Another Colston Dishwasher

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vacbear58

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Sep 22, 2009
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Location
Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK
This time its a Jet Stream 505

Lets kick off with a brochure - courtsey 74Simon.

The 505 is the floorstanding model, apparently in front of the sink. My mother had the 303 model which is shown on the counter top.

I was surprised how ambivalent I was about this machine as I usually have a keen interest in machines from my past, I would have thought I would be falling over myself to get to it, but no, not on this occasion. Could it be that some common sense has kicked in? No, couldn't be that ......

Anyway, or own MatchboxPaul was interested (reading back on other threads its a machine from his past too) so he bought it, but as I was far closer to it, I am temporary custodian. The house it came from was built around 1975 and this dishwasher was propbaly original to it.

vacbear58++9-5-2012-04-22-24.jpg
 
Money shot

The inside of the machine - looking just the same as all the other Colston Dishwashers that have been posted. It holds six standard place settings - about half the capacity of a "normal" dishwasher.

It was a pleasure to open the door and find it fresh smelling and the door seals nice and supple - it seems like it has been used until very recently

vacbear58++9-5-2012-04-45-3.jpg
 
We return to our scheduled programme

The reason for the picture above was to indicate the clear heritage of this machine - the design has been around from 1960 or so, in one form or another - the Jetstream 101/303/505 were the last iterations of the design production of which would have ended in 1976 or so, I believe my mother's to have been one of the last of these machines.

And its clear with the back off that they just took the old design and wrapped a fancier box around it. I should add that this is amost exactly how things were when I took the back off the machine - not bad for a machine thats 37/38 years old.

In the other machines the timer was underneath the was tub in front of the motor and main wash pump, there would have been one hell of a lot going on in that small space. This machine does have a larger pump to drain the water as it has to go from floor to sink level, the counter top models were essentially gravity drain although they too had a small pump.

When I first opened up the machine I filled it with the customary couple of kettle fulls of hot water in the wash tub to "re-hydrate" the seals and ensure all was watertight. It was ......

But when I connected it to the water supply and switched on the water just gushed out the back of it - just as well it was outside .....

i said above "almost" as, for some reason, someone had removed the hose running from the inlet valve to the tub filler - thats the hose that emerges from the top of the valve and snakes down to the fill point on the bottom RH side of the picture. Thankfully even I coudl spot the problem and it was soon fixed

vacbear58++9-5-2012-04-56-13.jpg
 
In action

close up and personal

the machine seems to work fine, I have yet to do a full cycle in it but things look good as everything seems to work as it should. There seems to be a very slight leak out of the wash pump (as evidenced by the rust) but it is a VERY slight leak and indeed it seems to stop after a short while.

vacbear58++9-5-2012-05-14-0.jpg
 
And finally

Dont forget the service.

One surprise about this machine was how easy to move it was on its castors. Admittedly it is comparitavly light weight but it struck me that it may well haev been concieved partly as a portable model as well as one for building under a counter top.

Why? Well first it has a counter top (actually the 303 did as well) and secondly because it IS so easy to move - easier in fact than a hoover single tub washer. Portable machines have never caught on in this country the way they did in USA and Canada - partly because we dont have the brilliant connection arrangement used there and partly because our kitchens tend to be so small that there is not the room to leave them sitting in front of the sink. Admittedly that did not stop our love of twin tubs for 15 years (actually broadly in line with the life of this design) but coping with the family wash was a different matter to doing teh dishes - I personally think it was not until towards teh end of the 1990s that diswashers moved out of the perception of luxury item in the UK.

Whatever, its great to see that this particular machine has lasted so well, and a great deal better than my mothers which was scrapped after about 10 years. Overall its in good condition (particularly the sides and back) but I doubt it was moved much during its lifetime, which was probably all to the good

Al

vacbear58++9-5-2012-05-48-19.jpg
 
Well done

Hi

I was watching this one and even made an offer to the seller but he refused I hoped it may come down some more and I'd be tempted. Not that it was expensive just by the time I added a courier it may have been a bit more than I'd gamble as I've now 4 vintage dishwashers none of which work!

I also thought that if this one did work would I want to give up my modern beko as it is brilliant for the money and holds loads, I tend to find plates alone are the fewer things I put in a dishwasher, but more bowls pans grill pans glasses etc, and in a colston they'd all have to cram in the top rack if it were for everyday use. But it's great to see it go to a good home!

I've had no luck finding anyone who has a replacement door seal for mine, then I coud use it as table top model.

Apart from the timer with wash cycles and the drain pump and posh cabinet it's very similar to mine , the only other differences I can spot are, mine has a mechanical fill valve and empty valve drive by cables from the timer, and the hot air inlet is higher which was needed as often suds overflowed in to motor, I may be wrong Al but the plastic tube on the left as we look at rear may turn around to sit alongside the main motor and air whisked up by the fan is blown into cabinet to supposedly dry the dishes, hmm a nice warm blast of oily motor smell!

I've attached the link I posted of mine as Mike kindly uploaded the instruction manual for this model which may be of use

Cheers Richard

www.automaticwasher.org

vintage colston dishwasher

I didn't think i was collecting dishwashers, but i've just got my 3rd. A Colston turbo jet dishwasher.
www.automaticwasher.org www.automaticwasher.org
 
Thanks to Al for doing the collecting thing and for providing a residence for the machine, until it migrates northwards (havent the foggiest when that will be, but if it gets in the way do let me know!).

Am rather pleased that the machine looks to be in sound condition, with only a few gremlins in the works - happy tinkering Al!
Have you run it through a full cycle yet?

Dont know what I thought it would be like inside, but am surprised that it is literally a TJ/101 but in a bigger cabinet.
Looking at the inside photos of the 505 with the photos on your TJ thread Ricky, makes for a very useful comparison.

Richard in Bristol has a 101, so we just need to find a 303 for you Al and then a 747 and an 808!
Yep - 808! Was rifling through some listings on google and saw listed this model number, which I never knew of before. Anyone know about it?

Paul
p.s a lovely advert below, courtesy of Mike Kings archive - December 1973

matchboxpaul++9-6-2012-14-04-57.jpg
 
Closer up of the 101 Jetstream - my grandma had one of these, on the official 4 wheeled trolley provided by Colston...

matchboxpaul++9-6-2012-14-06-28.jpg
 

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