British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

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British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

Morning Keith, its amazing to think in our lifetime our mums didnt have the luxury of "Washday, Just Forget It" but they were not on their own, how technology has moved on rapidly from 1957 with the first Hoover twinny to 3 yrs later with the Hoover automated Keymatic etc..

Mum had the baby burco from 1960 till 1963 when the Servis Supertwin MK2 appeared and then 1978 the Servis Slimline 850 appeared. Mum actually hated the auto at first as " The wash basket was never cleared" on any given day, there would always be one item then needed others for a full load etc, unlike a twinny where you could race through a family wash in a couple of hours. Mum actually took to the dishwasher quicker than the auto ha ha..The grandkids just look at you daft when I point out how their gran used the twinny and same with great grans with wringers / washboilers etc !!

chestermikeuk-2020070101482406805_1.jpg
 
that's a story repeated

over and over Mike, Robs mum, 5 kids and her parents, told of how you couldn't see the kitchen floor for piles of washing, sorted in loads for the hotpoint twinny, plus the whites boiling in the copper. Seems like madness to us, but it was all done in one morning, and being the 60's/70's having that spin performance in a 2 up 2 down with no central heating you can see the benefits over an indesit auto at least in the winter. She told me once the wash stopped working, called the shop to bring a motor and it was back up and running to finish the wash. She of course did take to the automatic as the family moved away, but in my view, never got away from the size loads washed in the twin tub, so always seemed to under load the automatic.

Another I'd heard of, the husband had thought not to repair the twin tub, so had an auto plumbed in, after one load,she had the shop deliver another hoovermatic and husband came home to see the automatic on the drive awaiting collection, `I can't be waiting all that time for one load' So whilst we may not understand it ourselves, not all housewives were slaves to the twin tub.
 
Hi Mike,

It is amazing how the technological advances in washing machines seemed to jump in leaps and bounds in the early 60's - within 5 years we had gone from Single tub with wringer to Twin tub then to Automatic, I guess if the demand is there that fuels to desire to have the next best product !!

On another note the 3304E went off to the powder coating sprayers yesterday in the delightful pouring rain, this is a new company I am trying so we will see how that turns out, the guy seemed very interested in the machine but didn't understand how you used it albeit he was in his 50's and I would have thought he would have seen a twinny before !! lol - I will keep you posted.

Austin, the freedom to choose to have the odd play with a vintage machine is ideal, I like many others on here have had to do weeks / months of twin tub washing when I have moved house etc and whilst I didn't mind doing it, typically on a Saturday morning it can be a bit of a chore as opposed to just chucking it in and letting the machine do the whole cycle while you get on and do other things..as Mike said "Washday - just forget it"

Cheers
Keith
 
Twinny Washday

Great stories Mathew, yes stepping over piles of laundry , saying that with kids in school & hubby at work most of the family never saw what went on unless mum was working and it was done at night or the weekend.

Another benefit of twinny washing was even after multiple washloads and top ups the water was always used to wash the floor down and the kitchen was gleaming, a process that judging by many ebay pics of washers being sold is not carried out much these days !!

And the housewife always had the final say ha ha, have heard that story so often from older repair men, if the husband bought the washer the wife didnt like - "It went out and what she wanted came in " lol..

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British Twintub Washing Machines 1957- 1990

Thats a good price for a spray job on the Hoovermatic Keith, last another 50yrs !! and yes when you think just how much in washing machines has changed, now we seem to have hit a peak with same old same old.

Funnily enough I spoke to Aunty Mags earlier, she said "How do You Remember All These Details", turns out her twinny was the 3304 with heater as she always boiled the whites in it, small amount of water with Persil then filled up to wash !! I remember the round badge, 2 controls, hose out the back but never sure heater or not, now we know...[this post was last edited: 7/5/2020-03:12]

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British Twintub Washing Machines 1957 - 1990

Looking through Chris Parkers catalogue thread (Reply #160 ) it shows the Frigidaire twinny that is the Philips 3202 from 1969 with agitator ??

Ps, I cant believe this threads been going months and no one has mentioned the glaring typo ? Im only human and head like a sieve sometimes !! ha ha...

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Hi Keith

The brochure covered all that range - I only photographed the twin tub bits for the thread.

I think the Frigidaire brochure did and was actually for fridges but had this on the back. It’s a bit flower power looking in its design lol

S
 
Hi Steve,

Hotpoint did some good marketing material at that time :)

I sold one of those Frigidaire leaflets a while ago as it didn’t have much on washers..you might have been the lucky buyer :) lol

Cheers
Keith

Ps. Getting there slowly with the 1504 - bowl & clamp support next on the list.
 
The frigidaire twin tub

totally bored out of my mind this morning i turned on the Tv 9AM [bbc2]They are showing reruns of Bless This house from the early 70s .I was enthralled to see Mrs Abbot [Dianna Coupland doing the washing in a Frigiaire mastertwin [the earlier model ]
 
the Frigidaire brochure

nice to see those machines again .Haven't seen a jetamatic in 40 years nice machine .we once got the American version in for repair [imported by a doctor ]I went to a large rambling house on the outskirts of Middlesbrough to collect it .Once in the house we were taken to the scullery where the jetamatic lived with its matching dryer both in bright yellow enamel.The wqasher had a big transformer to drop the voltage down to 110 [the jetamatic had no heater]The fault was that while the machine would wash it wouldn't spin Hmm clutch plates i thought [thinking i would have to order them from the states] i was pleasantly surprised to find they were the same as the ones fitted to the uk version .fitted a new set and away it went .Must have cost an arm and a leg to import those machines to the UK .The Frigidaire spin dryers were great and very popular i think back in the day loads of people bought on to go with their wringer washer [usually chucking the wringer]There was an earlier version of the spinner in cream with a chrome handle and a grey band round the lid along with a rubber spout launched around 1958/9 exactly the same inside. I once called to a house in hartlepool to repair one of the older spin dryers .The lady was so happy with her working spin dryer she gave me a fridge [A huge cream Frigidaire ]that had stopped working .her husband had bought a new Fridge freezer [they were just catching on over here in the early 70s]I called back later with my brother to collect the beast and took it home [still living at home back then]Once home i plugged it in just to see what was up .A quick click then nothing .relay i thought .brought one home from work the next day and fitted it and switched on again there was that click again but this time i was rewarded with that comforting purr that modern fridges dont make .Mum was delighted [she had never had a fridge till then .Mums gone now but the fridge is in the kitchen still purrrrrrrring away like mad.Sorry for rambling on guys
 
British Twintub Washing Machines 1957 - 1990

Oh Steve, lovely Hotpoint brochures and dark blue Hygena kitchen as well BUT whats with all those trades descriptions ? "Frothing" pushing it a bit there ha ha..

Walter yes hard to imagine with twinnies and autos about just how long the Empress and other wringers carried on being made, Servis still produced the compact up to 1976...
 
British Twintub Washing Machines 1957 - 1990

Morning Anthoney, no need to apologise for rambling, its great information to hear about machines from people like yourself who worked on them. I used love seeing those Frigidaire thumpers in the local launderettes, amazing wash action.

So did the UK Jetamatic have a heater in it at all ? I think it was a solid tub with overflow rinse,? did you work on many of our models ?

ps. Can you confirm if the above frigidaire twinny was indeed the Philips version with agitator ( Reply 218 )
 
"Bless This House"

I saw part of an episode last week, possibly on ForcesTV. There was what I took to be an Indesit L5 in Diana Coupland's kitchen, to the left of the back door.
 
Bless this house

Has been on Forces TV for quite a while :)

Always watched it to see what machine they had it was a Frigidaire Twin tub I never saw her use though. We had an L5 in 1977 so I recognised that when it arrived in their kitchen, from what I can recall there were not many programs where you saw the washing machine at all.

Austin
 
I remember that in the 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads', the episode where they go on a bike ride, there was a Rolls Rapide twin-tub in Terry's sister's kitchen (Sheila Fearn).

And 'The Liver Birds' featured an Indesit automatic.
 
Hi Chestermikeuk

Our uk Jetamatic did have a heater [the biggest one i have ever seen on a washing machine ] The american version didn't [not a good idea when you only have 110 volts to play with ]The later Frigidaire TT was indeed a Phillips clone but i am not sure about the earlier model of which there were two .They looked identical from the outside the only noticeable difference was one would have a blue plate behind the knobs .the other had a black one .The machine with the blue Plate [the one i have seen in every episode of Bless this house this week ]had a large induction motor one end directly driving the wash impeller the other end of the motor shaft driving the recirculate pump while the one with the black plate had a second spin motor driving the same impeller and a pump by means of a pulley and a v belt [also seen on an English electric machine]While the small motor was quite capable of driving the spin dryer it was too small and under powered to drive the wash impeller under full load .Both machines used the same spin bearing assembly as the Frigidaire spin dryer .Incidentally the early Twintub had a worktop specially shaped to fit the sort of elliptical shape of the machine .So to sum up the earlier machine it appeared to have a rolls wash tub set up and a Frigidaire spin dryer in one cabinet All accessed through the bottom [wish i could get hold of one then you could see what i mean] I once had one of these machines upside down in the workshop doing a repair while the apprentice next to me was busy changing a compressor on a fridge .When he decided to do a test on the fridge and plugged it in [you guessed it ] he put the wrong plug in [TT plug ] 43 years later i still have the scars on mu right hand to remind me of that day
 
Hi Chestermikeuk

To answer your other question .The Jetamatic was an overflow rinse machine .The company i worked for H C Troldhal were part of GM and were agents for Hoover and Hotpoint Ariston Colston as well as Frigidaire Who also made an automatic machine [the Auto 50 and 51 ] that ran alongside the TTs.Another machine that i worked on back then but have never clapped eyes on since was an automatic labelled Mc Enzie [never seen one since ]A very basic simple machine It reminded me of the early indesit machines with t removable plate on the front for access to the pump .A very basic machine with a slow spin and just one control .The timer select programme and pull to start . The two compartment soap dispenser had a valve that was moved by a plastic bar attached to the timer .On start up water flows into compartment one taking the powder .At the rinse stage the timer would pull the plastic bar moving the valve over to the softener compartment eliminating the need for an extra solenoid valve
 

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