Childhood washers

[electron800]

Hi everyone,

Well I thought to compliment the current washers thread in the modern forum it would be nice to know what people's childhood machines were, the one that started your interest in washers

For me it would be our Indesit. I'm not sure of the model number (any help with that would be appreciated). The picture is actually of my Grans machine (Couldnt find one of my Mum's). Ours was idenitcal but did not have the variable spin. 800rpm top speed and lasted from 1990-1999 when the drum broke free on final spin and smashed its insides to bits . Please excuse the photo, I'd have been about 2 at the time lol, sorry it's a bit big too.

So c'mon people, get posting

Matt

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Here's mine Matt - our 1961 Kenmore 70-series. It got an incredible workout in it's brief thirteen and a half years, but its imprint on me continues on. Fortunately, thanks to some friends here at AW, 34 years after I last saw ours, I got this clone to marvel at whenever I want.

 

[ttuee2006]

Mom's Washer

For me it was my mom's Maytag top loader. I wish I knew what model it was, but back then I didn't really pay attention to the models.

Perhaps if i can explain it someone can tell me what model it was?

They bought it new in the mid 70's probably '74 or '75. Had the center dial, power-fin agitator, 2 sets of buttons...1 with 3 buttons and the other with 4. I think the 3 button was for water level and the 4 button was for water temperature, although it could be the other way around. Don't remember since that was almost 15 years ago the last time I saw it! It did NOT have the backlit panel, nor did it have the bleach dispenser.

I've looked at many many Maytags on this site to try to figure out what model it was, but I haven't seen one exactly like it.

It went bye-bye in 1995 when the transmission blew at the same time the lower tub seal failed....water and oil everywhere and my parents said "screw it". It was replaced with a Direct-Drive Whirlpool which was a ROYAL POS. It exploded during our house fire in 2000 and has had 2 more washers follow it since then!

They just don't make them like they used to...

 

[rickr]

We had a Kenmore....

It was a white 1957 Kenmore, very much like this green 56. I could not find a 57 to restore, but I found this 56 instead. It is one of my special favourites.

 

[tuthill]

The machine that started it all

My Maytag 206! (I can tell this is from our old house from before we moved to Minnesota so I couldn't have been more than 3)

 

[tuthill]

And my Grandma's Whirlpool

I don't remember this machine at all

 

[maytagbear]

Mine shows up as a POD

every so often.

Whirlpool Imperial, with the mother and the very dirty twin sons.

It lasted from '64 to '78.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[70series]

Copy the 206

That Maytag was my childhood washer too, which was also paired with a Whirlpool dryer, although the dryer came along years after we got the washer.

Have a good one,
James

 

[imperialmarkxii]

childhood washers

What an incredible trip down "memory lane"!For a moment in time there, I was taken back some 45 or 50 years!!!
The 70 series kenmore shown in post 327220 I'm sure was like the one in someones' garage down the street from where I lived. I can remember riding my bike (or anything with wheels) down the street just to put my ear to the garage door just to hear it humming away in perfect BELT DRIVE smoothness; trying to guess what cycle it was in. Sometimes I would just hang around to hear it transition from drain to spin...Hmmmmmm!No other sound like it. Thanks for posting. What CUTE toddlers Ya all were, as Paula Deene would say!!
-Russell

 

[whitekingd]

One Grandmother had a 1961 Kenmore 80 series alphabet machine with the "pregnant" Roto-Swirl agitator. The other Grandmother had a 1964 Kenmore with the Super Roto-Swirl. I loved them both. My mom had a 1967 or so Frigidaire. I got the best of both worlds - up and down, and back and forth!

 

[chaskelljr2]

And now....... here are MY "childhood" washers....

Here is what I had the privilege of growing up with when I was a youngster.

We were primarily a Kenmore family, and in my immediate household, Kenmores were all that we had. The fact that my Mom had a job at Sears later on in my childhood kind of helped that fact along.

So now..... without further ado, here are the classics I experienced as a child:

MOM & DAD:

(01). 1967 Kenmore Model 500 (24" One-Speed/One-Cycle Machine) -- 1967-78
(02). 1978 Kenmore Model 70 (29" Two-Speed/Four Cycle Large Capacity Machine with Suds Saver, O/B/B and Penta-Swirl Agitator) -- 1978 (Still running when I left home in 1987)

GRANDMA (On Dad's Side):

(01). 1968 Kenmore Portable (24" One Dial Two-Speed/Three-Cycle Machine with Straight-Vane Agitator and O/B/B) -- 1967-86 (during its life, it was moved to another residence that she was also maintaining at the time..... the apartment building in which I now rent my apartment)

(02). 1973 Kenmore Washer (29" Large Capacity 2-Speed/3-Cycle Washer with Super Roto-Swirl Agitator and O/B/B)
(03). 1963 Lady Kenmore Model 800 (in Coppertone..... purchased used when the 1973 Kenmore broke down) -- 1980-81

GREAT GRANDMA (On Dad's Side):

(01). 1965 Philco (Ford) (with Blue Backguard on left side of the panel and Right Opening Lid) -- 1965-76
(02). 1976 Speed Queen (Multi-Speed/Multi-Cycle Machine with Stainless Steel Tub) -- 1976-04 (the last time I saw it..... my Great Uncle was using it when his Frigidaire Roller-Matic has died)

GREAT AUNT (On Dad's Side):

(01). 1966-67 Lady Kenmore (3-Speed/10 Cycle Keyboard Push-Button Washer with Click Stop Cycle Timer and all the Bells and Whistles) -- 1967-86

GREAT UNCLE (On Dad's Side):

(01). 1966 Frigidaire Roller-Matic "Jet-Action" Imperial (2-Speed Model with Rapidry...... in Coppertone...... also had the Matching Dryer) -- 1966-04
(02). 1976 Speed Queen (see "Great Grandma" Above...... was using it until he died....... Great Grandma has passed on when he got the machine..... was still working when he died) -- 1976-04(??)

AUNT (On Mom's Side):

(01). 1963 Lady Kenmore Model 800 (in Pink..... see "Grandma" (on Dad's Side)..... it was the same machine, except that my aunt has owned hers outright...... she bought hers when it was new) -- 1963-81

And that's pretty much it when it came to my childhood washers. The rest of the family members had Washers as well, but none of them were cool enough to write home about.

--Charles--

 

[samsungfl]

Mine was a Bendix "Home Laundry Centre" 800 vented washer dryer! This was a great machine and even to this day I miss it loads! Would love to hunt one down sometime soon! The one in the pic below has a few less option buttons than I remember ours having, but other than that its the same! We only got rid of it in 98' because the timer started sticking slightly! Thinking about it now it probably would of been an easy fix, but at the time I was only young LOL! The rest of the machine still worked like a dream

Great Thread

Richard

 

[targus]

Mine was a bauknecht wa6900 which I loved to watch, but when it went into the spincycle I was gone because it used to be very violent and the dryer on top off it fell of sometimes due to unbalance and it also had very very high rinse water levels and made a hell lot of noise. It was a great machine and lasted 10 years eventhough my mom kept overloading it.

 

[joelippard]

Here is what I grew up with.

At Home: We had a '68 Frigidaire Rollermatic (Deep Action) that washed my diapers and ran without incident until 1984. Something in the timer malfunctioned and it thought that it should overflow rinse on the wash cycle. What I did not realize at the time is that mom used an incompetent repairman, the fix would have been easy, but he recommended replacement. The Frigidaire went outside where it stayed for two years and I used it to wash rags from Dad's shop. I remember the "special" sound that it made when beginning the spin cycle. Dad decided that we should tear it down and so we did. I did most of it and remember being mystified at the transmission. If I knew then what I did now I never would have let anything happen to that machine. I have grieved many times over it and hope to have a similar machine again someday. The motor lived on for many more years powering a grinder in my dad's shop, it finally died due to the fact that a cat urinated into the motor.

The Frigidaire was replaced in the house with a GE Filter Flo, which did well but did not last as long as the Frigidaire. It had a bad tendency to overbalance and in 2001 I purchased mom a new "Fraudgidaire" which she still uses. Coincidentally the Pencrest (GE) dryer that mom got in '70 when they were married lives on without so much as one repair.

Grandmother on Dad's side burned thru Whirlpools about every five years as she was notorious for overloading them, they usually got to where they would not agitate, others succumbed to the cold on the back porch with busted pumps.

Grandmother on Mom's side had a Whirlpool as well that lasted for many years. I'd say about 25, and developed a leak of some sort, she didn't bother to repair and replaced it with a POS Roper.

Oddly though, after growing up around the Whirlpools I really don't care for them and have no fond memories with them, but the Frigidaire is a different story... I long to have one again, close to being like Mom's. I have my 1-18, and I love it, but it's a different sort than the Generation 1 Rollermatic.

 

[polkanut]

The washer that has the most and best memories attached to it is the one in my basement, my Grandma's 1950 Speed Queen wringer washer. It was purchased 12/16/1950 @ Wiechmann Hardware Co. Wausau, WI, Model #648.

 

[hotpoint95622]

This is what started it for me

What can you say, I would love to see this hotpoint again, come on hotpoint look at it, it's the best ever.

Lee

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I guess I should continue with my 1961 Kenmore reply in that this is my second childhood washer, or a copy of it. It is a 1974 Kenmore 60-series large capacity. Quite a different machine than the '61.

My mom got a machine like this in October 1974 as her second washer. It was thrilling for me to actually be able to go to Sears and legitimately look for a washer! We had the machine until 1983 when we moved to Charlotte and the necessity of a new dryer suggested a new pair instead.

I wasn't going to wonder what happened to this machine like I did the '61, so I found a friend to buy it and our dryer. She used them for 15 or more years before I lost track of them. This is actually the first washer I really ever worked on, as my dad and I installed a new basket drive in 1981 (the machine had a few early issues) and I put in a timer in 1983 just before we sold it to my friend.

The washer in the photo I have had since 1990. It was in the first batch of rescuees that came from the Sears dock, and I have held on to it all this time. I am planning to have the cabinet repainted along with the '61 this year, then I'll have both of my childhood washers fixed up and usable.

 

[westyslantfront]

I grew up with a Thor Automagic in the kitchen.

Ross

 

[golittlesport]

My mom's first automatic washer was a 56 or 57 Westinghouse Laundromat. It looked like Robert's Westy on the home page on the Picture of the Day link, except ours had black and gold trim/controls knobs instead of blue. It was paired with a 55 Frigidaire Filtrator dryer.

 

[vintagekenmore]

The machines I grew up with.

First one was a Wizard Citation, I barely remember this one, but know it lasted us from about 73 to 76. Dad worked for Western Auto so most of our appliances were Citations for a long time. Second was a Speed Queen that mom bought when she worked for Buss Fuse, got it on a discount cause they were both divisions of McGraw Edison at the time. It lasted us for 9 years til the spin tube finally cracked. (Didnt help that the pump went bad when dad washed a coat shedding its inner liner and the machine overflowed. Mom fixed that and we got a little more time out of it til the spin tube issue. Next was a white 1960 Kenmore 70 series washer and a Match All dryer, the first dryer we ever owned. That pair lasted about 14 years, with Mom replacing the timer on the washer about 8 years in. Next was a brand new Speed Queen set we bought right before we sold our house and moved from St Louis over to IL where the dryer lasted about the entire 12 years she lived there til it died and she bought a Frigidaire dryer to replace it. Lots of machines in that time wasnt it

 

[easyspindry]

Mine was a Thor also

After I got my arm caught in the Maytag wringer. The Thor was a fascinating machine -- washed and rinsed in the same tub and spun to get out the water, but YOU had to tell it what to do.

AND,you could easily relmove the clothes washer tub and replace it with a dishwasher tub (which we could not afford).

Then we moved to a Maytag AMP which lasted till I was in college.

The AMP was replaced with a Frigidaire Rollermatic in the mid 60's.

Our neighbors had a square bolt-down Bendix.

Other neighbors had Bendix Economat with the rubber tub. Workhorses, but not a very good extraction idea. To make the rubber tub "squeeze" the clothes against the agitator, there had to be a seal when the lid closed to make the vacuum. This seal was very difficult to maintain.

Those were the good ol' days.

Jerry Gay

 

[electron1100]

GEC Twin Tub

My earliest memory is my mums GEC twin tub, it was square and it had an "L" shaped tub with two impellors in the bottom and the spinner in the corner, i also remember my mum using stuck together scraps of soap bars in it
My Dad was stationed in Germany before i was born (1960) so they may have bought it there in the naffi and brought it back i cannot say for sure
She had that until about 1970 when she replaced it with a Hotpoint twin tub.
Her first front loader was an Indesit L5 or 6 i remember it having lots of chrome trim
Gary

 

[revvinkevin]

1964 PINK Maytag A700

What I remeber growing up is my mothers A700 in pink, like this one, but ours had a lid (LOL). (I found this photo in the forum archives, this is not hers).

The agitator insert in the photo is the wrong one, ours had a stainless steel(?) cap.

I also remember my grandmother having a 50's Westinghouse slant front washer, but it was a more basic model W/O all the fancy chrome and only had one (or maybe two?) knobs on the face.

 

[revvinkevin]

The correct cap....

This is what our washer had... with the removable lint filter inside.

 

[lesto]

Here am I with my mom's 55 Hotpoint. Too bad she didn't have the back panel light on at the time. The spider clutch design kept the hotpoint repairman busy until the machine fnally got to where it would not spin anymore. It was replaced with a 64 Hotpoint two speed with a better trany design. It was still going strong when we sold that house in the mid 70's and moved into my late great aunt's house where we found a delightful 59 GE filterflo in the basement in perfect working order complete with lighted dial and copper filter pan. That baby lasted nearly 20 years total with no major repairs.

This photo was taken in 1963. A few months later this poor Hotpoint was on the way to the crusher and the 64 silhouette was in it's place.

 

[dyson2drums]

My childhood machine/s were the hoover logic 1200 as i was born in that house which is my grans, then its the hotpoint 9534 1000 spin which we had! I loved both machines, i hope i still had both of em! Aswell as that my aunt had a hoover ecologic 1200 which was rather similar to the logic but bigger and more eco.

Everyone misses older machines including mum and gran as they want quick and good washes, and gran wants hot water to come in wash! LoL

I also liked older machines like the hoover and hotpoint which had distribution drains.

Below my washer: the hotpoint 9534- i didn't have a pic of mine but it was exactly like this, it got it from aw.org from hotpoint9534 thanks!

 

[dyson2drums]

now the hoover logic pic: which i also found on super forum. Thanks a lot, whoever put it there.

 

[dyson2drums]

And now finally the hoover ecologic 1200: but my aunts was the white/cream one.

 

[laundromat]

I grew up with an Easy "Rivera" model top loading solid tub washer and a Sears kenmore Frog dial dryer.They were purchased in 1952 when the house was ready to move into.

In 1963,my Dad was tired of repairing and replacing the Easy's pump and we went to Sears and purchase a Lady Kenmore gas combination washer-dryer that lasted us until 1983 being repaired only twice and was completely rebuilt in 1979.Had my Dad's new wife had any brains at all,it would probably still be in use.

 

[sears9000]

My mother bought a new Kenmore 800 alphabet washer in 1968.
It resembled the one in this picture,except that hers was alvacado,and that it had the gold rotoflex agitator with the gold scrubber,and measuring cap on top. Also, the small knob on the right was a speed selector, and behind the lid was another slide switch which was your infinite water level selector.This was the same machine that had the off balance switch with the prison buzzer in it. I'm not kidding,you could hear that buzzer a mile away.
With some minor repairs during it's life until the timer died in 1993,and we couldn't get another one for it,the machine lasted a long time. It sure sounded a lot better than these machines of today. Have a nice day.