concerned that the side of the outer spin housing has rusted through.

The bottom of the spin tub was bolted to a flange, which sits on the spinner drive shaft. However those bolts have rusted away - so the flange is no longer attached to the spinner tub. The bolts will have to be drilled out of the flange and refurbished in order to be reassembled back onto the bottom of the spinner tub.

The inner portion of the spinner tub lid turns freely, and would have mated to the top of the spinner tub to ensure that the spinner tub didn't wobble excessively touching the outer housing.

Centrifugal force would bring the water up to the top of the spinner tub, and out through half-oval slots at the top of the tub. The water flows out of the slots into a catch tray around the inner lid assembly, and flow out a slot at the bottom of the ramp.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

More photos...

highlighting the spout opening in the ramp, the top of the tub overlapping the water catch tray, and the portion of the lid that mates with the spinner tub.

 

[golittlesport]

thanks DWcrazy

Very interesting design on your ABC spinner. I bet that machine was purdy when it was brand new. Thanks for sharing! We always think of "Easy" when we think of spin-dry conventional washers, but there were many brands at one time, including Westinghouse and General Electric.

 

[slclwsn]

ABC Spinner Model 77 washer

Could anyone help with information, I have a ABC Spinner Model 77 washer that is in wonderful condition but it needs a engine or motor, Any information will be helpful.