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Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Thanks, Greg

The shot of the tub with 4 clear paths through the surface foam is either a heavily doctored photo or an illustration. At best it is wishful thinking. There is nothing in the construction of the agitator, as released to the market, that makes those sideways discharge paths possible. I read somewhere that they experimented with an agitator that would do that, but it was dropped either for expense or fragility. I managed to get a washer with that agitator to fire sideways by mounting a Lint Chaser Ring on the Jet Action Agitator. It sat securely just above the 4 openings and flared out just enough to force the water sideways instead of up, out and all over, but those holes are at an angle where the water is forced in more of a vertical direction than horizontal. If the openings had been on the vertical portion of the agitator, it would have had a better chance of squirting sideways, but the construction of the agitator is such that the area of the top cone does not continue into the upper part of the agitator and if the openings were much higher, the water would have shot against the tub collar.
 
I have never seen such a fabric softener dispenser either. I have the "sombrero" looking disk.

I have both types of Jet-Cones--------two of my Rollermatics have the Jet Cones with the square openings and one of my machines (a '68) has the rectangularly shaped openings. I am guessing the rectangular openings can shoot a Jet of water that fans-out horizontally over a wider area.

Anyway, I always wondered why Frigidaire had both types that seemed to be placed in different machines without rhyme or reason. Oh well, GM.
 
FRIGIDARE JET ACTION WASHERS

I recently found one of the early fabric softener dispensers while doing some appliance gathering with Ted. Tom is right on the money about the four square holes at the top of the agitator as far as I can tell they have no effect on lint removal. The overflow rinse is good for removing floating scum and some suds but overall its a waste of water for actually rinsing away detergent and much lint, a second deep rinse is far more effective with little more total water used. I think the holes in the agitator were developed by the advertising department because they needed to be completive with the other companies that all had actual lint filters on thier machines. Its interesting to note they say nothing about heavy soil and sand removal. But all in all the Rapiadry 1000s are still one of my favorite classic washers, I have three of them and three Unimatics that I wouldn't part with.
 
Frigidaire!

Thank you so much for posting. Many years ago I had this same manual and lost it in moving. I am so Happy :) you posted it and I downloaded it. This is what you call real Great Washing and cannot compare to nothing made today.
Peter
 
Softener dispensers

The "fez-type" dispenser had to be discontinued and replaced with the shallower, flatter dispenser because on the low spin speeds, the deeper, "fez-type" dispenser did not empty. On the delicate and wash and wear programs with the Roller-Matic drive, the spin speed after wash was much slower than on the cottons programs. The shallower reservoir of the sombrero type dispenser did empty completely at the lower spin speeds. The trouble I had with them was that they cracked after little use where they latched onto the agitator.
 
I have personally cleaned-out all of the overflow-slots on TWO Rollermatic's since they were completely plugged with lint. Whether or not the jets of water were effective or not, the Rollermatics were very capable at getting that lint overboard----at least until all the slots plugged-up!
 
10 miutes!!!

i could look at those great brochures for hours!

just can't get enough of those rollermatics! i am so glad i grew up in a home that actually had one!

thanks for the great thread!
 
This one time

that I'm going to disagree. I've watched mine plenty of times and have seen the purpose of the jets aiding in removal of soap and lint scum. I've proven the abilities of the rinsing effectiveness of these machines by putting in four towels full of dog hair after washing and drying my dog off. After those towels have been washed there is very little residual dog hair that is removed in the dryer.
 
Great post Ken - thanks for scanning! I'm glad to see such a cool document shared for everyone to enjoy.

I've never known why (nor have I read to see if there were bulletins about this) but does anyone know why they went from the smaller square opening on the original Jet Action agitator circulator column to the larger opening on the later upper cones?

In the parts stash are examples of each below. (If there are more out there - let me know.)

The original square opening was used on the coin-op machines, documented by Robert's original deep action link HERE, starting in 1962. What is interesting is the original coin-op use of this column also used a revised, stiffer, version of the diaphragm. This means Frigidare was using two versions of the diaphragm at the same time.

If you look at page 11 on the brochure of Ken's, you'll notice they use both the original opening while pouring the detergent, and the revised 7537930 to demonstrate the fabric softener dispenser. I've never seen a 1965 with the early square opening, but always the 7537930 instead. Maybe the original 7529894 was used on the converted 1964 Rollermatics only?

The center column was part of kit 6591882, claiming to replace agitators in 1955 through 1965 J/1966 K series machines.

(Correction - per the 1965 Service Manual, it does indicate 1965 uses a 7529894, but shows the larger square, like the 7537930)

Lastly on the right is the 9956770 Agitator Kit. This example is NIB, and has the later 1-18 style diaphragm, instead of the original hard rubber diaphragm used prior to. IIRC the later pulsator was used on some L and N series washers, but I cannot totally confirm this.

The 9956770 Agitator Kit was later billed as the replacement diaphragm for all 1955 through 1969 Frigidaires by the late 70's/early 80's.

Ben

swestoyz++7-4-2010-23-18-42.jpg
 
Casters? Frigidare Washers Could Be Made Portable?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Interesting, very interesting indeed.

Seriously folks, what is the real deal with these washers? For all the posts that rave about Frigidare washers, there are others equally unthrilled. Tales of women shoving them into a corner for something else because they failed to perform and so forth.

Not trying to start anything, merely require information.

L.
 
Well Laundress,

I do think those casters are a funny idea. I'd just love to see one balance well on those things. I think alot of the problems with them came either in failed water bellows and people simply just not bothering with having a simple repair done, and with improper loading. I can easily achieve horrible results in any of my Frigidaires if they are not loaded the "Frigidaire Way" which on some machines was printed inside the lid, or in the instruction manual. You simply must use the X style pattern if you want the best results with the least tangling. For me I load bigger things in the bottom, like pants or shorts, buttoned and zipped, turned inside out, then shirts on top of that, all loaded in the X pattern and I achieve outstanding results. While they can take a mouthful, you must not overload them or you get next to no turnover, more wrinkling, and clothes that are not as clean as could be. I will say however even if you stop turnover that pulsator still forces sudsy water thru the fabric. That's my two cents based on what I've observed with my machines.
 
I remember seeing a '55 Pulsamatic on locking castors when I was a child. I thought it was pretty kool. I don't recall there being a problem with balance.

No washer does everything perfectly. They all have their strong points. Of my five "daily-drivers" two are Frigidaires and I love them.
 
I've used several Frigidaire washers, and aside from their smallish capacity(for the 50's and 60's) they do a fine job on cleaning and nothing could beat them on spinning. I would expect them to be bad at sand removal but we had many neighbors that had them, when we lived at the beach, and I don't remember anyone complaining. That was, of course, in the days that people lived in beach houses without doing 100K kitchen remodels with askos, vikings and sub-zeros. You know, the pre-Ronald, George and George "let's make the super rich even richer" days.
 
Page 19 capacity

Six sheets and six pillowcases. Must have been 3 sets of twin bed sheets and extra pillow cass. Still kind of surprised.
 
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