Heavy soil

[badgerdx]

Ok... here's a question for you all. Thinking of starting the search for a vintage machine, something with a lot of character that will stand up to being a "daily driver"... In your opinion, what machines clean really heavily soiled clothing the best? I work horses, and professionally, I am a stone mason and garden designer... we are talking DIRT!

Also curious if anyone has ever made the "home-made laundry detergent" recipe you see on youtube, with the bar soap, washing soda, and borax.

I look forward to the responses and opinions.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The homemade recipe is crap, especially if your water is not very soft and you have heavy soil to wash out of fabrics. For heavy clay-type soil (garden type dirt) Consumer Reports says you need a good powder detergent. Most of us would add that it should be augmented with STPP, Sodium Tri-PolyPhosphate. Oily soils are best cleaned with liquid detergents.

 

[launderess]

Welcome

Regarding the homemade laundry "soap" found on the Interent, yes it has been discussed here before. You can do a search for various posts but the upshot is basically unless you are willing to do quite allot of extra work (pre-soaking, stain pre-treatment, etc..) it is better to go with a TOL detergent like Tide and be done with things.

I do use soap and soap based "recipes" at home for my linens and lightly soiled laundry. But anything with heavy soils or stains gets modern detergents.

 

[bajaespuma]

For your washing machine search...

look for a Norge or Montgomery Wards 20 lb. machine. Nothing, I repeat, nothing I've ever seen can hold a candle to those machines for cleaning. When I was last in Portland, a truly great city IMHO,I noticed lots of used appliance stores with lots of vintage machines around. I believe this one belongs to Mr. Nunn.

 

[gansky1]

It was my machine, poor thing didn't even make it to a water test though - was completely shot.   For lots of heavy soil, the Norge brands are good.  Lots of thrashing action and lots of water.
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A large capacity Whirlpool with the Super Surgilator agitator is also a good cleaning washer, I've been pretty impressed with those for grass stains and lots of dirt many times.

 

[yogitunes]

Although those Norges are good....finding one could be a bit of a task......

one I was never very fond of, and this site has changed my mind, is a General Electric Filter Flo......

Heavy Duty....Great Scrubbing and Cleaning, Excellent filtering, and Superb Rinsing...some may argue about being a water hog....but this is exactly what you need to clean and rinse out sand, grit, and soils effectively.....thats why I noe have 6 of them......Endless cycles and speed, temp, water levels, and options...its endless, you could not ask for more from any one machine

also, these may be a little easier to find, search Craigslist, or maybe we could build one for you......and consider keeping one for spare parts into the future....

 

[lesto]

The 20 lb Norge are indeed great scrubbers. I have a Magic Chef labeled Norge with the white burpolator and it's a real workhorse.

 

[strongenough78]

You can't go wrong with a belt drive Whirlpool. Built like tanks, they'll run practically forever, and will wash anything you throw in it with great results. The Super Surgilator agitator is one of the best out there.

 

[akronman]

I'm thinking Filter Flo

Horse, stone masonry, gardening-------I'm thinking Filter Flo. While Norge and Whirlpool do some great washing and rinsing and lint filtering, many Filter Flo's also have a button for extra rinse and/or various soak/pre-wash cycles, they often seem to offer more flexibilty in the many knobs and buttons. But a Norge or Whirlpool/KM belt drive would do you  pretty darn well, and each brand has some basic models versus some highly accesorized models. One of the problems with our vintage machines is you buy what you can find, you can't choose to "find" the models with extra cycles or extrra dispensers, you take what you can get. Don't even consider Maytag. They are built to last, but also built to wash clothes from the indoor office, not the yard or corral.

 

 

 

[macboy91si]

Don't even consider Maytag...

 

You've never owned a Maytag with a Bakelite Gyrator... They do not give he mercy of the PowerFin. So powerful that it will wear the porcelain off the tub. Actually, aside from having to underload the machine, the Tag's do OK at nasty stuff, but not so well at shear debris like sand and little bit of gravel and gardening stuff. The FF machine I have has washed for a sick dog and his outdoor fleece blankets and the like. It's seen straw, dog hair, puke, poo, urine and dirt and fine sediment from the yard. 3 fleece blankets could fill the ex-large filter pan completely up. I couldn't fathom trying that in a Maytag, if nothing else the dark porcelain in the GE's hide the wear and abrasions much better than the gloss white in the Tag would.

 

Yes, while I love my Maytags, I've fed my poor old GE things that no washer should ever have to see.

 

-Tim

 

 

 

[norgeway]

NORGE!

No comparison...I still think old Philcos Frigidaires and Kelvinators are tops too, but are too rare for daily drivers, if you cant find the Norge, I would say GE or Whirlpool.

 

[rp2813]

With all due respect to the Norge fans, I think the fact that they really thrash things around is exactly why the machines don't hold up.  They work themselves to an early demise.  If you want a machine that won't pee oil, break down, shake the house during spin or require earplugs, go with a GE Filter Flo or Whirlpool/Kenmore.  Maytags are built like tanks, but many here insist that their agitation & turnover leaves something to be desired.  I think if you don't pack your clothes into a Maytag, it will provide decent results and provide lasting trouble free service.

 

[macboy91si]

Norge

I think I agree with Ralph on the Norge comment. They are GREAT performers, but mechanically they self-destruct. Also at least around here, they are very rare even in MW drag, I've yet to come across a working one locally. BUT... if you did find one, it would certainly do some hardcore dedirtofying for sure.

 

-Tim

 

[norgeway]

Norge...

I never understood why they get a bad rap, almost everything about them is heavy duty, the one thing that will break, is the brake...if you open the lid to see how quick the tub will stop, you are asking for trouble, let it stop on its own and you wont have much trouble at all...a Maytag is just about everlasting, but not, to my mind, well suited to work clothes, too gentle and wont handle nearly as heavy a load as most other washers.

 

[hydralique]

Norge's Burpilator doesn't so much persuade clothes to become clean as it bitch-slaps the dirt into submission. The classic GE Filter-Flo has the great advantage of a super-easy to clean and very effective lint filter (not the same as the filter on similar Hotpoint models). It's considered by many to be the best filter for pet hair problems.

 

Kenmores and Whirlpools can't be beat for availability of both machines and parts; the better Surgilators are effective to the point of roughness in the opinion of some, but my clothes have been surgilated most of my life and I've never noticed undue wear. Although the DD (direct drive) Kenmore/Whirlpool models may never have quite the "old-school" appeal of the previous belt drive models, the earliest DD machines are now 25 years old and are excellent examples of the best in traditional American top loader machines in that they are both effective and very, very reliable. A late '80s or '90s DD would be my choice for a daily driver unless I just had to have a shot of '60s or '70s chrome and color.

 

[bajaespuma]

Norge's Burpilator doesn't so much persuade clothes

submission.

 

ROTFLMAO!

 

Hydra, you just made my evening.

 

[xraytech]

I also have to reccomend a GE Filter-Flo,

they do a great job at cleaning and rinsing, and the filter pan will catch all gunk, they are also very sturdy and reliable.

Growing up my grandmother had a 66 Filter-Flo as well as a pair of early 70s coin-ops for her rentals, I felt it always out performed our Kenmore

 

[combo52]

Best washer for really dirty clothing

If in addition to dirt you want to get rid of lint and sand and floating bits if mulch etc, the clear choice would be any WP built TL washer belt drive or direct drive. Norge would be the next best choice but they fall down a little on lint removal and sand removal, and I wouldn't even go to the reliability question. 3rd choice would be a GE FF washer but this machine falls down on sand removal and is not the best on lint removal as the tub does not have enough holes in the bottom or even the sides. And on the GE FF because of the extreme amount of water used you need to have an endless supply of soft hot water or this machine will cost you plenty to operate in detergent costs alone.

 

I would skip all solid tub machines and all MTs. One classic FL machine that does a GREAT job are the GE Combos they use plenty of water and flush huge amounts of sand, soil and lint away. You just need another machine to do a final spin and another machine to dry them in.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

I'm going to have to go with John

For sure. I've seen both belt and direct drive Whirlpool/Kenmore machines wash amazing amounts of dirt grime grease or whatever out of clothing. The components of these machines are rugged enough to handle the heavy work load as well. I would guess you wear a lot of heavy fabric and denim so a Dual Action agitator would be helpful.
Nick WK78