Brastemp

[ingliscanada]

I was watching videos of Brastemp belt drive washers, which were a Whirlpool product somewhere south of North America. The ones I watched were made in the late seventies and early eighties. I noticed they were quite behind the times, compaired to their US and Canadian counterparts. Some still had black agitators, brush type lint filters, metal splash gards and loud pumps.

 

[turquoisedude]

Made in Brazil

They must have been produced under some kind of license agreement with Whirlpool. I lived in Brazil for a short time in 2007 and got to use a Brastemp dishwasher (which the owners said 'didn't work' but did if you used hot water and real dishwasher detergent... lol). It was definitely the Whirlpool racking and wash system from the mid to late seventies, yet the machine was supposed to be an early 90's model.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I am not certain if Brastemp is an off-shore Whirlpool subsidiary of some sort or if the machines were built under license, but they were made in Brazil. Production ran for many years, beginning in the 50s I believe and ended in the 90s. Belt drive machines continued for several more years at least in Brazil than in the U.S.

Brastemp and their suppliers have been the final source of many replacement parts for U.S. made belt-drive washers. The last replacement transmissions came from there, as do the two and four port pumps today (the blue-bodied ones).

It's odd that some of the more recent innovations in belt-drive machines did not see production in Brazil, including (I think) the basket mounted filters, the short centerposts, and the three-port high-volume pumps (which were by far the loudest of any belt-drive pump).

If anyone knows more about the relationship between Brastemp and Whirlpool, I'd be very interested in knowing.

Gordon

 

[ingliscanada]

Maybe

I could be wrong, but I think that the relationship between Brastemp and Whirlpool might be the same as with Inglis in Canada. From the 40s through the 80s, Inglis was Whirlpool's Canadian counterpart.

And on the subject of pumps, how many pumps did Whirlpool have throughout the years, and when were the washers equiped with each of these pumps? My family's old Inglis suds-saver was made in the early 60's, and had a very loud pump, perhaps the 3-port. Did suds-saver models have different pumps? I know that since the 70's, most or all the washers had pumps that were practically silent.