BD Laundromat

[supersurgilator]

I was just wondering if any of you have had the experience of visiting an all Whirlpool/Kenmore belt drive laundromat? What did that sound like to have several machines going at the same time? My grandparents retirement park used to have 2 BD coin operated Whirlpools and 2 solid tub SQ's. They were unfortunately replaced in 1995 for Whirlpool DD machines.

 

[cfz2882]

been there!

Yes,back in the mid-'70s,it was a small laundromat at a
university student housing,there were 2 of these laundromats
on the complex-each had about 6 BD whirlpools,4 FL westys
and about 6 big dryers,cissel as i remember. the BDs had
black agitators and i would guess they were late-60s vintage
some of the westys looked like they were used,probably 1950's
vintage as a couple were round. i used to like it when a
repairman was seen and i would wait to see if he threw out
any replaced parts that i could fetch out of the dumpster
and examine,some of the parts scored were a BD pump-it was
a black plastic 2 port,a sudsaver valve,a couple timers,
a couple black bakelite westy pumps-some with the flex shaft
still in place,and several westy solenoids with the little
black roller on the moving arm.
Most of the noise there was from the rattling chain drive
dryers,but i remember some washer sound too. I was about 8yrs
old at the time.

 

[ingliscanada]

Laundromat with Inglis

When I was a kid, whenever we visited my grandparents in Dunnville, Ontario, there were 4 laundromats in this small town. One of them was in the building my grandparents lived in (SQ washers/Huebsch dryers).

Down the road from us, a new one (at the time-1978) opened, and it had Inglis washers and Huebsch dryers, all harvest gold colour. This was the first time I ever saw coin-op Inglis washers, and I thought that was so neat. As you can imagine, it was cool hearing a line of BD WP-type washers running together. And yes, the sound was predominately "woo-woo's" through the place, along with hearing the "click-clunks" of cycle changes here and there. Accompanying that was the sound of the dryers starting up. The Huebschs of that time started up with a well-heard 1-second wind.

I would watch a line of Inglises in operation, one following the other in cycle changes. It was so cool! They would all be "woo-wooing" away. Then one after the other, the first one would click, then the sound would become steady, as it was now in drain. Then the next would follow, and so on. (woo-woo-click-wooooooo; woo-woo-click-wooooooo; etc) Then a few minutes later, grinnnnd-click; grinnnnd-click; grinnnnd-click; etc into spin. Then the alternate spray-rinses between them. The first washer would spray, then the second one, then the first and third, then the second and forth (you get the picture). I used to love going to that laundromat just to watch those Inglises, after being used to Speed Queens.

The washers had the white agitators, and the plastic splash guards. They had normal and perma-press settings. The dryers had the chrome-edged full glass doors.

Supersurge, I hope you found this entertaining

Gary "InglisCanada"

 

[rll70sman]

Bruce, thanks for starting such a cool thread! In northern Minnesota, my parents have always had extremely hard water with mostly dissolved iron deposits. Needless to say, it didn't take long for the clothes to get that dingy look. Even blue jeans turned orange after a while. So, most of my life we washed at the laundromat.

For a short time in the early '80s, we did laundry at a resort that allowed the public to use its laundromat. It had two harvest gold belt-driven commercial Whirlpools and two huge harvest gold commercial dryers with the smaller round glass windows (can't remember which brand). I've always had a fascination with running water so it was an added bonus to watch the washers drain the water into the left side of an adjacent concrete two-basin laundry tub. Since Whirlpools have always drained water relatively quickly, it was exciting to see how fast that tub would fill almost to the top before going back down. The owner's must have had to keep a close eye on the drain so lint and dirt didn't plug it up.

Several years later we started taking the laundry to a small town about 20 miles southwest of our house. It had a nice, tidy little laundromat built in the early '70s with, I believe, a dozen harvest gold Whirlpools in the center and about as many front-load Zanussi washers along the right wall. On the left wall were the big harvest gold Loadstar gas and electric dryers with the round glass doors. This laundromat also had a Bock extractor that popped the lid open automatically once the 1,725 rpm spin was completed.

The "woo-woo", grind, clunk sound of all them Whirlpools was my favorite part and music to my ears. All had the cool steep, slanted consoles and believe it or not, Dual Action agitators. Most had separate hot, warm, or cold water wash selections, regular or permanent press cycle switches, and multi-colored indicator lights. Red was "On," pink was "Rinse," and orange was "Spin." But, some had combined temperature and cycle selections--hot normal wash, warm permanent press with cool down, and cold special wash, and only two indicator lights--an orange one for "On" and a pink one for "Rinse." The Whirlpools cost $0.75 per load, the double-load Zanussis were $1.00, the triple-load Zanussis were $1.50, and the quadruple-load Zanussis were $2.00. All the dryers, gas or electric, cost $0.25 for 11 minutes of dry time. It was an affordable place where the machines weren't turned down and your laundry actually got clean.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

My grandmother and great-Aunt lived in two separate but identical 8-story condo buildings in Dunedin Beach Florida. Each had a laundry room on the 2nd floor that had 8 early to mid-70s era Whirlpool belt-drives in Avocado, three Huebsch dryers, and one standard Whirlool dryer.

My Grandmother's building was a year or two older than my Aunt's, and the older machines were mostly metal tub-ring era machines with white Super Surgilators and chrome agitator caps. There was one later machine with the plastic tub ring. My aunt's building had all plastic tub ring machines which have white caps.

I could go in there and run about 4 loads at once (my grandmother was none too happy to have me do the laundry). I'd take a wad of quarters, a bottle of Wisk, and a little wheely cart stuffed with laundry and just have a blast. I'd load up all the washers I needed, then instead of starting each one as I finished, I'd wait and try to slide two of the coin chutes simultaneously. The machines seldom ran in perfect unison though because invariably one would fill a bit higher than the next, or one had a timer that ran longer or shorter by a half-minute, etc. and the machines would wind up not running in parallel. It was very cool though to have all the lids open and stand back far enough to watch all the chrome caps turning at once.

As far as all the woo-woo sounds, they tend to almost cancel each other out. I have noticed that at my house when I run two or three in the garage at once. You'd think it would be very cool, but I'd almost prefer to watch and focus on one at a time.

When I visited there in the early 80s (I think 1981 or 1982), I was dismayed to walk into the laundry and find all the green gone and 8 brand new GE coin-ops along with 8 standard dryers, in four stacks of two. We liked the dryers but I missed the WP washers. One thing that was cool about the GEs - when a couple dropped out of spin at the same time, you'd hear that "Clack clack!" in stereo. That I did enjoy about them.

Gordon

 

[ingliscanada]

Rob,
I believe the harvest gold dryers, with smaller windows, in that resort may likely have been pre-70's Huebschs. Hoyt dryers had smaller glass windows as well, but in square doors. Loadstar is also a Huebsch product.

Gordon,
At least those GEs were still the legendary Filter-Flos. I remember that "clack-clack" as the tub brake applied right after the spin cycle quit. It is sad to see old machines go, though. I'd miss the big Huebschs.

Gary "InglisCanada"

 

[stainfighter]

re: fun, to run all four at once!....

I thought I was the only one that did that! lol, I liked doing that because of the way the first would start the spin cycle, the second...the third...
my favorite laundromat memory from childhood - an all FRIGIDAIRE laundromat in West Beach Haven, NJ summer of 1968, the timer clicks, the smell of bleach, Tide, (Real) Wisk, Lemon Fresh FAB...the sounds of multiple thumpers goin' at it!

 

[ingliscanada]

Laundromat Memories

My biggest laundromat memories were about the one in our building where my grandparents lived. I mentioned about that a while back. It had 15 Speed Queen washers and 5 Huebsch dryers (both made my McGraw-Edison at that time). The laundromat opened in the early 60's, so the original washers were white with porcelain solid tubs, and one-way motor and tranny with solenoid cycle changes. The dryers were turquoise coloured, with the small windows in the round doors. Through the years, many of the washers were replaced with newer models, but still all solid tub.

In the years I always went down there (mid to late 70's), the first 4 washers were the originals. I remember watching them run together. They would fill with the motor running, then one after the other, they would kick into agitation with that loud "CLUNCK!" as the machine would continue to add the water, then the fill would stop shortly later. Towards the end of their cycles, one after the other, they would start filling again, and then each one would CLUNK directly into spin (CLUNK!, CLUNK!, CLUNK!, CKUNK!) Shortly after the spin got to full speed (and they were quite fast), the rinse water would start filling as the tubs gradually coasted to a stop, then go through all that again for the rinse. After a more lengthy damp-dry, they would all coast to a stop and sit in neutral, then shut off one after the other.

Most of the washers were new (70's), harvest gold colour, with white agitators and stainless steel tubs. They worked a little differently, having 2-way motors and trannies. The motor didn't run during fill, they paused between agitation and spin, and had a tub brake. The pumps on these washers sounded funny when starved for water. They had that rhythmic slurping that sounded like it was calling my name (Gary-Gary-Gary-Gary)

The lid switch on all the old washers were broken, so you can watch them spin with the lid open. The spin switches on the new ones worked, but all you had to do was hold the button down to watch the spin.

 

[tbolt25]

We had a BD Whirlpool laundromat

A laundromat from my childhood had belted Whirlpools-a few Kenmores and later years, a few direct drives replaced a few belted Whirlpools-the sound of all those BD Whirlpool made washers, woo-wooing and grind-click-clunking, and the smell of the detergent-childhood washer memories for me, the place is gone now, but I preserved it on DVD and VHS!

 

[strongenough78]

We never had a BD Whirlpool/Kenmore laundromat here. It was either Speed Queen, GE, or Maytag. A room full of griiind click clunking going on would sound pretty cool though!

 

[bobbins]

Oh yes the wig wag sounds with an old style wide belt....such a lovely sound!

When I was about 16 - my first job was working at a Coin Laundry Facility. I recalled when the owners were on holidays, I had a key to the washers. I would run all 35 washers at once...well little I knew about overloading the sewage…such a mess... (yes I done this late at night and the business was close for the night).

The washers were BD Inglis (Whirlpool’s). Man, I met many interesting people while working at the Coin - Op laundry.

Here is an interesting fact – Do any of you know the word "Laundromat" was a copyright from Westinghouse (their FL models). When I was in school doing my appliance apprenticeship my instructor at the time use to work for Westinghouse and he shared many stories about Westinghouse. He said the repairmen were given bonuses if they found a Coin-op Laundry using the name "Laundromat" without Westinghouse Front Loader!

Bob

 

[jasonl]

OH yes!

Cure's Cleaners in Chalmette where my mom worked in the 70s had two Milnor front loaders and a whole row of BD Kenmores. They kept the Milnors up until Katrina and replaced the KM's with DD machines sometime in the 90s as well.