English Electric front loader, with lever for spin, maybe 1950s

[grahamperrin]

I'm trying to identify, maybe find an image of, a 1950s washing machine that I had in the 1980s.

Front-loading, with a timer, so it looked very much like an automatic – but it wasn't truly automatic (if I'm posting in the wrong forum, sorry).

The door was similar to the Liberator, but without the hole for the powder.

For spin-drying, a lever was turned – 180 degrees, if I recall correctly. This engaged a clever mechanism at the back that caused the belt to move progressively closer to the centre of the spindle of the drum … something like that. I always enjoyed the leisurely acceleration to full spin speed.

When not spin-drying, there was probably only one direction for the drum. Slowly, constantly, round and round.

Is this familiar to anyone? I spent an hour or so seeking an image online, but can't find one.

Thanks

 

[vacbear58]

English Electric

It sounds very like an English Electric tumble wash, which was a cheaper, semi-automatic version of the Liberator.

Here is a little video I made when I happened across an advert in a radio programme about electronic music

 

[chestermikeuk]

English Electric Liberator...Tumble Wash

Hello Graham and welcome, your wait is over, please see the link for information on the semi automatic washing machine, is it this model?

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?40189

 

[vacbear58]

As seen on Corrie

You need to fast forward to 6min 20 seconds to see the machine

 

[chestermikeuk]

English Electric Liberator

Controls, I remember a local repair man telling me this was his family washer and as a child it was his job to "Change the gears" ha ha..

 

[chestermikeuk]

Oops

Hi Al, Great minds think alike ha ha....

 

[grahamperrin]

English Electric Liberator Tumble-Wash, Mark I maybe

Thanks folks!

I saw some of those images before I posted. I don't recall mine having the hole for the powder in the door, but I could be mistaken.

Was the Mark I significantly different?

If I recall correctly, the timer for the wash cycle did not begin its countdown until after the required temperature was reached.

I was amazed at a local shop (Westcliff-on-Sea or Chalkwell) having, in stock, a replacement door gasket for a machine that was probably thirty years old at the time. Still, it leaked just a little around the door. But that wasn't the worst of it …

The major problem with this machine looking so much like an automatic, in an age of automatics, was the tendency to treat it as automatic. On two occasions I left the flat whilst running water into the machine. All the way to London and back, on the second occasion, I think. My poor neighbours downstairs, they had just decorated, it wrecked the place!

 

[rolls_rapide]

English Electric Liberator Tumble Wash

Apologies for resurrecting this, but...

I was watching the recent ITV repeat of the documentary, 'The Secret Mediterranean With Trevor McDonald', where he goes touring about various countries.

Episode 4 (Egypt, Cyprus, Malta), has something interesting... Trevor is given a guided tour of the abandoned Cypriot conflict-ridden buffer zone, showing abandoned homes.

In one wrecked kitchen (about 27mins into the episode), empty jars and frying pans are strewn upon a suspiciously familiar washing machine...

The camera then shows a close up of the frying pan and the machine... two dials and a pilot light. And thanks to high definition television, the name is partially visible: "...ERATOR TUMBLE WASH".