macboy91si
Well-known member
Coppertone
Wow, these look good in Coppertone for sure. Your machine does not look bad at all. It's a neat little machine and as I mentioned in my video, very well mannered and behaved; perfect for an apartment. One thing that makes this machine stand out from a lot of the other Japanese machines of the era is that this model is right before they started putting the independent electric drain pumps in them. The pump on this machine is tied to the WASH motor instead of the traditionally located spin motor drive. So the impeller always runs for any draining and is unidirectional. I can only assume this is for the overflow rinse feature, which is also cool and with the tub only holding 9 gallons of water, actually is doable and useful. My big "fear" is that the pump might wear out running all the time like that, but it seems to be of very rugged construction, the pump has the pulley on the top and a nice beefy bearing. These are Hitachi units and so are the Toshiba's and some of the other brands as well.
Basically these were used for 5 years or so and put into storage in the late 70's. The dryer had been used recently here and there but the washer hasn't seen water for years. The washer still needs some attention for the hoses, they've deteriorated a bit, but for now I've RTV'ed the brittle ones and it seems to be holding. Only a couple of hoses have become brittle, the wash to diverter hose and the pump to drain fitting hose. They are made from a different rubber than the rest of the hoses, which are fairing well. The plumbing system in the machine is fairly complex actually, it even employs some sort of equalization tank in the drain where 2 inputs go in and on goes out so you don't have an air pocket in the pump circuit (best I can tell anyway).
Arbilab, did your Panasonic have an electric pump?
Mike, the wash action is amazing for the size of the impeller. On the lower water levels I'd not want to leave something in for more than a couple of minutes. If you put the lid on the thing is very quiet. The machine does utilize a diverter valve (2nd dial on control panel) for wash or drain. I always hook the drain return back into the tub for a suds-return during wash when spinning. The overflow stack bypasses the diverter and goes directly into the pump circuit so any water slung into the overflow stack would get shot out the drain hose regardless as long as the impeller was running. It's a tad confusing to explain, much more confusing to look at the plumbing system, it has I think 7 sections of hose in it internally.
Martin, you don't have to remove the drain hose to store it, it has a hook, but I have the back panel off and I removed the screws and the hooks for the hose and cord hanger. You could very well put some sort of nylon bag over that hose for a filter but none to my knowledge came with the machine. It only shoots water out of it on the full water level also, if you fill it 5 or 7 gallons than it barely touches the stack. Newer Japanese machines utilized a mesh bag in the sidewall of the tub which was also very effective. Also newer machines that had electric pumps were not so touchy to the overflow water for 2 reasons. One reason was that there was a water switch that turned on the pump for over flow, the water had to back up a considerable amount to trigger the switch and 2 the impellers in the electric pump machines were reversing, so you didn't get that crazy wall of water thing going on. Even the with the Danby twin-tubs still being sold you can see some of the similarities to this machine. The later machines advertised the overflow function as an overflow protection. If the wash-tub was left unattended while filling, the excess would run down the overflow stack and then trigger the water switch. This would activate the electric pump and the machine would pump out into the sink so even a new Danby can overflow rinse.
-Tim
Wow, these look good in Coppertone for sure. Your machine does not look bad at all. It's a neat little machine and as I mentioned in my video, very well mannered and behaved; perfect for an apartment. One thing that makes this machine stand out from a lot of the other Japanese machines of the era is that this model is right before they started putting the independent electric drain pumps in them. The pump on this machine is tied to the WASH motor instead of the traditionally located spin motor drive. So the impeller always runs for any draining and is unidirectional. I can only assume this is for the overflow rinse feature, which is also cool and with the tub only holding 9 gallons of water, actually is doable and useful. My big "fear" is that the pump might wear out running all the time like that, but it seems to be of very rugged construction, the pump has the pulley on the top and a nice beefy bearing. These are Hitachi units and so are the Toshiba's and some of the other brands as well.
Basically these were used for 5 years or so and put into storage in the late 70's. The dryer had been used recently here and there but the washer hasn't seen water for years. The washer still needs some attention for the hoses, they've deteriorated a bit, but for now I've RTV'ed the brittle ones and it seems to be holding. Only a couple of hoses have become brittle, the wash to diverter hose and the pump to drain fitting hose. They are made from a different rubber than the rest of the hoses, which are fairing well. The plumbing system in the machine is fairly complex actually, it even employs some sort of equalization tank in the drain where 2 inputs go in and on goes out so you don't have an air pocket in the pump circuit (best I can tell anyway).
Arbilab, did your Panasonic have an electric pump?
Mike, the wash action is amazing for the size of the impeller. On the lower water levels I'd not want to leave something in for more than a couple of minutes. If you put the lid on the thing is very quiet. The machine does utilize a diverter valve (2nd dial on control panel) for wash or drain. I always hook the drain return back into the tub for a suds-return during wash when spinning. The overflow stack bypasses the diverter and goes directly into the pump circuit so any water slung into the overflow stack would get shot out the drain hose regardless as long as the impeller was running. It's a tad confusing to explain, much more confusing to look at the plumbing system, it has I think 7 sections of hose in it internally.
Martin, you don't have to remove the drain hose to store it, it has a hook, but I have the back panel off and I removed the screws and the hooks for the hose and cord hanger. You could very well put some sort of nylon bag over that hose for a filter but none to my knowledge came with the machine. It only shoots water out of it on the full water level also, if you fill it 5 or 7 gallons than it barely touches the stack. Newer Japanese machines utilized a mesh bag in the sidewall of the tub which was also very effective. Also newer machines that had electric pumps were not so touchy to the overflow water for 2 reasons. One reason was that there was a water switch that turned on the pump for over flow, the water had to back up a considerable amount to trigger the switch and 2 the impellers in the electric pump machines were reversing, so you didn't get that crazy wall of water thing going on. Even the with the Danby twin-tubs still being sold you can see some of the similarities to this machine. The later machines advertised the overflow function as an overflow protection. If the wash-tub was left unattended while filling, the excess would run down the overflow stack and then trigger the water switch. This would activate the electric pump and the machine would pump out into the sink so even a new Danby can overflow rinse.
-Tim
