Easy Does It -- The Mechanicals of the Easy

[tomturbomatic]

The Spiralator always looked small in the big tub of the SpinDryer, but that same size in the automatic's tub must be wild. If anyone has them, Better Homes & Gardens from the early to mid fifties feature Easy ads, some double page, with Arthur Godfrey promoting them. People placed a lot of stock in him then and Easy was a HUGE name in laundry because of the popularity of the SpinDryers. The ads showed a kind of confusing diagram of the path of the clothes circling the Spiralator with a broken line and arrows with a segment of it dipping down and then rising up. With the fins continuing in the curved spiral to the edge, it would give the circular motion seen in GEs with the spiral ramp agitator, but lots more.

On a sad note, Easy was so convinced that the combinations were the real future of laundry that they put the majority of their resources and marketing behind them. Easy made that first WH top loader, but I think the last of anything Easy I saw were the washer and dryer marketed under the AMC (Allied Merchandising Corporation) badge that department stores back in the mid 60s sold as their "own house brand" like Rich's of Atlanta and Woodward & Lothrop in Washington, DC. They could make higher profits on them than the major brands. I remember that the dryer had some good design elements in that the heated air entered through the perforated back at about the 1 o'clock position and exited through perforations in the front of the drum at about the 8 o'clock position. There was a pull out lint filter in that position in the collar-type opening between the front of the cabinet and the drum itself. The filter was almost a square shape, made of screen on a fairly heavy frame. The handle was covered in something like a red vinyl or plastic that I guess would be less likely to burn fingers than just a bare piece of metal. I could tell that the air flow was pretty effective, but the drum was zinc coated and the door opening was quite small. The dryer design was not that much behind the WP design with the perforated back and probably more efficient with the across the drum air flow, but it was also prone to lint buildup in between the drum and outer tub.

The motor-tranny-pump package was beltless, more like wringer washers, far ahead of anyone else, even Frigidaire. They made commercial coin-op washers that lasted a long time also, so it was not that the design was not rugged. That base with the 4 arms supporting the ring is Speed Queen all over. It would have been interesting to see how they might have modernized the Easy line, but maybe it's just as well that we did not see it go to hell like the Kelvintor washers did.

 

[mickeyd]

Turbo and Jetco

Answered on the other Easy thread. Sorry. Crazy day. The wind is going nuts, the fireplace flue clapping like cymbals.

 

[JerseyMike]

I agree that it's a shame that this once grand name faded into history. (My grandmother had an ancient Easy wringer that she used to rinse her wash; she washed her laundry in a Maytag wringer.) Does anyone know why Easy stopped production? I'm at work so I don't have the issue in front of me, but I seem to recall that in 1966, Consumer Reports indicated that the tested Easy washer (which they rated conditionally acceptable due to a possible shock hazard that could occur when replacing a light bulb)was "essentially similar" to the Hotpoint washer that ranked near the bottom of the ratings. (That implies that either Hotpoint was producing washers for Easy or vice versa.)

Consumer Reports tested dryers in the same issue. I seem to recall, that the tested Easy dryer ranked near the bottom of the ratings. The only thing that really stands out in my mind about Easy dryers was Consumer Reports remark that Easy didn't offer any dryers with an "automatic" dryness control. That's especially remarkable, because 1966 was the first time that Consumer Reports tested dryers with a moisture sensing feature.

Mike

 

[mickeyd]

Whence the easy : (

Mike

I'd love to know what happened too, especially when you consider the huge interest in Twin-tubs today. The easy spindrier leaves them all in the dust. And those automatics were absolutely fabulous. Maybe they were too powerful and scary. I wonder which one of our geniuses is going to have the answer.

Have fun at work. We're all off here. Bflo's all battened down due to 65+ mph wind gusts

Great day to hang the wash.

Mike

 

[toggleswitch]

OOPSIE-

Water sensor.
Live and learn!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Metered fill in solid tub machines

Toggle, there were a couple of ways of doing this. In the late 60s Imperial and Custom Imperial washers, there was an upside down Y shaped path for the fill water. The largest amount went into the tub and a smaller amount went down to a polyethelene container at the base of the washer. That had a pressure switch and was how they were able to give less than full fills without a timed fill. The timed fill was better IMHO if for nothing else than the overflow rinse was shortened because the washer was not pumping out water during agitation. It could only use a certain amount of water for the overflow so that the water stayed at a low enough level in the outer tub to allow for handling the water that was spun out in the drain. Norge used a similar system in some of their solid tub machines. I remember reading in the operating instructions for one deluxe meter-fill model that if the washer did not fill whe the machine was started, it was because the collector basin signaled that the washer was filled, so the remedy was to set it for spin to drain the little collector. A little scolding note said that if the spin was ever interrupted, like to remove something that should not be spun, you were to be sure to let the washer complete the full spin portion of the cycle.

GE solid tub FilterFlo machines of course filled the tub to overflowing which signaled the pressure switch in the sump of the outer tub to shut off the water. But GE had something else for getting rid of heavier than water soil that complicated the small load water level; a hole under the Activator. All was fine with a full fill, but when a small load was washed and the water level controlled by the water saver switch that was pressed when the required amount of water was in the tub, there was a specific instruction that the water level had to be at least up to the small load line on the Activator. It was a bit more than half a tub and that was because during the wash period, water was slowly draining out of the tub through the sediment hole and was not being replaced by the FilterFlo because there was no water overflowing into the outer tub. The washer made a loud gurgling and sucking noise during activation. If you did not fill the tub with the minimum amount of water, you could end up with an almost empty tub by the end of the wash or at least until water minerals and stuff clogged the hole. In today's POD of the SQ, you can see a tube coming up the side of the tub from the bottom of the tub. That was the sediment ejector tube and the spinning tub forced water out of the tube, maybe helped a bit by the water moving over the tip of the tube to cause a bit of siphoning using the vernturi principle (which is also how a Frigidaire washer could drain the Filtrator's water pan when the washer drained if the set up was just right) and it sucked out the sand and stuff that found its way under the agitator. Socks did not take that route to the outer tub to clog the pump. They would just go over the top if conditions were right, sorta like salmon.