Hi Tom
Thanks. And thanks for the info - very interesting! Ah yes I remember those 5 high-level rinses. Compared to 3 rinses with just about a pint of water nowadays !! (exaggeration but you get the idea...)
That's a huge amount of water - just shows how technology has advanced over the years. Definitely at the expense of good rinsing though - or it may just be that my AEG is particularly bad.
Thanks for the document too - that's very interesting. I'm sure I've seen that before, although quite a few years ago - was it distributed with the GL2 as part of the manual, or is that the service guide?
My dad did do a couple of repairs to the GL2 we had, in particular the door catch/lock, which got broken when we moved house, so it's possible he had that technical document.
I have also remembered that our next door neighbour had the same machine, another GL2, bought at the same time. Interestingly, hers was also still working when she replaced it about the same time we did (also with a Hotpoint 9534) - reason for replacement was the slow spin speed. I think what happened, is that my parents (and neighbour) were then able to afford tumble dryers, and that highlighted the need for a higher spin speed otherwise towels took forever to dry.
For anyone who's interested - I actually know the fate of our old GL2. My uncle runs a dry cleaning machinery supply/service/repair business. He took the GL2, which was still working, and as part of a project he was working on at the time to develop a small, domestic dry cleaning machine, adapted it to run some tests with dry cleaning fluids instead of water. I guess he replaced the hoses and seals with materials that would stand up to Perc. He abandoned the project after it proved too difficult (with legislation starting to regulate that industry in the late 80's/early 90's), and so the machine was, unfortunately, scrapped in the early 90's.
I reckon I have a photo somewhere of the GL2 in both our kitchen at Leatherhead, and later in Barns Green - both kitchens in a lovely shade of 70's yellow and formica! I will try and find them and post them here - they seem quite rare machines compared to some of the Hotpoints/Hoovers/Zanussis.
