British Twintub Washing Machines 1959 - 1990

[slowspin66]

Liberator twin

These photos are a little rubbish as the machine is back together so it’s difficult to see the undercarriage !!! Your right Keith the black plugs fill in the holes where the filter flow hose would have passed through and the other is where the suds return was on the 1420 !! The brown smearing is old adhesive that was there to stop them falling out I presume

 

[chestermikeuk]

English Electric Liberator Twintub

Cheers Darren for confirming that, I do like the look of the EE console with the raised and angled profile. Look forward to using it again soon..

 

[chestermikeuk]

Brush Filter

Good morning Mickey, and wow yes "Which Came First" lol, looks great filtering the water, gotta Love "The Lady Kenmore" could almost be British with a title like it has.

I do like how both are gentle in action but still very effective, now if that was on the end of a Hoovermatic pump we would all be running for cover.

Thanks for sharing, Cheers, Mike

 

[chestermikeuk]

Marks Hoovermatic T5004 twintub

Heres a mini video of Mark Kightleys Hoovermatic de-luxe T5004 twintub washing machine, showing the powerful heater bubbling away, the rolling action of the Hoover Boiling Pulsator wash action and the Auto rinse and tub emptying .

 

[keymatic]

Hi Mike / Darren,

I think the EE Liberator has to be one of the stylish twin tubs, the attention to details is vast, from Brush filtering to the extra refinements for example the "cotton real" cord protector to the spin hose guard on the back panel.

I guess the 1420 would be the exception to the rules having as Hotpoint quoted "Brains as well as Beauty"

The Australian Supermatic "Galamatic" was quite nice being a combination of both the 1420 and the 1400 as it had the spin discharge arm.

Cheers

 

[vacbear58]

Advert

I always wondered why they used this different style machine for Australia

 

[triumphdolomite]

Supermatic/Liberator

Keith, the 1420 had the 'cotton reel' too, the spinner hose should hook round it.

Could that 75 in the serial number be a Hotpoint date code? Working backwards from 02 being Feb 70 and on the theory that they only went up to 96 would this make it March 1968? Or is that a bit late, would the 4151 have been around by then, though as it seems to be based on the 1450 Supermatic I presume it would have been contemporary with the 1460 Supermatic.
Just guessing as usual!

 

[keymatic]

Hi Ian,

Arhhh right, kind of looks like it would go that way.

Im not good on working out dates from serial numbers, but March 68” sounds about right. The 4151 i am sure is early 70’s ?

It would be great to find a 1420 but may just have to be a paper dream, who knows

Cheers

 

[ozzie908]

Servis Twin Tub MK1 In blue and white.

After a little repair to the spin pump and darn good clean and descale as it came from a hard water area. I present my latest acquisition [this post was last edited: 8/10/2020-08:39]

 

[rolls_rapide]

'Bless This House'

Series 1, Episode 9: 'Make Love, Not War' (regarding rows and arguments between husband and wife).

Trevor and Betty have a slant-front Hoover 'Keymatic'... with what appears to be the circular programme progress indicator, so it must be Model 3226.

There's a canister of 'Vim' and possibly a packet of soap powder sitting on the machine too.

 

[keymatic3203]

the 3226

has the most discreet plumbing, or could we hope the set designers to have put the tap adaptors on the sink taps I wonder.

A lovely Servis Austin, I've got the all cream model.

Mathew

 

[keymatic]

Hey Austin,
Great Servis Mk1 there, always liked to Sky Blue out of all the Servis colours here’s mine in the same blue but cream base colour option.
Cheers
Keith

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi Austin.

Congratulations on the Mk27 supertwin in blue! What a fetching shade of blue it is too and looks in great condition.

Excellent that there is a representative of both white/blue and cream/blue in preservation.

Keith .... is your example a Mk27 as well, or might it be an earlier Mk19 example?

Still trying to discover whether Servis did both Mk19 and Mk27 Supertwins in all the colourways, or whether some colours were only available with a particular model number. So far for definite we have:

Mk19 in red
Mk27 in blue
Mk27 in green

Paul

 

[rolls_rapide]

Bless This House

Series 2, Episode 2: 'Love Me, Love My Tree'

As previously mentioned, Sid and Jean gained an Indesit automatic (for one episode only), but more to the point, Trevor and Betty lost the Hoover Keymatic, and gained an early Hoovermatic twintub.

Visible at the back of Trevor. One dial, it looks like photo 2, (courtesy Trevor Howsam Ltd (Props)).

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi all.

Apologies for the quality of the following images - all have been taken from newspaper adverts and might be of interest:

GEC Super De Luxe (based on the Philips Top Twin de luxe)
FLATLEY Twin Tub ('coming soon' for Christmas 1960 into 61 - this is the only mention I have found of such a machine - did it ever get released onto the market?)
REGENTONE Twin Tub (a rental company version of the Frigidaire Master Twin)
COTTO De Luxe
DUOMATIC Olympic
INSTAMATIC Turbo
TALLENT Twin Tub (the Rolls machines sold after Rolls went bankrupt)
RAYJON Select-o-matic
PYE twin tub
INSTAMATIC twin tub
GEC Space Saver
GAYDAY twin tub
ROLLS Electromatic MkII (as sold in Northern Ireland)
EKARMATC (a Bylock President clone)
DUOMATIC '49 Guineas' model

Hope everyone is doing well.
Regards
Paul

 

[keymatic]

Evening Paul,

Crumbs never knee half of them even existed - “Gayday” twin tub, luv it !! The only i have is the Pye twin tub, really just a Rolls.

Cheers
Keith

 

[anthony]

found these today

while looking for something on vacuums. Thought they might be interesting to someone

 

[anthony]

there's

The liberator in there somewhere and the levitating Burco boiler [never new it could do that]

 

[rolls_rapide]

Cotto Twin Tub

It appears that the Cotto machine was an independent exclusive, exclusive to Broadmead Group of Bristol, which was owned by John James, but traded as 'Broadmead' or possibly 'Broadmead Wireless' or 'Broadmead Radio'.

Broadmead Group was later taken over by Firth Cleveland Group.

A link to a fairly in-depth flickr article on John James:



https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Broadmead_Group

 

[ozzie908]

@Rolls-rapide

Hello Do you happen to know if the spin can on a Rolls 66 is threaded on the shaft? I have tried to remove it by pulling to no avail and wondered if it may be screwed on?

Thanks for any insight you can offer

Austin

 

[rolls_rapide]

Instamatic Twin Tub

Owen Owen was another department store, which later absorbed the department store 'Lewis's' (not to be confused with John Lewis Partnership).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Owen

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi Keith.

Did you mean that you have a PYE twin tub in your collection? If so, any pictures of it possible?

I like 'Gayday' too! lol..

Paul

 

[matchboxpaul]

Thanks Anthony for posting the catalogue pages.

Thank goodness people have saved these and many are now available to purchase. I have bought a fair number on disk myself and they have proved to a real eye opener over the years, showing many vintage machines and some of them quite obscure too.

Where else would we have seen images of the Challenge twin tubs, if digital copies of the catalogues weren't available.
Great stuff!

Paul

 

[matchboxpaul]

Thanks Rolls_Rapide, for the links to the department store histories.

Just read up on John James, via the history on the flickr link - what a generous bloke he was.

Paul

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi Austin.

Not wanting your question to be lost in all the posts - please see Austin's enquiry, in reply #289 and repeated below ....

'Hello Do you happen to know if the spin can on a Rolls 66 is threaded on the shaft? I have tried to remove it by pulling to no avail and wondered if it may be screwed on?

Thanks for any insight you can offer

Austin'

 

[rolls_rapide]

Rolls 'Electromatic MkII'

That must have been one of the ones affected by either wobbling all over the place in a very dangerous-looking way - due to the introduction of the spinner brake, or flooding the kitchen due to the emptying pump.

 

[rolls_rapide]

'Rolls 66'

I'm afraid I have no technical knowledge of these machines, other than it being one of the first successful Rolls machines.

Surely the likes of Chestermike and company would know? I think they've collectively managed to disassemble Rolls and Duomatic machines in the past.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Gayday twin tub

They couldn't have sold many of those, not with that advertising blurb:

"Twin tub, 3kW heater. Complete with heat resisting table top. No twin tub, 3kW heater. Tangle washing action."

Hmm.

 

[ozzie908]

@matchbox Paul

Thank you for bumping my question I will have to see what I can find out elsewhere as I need to get the spin can out to repair the seal and supports.

Thanks you Austin

 

[ozzie908]

Rolls Rapide

I have a newspaper clipping that I have scanned but its not too bright, Re the gentleman who started the Rolls machines to be sold in UK it is an interesting article and explains why he went bust etc I will try and locate it.

Austin