ADA wringer washer

[lancethecook]

I recently bought this wringer washer from James in Derby.
I gave it a quick respray, released the seized pump and now its fully working although as you can see in the video i think i need to look at the tension on the wringer.
Ada is a company that i know little about.They had a factory in Halifax , Yorkshire and produced a couple of washers and a dishwasher.
The washer seems to work on a ratchet as can be heard in the video.
Possibly the wringer version of a Rolls, not great quality but a nice little machine.
I think its from the late 1950s but not sure, not even sure if it is a Coronette.
Perhaps another memeber can enlighten me.

 

[mickeyd]

Hey Lance,

That's a really nice looking machine. The agi cap looks a lot like the Easy's. Wondering if the wringer release is securely latched.

 

Thanks for the vid--looks like a nice, really early Spring day thru the door, just like here in Buffalo.

 

[lancethecook]

Wringer tension

Hi Mickeyd, the wringer is clamped in position but despite the rollers being in perfect condition they don't seem to come together correctly.
I need to spend some time on it.
As for the weather, nice bright day over here but still pretty cold, still burning logs and coal at an alarming speed!

 

[mickeyd]

Lance, it's so pretty, I hope you get it fixed. It seems loose when you put the clothes thru and it looks like it's not clamping in the back. Wringer can be finickety sometimes. I wish I could help. With the door open I thought it was warm. We're in the 60's here, way abouve normal; it's freaky, but we'll take it. Last March it was cold and snowy all month long.

 

Your agi cap is a lot like the classic Easy spin one. Interesting. Just thinking a pleasant thought, you've got the door open because of all the nice steaming heat you get from UK washers!

 

[lancethecook]

Heaters

In washers here are the norm.
Perhaps a stupid question but do USA washers not have heaters because it's 110volts over there?
I always believed that the way to gets whites really White was to wash them at very high temperatures.
I run a restaurant and we use White linen napkins and wash them in an American whirlpool machine but often red wine stains won't budge so I bring them home and boil them in one of my washers.
How would you deal with that in America?
The vast majority of new washing machines over here only take in cold water and heat it up within the wash drum, I presume that is not the case with you?
Another big plus is that all the steam makes the house smell great on wash days.
I do so many boil washes that my husband created a wash room for me in the garage, think he was fed up with condensation running down the kitchen Walls!

 

[hoovermatic]

These must be as rare as hens teeth. My mum had an Adamatic twin tub in the early 1960's - it had a big lever on the front I remember - have never seen one since I was a kid.

 

[hoovermatic]

These must be as rare as hens teeth. My mum had an Adamatic twin tub in the early 1960's - it had a big lever on the front I remember - have never seen one since I was a kid.

 

[lancethecook]

Twin tub

I didn't realise that Ada made a twin tub, I do have an AEG twin tub that has a big lever on the front, might it possibly be one of those?
Unfortunately my AEG has a very bad leak on the spinner , another work in progress!

 

[mickeyd]

Many of us here in the USA

envy our UK, etc, brothers who have boil washers, and yes most of our homes have 110v and some 220 for elecrtric dryers and stoves. In my area, most people have gas dryers and stoves with no 220 lines, but the high volt are not hard to install.

 

I am not sure why our machines don't heat. Gas is much much cheaper than electricity here. Other people can answer this.

Have often wondered why your washer heats and ours do not, ( Many new machines will heat, and a few older ones did, but the vast majority did not.) We're always cheering and hoping that a newly found unique TT will heat. Doesn't happen. And virtually none of our wringers heat. And yes, almost all of our machines fill with both hot and cold taps. When we want to almost boil, we can turn the hot water tank up from normal to hot, and then the water is scalding but not boiling.

 

For me, a soak in Tide with bleach powder takes out wine, chocolate and berry stains, but again many other members have more experience here. Tide HE powder and clorox also work wonders. Guessing that over here, it's more chemistry than energy. Nothing stained here (my house) sits for too long. I wash all the time. If I get filthy rich, I'm going to buy a heating TT and wringer from one of you lads and have it shipped.

[this post was last edited: 3/13/2012-13:06]

 

[mickeyd]

Here's a load in a Norge for ya, Lance

nice and white, no heat, but wanting some and all the wonderful vapors.

 

[westingman123]

Mike!

That wringer is beautiful! Is that chrome or stainless? Took my breath away for a moment, there.

 

[maytagbear]

Between the 120! volts........

we here in the States generally have had (until recently), great huge storage water heaters. The one for this apartment is 30 gallons (divide by 4 to get litres).

We haven't had need of self-heating washers. When I need to run a hot wash, I purge the line of cooled water at the kitchen sink. My washer and dryer are also in the kitchen.

When I saw the headline for this thread, I was thinking "Americans with Disabilities Act," and was rather wondering about a disabled person using a wringer washer.

Ada is a beauty!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[mickeyd]

It'chrome, Keith, thanks,

just like the Visimatic, but I'd trade the chrome for Lance's heater in a heartbeat. A close-up of a big Norge Chrome Wringer Mouth

 

[vacbear58]

Adamatic & AEG

Ada top left, AEG bottom left.

From previous discussions it appears that the Ada facility was bought/taken over by Philips for production of the Top Twin twin tub. It may be that this was on the Ada design boards when they got taken over although it has to be said that in the Which tests the later Philips did a lot better than the Ada in 1960

 

[vacbear58]

I may be wrong on this

but I think the same facility might still be making White Knight Tumble driers. These used to be Philips models until Philips divested themselves of it in the late 1980s (I think)

http://www.crosslee.co.uk/english/index.html

 

[vacbear58]

Heaters

Not so much a British thing as a European one.

From a UK point of view the first washing machines were supplied without heaters too. We had (and to an extent still do) hot water storage tanks in our homes as well although it would be fair to say that, back in the 1950s, by and large they would not have had the "recovery" time that US water heaters would have had.

Others can be more specific on dates but I think it was about 1956 or so that Hoover started fitting heaters and certainly the Hoovermatic (1957) was supplied with a heater, and a powerful one at that. The small Servis wringer/washer (1956?) was designed to have a heater from the outset too and the first Servis Supertwin had a thermometer arrangement rather than a thermostat.

Personnally I believe there are two factors - the first being that we did not have the tradition of using bleach in our laundry.

The second is that there was a very long tradition of boiling whites - that goes back a long way so that late victorian houses onwards had wash houses built with coal fired "coppers" built into them for the specific purpose of boiling clothes. With the spread of the suburbs in every town and city with smaller kicthens and no wash houses came a wide range of both gas and electrically powered free-standing "wash-boilers". And it was not unusual for the whites to be put into the copper (or later wash-boiler) to soak while the water heated up. So hence the tradition was established. And even when the Hoovermatic was launched the wash action was described as "pulsator boiling action" - even though the water did not actually need to be boiling - but tapping into this same tradition.

Al

 

[westingman123]

Oh, Mike, thank you!

I'm SO gonna have to come East. I've quite a selection of wringers, but I've never seen one that comely before. Oh, to use that on your deck. *vapors*

We're having an early spring, I did a load of linens before work today and hung them out. The first load of spring is always blissful.

 

[keymatic]

Hi Lance,

Nice Ada there !! I have a similar machine, I think yours maybe the Balmoral model, but will check when I get home tonight. With regards to the wringer, is it the tension or the drive to the wringer ? I was'nt over struck on wringer due to the fact it was a set tension, and was un-adjustable. I think they were rather cheaply made machines what with the non-traditional gearbox.

Hope you get your AEG Lavalux sorted, the spinners on them can be a bit of a pain-in the ar*e, i find out that the early model with (white knobs) has a saftey drain which kicks in really quickly when rinsing, and the later one (black knobs) doesn't have the drain, is it the pump or something else ? I have a couple of these machines, built like tanks..lol

Al, I think Servis introduced a heater to there model "R" in 1950, however the styling was some what of a back-step due to the re-introduction of the four legs due to the national steel shortage.

Paul, as you say, i think the Adamatic would be very rare !! It was a very early twin tub, being introduced in the late 50's. I have a nice pamphlet of it, i will try and scan at some point.

Cheers
Keith

 

[lancethecook]

Wringer

Hi Keith,
I'm not sure what is wrong with the wringer, I havnt spent any time on it as yet, it certainly clamps down ok but the top roller dosnt meet the bottom one, the drive appears to be working fine.
You are right about cheaply made , sort if on a par with rolls twin tubs but it's nice to have.
I didn't know they made a twin tub but if you do find the leaflet would love to see a scan of it.
One very good point about the Ada is the heater, 3kw and quickly brings the tub up to the boil.
Al , thanks for the magazine scan , I noticed the burco twin tub on there.
I don't think I have ever seen one in the flesh so to speak but if good old eBay ever shows one I will certainly have a go for it.
As for the AEG twin tub, the outer spin can is very badly corroded where the drain pipe comes out, maybe one day if I can find the time and enthusiasm I will try and dismantle it and see if I can get it welded , I did try fibre glass , very unsuccessfully !