Hoovermatic at antique shop

[gizmo]

Yeaterday I found this in a tiny antique shop about two hours drive from home. It was there 2 years ago when I visited last, still there, price hasn't been reduced ($150).
I didn't buy it. With permission, I took some photos for the group...
Chris

 

[gizmo]

dial

 

[gizmo]

top

 

[gizmo]

inside

 

[gizmo]

underneath

This is a very early version, note the different layout, there is a second pump for the wash tub, it has a tyre which rubs agains the pulsator drive motor when engaged, so to empty the wash tub you engage the pump lever when the pulsator is running, not when spinning. As the water level drops the pulsator sprays water around, so you need that inner lid over the wash tub in place. Also the spinner motor drives the spin pump via an idler pulley, not directly.

Chris

 

[gansky1]

Very interesting machine, I guess there's no water heater in this? The friction drive on the pulsator is very interesting, as is the spinner drive. Is that some kind of brake on the (top) of the pulley in the center for the spinner?

 

[maytagbear]

So familiar, yet

So different.

Thank you for getting these interesting snaps!

lawence/Maytagbear

 

[chestermikeuk]

Squeaky Clean Base

Hi Chris

Now just turn that pick-up around and rescue that poor machine!!!

What a neat find, either its had very little use or a full strip down underneath, never seen one sooooo clean.

This was the equivalent of our second model produced 1960, the model here without the heater still had two controls , one for wash timer the other for motor on / off.

Just needs a new little empty hose, all Hoover single tubs use this type of pump arrangement, which means the pump is working all the time the pulsator is washing, just that the valve isnt set to drain..

Cheers, Mike

 

[gizmo]

Hi all

Yes Greg that looks like a brake on the spin motor pulley. I hadn't noticed it till I read your post. I'm not that familiar with these machines, and the photos were taken in a rush.

The first machine in my family was similar to this but with a heater. I have unclear memories of it, I think the front control was a dial that selected heat or wash/spin, and a separate knob for timer, possibly on top?? I think there was a ribbed piece in the top rubber surround, too.

It would have been a 1960 vintage. I remember my mother bitterly telling the story how before she had her first child, my older sister, they had no washing machine. My father had declared them unnecessary. When she went into hospital to have my sister, he had to wash his own clothes and went out and bought a washing machine - the Hoovermatic. My sister was born in July 1960. Of course the machine may have been a surprise for her, but she would't have seen it that way.

Mike - could you please post a link to a pic to the FIRST model Hoovermatic, if you have or know of one. I'd love to know if ours was one.
The drain hose on the one in the photos looked like new. AU ones don't have that funny square-ish outlet, they just have a hook shape moulded in.

Best Wishes

Chris

 

[chestermikeuk]

Hoover 3334 First UK Twinny 1957

Hi Chris

Is this the one??

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chestermikeuk/album?.dir=4733&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chestermikeuk/my_photos

 

[gizmo]

BINGO!

Yes Mike, that is the one!

I haven't seen one the same as that for about 35 years, it brings back the memories.

On ours, the blue spin lid was broken off, we worked the spinner by lowering the chrome lid hinge. I still regularly used the machine that way and I was about six years old. A couple of years later a girl at school had her arm broken when she put her hand in a moving spinner, it was either a Hoovermatic or a Lightburn, can't remember which. By that time we had the Frigidaire auto.

Thanks for posting the photo.

Chris