I want a Duo-Load Dammit!

[mickeyd]

I'd love to see the pix, Todd. Thanks so much. I need a

Glad to hear you have good turnover. I saw it too, for two weeks on Fire island, and I was fascinated at this short quick stroke. These Holloween pranksters talking about bad turnover in Hotpoints, Maytags, etc; they must all be suffering from the overloading syndrome. "Trick or Treat!" Even a Unimatic can be stuffed to no turnover.

 

[bajaespuma]

I still want one.

My Aunt Sona had a BOL Silhouette like the ones in the second picture. I remember the agitation was very gentle, almost like the machine was mosy-ing down to the corner drugstore. It had a filter-pan like the GE's but instead of a flume it had "burpalator" -type recirculation. I do remember her dryer, which was gas heated and very fast, seeming kind of big and clumsy compared to our GE.

I'm still fascinated by the complicated turquoise agitators of the Duo-Load generation. I remember Consumer Reports 1969 issue with a photograph showing a breakdown of the agitator into many pieces and criticizing it for requiring disassembly for "sand removal". There was a bleach dispenser as well as a filter pump assembly in those things so they must have been like a hybrid between Norge's and Frigidaire's agitators. I remember a vintage ad for Clorox with a picture of someone pouring bleach into the center of the Hotpoint agitator.

There was a "Patent of the Day" on this site that explained the workings of the Duo-Load. In a nutshell, the water for the small tub was diverted inside the fill flume to the top of the large filter-pan looking thing, which I believe isn't a filter pan but the cover or lid for the small tub which allows water in through channels in the center and then there are several small channels built into the side of the tub that throw the water, during the spin, up and over the main tub, where there's a ring of channels designed to throw the water to the outside so it never comes into contact with the main tub water. It looks very complicated and I wouldn't be surprised if it caused many service calls.

 

[peterh770]

The Silhouette agitator is probably the prettiest and the most graceful agitator ever made. But it's performance leaves much to be desired. Because the vanes do not flare out like the Easy, and because there is no flat surface to counter the water direction, clothes just slide up and down the agitator as it turns back and forth. I was very excited to see one in action the first year visiting Robert's home, but once it started working, I was sorely disappointed. It is wonderfully gentle, but truly lacking in cleaning skills.

 

[golittlesport]

Hey gang...check out Eddy's 1953 Hotpoint video on YouTube

 

[ingliscanada]

Hotpoint's GE Evolution

Even though Hotpoint was part of GE since probably the 50's, it appears that they were built their own way, then gradually evolved to become pure GE by the late 70's.

I've seen YouTube videos of early Hotpoints which had a one-way drive (agitation goes right into spin without pause) as opposed to GE's reversing drive (motor & tranny pause and reverse for spin). When GE switched to perforated tubs sometime in the 60's (I think), Hotpoint held on to solid tubs until the 70's. I read in a past thread that Hotpoint restyled their tranny numerous times until settling on the GE tranny in or just before the 70's. (Could someone give me details about the trannys they used, and how they worked?) The early 70's appeared to be the last somewhat "pure" Hotpoints. They were mechanically GE, but had a filter ring instead of GE's agitator mounted basket, and a different agitator. By the late 70's, they were pure GE.

As for the dryers, the early Hotpoints, I understand, had the downdraft air flow, with the heat source above the drum, and a pullout filter below. I don't know whether or not this was actually a continuation of the first GE dryers. (Could someone clue me in on that?) I saw ads of Hotpoint dryers from the early 60's, and they appeared mechanically identical to GE, but with a different exterior. I believe this style continued until the late 70's, when they became pure GE.

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I really would love to learn the true history and evolution of Hotpoint (as well as many other makes).

 

[ingliscanada]

VolvoGuy

HOH dryers were indeed quiet inside the house, but outside the house, the exhaust vent is actually louder (maybe some more than others, due to aging of machine).

Also, Speed Queen was the last company to do away with the solid tub.

 

[ingliscanada]

Sorry...

I thought you were asking if Hotpoint was the last washer with the solid tub. I read too fast.

 

[peteski50]

Hotpoint!

We had Hotpoint washers while I was growing up, but they were BOL models. The first one lasted almost 7 years was a 1955 BOL thad had a removeable lid. Than we had another one that only lasted about 5 years (the transmission went bad) and not worth fixing. They did wash well and the TOL models had a lot of bells and whistles and did look real nice but didn't hold up. I do wonder why their are so few collectables. They are real hard finds!
Peter

 

[bajaespuma]

Au Contraire

"then gradually evolved to become pure GE by the late 70's."

There was nothing gradual about it. In 1969 GE began "replacing" Hotpoint dryers simply by putting a Hotpoint control panel on top of a standard 27" wide GE dryer. You can see it clearly in this Duo-Load ad.They even put a phony kickplate on the bottom to make the cabinet more "Hotpoint". By 1972 GE started doing the same thing with the washers by putting Hotpoint styled backsplashes on 27" GE filter-flos. They very cleverly remodeled the filter-flo system to work on the rim of the washbasket and for a while used a left-hand side hinged lid. By 1975 practically all of the machines were GE.

GE used Hotpoint when it was a separate entity in Chicago to test market a lot of bells and whistles. Hotpoint was always ahead of its time in high-market features, but lagged in engineering quality. Pity. It was a great brand and produced a lot of innovations. But Jack Welch was much too interested in the bottom line to try and save something as unimportant as a great US brand and thousands of jobs.

 

[jasonl]

And check out the Kenmore "No Guesswork" washer in avocado!

 

[ingliscanada]

Bajaespuma

Thanks for clarifying me on that. Do you know if Hotpoint restyled their trannys several times prior to 72, or just use the same one throughout their early period? And did the dryers before 69 share nothing from GE whatsoever? I just thought the mechanical layout looked familiar. In the ad you showed me, I can tell that the dryer is now pure GE, and that kickplate is framing that GE front air intake. And of course that full-width door.

 

[bajaespuma]

I don't know anything about Hotpoint transmissions. I do know that old styled Hotpoint dryers, like the ones in my pictures, are NOTHING like GE dryers of the same period. In fact, some folks on this site have said that the GE Big Boy dryers evolved from Hotpoints, and now that I've taken my Big Boy apart, I see absolutely nothing, no parts, no engineering that doesn't look pure GE. I do know that GE used Hotpoint to test new innovations on all types of appliances, some of which they adapted, some ditched. Hotpoint "Air Flow" dryers were, I believe 28 inches wide, like HOH's. I think they began as condenser dryers and the company just stuck with that fabrication until GE killed them off. The avocado dryer that was mentioned on Craigslist is a real Hotpoint unit, not a GE changeling.

Also, the controls on the Duo-Load look remarkably similar to the ones we've seen on the "Lady Executive". I once had a catalogue of Hotpoints from the late sixties/early seventies and it's killing me to think that I might have thrown it away during that era I was more interested in pot than in appliances.

 

[alr2903]

Bajaspuma, i always enjoyed that Hotpoint ad when it revolved on POD. The forum once got in a uproar that the design on the purple cabinet had 4 swastika's, hidden in it's design. The duoload ad mentions it has an automatic bleach dispenser. I can see how this set up would work, at best, and cause alot of confusion for someone replacing a much earlier machine. alr2903

 

[launderess]

Two Washes and Two Rinses

Or a soak,then a wash and two rinses.

Tree-Huggers today would howl in protest if a top loader even tried that today!

 

[sambootoo]

That is my dream washer, too. My sister had a middle of the line Hotpoint in the late 60's. She used it until about '76 or '77. I'm not sure what went wrong with it.

 

[DADoES]

Two Washes and Two Rinses

 
F&P's Intuitive Eco toploader can do a prewash, drain, wash, drain, agitated rinse, drain/spin, 2nd agitated rinse, final spin. And throw in some spin-sprays as well. A 2-hr soak can be included as part of the main wash.

 

[appliguy]

Ingliscanada...........

Hotpoint has been part of GE since 1922..... I would sure love to know what one of these Hotpoint washers sound like ....do they sound very different form a GE of the same era? PAT COFFEY

 

[gyrafoam]

They are very quiet during agitation. During the "throw-out" the water hitting the side-walls of the cabinet makes a chug-achugga- sound.

 

[bajaespuma]

I remember Aunt Sona's machine as being very quiet during agitaion as well. And by the way, rollover on her machine was just fine. I assume that she wasn't overloading it. I don't remember noticing noise during the spin, but were Hotpoints of this generation also throwing the water out into the cabinet? Sort of look that way in this cut-sheet:

 

[ingliscanada]

YouTube Vids

I saw the old Hotpoint solid tub washer on YouTube, and there's even one on the "See It Wash" on this site. The agitation is quiet, aside from the pump constantly cycling.