Danby twintub (DTT420W)

[arbilab]

Never heard of Danby before, but apparently they are the only N. American manufacturer of twintubs today. The Danby website is sparse, little data and one photo, no internals. Their 'find a dealer' points to Lowes, but Lowes (pretty bad) site does not recognize the search term. So couldn't find a price. Other than a couple used ones on ebay, $200-400.

Anybody own/seen one? Brand reputation? Seems they primarily make mini appliances and dehumidifiers.

 

[cfz2882]

chinese

chinese made.Found one of their countertop dishwashers at the dump-i grabbed it
for examination;actually looked pretty decent for something chicom-suprizingly
the timer and the two pressure switches were german made.The two pump motors were
chinese but very decent quality for made over there.The dishwasher i grabbed
was too smashed to fix,but the problems found were a badly plugged wash pump
intake screen(users fault)and a bad connection to the heating element.

 

[arbilab]

I misstated prematurely. 2 of the ebays were NIB and the price difference was pay/free delivery.

Here's what Danby's "about us" website says: "Danby was founded in 1947, as a family owned manufacturer of small electrical appliances. Danby opened its U.S. home office in Findlay, Ohio in 1992 as business expanded across North America."

Founded in 1947, opened its US office 45 years later? Non sequitur. Danby doesn't SOUND Chinese, it sounds Brit. Can't go much by name these days, can we?

While I'd love to have a NIB TT, I don't have $~300 to fritter on chop suey and I DO have a FL that's worked perfectly for 13 years. Despite being a WCI Fridigaire, but I'm pretty sure WCI only assembled it from Euro parts.

 

[cfz2882]

euro parts in "frigilux"

indeed there are european parts in the "frigilux"front loads-noticed some in my
'98 "gallery" when i did a bearing job on it:
-motor-sweden
-pump-italy
-timer-germany
-belt -france
-bearings-no origin marked,but looked russian or east european
Though some of these washers have been marked "made in usa",mine had no origin
marked on it but i suspect it may have been made in canada as the tub halves
and several other parts were marked"made in canada"and machine was assembled
with screws that have a square recess to turn them-those were invented in canada
and commonly used up there.

 

[69oyu812]

canadian company

Danby was founded in Montreal Quebec in 1947, their twin tubs are not bad, has center post agitator that runs like a wash plate machine, lint filter in the post.

the screws with the square heads are called Robertson

 

[arbilab]

Yeah, Frigilux-Whitinghouse. With their reputation, pretty sure WCI didn't 'make' it, cuz it still works. Just the brandname licensee and US distributor. Dodged a bullet.

Still vultching for a TT, but with only ONE used on US ebay, for pickup in Los Angeles, might die waiting.

 

[coldspot66]

I have a twin-tub with an agitator that I bought in Dec. Holds a 10lb load, but I don't like the way it agitates; swirls the clothes in one direction, then the other. not rythmic back and forth to create rollover. However, the spinner works well.

 

[arbilab]

Every TT I've seen outspins everything else. I had a Panasonic 'whirlator' TT in the 70s that turned the load over quite nicely as long as not overloaded. Plus, no transmission to go wrong. If I still had that and in working order I'd just shut the frontporch umbrella and be busy laundering.

 

[cfz2882]

twin tub spins

not sure what twin tub spins the fastest(i'm thinking hoover with it's high rpm
brushed motor belted to the tub may have the fastest spin rpm)my two maytag
twinnies have the tub belted to spin slightly faster than the 1725 rpm motor-
probably around 1820 rpm.Old japanese twinnies with direct coupled split capacitor
spin motors likely spin at around 1650-1700 rpm. The diameter of the tub or
spin can will affect how much centrifugal force is applied to the load at a
given rpm.
My grandma had a hoover twinnie and it spun really fast-over 1800 rpm i'd recon.

 

[arbilab]

The Panasonic was direct drive spin with a motor that was impedance protected from overload so its ultimate speed was ~1700 and it didn't have the liability of a clutch of any kind. In Hawaii where I was at the time you could wear shirts or use towels straight from the spinner if you wanted to.

 

[chestermikeuk]

"not sure what twin tub spins the fastest"

The Fastest would have to go for Hotpoint twinnies at 3,100rpm, it has a tall slim tub but does get clothes the driest after 4 mins..beauty of this spinner that it has a clutch so most of the water is pumped out so doesnt strain the motor, then it picks up speed very quickly...

Next would be Servis @ 2,800rpm which has a slightly wider spin can, earlier models where solid (great for rinsing and overflow rinsing, without filling up the outer tub) later models had a vane in the middle and holes in the base...

Then @ 2,300 would be Hoover, which has a smaller can with holes in and probably the noisiest!! but fun!!

Heres the Hotpoint - Aluminium can - 3,100rpm

 

[chestermikeuk]

Servis Supertwin

Servis @ 2,800rpm - vitreous enamel -the heavier can seems to help balancing!!

 

[chestermikeuk]

Hoover

@ 2,300rpm - smaller can - aluminium with holes

 

[arbilab]

As I said in a nearby thread, UK is THE place for interesting washers. The Pana may have been 3600. Back then they didn't say. A 'typical' induction motor runs 1800 (little below, slip rate) on 60Hz but with different construction can double that. My FL spins 800 but of course the basket radius is much greater than a TT spinner. 800 is 'not that fast' by current standards and indeed it only spins enough where you can't wring out more water but by no means "dry".

 

[hoovermatic]

What about the Philips Top Twin De Luxe? That was very similar to the Hotpoint in that it only had holes in the base and was also great for rinsing because you could have the pump running whilst the spin can was stationary so there was virtually no strain on the motor - unique??

 

[arbilab]

you could have the pump running whilst the spin can was stationary so there was virtually no strain on the motor - unique??
==============================================================================

The Pana would drain the spin tub without the spinner running. So would a 1951 Easy. So no, I wouldn't say "unique".

"Strain on the motor" is an issue. Many TTs utilize a mechanical or hydraulic clutch. The Pana utilized a motor which wasn't abused at startup from zero speed. Such design is not the least exotic but somehow manages to be rare in application.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Unique..

Phillips certainly was at that time, later Servis adopted the electric pump on the 110 / 111 last two models, it was great for deep rinsing and then pump out before spin...

 

[keymatic3203]

AEG Lavalux

The AEG lavalux from the late fifties has independant motors for washer, spinner and the pump, which has a lever operated valve to drain either the wash tub or the spinner.

I've not seen the phillips top twin, but once did have a later phillips machine, the wash motor drove the adgitator and both washer pump and spinner pump, so you could be pumping but not spinning so long as the washer was running. The machine had two drain pipes, the washer haveing a ball sprung over the end to stop the wash tub draining. I still have the gearbox and spin drive, but the wash motor had burnt out due to one of the pumps seizing. So I didn't ever get it fully working, but yes it had a really fast spin,

Mathew

 

[arbilab]

Wish I still had that Pana. Piece of work. Wash and spin dual speed, independent motors including pump. The only thing it wouldn't do was sudssave directly from the spinner back to the washer, you had to move the hose. All that, and I could carry it by myself (younger then obviously) and it fit in the passenger spot of a VW bug with the seat removed.

Not sure they sold in continental US. Panasonic Hawaii was a separate business from Panasonic USA. Can't find any such offering today.

The Frigilux has a shaded pole pump motor and a DC motor for the drum so it can switch directions and vary speed.