COLSTON

[optima]

The Colston spin dryer in the pic above was not the best design they were prone to rusting quite badly eventually leaking from underneath due to the fact that they was no outer plastic tub around the spin can like they is in the spinarinse.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Kays Catalogue gave decent descriptions of the articles for sale. Some of the modern catalogues should take a leaf out of their book (pardon the pun!).

 

[mickeyd]

Hello Gentlemen

Would one of you give me a lift?

 

I was stunned by the Frigidiare TT. We did not have them in the states. But we did have the difficult suds valve, mentioned in the review as a defect, on the earlier machines, and used only when saving suds water. It worked fine.

 

Do you know what kind of agitator it had? And what the mechanicals were like. The suds valve suggests that the pump was on all the time, making me think "Unimatic." Is that even possible in a TT?

 

Thank you for any info.

 

Mike

 

 

[optima]

I would love to have that Colston Cadet single tub washer.

 

[vacbear58]

Killer Heels

Mike

I cannot resist posting one of my favourite "twinnie" pics - this is the standard rather than the de-luxe version of the Fridgidaire mentioned above. The original of the picture belongs to Keith/Keymatic - perhaps he can say more of about washing action - pulsator or agitator.

Anyway, here is the picture

Al

 

[vacbear58]

Top view

Ah, maybe I have answered my own question - seems like impeller (or as I described above pulsator) rather than centre post agaitator.

 

[aegokocarat]

my nan used to have a tefal washboy!
Tom

 

[vacbear58]

Prices

Interesting and all as the shopping catalogue pictures featured above are, the prices noted are by no means representative of the normal shop prices. These catalogues (sometimes known as "club books") offered extended payment terms at, on the face of it, interest free credit. It was, of course, nothing of the kind some of the prices above are 70-80% higher than they would have been in the shops. For example, I mentioned above that my brother purchased a Colston Coronet (reply #8) in mid 1975 for somewhere around £75 (it was only marginally cheaper than the automatic Indesit L5 as I was not slow in telling him!) where it shown in the follow year's catalogue at £130.00 - and that a "Special offer price" too.

Of course I do realise for those on low incomes at that time, pre-extensive use or even availability of credit cards, it was sometimes they only way they could afford such a large purchase - but they certainly paid through the nose for it in the end.

Al

 

[mickeyd]

killer heels, indeed

And killer machine, too!

 

Thanks Al, I was fantasizing a small 3-ring agitator, just a fantasy. So It's like a Hoove'--impeller on the side.

 

Much appreciated.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidairei

Oh Killer heels indeed, Mike its an impeller in the base rather than the side like the Hoover, rather a version of the Rolls, Colston etc just updated!! hey the thought of a mini unimatic twintub, now theres a thought!!!

I think the sudz valve was not much of a valve as a stopper on the end of the waste pipe, the pump would have run constantly from the wash motor and then you would flick the ball off the end of the pipe to empty...

Craig, ta for starting the thread, Great information on the Colston brand, I never saw any in action, have seen a few seperates but nothing much else..

 

[mickeyd]

ESP

I was just going to "E" you, and here you are. How I love telepathy. Yeah, wouldn't a mini TT unimatic be a blast. Ah! the glories you'll invent when you retire! The valve sounds similar to the one here--a ball held on two springs, pops over the pipe molded to fit into the drain hose.

 

What a diminutive impeller--cute little bugger.

 

I knew you'd have a pic. Thanks. Have you used a Frigidairei

and does it satisfy?

 

[foraloysius]

The Frigidaire twintub has two dials, do you know what they were for? I can imagine one of them is to engage and disengage the pump, like my Velo washer has. That one has a setting for washing and one for pumping. I wondered if it wouldn't be the same for the Frigidaire.

 

[sudsreturn]

Simlar machine to the Colston.

This is a French machine, but very similar to the Colston Coronet/Concorde.

 

[keymatic]

Hi Al,
Yep it was as they quoted in the brochure a New improved "Twin-lobe" or Impel-action..basically like the wash tub of the Rolls that Mike posted, but square tub instead of round.

The spinner was great to, spinning @ 2850rpm !! and they call it the new "High-G" spin drier..Oooo

There was two dials, one for timing and another for just Spin/heat..very simple, no dial/lever for the pump as it was constantly running..so you would never be able to wash & spin at the same time as the washtub would start to empty as soon as you took the "ball-valve" off the hose to empty the spinner.

Cheers
Keith

 

[markt5004]

That's very odd that you could not wash and spin at the same time. I thought that was meant to be one of the advantages of a twin tub!

Mark

 

[paulc]

Vacbear

Thanks for posting the mastertwin pic's. My Aunty had one when I was 7 or 8. I remember the pump broke so she had to wash at the back door with the drain hose on the back step draining into the grid. She replaced it with a Frigidare Auto but only had that for a year or so, she was burgled and the took EVERYTHING including appliances (Complete with the food in the fridge/freezer) and all the kids clothes. She then got an Indesit L8.

 

[anthony]

frigidair mastertwin

hi everyone im new here have to say though its a great site ,I worked for a company [as an aprentice ]called HC TROLDHAL in middlesbrough in the 70s the company was owned by GM so i got to work on most of the Frigidaire machines that were on offer at the time the earlier mastertwin had a pulsator in the bottom of the tub while the later machine had a black agitator rather like an old hotpoint countess with the vanes low down the controls on the front were a timer for the washer up to 30 mins i think and the other was a thermostat the wash pump ran constantly hence the rubber ball i have lost count of the spin bearings i had to replace on both models usualy under guarantee another common fault was broken knobs constantly breaking due to being forced the older model with the square lids was an odd machine there were two vwrsions of it one had a large motor directly driving the pulsator which rarely went wrong the other model had a spin motor [exactly the same as the spin dryer] conected to the pulsator by a belt they were always burning out for obvious reasons the same motor was used on the frigidair spindryers they were good machines very fast spin and quiet .Also got to work on a fiew Jetamatics [the auto with the agitator that went up and down ]fab machine usualy found in the posher home but getting back to the twintubs my worst memory of which i have a constant reminder [a three inch scar on one of my fingers ]was having my mits inside an upturned tt when a workmate accidentaly swiched it on happy days cheers Anthony

 

[anthony]

frigidair mastertwin

forgot to mention on the later Frigidair mastertwin you could wash and spin at the same time if i remember corectly the spindryer had its own pump and drain hose . I also remember another twintub [i only ever saw one of these ]it only had one motor there was a large lever on the front with a bakelite knob on the end inside the lever had a motor on the end with a large rubber wheel on the shaft simply moving the lever would disconect the washer and engage the spindryer the motor ran constantly no switch just pull the plug to stop it the dryer had a pump but to empty the wash tub you simply let the hose down onto the floor or into a drain this machine was rather like a rolls to look at i cant remember the brand regards Anthony

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire Mastertwin

Morning Anthoney and welcome to the club, really glad you found this place as it looks like you could fill in the missing info...

The Frigidaire twinnys always looked "Square & Smart" in my eyes, interesting they used both agi and pulsator, that valve stopper did seem a bit primitive although I had seen one on a Siemens Single Tub with drum from the 70`s...

So HC TROLDHAL where a manufacturing agent then?? Did they make the twinnys there or where you on the service side??

What where the problems with the Jetamatics?? can you confirm if it had a heater in it as well??

Oh questions questions....

 

[vacbear58]

Welcome Anthony

And thank you for sharing your memories of the Mastertwin. You had better dust off the memory banks as you must have a fund of memories working on machines where are now VERY rare, the very mention of Jetmatics be sparking peoples interest. If there are any more stories please share them no matter how trivial you might think they are.

As to the other twin tub you mention, I suspect it might be an Easiclean (from memory) although there are a couple of other brands like Acme & Ada which could also be contenders - a check back through teh archives might throw mor information up.

Al