Every Day’s a Holiday with Hotpont - Maybe?

[bajaespuma]

Robert, congratulations on your achievement...and thank you(from the archives) for the history on Hotpoint, it answered a lot of questions. One more: was Hotpoint ever its own company or was it always a subsidiary of GE?

Its machines were so distinctive (although ever dogged by CU)and I remember,(since we were a monotypical GE family and our downstairs neighbors happened to be a Hotpoint family ( my mother said that it was a cheaper line back then), similarities but more differences before GE assmililated the whole thing and BORG-ed it.

This is much more recent than your Hotpoint, but I think it's the same style solid washbasket enlarged and it's the best I can offer today:

 

[tomturbomatic]

Bajaespuma: Hotpoint was an independent company in the early years of the last century until they invented the Calrod sealed rod cooking element. It was a fantastic jump ahead of the open coils wound in channels in discs of fire brick or the big heavy iron elements that were almost like the European solid disc elements except that there were a couple of rings for each surface unit so stuff could fall down through them but they could not be removed easily for cleaning. After Hotpoint patented the Calrod element, Edison General Electric bought Hotpoint which remained a subsidiary of GE for decades and the design of the Calrod was the standard toward which electric cooking elements evolved in the United States while Europeans were stuck with those awful solid disc elements.

To give you an idea of what those big iron rings of the first Frigidaire ranges of the late 30s were like, the owner's manual gave a little scenario about making breakfast in which you first boiled water for coffee on a surface unit. When the teakettle signaled that the water was at the boil, you turned the element off and poured the water for the drip coffee. The booklet goes on to say that there was enough heat left in the unit to fry bacon and then eggs, which was great if you had other things to cook, I guess. Otherwise it was a room heater unless you put more water in the tea kettle and used the left over heat to heat water for washing up after the meal.

 

[panthera]

awful is not even close

Ah, yes - the solid elements. Supposedly they offer advantages. Have yet to figure out any. Ok, not quite true. The last generation was covered in very thin metal and, running at 2.5Kw, they became very hot very fast.
But it is true, they are horrid, nasty, slow to warm up, even slower to cool down---and always a little bit dirty around the chrome ring separating the plate from the porcelain.
Still on offer but rapidly being replaced by induction and halogen. Wonder why induction has not caught on in the 'States?
Question: How do they get the filament embedded in the magnisium oxide so that it does not touch the sides? Have always wondered about that.
And not quite off topic - same principle in the heating elements we use in our washers and many dryers.

 

[bajaespuma]

Thank you Tomturbomatic--I always thought that Calrod was a GE invention... now I know. Did "Hotpoint" originally refer to clothes irons?

And to partially answer Panthera's question about induction cooking: I'm a pastry chef by profession and we've been using induction for sugar and chocolate work for a long time because the cookware we use, generally, is magnetic and thus works on induction burners. I think that the problem for the retail sales of induction units is that, given their expense, it's a lot to ask of consumers that they scap all of their old cookware in favor of magnetic pots and pans. It's still the major reason that Gas is the perennial favorite (remember Corning ware stoves?? Brilliantly adapted Frigidaire electric stoves (my Uncle still owns one), but you had to buy sets of expensive Corning Ware pots and pans--nothing else would boil water on those units). Also, according to some friends of mine who sell these things, they've had too many returns from idiot customers who buy them, paying no attention to the requirements, get them home and find they don't work with grandma's old aluminum stock pot. It's one reason Fisher & Paykel stuff hasn't sold that well in my neck of the woods, appliance dealer headaches.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Look Ma, No Outer Tub!

Good news tonight, it appears that the Hotpoint is probably go to work from a mechanical standpoint. The clutch is back together and the motor and belts are reinstalled. The machine seems to work fine now, its a bit rickety because the clutch shoes are slightly worn but nothing out of the ordinary for a 50 year old washer.

Tomorrow I will continue on and water test the machine. Here is the new drive block installed and a view of the tub inside the outer cabinet with no outer tub...

 

[Unimatic1140]

And here are the two tops. I'm going to take the best parts from both and combine them to make one good top. The top on the left has the top of the line controls and fluorescent light which will be used of course.

 

[panthera]

wow! That is beautiful

I love seeing these restorations. Especially when a machine has been so "needy". Not sure the restorer feels that way, but the long storyline is great.
What beautiful machines. I wonder why planned obsolescence ever came to define our world.
Looking forward to the money shots - there will be some, please please please! Especially of that 3 belt set-up. I can just hear that water hitting the walls now. What a job of work that must have been, keeping the quality high enough so nothing would rust out or through.

 

[gansky1]

Excellent progress, I'm so glad the second machine provided some needed parts. Did you figure out the timer issues on the TOL model?

 

[Unimatic1140]

Yes me too Greg, as for the TOL timer, I fixed that last year. I had to take the escapement apart and fix it so works just fine now. A gear in the escapement had actually broken, that is the first time I have ever seen that happen.

Kevin here is a shot of the three belt mechanism. Ignore the statement about "clickity-clack sound" that was from my first attempt at restoring this machine, which that particular problem is solved YAY.

 

[toggleswitch]

Thanks for the guts an glory shots. I dont think I have ever seen a solid-tub Hotpoint nekked before.

Learning a lot!

In my limited world they have alwayas looked like GE's!

 

[westytoploader]

That cabinet-tub is super cool. I thought just certain year Hotpoints had it (like Greg's '63 and this one), but it turns out all of them did (checked my 1975 Hotpoint repair manual)!!!

When I ran Greg's at the Convention, Eddy mentioned that the cabinet was the outer tub and I should put my hand on the front of the cabinet as it threw the water out. I did...VERY COOL. You can actually feel the water being thrown out!!! And like I've said before, the loud crashing "WHOOOOOSH" sound adds to the excitement!

After a hot water wash, the front of the cabinet warms up considerably as well. At Greg's I even saw moisture on the front after the wash water had been spun out!

--Austin

 

[panthera]

very nice

Robert,
Thank you very much. I am only just now up to the clutch shoes - massive - in my understanding. I try to figure out how these wonderful things work mechanically and shots like this help.
I wonder what a direct drive motor for all of that would be dimensioned like...that is, a direct drive motor that still worked great after 50 years...
A very belated "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag" by the way! And many many happy returns of the day.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Not to jinx it, but tonight I might get to do the very first load in the Hotpoint. I just have to clear up the tub centering issues by switching the springs from the old machine into the new one (easier said than done), because the old one did not have centering issues and I suspect the springs are weak in this machine.

I turned the dial through the cycle last night to see its cycle functions. Anyone care to guess how long the overflow rinse cycle is in this machine?

 

[lesto]

Hotpoints always seem to have a centering problem. As for the rinse, 6 minutes?

 

[westytoploader]

Hi Robert,

Does this machine do the "double overflow" like Greg's machine? Very strange watching the overflow, then all of a sudden the water shut off but the machine still kept agitating! It repeated the process a second time, before the motor stopped to pause for spin. Although of course yours won't need to pause!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Does this machine do the "double overflow" like Greg's machine?

Nope it keeps the water going through the entire rinse agitation period. What, no guess on this time period Austin?

 

[westytoploader]

I'm not quite sure on this one...LOL. 5 minutes?

 

[Unimatic1140]

OMG, I now see where all that water usage comes from. There are no spray rinses, but the rinse fill is 6 minutes long (it only takes 3.5 to fill the tub) and the overflow rinse agitation is another 4.5 minutes long. Making a grand total of 10.5 minutes of waterflow just for the rinse cycle. Yeah baby!

 

[peteski50]

Long Overflow!

Wow Robert,
Thats realy a long overflow. We had 2 Hotpoints and that 1st model with the lid that was removable didn't have a spray rinse either. But the second had a spray and a overflow that I think was only 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. I think from my personal observations with solid tubs the Kelvinator had the most intensive overflow rinseing of all solid tubs. Am I right or wrong?
Peter

 

[Unimatic1140]

No Pete this Hotpoint has the both my Kelvinator & ABC-O-Matic long beat for long overflow rinses, the Kelvinator overflows three minutes, as opposed to Hotpoints 7 or more minutes of overflow.