How did you start your washing machine interests and what's your memories with being a washer fan?

[hotpointwfwt02]

Before I was 2 years old I loved watching the washing machine in action! When I was 3 I was so attached to it and then put clothes/lego blocks/metal plates in the machine and even knew how to start it without putting in the detergent lol then sat there all day and wouldn't get out of the utility room, and then someone put a balloon on the washer to keep me out of the utility room
My memories with being a washer fan is seeing the Bosch WFL/WFO/WFX machines and getting excited and seeing the Hotpoint WF/WT/WD machines in the shops and Argos catalogues and being attracted to them and saying I rather liked them and expecting to see them in people's houses and I could go on and on about my memories of my washer interests

Janak

 

[laundromat]

I was 4 and my great aunt put my teddy bear in her FRIGIDAIRE Three Ring Agitator washer telling me to watch it do somersaults. I was hooked and would go door to door asking to see other folks and find out who had one like hers. In doing that, I met so many different machines and how they worked. At twelve, I began collecting and restoring them. I prefer front loaders and now own four sets of LG models. They're my favorite. I had been selling them for years and, from the many positive reactions from my customers,began my huge interest and liking of LG. I don't care where they're manufaCured as long as they perform well,are fun to watch,quiet, have a huge capacity and a great repair record. LG has all and then some including direct drive, beltless, fearless movement, high speed spinning, recirculating spin that goes either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the load balance. Nobody else has that. I also like their top loaders. I had one a year ago and abused it deliberately to see how durable it was. A goat cheese dairy farm owner,Richard, saw it as I filled his propane tanks and bought it to wash the cheese cloth used on the farm. He still has it with absolutely no issues and bought a front loading set in red from me for the house.

 

[vacerator]

When mom

got her first automatic washer, a '63 turquoise Kenmore "70", seeing it light up.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Janak, like with you, it started with our first automatic when I was around 2.

 

[brucelucenta]

My mother told me that when I was a baby she held me up to watch the washing machine to amuse me. I guess that is where I got a strange fascination with washers because I can remember checking out everyone's machines from the time I could talk and walk around and look. I had always seen my mom and dad's old '57 Norge set, but other neighbors had different machines than ours. One of my favorites was a '58 GE FF washer our neighbor across the street had. I watched it wash too, since it would operate with the lid up. When in the 2nd grade a lady moved into a house my friend used to live in and she had no children. A couple or three of us went to her house one day and she showed us her '57 Frigidaire pulsamatic machine do a load of laundry. I was mesmerized by it! It looked like it vibrated since it moved so quickly. That was the first Frigidaire washer I had ever seen. Before we moved out of that house when I was in the 3rd grade, my parents replaced the Norge set with a 1963 GE FF set. I have been interested in washers as long as I can remember. Before I was 16 I started working on them.

 

[miele4life]

I have Autism and my lifelong washing machine interest makes me part of who I am, I suppose my earliest memories of them must of been around 2 or 3 years old when I just remember seeing 1 in action which would be my childhood Electra MicroElectronic 900 6950E and my interest just took off from there, and then it would soon progress to knowing all the different makes and models and seeing the washing machine design evolve over the years too. My interest has also resulted in different jobs with them as well, the first being 2 weeks work experience in Curry's in March 2005 which I enjoyed very much, then in a laundry in a home for old people from 2010-2014 which meant many unpleasant incontinence washes to do! and my 2 present jobs which I love very much, 1 being in a furniture place where I test and clean many different washing machines and dishwashers and the other being a laundry/ironing place where I do the customers laundry, I'm 28 now and my interest in them is as strong as ever and I'll continue to love them both now and well into the future, no matter what they look like by then!

 

[askolover]

As far back as I can remember...which would be around 2 years old.  I used to love to peep inside Mother's Maytag and she'd stick a clothes pin half into the switch so I could watch.  She told me not to put my hands in while it was running and I didn't.  I barely remember my grandmother having an old white GE filterflo with the water flume at 12 o'clock position.  Mother says that was Grandmother's first automatic washer.  Then in '74 she replaced it with an avocado FF that she was still using in 2007 when she had her stroke and moved in with my parents.  Most of my neighbors had Maytag machines.  One though had a Whirlpool and I thought it was so neat to see it drain without spinning.

 

[foraloysius]

I was fascinated when our first automatic was delivered in 1965. It was a simple Candy SAM. Unfortunately the thing broke down several times in the first year. When my mother appeared to be pregnant of my youngest brother, the Candy had to go and was replaced by a much bigger Bosch. Two automatic washing machines in such a short time must have done the trick. lol

 

[aquacycle]

I haven't got a clue how it started. It's not just washing machines for me either, it spreads to vacuum cleaners too. My Mum tells me that as soon as I could walk, I was either pulling myself up to the washer door or pushing the vacuum around. And it just never went away really.

 

[passatdoc]

Was not interested in appliances until becoming a homeowner early 30s. One thing I always noticed from trips to Europe was that clothes washed there (typically, in my friends' mothers' front loaders) always felt cleaner than clothing washed here in top loaders. I followed the re-emergence of US FLs in the late 1990s/early 2000s. When my GE TL broke beyond repair, I was ready with my research and bought a reasonably priced Frigidaire BOL pair: model 2140 and matching dryer.

While basic in terms of bells and whistles, it got clothes CLEAN, like those washed in Europe that I'd bring back. I remember running the first load in the 2140, using "clean" closet clothing that had been washed in the GE TL. Without adding any soap, I noted there were suds in the water from detergent still in the clothing (note: the defunct GE TL did not have an extra rinse option).

That pair is still going strong after 11 years, with no service calls ever. I gave the pair to my neighbor in 2014, when his Kenmore TL broke and he was between jobs, and they still work great. I bought an Electrolux 60 series pair as replacements.

 

[ryanm]

My earliest memory of interest was when I was probably around 5 or 6 when my grandmother would wash clothes in her wringer washer and I would stand on a chair to watch and listen to the 'chug chug' of her Easy Spirolator wringer washer, it just intrigued me so. My other grandmother I remember had a Thor 'Automagic' washer which I never could understand at that age why the dial had 'dishes' on it when it was a clothes washer, but I was too young to know why. My Mom and Dad had an Easy Spindrier which I also loved to watch and I guess when the pump stopped working they bought a Thor 'semi automatic' washer. I can remember watching that thing and when the spin stopped, the tub just kept turning and turning until it came to a halt. In those days it was a 'big deal' when anyone got a 'new' appliance like that, so I think that is what made me take an interest because unlike the folks today, back then the adults were also mesmerized by all the 'new' automatic machines. When the Thor bit the dust, my parents got a Frigidare which had the agitator that went up and down which I found fascinating. As a child I always found front loaders to be boring as they didn't have the different agitators and wash actions that a top loader had they just all seemed the same to me, and basically disappeared from the market in the US for a long time so growing up I never had much interest in them. Don't ask me how the fascination came to be I think it was just all the different movements and techniques all the machines used, and the different looks of them. I always wanted to go into the store and lift the lids to see what type of agitators they had.. Since then I have always had an interest in washers, and anyone in the family or friends have always asked me for my opinion when buying because they know I study and know about the machines, their reputations and ability to clean. I have never met anyone in person who shared this interest, so it has been a rather lonely interest until I found this forum and discovered so many others shared the same interest. I always thought I was a freak or something and many times would not even let on that I liked washers and such. Now I don't feel that way anymore thanks to this forum and the vacuum forum.

 

[tolivac]

Remember the Norge Burpilator my Mom had when I was very little-the Pregnant Roto Swirl KN washer my grandmother had and my stepmom had the same type of agitator.In another home had a copper lint dish GE Filter Flow-then my Mom had Maytags-last machine she had was a Penta-Swirl KN.Don't know what happened to her things-she moved to a retirement home near LA.My "collection" would be the various types of machines we used over the years.Don't have the space for an actual collection as many members on here have.

 

[michael]

I have a vague recollection of mums Thor washing machine as a child, when the hose would jump out the sink and flood the kitchen! My fascination started with the Hoover keymatic deluxe we got in 1976...the fact that this little keyplate would start such a process of clicks ,whirls and do all that it did at a slight push in the slot....still amazes me today after all these years!

 

[wayupnorth]

Mine was at like 4, my mother doing wash in our late 40's Kenmore wringer and I was commandeered to make sure everything went right thru the wringer and in the rinse tub in our basement and hit the release bar if anything wound up. Well, I have a '48 Kenmore wringer now that works just like my mothers did. But I do love watching my '84 Maytag LA511 and DE410's that have worked flawlessly since new.

 

[hotpointwfwt02]

Miele4Life aka Alan

I have autism too lol

 

[hoovermatic]

I don't remember a time when I wasn't interested in washing machines! According to my mother, when I was a baby, in order to get me to sleep so she could get on with housework etc, she would sometimes sit my near the washing machine (a twin tub) and the chug chug of the agitator would send me to sleep. I didn't even wake up when the spin dryer started and when she changed to a Hoovermatic shortly after I was born, I still responded in the same way. My Godmother told me that once, when I was grouchy and wouldn't sleep, she even put the machine on when it was empty and just turned on the wash tub just to trick me, and it worked.

 

[speedqueen]

Autism...

I am also autistic, my interest started when I was 9 in 2009 and saw an ad on Craigslist for a "Wonder-Washer" (cheap plastic portable) and the ad suggested looking at how one works on YouTube, so I did and in the suggestions was Robert's "The Washers We Love and More" I saw that and many other users from here videos such as Swestoyz video of his 1951 Unimatic. After a few months I could name every brand of machine in Robert's video. My username is as such because of Eddy1210's video of his 1957 SQ.

 

[wayupnorth]

Autism makes no difference to us in this forum. Good people that share their appliances mean much more.

 

[ea56]

My very earliest memory of a washer was the wringer that my parents had on the back porch, but I don't recall seeing it being used, I was about 2 yrs old. We moved to another home in 1954 and it had a basement. We had a Bendix Economat that my Mom used down there and a clothesline that my
Dad strung up in the basement. I can still see the clothes mashed up against the agitator when Mom would lift the lid on the Economat when the load was done and I remember how the rubber tub looked after it had sqwished the clothes onto the agitator to "wring" then out. The next year we got a Norge Timeline dryer since my sister was born and there were now 3 kids and one in cloth diapers, and I guess my parents decided they finally needed a dryer. At this same time I also had my very own vacuum, my Grandparents got a new Hoover Convertible so they gave me the RoyaL Premier upright that I always gravitated to when I was at their house. Well the Royal vac sat right next to the head of my bed where I could keep an eye on it. One night I feel out of bed, right onto the height adjustment control and I still have a small scar near my eye as a reminder.

My favorite Aunt had a matched set of Westinghouse Slant Fronts that she got new in 1955. When ever I was at her house I always needed to check them out. They fascinated me. I still think they are the most beautfully designed washer a dryer of the 50's

In the late 60's since we lived in the country and had a well and water was scarce Mom bought a new TOL Maytag Wringer. I learned to use a wringer washer at that time, and I always have liked using a wringer washer since then.

I've loved all appliances for as long as I can remember. I always tried to take them apart and see what made them work if I got the chance. But I was not encouraged to mess with the appliances, but I did get to fix the TV's to a certain extent. When the TV would stop working I would place numbered pieces of masking tape next to each tube and mark the tubes with corresponding numbers, put them in a bag and ride to the Safeway where there was a tube tester in the front of the store. I'd test each tube, and if I found a bad one I'd buy a new one, ride back home and replace all the tubes along with the new one. I was usually successful.

When I found this site about 2011 I viewed it for a few years until I joined. I am so glad to have found AW.org. I never knew before that there were so many of us that love washers and appliances in general. I used to think that this was a unique interest of mine, I was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise. And what a bonus that so many of us are Gay men, why its like two birds with one stone so to speak, LOL.
Eddie