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?

English Electric Liberator (pair)

Hi Mike, Just thought i would post a couple of pic's of the English Electric Liberator pair. The machines are currently stored in a garage where i use to live, so unable to connect them up at the mo, but hoping to move them soon, so they will be up and running again shortly. The washer drum on...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[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".