British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

[supertwin59]

Loving

….this thread more and more. I am so glad I joined this site. I never knew there had been so many different makes. I can still see my mother filling the rolls rapide and putting in a level cup of blue tide powder then pushing down my fathers marks and sparks Y fronts with the wooden and galvanised tongs as a substitute for drowning my him!!!

Great scans of brochures/ instruction booklets guys.

Regards, Walter.

 

[keymatic3203]

oh Walter

domestic bliss, you describe the scene vividly. Way back up in your previous post, you said about your friend with the sandpit and rather watch the hotpoint twin tub. That ran so true for me, as a lad sent over the road to play with a lad I had absolutely nothing in common with, there was a hoover automatic deluxe washing away in the kitchen and his mum with the qualcast concorde in the garden, and I had sit and watch "match of the day" lol

Mathew

 

[chestermikeuk]

Goblin Twintubs

Hello Nige, glad you got the chance to see and disect a Goblin twintub up close and confirm its not a Rolls in disguise.

My schoolmates mam had one the grey snakeskin effect I always described it as and who ever thought "Stelevetite" was a word never mind a plastic coated skin over the metal ha ha,
I use to love the texture of it,also the controls down the front, slightly angled in and the pump lever control had a small burgundy knob on the end !!

I never got to see underneath or the back come to think, we where always sent packing out of the kitchen when it was working lol.I do remember it was taller than the Rolls and much slimmer in depth.Cheers for the information.

 

[chestermikeuk]

"Summerscales"

Nowthen we where talking about this yesterday and just when I went to get the pic for the Goblin my eyes popped out on realisation

"Was This Made By Goblin" ? looks like it

And we see the model listed is available without automatic pump 75gns, so am assuming the lever is to engage the pump? or is it automatic 79gns with a stopper on the end of hose ?

Did Goblin have a version of this ? with or without automatic pump?

Was this a catalogue exclusive only ? pic courtesy Keith from Trafford 1961 catalogue

[this post was last edited: 4/2/2020-08:25]

 

[keymatic]

@ Mike - Goblin Double G Twin Tub

Hi Mike,

This is a fascinating Twin tub and I have bought this machine into question sometime ago, not sure if that is the pic I posted ages ago from a Trafford mail order catalogue of 1961, but this machine has a unique washing action in the sense that it has a two-way washing action by both spinning the wash tub and also agitator action.
I have an Electrical sales brochure from 1961 and it gives a good description in it but most of my books have been boxed up and are in the loft at my house which has just been rented out.
I don't think there is much information out there on this machine, either W C Summerscales or Goblin.

Cheers
Keith

 

[chestermikeuk]

Goblin Scales

Hi Keith, yes it is one you posted, I knew I hadnt lol..it becomes an even more fascinating machine, the lads where saying about the wash was swirling from right to left, opposite of the Rolls, makes sense now if Goblin built it and as they did all the others single tubs & wringers it would make sense to build their own, I wonder if Nige can help if he saw the mechanism or was the twin action something on the Summerscales only ?

Heres a Scales from Kays 1960 / 1 (MatchboxPaul) must be earlier but mentions the patented wash action ? and this shows a pipe for the spinner to bucket but the the description says two pumps for washer & dryer ,
so I wonder if earlier Goblin twintub had the pipe on side for spin empty as its like the Goblin spinner ?

 

[keymatic]

Hi Mike,
Arhhh another pic of the infamous "Double G" - I'm not sure what one came first, Summerscales or Goblin, I am leaning towards Scales and then Goblin took over, I have had a rummage and found the booklet that mentions the machine, it is from a magazine called "Switch on" and dates from March 1961 - see attached
Gawd knows how the tub turned and also had an agitator...must have gone through tub seals like crazy !!
So the adventure continues...lol
Cheers
Keith

 

[chestermikeuk]

Goblin Scales

Oh you may have cracked it there Keith, we where saying how the video of the Goblin looked like a Hoovermatic ie rolling water and wondered if they had used a Hoover for the video wash action...

At that point we where thinking its was like a Rolls, so looks like this is it in the video, wonder if it was a jet plume of water like the Parkinson Cowan ?

 

[keymatic3203]

taking what you've got Keith,

Mike has said and remembering what Nige has written, it sounds to me it was initially a pulsator with a recirculating jet, they called the pulsator an agitator, then when we see the hole in the wash deck, the jet was dropped and a twin line hose used. The way it talks of a rotary swirls and moving agitator to increase the speed of the water, that says pulsator to me, now if this pulsator was belt driven similar to the twin star as nige says, could the twin star take this design for their washtub, certainly one incarnation of the twin star had a angled base to the tub and a small belt driven pulsator, I've got a parts list somewhere, which contains no drawings it's just a list, showing the washer and spinner have seperate but identical brush type motors, now if goblin used vacuum cleaner motors?

Nothing for it, one of us will have to find one, or preferably both a goblin and a twin star and a........

Even if I'm wrong, it's been great having all these variations going on in my head today.

And another thing lol, knowing how heavy those acme spin dryers are I looked up the weight of the Acme twin speed agitator twin tub, it's 209lb the hoovermatic 109lb, nearly twice the weight of the hoover, and more than twice the weight of the rolls.

 

[triumphdolomite]

Loving all this twin tub stuff. A few thoughts, some perhaps somewhat fanciful!
Could the Scales Double Spin be masquerading as the Brunlec 47? Which reports that the Brunlec had a gravity drain spinner and there doesn't seem to be many others mentioned.
What's the wash action on the Acme like, is it a reciprocating agitator or does it just spin in one direction, or spin in one direction and then reverse? It looks like it could be a very interesting machine.
The Bylock President looks interesting too. I wonder if this was a bought in design. I presume the lever low down on the front is the wash pump control, but how does the rinsing in a continuous flow of water work. Electric spin pump or a solenoid set up similar to the Philips?
And what is a 'rinser' on the Stokvis. Does it just switch on the spin pump separately?
Oh well off to ponder a little more
Ian.

 

[optima]

Colson

Mike

The Colston Twin Tub i can remember was from way back in 1973. The (Autoplus) -
It had a drop down hinged lid hiding the Controls Dials. It was the best looking Colston Twin Tub Washer by far.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Goblin double D

Thats great brainstorming Mathew, just looking at the video Al posted and you all mentioned "Its going in the opposite direction! thinking they might have intercut the video with a Hoover for demo purposes, but if the Twinline hose was being used as the jet on the LHS washtub entry port would that not force the water down on the left so rolling the water up from the bottom of the tub on the right? ie opposite to what the video is showing..

Also is they where using the twinline hose as the downward jet you would assume the hose exit hole was narrow for more forced water ? or they used a powerful dedicated pump motor to force pump the water out at speed, but then that would create its own problems on emptying as you would have a jet spraying water everywhere into the sink, unless emptying the washtub you used the spinner pump on a diverter valve.?

The other possibility is that they did use a a recirculating jet on the right of the washtub like the Rolls but angled down into the washtub on the right so the water rolling effect comes up on the left and rollover is seen like the video ?

Oh Thoughts, Thoughts & Thoughts, Keep them coming guys !!

 

[foraloysius]

Scharpf Reply# 126

Very interesting to see a fully automatic Scharpf H-axis twin tub (Turnamat style) being announced on the cover of the Switch on Magazine, a German washing machine with only push button controls. With a price of 159 Gns that must have been a machine for the happy few.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Colston

Morning Craig, oh nice one, I can imagine that with the drop down cover controls like the last Philips. The last Colston`s always looked sharp I though in appearance, clean lines , simple controls etc.

Interesting seeing the comparison on your which report with the Frigidaire. Thanks for sharing..

 

[vacbear58]

Back to Stokvis

Louis

I was interested to see from Image 9 of reply 117 that the Stokvis had both impeller and agitator variants

 

[foraloysius]

Stokvis

Alistair,

AFAIK Erres Stokvis only sold washing machines with agitators in the NL, but I could be wrong. But so far I only have seen agitator machines on auction sites. They probably had different sale policies for the British market.

 

[foraloysius]

Erres Stokvis

Around 1964 Erres Stokvis came out with a new line, were these sold in the UK too?

 

[keymatic]

Acme Twin Speed

Hi Mike,
Just looking at some of the information that has come out on this thread and it is great and adds to the depth of knowledge which most of us crave about past machines.

I did notice in your thread of #97 regarding the Acme Twin-Speed (pic courtesy of Trevor Howsam), I noticed that the rubber part of the discharge arm is that of the fill hose on the 260 Thor Automagic, albeit they changed the colour to grey on the Acme. I found one in the garage last night took a pic.

I guess most washing machine companies at the time had access to various interchangeable parts form one machine to another. The white plastic agitator disc on this machine was very advanced for the time, but I do believe Goblin used a soft white rubber "Floating" agitator in the their single tub W140.

Cheers

 

[chestermikeuk]

British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

Hi Keith yes its great when everyone comes together to share the knowledge or "Brainstorm" as many of us where doing all night I think ha ha, to find out how stuff works if we havnt seen an example of it.

I couldnt move the Acme Twintub when I was taking the pics but am sure it will be a gearbox with usual back n forth twinny action, its was so heavy to move but as Mathew says so does the little Acme spinner and that Acme is double the weight of the Hoovermatic ha ha..

Great you have the spares, was this also used on the Acme De-Lux spinner with metal arm , I cant remember, and prob right on the parts, I was stunned years ago when first saw the English Electric dryer with the Servis MK2 control knobs !!

Spooky was just talking the Al about Goblin washer mechanism as where saying about the floating agitator and later the later floating white rubber hands reference Im assuming they just changed to a white rubber produced paddle ?

 

[keymatic]

Hey Mike,

Sometimes all this thinking makes one quite dizzy, we just need a time machine to go back and check them all out and even bring a few back..!!

I have that Goblin washer, the agitator doesn't float in that one, I guess there wouldn't be any W140 around now as the rubber agitator would have crumbled away.

Good inside shots of the Acme Twin-Speed !! Call the Midwife used that very machine.

Cheers

 

[chestermikeuk]

British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

Ref the Goblin Double D wash action, I wonder if its something like this Acme twintub, which unlike the big model above with the agi pellor is based on the Rolls cabinet or badged ?
So the use of this with recirculation jet placed in the tub may provide said effect ? (pic courtesy of MatchboxPaul)

 

[keymatic]

Hi Mike,
With Acme having a wash time of just 4 minutes this machine used the impeller like the Rolls.
I think the Goblin Double G, had a unique washing action yet to be uncovered.
Cheers

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi all.

I remember visiting the KAYS catalogue archive many years ago and first seeing the ACME Challenge machines - so bright and vibrant and a real shame that one has not surfaced yet.

There appear to have been at least 5 variants of Challenge twin tubs sold from 1963 through to early 1969. From what I have been able to deduce from sources, it looks to have gone something like this (note - any corrections would be appreciated):

1963 saw the first two models arrive on the scene, with KAYS Spring Summer '63 offering the first model in the accompanying photographs, whilst Autumn Winter saw it joined a more 'deluxe' version, with the flattened ovoid fascia on the front of the cabinet (photo 2).
Strangely the later version was described as 'MkIII' - assuming that the earlier version was MkI, means we are missing a MkII (was this sold through the pages of another catalogue?).
Both the 1963 offerings were based on the ACME Conquest, again introduced in 1963.

1965 saw changes at ACME, with the original Conquest updated into the Conquest MkII and two new models introduced - Models 715 and 915.
The 715 was to form the basis of the 1965 Challenge and the 915 the basis of the Challenge De Luxe - both pictured in photo number 3.

Any one any idea what happened to ACME, cause 1965 appeared to be their final year of Twin Tub production?

For the 1966 season the Mail Order companies went to English Electric, who provided them with a Challenge version of their second generation Twin Star - this machine is in photo 4. This model last appeared in the pages of KAYS catalogue Autumn Winter '68-'69.

Apart from Servis and the Challenge machines, did any other manufacturers produce such bright colour offerings on their white goods?

Paul

 

[matchboxpaul]

Some quick additons ...

Mentioned earlier n the thread was the Colston autoplus.

There were possibly three versions of this:

1st dating from 1967 and running through till 1970, then model '2301' running from 1970 to 1973 - I don't know if these are one and the same models?
1970 seems to have been a start point where the offerings, previously described as 'autopride' and 'autoplus', started to be described as models 2201 Coronet (either a simple renaming, or a new model?) and 2301 Autoplus.
Model 2351 Autoplus seems to have run from 1973 though to at least 1976, possibly into 1977.

The first photo (drawing) is from 1969, so will be the first Autoplus (possibly the 2301), whilst the second photo is from 1973 and will be of the model 2351.

Also of note is that there were a fair number of exclusive Colston twin tubs produced, variously branded as Singer, Electra, Aristocrat, Emelec, Easeelec and Elite, mostly based on the base model Coronet, but a couple based on the Autoplus.

Paul

 

[matchboxpaul]

and a quick Philips update ....

Following on from the earlier discussion on Philips models, I found a photo (albeit a line drawing) of what is model HN3206, which appears on the scene in 1970 and shows better the dial cover arrangement.

A previously uploaded image I think is the HN3207 from 1971 - note the fascia height lip running the full length of the back of the wash deck and the Philips badge on the front - both these details leading into the AAC870, which was introduced in 1973.

I think Philips offerings ran as follows:

EA5400 Top Twin De Luxe (1963 through to 1967) - PHOTO 1
EA5402 Top Twin Super (1963 through to 1966) - PHOTO 2
HA8030 Top Twin De Luxe (1967 through to 1969) - PHOTO 3
HN3202 Top Twin (1969 to 1970) - PHOTO 4
HN3206 Top Twin (1970 to 1971) - PHOTO 5
HN3207 Top Twin (1971 to 1973) - PHOTO 6
&
AAC870 Top Twin (1973 to 1975) - PHOTO 7

Any corrections/thoughts on the above gratefully received and thanks to those whose photos I have reattached here
Paul

 

[chestermikeuk]

Colston

Many thanks Paul for taking the time to search & delve into the timeline history of those brands , and for the spreadsheets , breakfast reading as we speak.

I hadn't noticed the drop down cover panel on the Autoplus , Craig mentioned it in his post. The Philips Topline certainly went through a transformation from the heavy but very practical control panel to the sleeker flatter version of the final series , the whole range looked stunning in their silver & blue livery !!

 

[chestermikeuk]

Hoovermatics .

Nowthen "How Far Can A Hoovermatic Pump Water" ....if you've ever used a Hoovermatic twintub you will be very aware of the rate of flow at which they pump out into the sink, have seen many a sprayed and flooded kitchen if the pipe is not fixed firmly over the sink ....

 

[keymatic3203]

Thanks for those pictures

Paul, I notice the first picture of the acme challenge spring 1963, was based on the original acme, minus the twin speed, it describes agitator action, 5/6lb load and clearly has the spin deck of the original, no giveaway rolls bolts either side of the machine and is £70. I can't quite make out the descriptions of the two acmes in photo 3, was the deluxe the agitator machine and the standard the impeller, two different cabinets though both look to be built on a plinth. All fasinating to see and think over.

Seeing these catalogues with machines of various pros and cons, and options for payment terms, show how the wide range of the markets spending ability was being served. Wasn't that one of John Blooms' goals, to sell a washing machine to every Council house.

Mathew

 

[chestermikeuk]

Acme Twintub Washing Machine

So where does the Acme I took pics of at Housams props place fit in datewise? Mathew having read your question and going back over the Which 1963 info and now Pauls further info, the 1963 report that machine is like the blue ones with a stainless band around the washdeck, Housams has a rubber band like Hoovers, same spinner but the washlid is tilted back like the Servis and it has a knob front left of the washdeck like a Servis wringer ? pump engage perhaps ? or agitator on / off ?
Questions Questions..

 

[optima]

Colston

Paul

Thank you so much for the Scans of the Colston Autoplus - Just as i remembered it, brings back so many good memories. I adored that Twin Tub.