Hoover Keymatic - The First !!!

[lavamat_jon]

Yay Mike!

I believe Keymatics were still being sold when my parents bought their first Hoover washer in 1982 - the installation manual has a picture of teh control panels for the machines in the 1982 range, and the Keymatic was the 2nd model down, with a machine with a programme selector dial and timeline display as the top model, and our model A3110, which was the 1100 spin timer model, with the fast/half/woollens spin buttons . There was also an 800rpm version of the A3110, but it didnt have a woollens button.

My nana also ahd a version of teh washer we had, but from the 1972. Again, it had the programme dial with cottons/synthetics/woollens spin buttons, but it was slightly smaller than our Hoover washer, and also instead of a door release pushbutton on the control panel, it had a slider to the right of the door that you pulled across to release the door. And of course, had that infamous Hoover drum (with the small hole in the back, and 3 sausage shaped lines between each paddle), which was still in use on the New Wave machines until Hoover were finally bought by Candy in the late 90s :-(. I have such fond memories of these machines, such a shame they're not around anymore :-(. My nana now has a Hotpoint WM25 from 1996/1997 and she said it is nowhere near as good as her old Hoover was at washing. In fact, she only got rid of the Hoover because she won the Hotpoint in a raffle, otherwise she'd probably still have it to this day .

I've probably said before, but my Grandma had a 1960's version of the Hotpoint TL - it's similar to the 70s version on your site, with the temperature dial, programme dial, timeline progress indicators, and buttons for hevy soil/rinse hold/short spin etc. It was a very cool machine, but it got replaced when I was about 5 or 6 so don't remember *too* much about it. A Hotpoint 1993 Aquarius 800 (9528 i think the number is) replaced the TL.

I've always loved looking through your Yahoo photo album Mike, you have quite a collection that I envy! Maybe you should host the convention next year :-D.

Take care,

Jon

 

[jetcone]

Keymatic I used

Hi Mike:
The Keymatic I used had the red bakelite plate in the middle of your photo and it also had the second slot to hold another plate but it was not as modern looking as the machine pictured here.

I couldn't get into your yahoo site yet I am a member.

Jet

 

[appnut]

Jon, thank you for sharing yo memories with us. Bob

 

[gizmo]

Hi Mike.

I wouldn't use a thicker drum cable, it might be less flexible and therefore not allow the drum to flex around enough. When you get it going you will be amazed how much the drum moves around during spin yet the outer cabinet douesn't vibrate or jump about at all. It is on castors but it doesn't move around. The suspension is very flexible, could give some lessons to today's front loaders in that regard. That machine is over 40 years old, the cable may even be original so that's not a bad run, to get a new cable made up I'd chase around classic car restoration places, someone who makes up accelerator cables and bonnet cables to order could make one up to sample. My first keymatic had a broken cable (rusted through) but I had about three or four more which never gave trouble. I will search my spares to see if I have a cable but I strongly doubt it. I thought I had many Keymatic spares but when I looked for them I can find only a few. Hmmm.

That red belt for spin is probably a replacement. The originals look like a loop of rubberized rope. There is no apparent join, it is woven into a circle. I have a couple, I can post a pic one day soon.

The drum only turns one way. The two pulleys on the back of the drum have an ingenious clutch between each pulley and the shaft, a couple of rollers and a spring, when the pulley turns one way it drives, when the pulley reverses it idles backwards. As the two motor pulleys drive in opposite directions, if one pulley is driving the other is going backwards and not driving. So when washing the slow (wash) pulley drives and the fast (spin)pulley idles backwards. If the pulsator solenoid is released, the pulsator is also driven by the spin pulley which is whizzing backwards, so the pulsator is driven reverse to the drum.
When the wash is finished it pumps out. First static ("neutral drain"), then as the water level drops it starts tumbling again to distribute the load. When it is ready to spin, the motor instantly reverses (which dims all the lights in the house for a second) so the slow pulley now reverses and the fast pulley turns in the drive direction. The pulsator turns with the drum in this direction. The motor has a very strong start winding so it gets up to spin speed very fast.

Because of the clutches inside the two pulleys, it is impossible to drive the drum backwards. Either pulley if driven in reverse just idles.

Yes, it fills through the sump. How about that sump hose? Have you ever seen anything so complicated? Dead ends, flexy bits, rigid bits, a narrow hose to the pressure switches, phew!

Interesting that the instructions for yours say three rinses. Someone at twin tub emporium has posted a later one with four rinses. ALL Australian ones had three rinses.

Best Wishes

Chris.

 

[gizmo]

Hi Austin

The keyplates are double sided so one plate gives eight options. The machines came with two plates but the two plates have the same options except the black one is for cold fill and the red one for hot or warm fill. (Black one was for where there was no hot water supply to the laundry.)

The machine has a separate rocker switch for on/off, but it doesn't have to be used. If the rocker switch wasn't turned off after the last load, you just press in the keyplate to start. The keyplate can be inserted to three depths - press in fully to start, it snaps back when released to the centre position which is normal running position, where keyplate fingers are engaged to select the cycle. You can also pull the keyplate out a little which disengages the keyplate fingers and causes the timer to skip through the programs so you can manually skip a part of a cycle or skip through to the end if you want to change cycles. You have to release a childproof button underneath to do the skip through thing. It is fun to do as the timer actually does each function as it skips past so it fills a second, tumbles a second, pumps a second, spins a second and so on as it skips through. If there is water inside it stops and empties before it does the tiny spin though.

If the machine gets off balance on spin it just turns off the rocker switch. (fortunately this very rarely happens) When you have rebalanced the load you press the rocker switch back on and it goes straight into spin with no tumble to distribute the load.

Chris