History of Frigidaire's Rollermatic Mechanism

[Unimatic1140]

I don't remember the original source, but this was recently forwarded to me, its an article from the General Motors Engineering Magazine and its quite interesting...
(15mb pdf version)

http://www.automaticwasher.org/FUN/History_of_the_Rollermatic.pdf

 

[gyrafoam]

Wonderful!

Thanks for posting this information.
A 15 year service life on the mechanism. Very interesting!

 

[pdub]

Thanks Robert

for posting this. I just eat this stuff up!

That and the fact that Frigidaire is my favorite brand.

Patrick

 

[swestoyz]

Thanks Robert for posting this - it is a great read!

Steve - amazing I know, they only intended it to be good for 15 years! Nice to see they over-engineered it.

Ben

 

[mickeyd]

Here's the spot

Toward the end of the piece, they talk about the brake and how they needed it to shorten cycle time. Three minutes, they say, for the spin to stop without a brake. I don't understand. Much earlier, Frigidaire removed the rest period between the spin and rinse fill, making for a very dramatic spray, but it was hardly three minutes. Can you explain what they're talking about. I really don't get it. Sounds like promo ad copy for the new brake.

 

[davy1063]

I can picture it in my mind....

There they sit. A team of dark-haired, crew-cut wearing engineers with thick black rimmed glasses, armed with their slide rules and pencils at their drafting boards, basked in the glow of the fluorescent lights overhead. Filing cabinets abound and the smell of paper fills the air. Little did they realize that they were accomplishing. They might have even taken pride in their work.

Nowadays we have all the technology known to NASA, more computer power than we can muster, Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, and today's engineers have a problem launching a product that barely lasts past the 1 year warranty period.

Go figure.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

Thanks for listening.

 

[saltysam]

Just AWESOME!

Thanks Robert for posting this info. I have always wondered about the history of the rollermatic, how it was developed etc, and now i know.....Frigidaires are my favorite!
Thanks again!
Mark

 

[joelippard]

Thanks...

For posting this. I've been wracking my brain to understand how the Rollermatic operated. We had one growing up and if I knew then what I do now it would have been saved. I'm actively looking for one to purchase. I've heard of some having trouble but ours lasted 20 years with absolutely NO issues. It was replaced with an 80's GE Filter-flo due to a bad timer. I would be so happy to have one again, the sounds of the Rollermatic have great memories for me.