How do YOU use a wringer washer?

[adam-aussie-vac]

Hey guys, I wanted to ask how do you guys use your wringer washer? The way how I used to use mine (before it started leaking where the hose attaches and fits into the washbowl) I would wash in the washbowl with hot (50C/122F), wring it out using the wringer into a laundry sink full of warm water, then take it out by wringing it back through the wringer into the washbowl after rinsing The washbowl out, and then doing the second rinse as cold in there with a little fabric softener, does anyone see any flaws in how I used to do laundry with the wringer washer? If so how would you change it? Would you add more rinses? And by the way sometimes I used to rinse in cold water during summer and rinse in warm during winter so that way I’m not subjecting the laundry to temperature shock

 

[launderess]

Because don't have time to pre-soak or pre-wash whites or anything else that will be washed in hot water....

Fill tub of Maytag wringer with warm water. Add detergent or soap and let agitate minute or so to mix with water. Then begin adding wash piece by piece until load is complete, or tub is filled to max indicated via roll over.

Items wash for 4-6 minutes, maybe longer depending upon soil level.

Stop washer, set up tub and move wringer into position.

Wring out wash into waiting tub.

Now here is where one differs from days of old.

If only doing one load, will drain wash water, clean tub and fill with fresh water for rinse. Start agitator, drop things into washer..... rinse, wring....

Most things will then either be bunged into spin drier to extract more water. This or put into the Miele or AEG washers for same. Depending upon what was washed things may to into modern front loader for full final rinse and spin.

Tend to use my Maytag wringer for bulky and large items that give issues in either Miele or AEG washers. Blankets, mattress covers, heavy terry bath robes,

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Oh cool, I’m gonna see if I can try and restore my Simpson

And I will be trying to acquire a dryer, tumble dryer that is that’s roughly about as old as the ringer washer, and since there is my bock extractor in the same room I’ll make Good use of it, it originally used to run for five minutes now it just runs for three, and I wonder how many people would use the wringer washer and then bungle everything straight into the dryer? And thankfully both the dryer and the ringer washer have a 10lb capacity

 

[launderess]

"...I wonder how many people would use the wringer washer and then bungle everything straight into the dryer?..."

In United States at least it was fairly common for those who could afford or otherwise get a tumble dryer to put things in straight from semi-automatics. Hence many clothes dryers back then had heating power ranging from "Very Hot" to "Broil". *LOL* They needed to run hot in order to bake all water out of comparatively sopping wet laundry.

Wringers have a comparable rpm (in terms of final spin) of about 240. That is pretty weak. But then again early Bendix front loaders weren't much better (around 300 rmps?), and many early fully automatic top loaders were about 500 to 600 rpm range IIRC. So really either way you wanted a dryer with powerful heating that could get things done quickly enough to keep up with washing machine.

There is of course an art to feeding things through a wringer power or hand cranked. If done well you'll get better results, no where near "damp dry" as modern washing machines, but still.... OTOH if things are sent through wringer improperly you end up with sopping wet and heavy wash laden with water.

Major part of damage to laundry from using wringers was caused by people attempting to tighten things down (to extract more water), that it was a chore to feed and get things through. This was hard on wringer, rough on textiles (ripped off buttons, hooks, fastenings, rips and tears...), and generally left creases that no amount of ironing would totally erase.

Power wringers with self adjusting rollers such as Maytag often were busted by people trying to feed items too bulky for thing to handle. That bearing or other parts gave saved from destroying wringer head totally, but then you had to take apart and repair the thing.

 

[circlew]

My neighbor V. used a wringer washer until they got the Kenmore 800 set in the early 70's. They had a dryer much earlier, and it was a 1957 Kenmore hi-speed model connected to a 50 amp circuit.

 

[launderess]

If my math is correct at 240v that 50 amp circuit maxes out at 24,000 watts.

Such fun those high speed dryers!

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?10644

Early Hamiliton dryer with dual voltage. Note at 240v it runs at over 4000 watts.

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?65833

Thing to remember is late as 1950's, 1960's when wringer washers still prevailed many home textiles and clothing were far heavier than today.

Bed linen often was muslin (unless family used lighter percale), which weighs a lot after washing. Dungarees (blue jeans) were of heavier material than today as well.

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Laundress, In regards to your reply (number three)

Specifically in regards to dryers that have very hot to broil how well would that work in conjunction to a modern washing machine with high rpm speed? As I’ve got a 10 amp rated Westinghouse dryer so that would be 2400 W and it takes roughly about an hour and 40 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes to dry So I’m just thinking when turning up the heat help things dry faster?

 

[launderess]

Less residual moisture coupled with higher heat would translate into shorter drying times I shouldn't wonder.

Dryers at laundromats and other commercial/industrial settings often still get very hot in order to keep up fast through put.

Don't know BTU ratings, but 11 pounds of wash spun at 1100 rpms in my Miele or 1200 in AEG will dry in about fifteen minutes or so when done at local laundromat. If use their washers (modern Speed Queen front loaders), things take about thirty minutes.

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

It makes me wonder if the reason why they got rid

Of extractors, was because they cut drying time which means by they cut profits, as well as reducing spins beads on commercial washing machine

 

[launderess]

If you are referring to extractors in laundromats, legal action was brought against Bock more than a few times by employees of laundries and customers of laundromats for claims of injury. One particular case involved a young boy who lost an arm...

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/supreme-court/1977/b-6857-0.html

When Braun (IIRC), came out with first industrial/commercial washer that could extract (washer-extractor) days of separate extractors in commercial laundries were numbered. Many places hung on to them for various reasons, but newer laundries and or places that had major upgrades of equipment got rid of spin driers in favor of washer/extractors.

Laundromats fearing lawsuits began to so same. As places moved away from top loading to h-axis washers in American laundromats again there was less need for centrifuges. Hard mount coin front loaders while having lower rpm than machines today, still were better at final extraction than most top loading washers.

American housewives never really experienced spin dryers. To best or my knowledge they never were sold here for domestic use. What there was came part of twin tubs like those offered by GE, Hoover, Easy, and others.

Blessed with abundant natural resources, and often low energy rates (well compared to Europe or elsewhere), once tumble dryers came along housewives and others doing laundry weren't that bothered about final moisture retention with automatic or even semi automatic washers, washers, or even using wringer, things were just bunged into dryer that baked all that water out of laundry.

All this being said apparently there still are some laundromats out there in USA still with Bock extractors...



This is a lawsuit waiting to happen..

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

I do know why as to Bock extractorsWhere removed for

Reasons, but considering that basically from what you said earlier my observation was that most commercial front loaders the ones found in laundromats have a lower spin speed than most household washing machines makes me wonder if they Make more money from dryers than WashersThat’s kind of what I meant my apologies

 

[circlew]

Launderess, you made a miscalculation in your circuit capacity. A 240 volt 50 amp circuit is rated at a maximum of 12000 watts (50 x 240 = 12000). It would have to be a 480 volt service to provide 24000 watts on a 50 amp circuit. That voltage isn't used in residential occupancies in North America, only industrial.

 

[launderess]

Historically and probably still today laundromats make their money on dryers. Hence anything that speeds up that process (such as high extraction for final spin), would have a financial hit. This could be managed of course by raising prices for washers, and or fiddling with cost for dryer which is usually "X" per "Y" minutes.

Most laundromats use hard mount h-axis washing machines which tend to have lower final extraction speeds than soft mount. The SQ washers are local laundromat are new, and supposed to offer "high final extraction", but things come out far more wet than when spun at home in any of my European front loaders set to just 1100-1200 rpms.

Because they are bolted into several feet of concrete h-axis washers will still transmit huge forces down into floors and thus spread throughout building.

 

[tomturbomatic]

It's funny that my 1951 Hamilton with 4700 watts total dries very fast. Unlike a modern dryer where all of the air that goes through the dryer is heated, in the Hamilton only the small amount of air that circulates through the drying chamber is heated so air that bypasses the fabrics is not heated plus the radiant heat from the exposed heating element heats the water in the clothes and hurries it away as water vapor that the carrier current removes as it flows through the bottom of the dryer.

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

It’s amazing how everybody thinks condensing dryer is a new

Concept, but believe me, not even eight years after the war the first one was already made

 

[tomturbomatic]

When Robert found his Horton automatic, I looked up the report on it in a 1953, I think, Consumers' Research Bulletin and in the annual bound volume, there were reports of other washers and dryers. They tested the Hotpoint water dryer and gave all kinds of data like how much the operation raised the temperature and moisture in the test chamber and it raised the temperature less than 3 degrees F and the moisture level not at all. In December, 1953, Bendix introduced the electric-drying Duomatic and it was a very well engineered condensing dryer. Maytag produced condensing dryers with the dials on the top front to match the AM early automatics in the early 50s. We found an avocado late 60s or early 70s design Westinghouse Space Mate stack pair and the dryer on top was a condenser with a gravity drain.