Can you tell ?? what kind of vintage washer someone has by looking at their clothes?

[paulwash]

I used to wonder what kind of washer certain people had as I looked at the cleanliness of their clothes and home. Yes and what kind of detergent they used. I used to find that the cleanest clothes and me finding out what kind of washer they had was either Kenmore or Whirlpool. I do remember a neighbor having very very white clothes on her line.. I did some investigating and I found out it was a vintage Maytag automatic and..... Wisk detergent, Arm&Hammer Super washing soda. So in that I found a school friend with really wrinkled but clean clothes who did not have dryer of iron.. I found out they had a G.E. Filter Flo straight vane washer. So what really fooled me was another school friend that has yellowed shirts but his mom used cold water Rinso and 1970's Norge washer? I am wondering has anyone ever wondered this?

 

[goatfarmer]

where do they come up with these questions.....

 

[losangeles]

Can you tell???

Oh Paul my man, you are not alone.  Just in my neighborhood on my street, I knew every kind of washer owned by every household.  And the detergent they used.  On Saturday mornings I was like a stalker going from one utility room to the other.  The ladies all knew me and indulged me and my fascination with their washing machines.  Such are my memories.  I did note that the cleanliness of the clothes on the line directly  correlated to the machine and detergent used.  There was one woman that was terrible about stuffing and packing Her Easy topldr.  It almost brought me to tears and I had to bite my tongue more than once to keep from speaking out.  So NO. You are not alone and in good company with me.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[turquoisedude]

If they're tied in knots, you can be sure they have a Westinghouse... LOL 

 

[gusherb]

As a child everyone on my block had Maytag, Kenmore or Whirlpool machines. We had some crappy Norgechefs until I was 4 then the Raytheon Amana's showed up.
I could very easily spot the DD Kenpools since I could hear the "bumpa bumpa bumpa bumpa" through the outside walls or through the dryer vent. I could also identify the top lint trap dryers by their sound with their slightly lower tone than other models.

As for looking at clothes I never really got into that to where I could tell what machine someone had but I certainly could tell if they had good laundering habits or not. At the time people typically smelled like April fresh or perhaps Gain, it certainly wasn't Mountain Spring cuz that's what we used and my nose was numb to it. My favorite scent I smelled on someone's clothes the first time was my grandmas shirt sleeve. I asked her what she used and it was Tide, so I pestered my mother into buying a box of Tide and that kinda got me started on the stuff. I was obsessed with the Tide Original scent and still am (now Mountain Spring).

 

[mayken4now]

I was very sneaky about the neighbors with respect to your subject. Not alone.

 

[johnrk]

Dryer Clothes, Ironed

We always had cleaning ladies coming in twice a week when I was growing up, and they ironed most of the clothes we wore, along with the cotton bed linens. I could definitely see in school which kids' clothes were ironed and which ones were just pulled out of the dryer or off the line and worn.

Honestly, I thought I had a pretty good sniffer when I was young, but I don't remember any particular aroma around people's clothes. These days, I catch a faint whiff of an odor coming off of my wet laundry before it goes in the dryer, but not much. And I use dryer sheets with no odor.

It's a fascinating thread, though, and I sure appreciate your starting it!

 

[brucelucenta]

I will say this much about vintage washing machines. Most of them did their job much better than the direct drive and other fast, short stroke washers of more recent past. Even the GE washers made from 1961 on had more aggressive agitation that created lint and wear on clothing. Case in point is that my parents had a 1957 Norge set and still had towels, some of which were about 10 years old when the Norge was replaced with a 1964 GE washer. In short order, those towels were practically shreds in the first month or two. There is a reason the DD machines are labeled as "shredders". Many of the other machines like that are the same.

 

[vacerator]

I didn't have too look far either.

There were always about 4 machines under going reno/repair or awaiting to in our garage.
My dad collected them off the curbs. Most sold, most on the curbs. Kenmore/GE/Whirlpool.
I recall one Norge, one Easy, never a Frigidaire though.
One neighbor had an old slant from Westy, and bought a repaired Kenmore from my dad. One had a Hamilton dryer, one a topless coppertone '67 Kenmore 70 or 800 model. He was a TV repair man, and also took it from the curb. Not a poor man, just cheap.
There was a guy who repaired machines a few blocks away. After high school, he sold my buddy a bad pump for his moms Whirlpool. We drove by his house and tossed it on the side lawn. He knew he wouldn't get a refund. His son hopped in his Simca Arronde car and chased us. No match for my V8 Chevy. Ba bye.