Dyson Contrarotator is Coming....

[Designgeek]

Joe I've bookmarked the page, so I can get back to it after I download Windows Media Viewer for Macintosh.

Staber's most unique point is the combination of polygon shapes that causes a lot of forced movement of water. Very very clever. Probably better cleaning than the normal freefall action.

They really should offer a model with a clear fronted drum and a round window in the main cabinet. That would complicate matters for their design, where the belt is currently in the front for easy access in case of belt replacements. But I think it should be possible, just mold the drive pulley integral with the clear plastic front of the drum, or use a ring pulley around the circumference or some such modification.

I'm starting to think that the most efficient washer design (user's time, as well as water and electricity) would have a horizontal tub like a Staber, and flexible controls so you can choose either a fully auto cycle or a manually-controlled cycle, and various water levels for each part of the cycle. Team that up with a high-speed vertical axis centrifuge you could use either as a final spin dry, or in conjunction with intermediate rinses. Best of both worlds in terms of flexibility and speed.

 

[foraloysius]

H-axis twintub

Designgeek, I know what you mean!! An H-axis twintub. Those were introduced in the late fifties or early sixties on the mainland of Europe (The UK had the more traditional twintubs with agitators or impellers). Unfortunately those models were not very efficient because the wash drum didn't spin. They had a fully automatic cycle with prewash, wash and five rinses. After that the laundry was transported to the spinner and with 2800rpm the laundry was spun dry.

They spun the laundry much dryer than the old frontloaders with their lower spinspeeds. But you can't stop progress, when frontloaders got higher spinspeeds (1600, 1800 and even 2000rpm) there is no need for separate spinners or twintubs with a vertical axis centrifuge. And the new frontloaders are way more efficient with water than the H-axis twintubs. Here's a picture.

 

[peterh770]

I'd rather see the Titan Monotub come back...

 

[jetcone]

Water Usage

Louis, Why would the H-axis machine not be as efficient with water as a front loader? They still tumble the clothes like a front loader.

Jet

PS MONOTUB .............REALLY --PETER!

 

[foraloysius]

Well Jon,

The H-axis twintubs as I explained do only spin in the vertical axis drum. So they don't spin between rinses which means that they need lots of water to get the suds out of the laundry. Ofcourse the normal H-axis toploaders (like the Miele in this picture) that spin in the same tub are just as efficient as any European frontloader.

Louis

 

[foraloysius]

BTW, here's a picture of my favourite toploader, it's the TOL Siemens.

 

[foraloysius]

And this is the matching dryer

 

[Designgeek]

Wow...!

Foraloysius: exactly! Where can I get one of those H-axis twinnies? And how difficult would it be to replace the motors or whatever is needed for it to run on American 120 volts AC at 60 hz? I can take care of the cycle switch modifications to break out the rinse cycles and allow a manual transfer to the spinner after each rinse. That would get it down to: wash, transfer, extract, transfer, rinse, transfer, extract, done. More manual intervention of course, but exactly what I'm looking for as an R&D machine.

Implicit assumption here: vertical spin will always be more efficient and also less wear on the machine due to balance issues, than a comparable speed horizontal spin where the machine has to fiddle with the load a bit before reaching a reasonable balance so it can start the highspeed spin.

If H-axis twinnies are totally unobtainable, what about an H-axis toploading compact that has an old-style mechanical cycle controller? Is the latter still made new? That in turn can be modified as per above, and paired up with a SpinX or similar separate component spin dryer.

I still want a window in the front of the drum, but I get the idea that's about ten years away, until manufacturers realize that, all other factors equal, people -not only geeks and collectors- prefer to see what's going on in there.

 

[foraloysius]

Designgeek,

Actually those H-axis twintubs are more or less a thing of the past. AEG was the biggest manufacturer of these machines. They had a long life even when they were used intensively because they were actually quite simple machines. Because the washtub doesn't spin, there is no suspension. And they are very easy to repair. The housewives on the European continent didn't want to interfere with the washing process as the British housewives did with their classic twintubs.

There is still one of these machines made, but if I'm informed well, the quality of that thing is not very impressive. It's a Velo, I added a link to a Dutch onlineshop (actually the only place you can get this thing I think).

http://www.internetshop.nl/prod_info.pl?ID=2473&cat=wasautomaten_bovenladers

 

[foraloysius]

BTW

A few years ago I made some pictures of the twintub of my friend Ed. They are in my Yahoo album.

BTW, about the vertical spin, I don't think they are that big of an advantage anymore, new frontloaders with high spinspeeds like Miele have no problems with coping with the high spinspeeds. So there is really no need for an efficient H-axis toploader anymore.

I also think that a manual operated machine like you think about should still rinse at least two or three times to get a decent rinse result. So there are a lot of moments for transporting the laundry.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/foraloysius/album?.dir=dd0c&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/foraloysius/my_photos