Childhood washers

[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.

 

[newwave1]

First machine i had was a hotpoint liberatoresque machine that wasn't called a liberator. it was a 18371 it was 800rpm machine i think. Then we got my most missed hotpoint 9534 in 89! We had that for 10years. It died of bearing failure. Wish we'd just got another set. Though it'd had quite a few in its time.

Below is the pic of the 18371 i found on ebay. as dyson2drums has posted a pic of my identical 9534.

Darren

 

[newwave1]

And the display

 

[toploader55]

General Electric

This is the machine I grew up with until 1961 or 2. It was replaced by a V-12 Filter Flo

 

[toploader55]

I thought...

I never would see a picture of that machine again. And the Filter Flo too. But Robert found the same machine except our's did not have a Sud's Saver
Thanks Robert

 

[matchboxpaul]

Great thread!

My two much missed machines...

first the Hoover 3236H Matchbox - first version, with slate grey powder drawer and red trim.

Lasted from 1973 right through to 1986 in use by my parents, before seeing a couple more years use at an Aunt of mine until 1988/89.
Saw its final couple of years existence sat in her backyard, until it was disposed of as they prepared to move house - circa 1990.

My parents had the matching dryer until 2005.

 

[matchboxpaul]

and second...

the Hotpoint 95452 Electronic De Luxe 800 - god I was so prud in 1985/86 when it was bought! Finally my family had the best of both worlds - a 'De Luxe' AND 'Electronic' machine.
Top of the range of machines on the street, until it was knocked off top spot a couple of years later by a Hotpoint Microprofile - quite a jump for Mr Briggs who replaced a Servis MkII Supertwin with the Microprofile!

The 95452 lasted until 2005. Had it lasted a couple more years then it would have still been around, as a proud member of mine and Rob's vintage Hotpoint collection.

Hey ho!

Cheers
Paul

 

[saltysam]

The machine that started it all

The picture here is my grandma' '65 Roller-Matic that was purchased new in '65 and it still in use today. My wife and I use this as our daily driver along with a '75 1-18 and a '65 Tourquois Maytag center dial. My mom had a '68 Roller-Matic that was used from '68 till sometime around '73-'74 when it finally locked up from all the lime and iron in the water. Don't have a picture of the '68 but here is my grandma's '65 along with the 1-18.
I was 5 years old when my grandparents bought this and have a lot of fond memories of watching the agitator in motion when i was a kid. My grandma used to yell at me to put the lid down because of all the water splashing all over the place....lol. That and it was taking here a lot longer to do the laundry because i kept stopping and starting the washer......lol
Mark

 

[matchboxpaul]

Quite proud to think that my parents are only on their third machine in 36 years!

A personal message of congratulations to my mum and dad on persevering with machines, when other less patient people would have replaced them.

Not that persevere is really the right word - the matchbox had many a repair in its lifetime, but my dad enjoys tinkering and repairing stuff, so it wasnt much of a hardship for him.

I think the 95452 was something of a disappointment for him though. Apart from my mum blowing the motor by trying to wash a coat which soaked up sooo much water the load became to much to turn and the motor went bang VERY LOUDLY (result - new motor), all it ever needed was replacement brushes every couple of yesrs.

The current Hotpoint WF740 has a very high standard to live upto!

Paul

 

[dyson2drums]

Hey paul

What do you mean by high standard?
I've got a cousin who lives very close to me and calls me when they need help, they've got the wf740 in graphite.
I think it's a good machine from what i've seen but the darks need extra rinsing bu the acrylics or woolens program does it.