GE Filter-Flo

[yogitunes]

Tim

you could be right about the holes in the tub.......

odd in the beginning 1961 to about 1980, not exact sure of the dates, but if you got a normal filter flo, the pump pulled water from the side of the outter tub, and the pressure switch tube was on the other side......

if you got a minibasket option, the pressure tube was fed vial the drain port out the bottom.....and the filter pumped from the bottom...for obvious reasons.....

but there were 2 outter tubs to produce........

around the 80's they went to one outter tub design, all fed from the bottom.....

at least of all the ones I have seen and worked on..............

from a manufacturing standpoint....cost effective to put one tub in all machines....

thats also like the last of the filter flos...even GE's own....if you got a minibasket option, you got a true filter flo and pan.....
if not, you got a rim flo....which makes sense, one less part needed....andyou could watch the drama.....now they do this, all these years for me without that MB option, and I had that damn pan in my way to stop me from watching

 

[panthera]

Service sheet, don't pull at top

I made a scan of the service sheet included with the washer, if anybody wants it, I'll be happy to post the four pages here. I always pull them out of a new/old/vintage machine, scan them and then put the originals, sealed watertight, back into the machine.

Took a look at what holds the instrument panel onto the washer. Yup, two very thin cheap plastic pins. There's a reason they always say "Don't move washer by pulling or pushing on the top panel".

Now running the 20th wash since our little venture into boot clamp and epoxy land. Everything still tight and holding up perfectly. I really appreciated the help - I just don't have the sort of imagination to see a thin piece of plastic, used as a cap as a 'bearing'. Bearings, to me, are sintered bronze or rollers or balls or thick, solid sheets of pp or pe or ptfe....

Oh, and to answer the lint question: I think it very much does make a difference whether one filters out big pieces of dirt and lint during the wash and not first in the dryer. The whole point of washing is to remove dirt and what are the rules in sanitizing? Remove the big layers of dirt first, then use a surfactant, then disinfect. You can't do that with clumps or long piles of hair sticking to the cloth.

 

[yogitunes]

That "bearing" is just used to keep the bottom of the agitator from being pushed side to side by the load, but most important from having the porcelain rubbed off by the agitator dragging across the bottom of the tub....suprised that many others don't have this, and when you find these "wear" marks, and the rust, and how they were created...

 

[panthera]

That makes sense

 And, in retrospect, I understand it. Just seems like a funny name for it.

Reading through the schematic, I was surprised at just how incredibly simple this machine is. Part of that, of course, is a result of GE having built this basic design for many decades.

Part of it, though, is just plain good engineering. I know there's nothing subtle here compared to a tragimatic or even rollermatic, but it works. And sounds cool!

 

Our next goal is to find a late fifties Filter-Flo in turquoise or PANK.

 

[yogitunes]

I know what you mean, and its doesn't seem right, having experience in automotive, bearings just don't hit me as a piece of plastic to take on wear and stress of any kind, bearings are metal, either roller or ball bearing.....even in a Whilpool/Kenmore spin bearings are nothing more than a metal sleeve, no roller or ball bearing, just metal sliding on metal, to me equals stress, tension, and heat, that will wear out quickly, or cause a groove in one of the metals, this is something you would see on a kids toy car, they just slide a wheel onto a metal post, eventually it wears thru and breaks, how long do you think this will work on a real car?.......better yet take a FL machine, and slide the shaft thru a metal sleeve to ride on, how many loads do you think it would take to for this to wear out?.......

but yes, GE FF is another one of those ingenious, yet simple machines that functions well, a time proven design, and the worst part was when they canged to all plastic, what a waste.....

 

[pierreandreply4]

i know what you mean my brother had a ge non filter flo for a time why did they have to eliminate something that went so well for so many years and ge filter flos pans are easy to clean and i know by experiance because when i was on vacation in florida in 98 in a rental villa the washer was an almond ge filter flo and it was a great washer if for any reason i would have to go vintage i would try to find a 1970 harvest gold ge filter flo with matching dryer lol and congra on your filter flo even if i am late

 

[panthera]

Thanks, Pierre

You're not late - I spent most of the last days asking for help to get her running.

Which I got - both, actually - the help and her up and running.

 

 

 

[yogitunes]

Non-filter flo-----------I bought a new pump a few months back, brand new, and it had plugs over the filter ports, with instructions for both filter and non filter flo models......I would have figured nonFF models would be in a laundromat, but I have been to ones that had the pans, not enough for all the machines, but this is where I would have pictured a use for one of these....

these are really quiet running machines, the water flo splashing is what actually creates all the noise, pinch off the filter flo hose, and suddenly the machines goes quiet....

 

[akronman]

PAging Panthera

I just acquired a 1977 FilterFlo yesterday, not installed yet. You offered to post 4 pages of service sheets/manuals? That would be GREAT, and thank you very much!
Mark

 

[panthera]

Hi Mark,

I'm out of town right now, when I get back home, I'll scan and post.

 

Please don't be too excited - this is nothing more (nor less!) than the service sheet packed in with every GE. In this unit, it is stored in an envelope, inside of the instrument panel.

 

Yours will have a similar sheet, somewhere. I bet someone here can tell you exactly here (and probably give you more exact instructions for what ever you need than my service sheet will).

 

Glad you have one!