[i]WORST[/i] pre-1980 agitator design ever made??

[westytoploader]

OK, someone asked a while back what the best agitator design was, and everyone gave different opinions which made for a very interesting topic.

So now I ask, what was the WORST agitator design, in your opinion, made before 1980? This includes front-loaders as well, and it can be either the ugliest or the least effective agitator. This doesn't refer to cosmetic details on the machine, just the AGITATOR!!!

Ready...GO!!!

 

[pulsator]

I would say the Hotpoint long neck agitator is the ugliest/most boring. It's just a stick twisting in the water, fins all along the agitator are much more fun to watch.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

agitator hater

the ugliest agitator IMHO,The Blackstone
the least effective,tie between the Apex Bouncing Basket, though it is fun, and the Sear's Kenmore Penta-Swirl

 

[powerfin64]

Least Effective agitator

In my view, Sear's Penta-Swirl and Penta-Vane are most worthless. Roto-Flex also?

 

[alr2903]

apex wringer

Look for a apex "spiral dasher" it was in their wringer machines, it was just plain ugly. I never saw it work, but friends had a dead one in their shed for years.

 

[kenmore1978]

Roto-Flex

agitators worked quite well, though not much to look at

 

[mayken4now]

The worst, or maybe the most boring

to me is the hotpoint and the speed queen. Now in my old laundramat that I USED to have, it would fill too much sometimes and become not effective at all. The tub vanes/baffles were very small and unusual.

Ok I have to say Penta-Swirl - oh please.Then next was, Only reason everyone went to the corkscrew design is because of the whip-whip agitation transmissions. Yes Austin I love your LAT with the tourquoise agitator.

Steve

 

[agiflow]

Some of the straight vane agitator offerings GE used in the 70's were pretty boring. That calgon commercial comes to mind,but in fairness to GE, that washer looked overloaded.

 

[westytoploader]

For me I'd say the Penta-Vane and Penta-Swirl agitators are the worst design. Fun to watch, and roll/clean small to medium loads well, but are subpar at handling large loads. IMHO, the design wasn't well thought out because while the base is wide, the fins are small and have no "upper vanes".

Ugliest agitator in my opinion is the Canadian Beatty agitator called "Gentle Hands" or something along those lines.

--Austin

 

[peterh770]

The Kenmore Vari-Flex is the worst for me. That huge agitator takes up so much room that the capacity is way diminished. Then, if you had the vanes all the way out, your clothes would get such a beating that the load turned into a mass of lint.

Unfortunately, one of the prettiest agitators is the least effective. After watching the Hotpoint Silloette wash on several occasions, I admit that the graceful swoop of its curved vanes really don't do much, especially with larger loads.

 

[jasonl]

Kenmore best and worst.

I hate to say it but Kenmore has had some bad ones. The penta swirl/vane are among the worst. The Penta-Swirl was the successor to the all mighty Roto-Swirl, what a disappointment.

Such a stark contrast considering KM's vintage straight-vane and swirl 'tators were really nice and fun. The Vari-flex was kinda weird and bulky looking. Same performance as the str8 vane but adjustable.

I'd say the GE straight vane is pretty blah. Their "swirl" lookalike worked well IIRC.

 

[agiflow]

Unless I'm seeing something different, the Penta Swirl doesn't deserve the negativity it gets on full loads.

Yes I understand this is an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one.

I always thought that the PS was a cool agitator and I always wanted to see a good video of a full load to see for myself if this agitator deserves the bashing it got.... It certainly does not.

Admittedly the rinsing could have been better and this machine needed longer than the 2 minutes for that one pair of pants.

Had to set a second rinse.

 

[launderess]

This thread was started over twenty years ago by a dear and wonderful AW member who has since passed on. It gave me quite a turn to see his name resurrected with this thread.

There is totally zero reason to revive this thread or any other decades old. You want to open floor up to topic again or otherwise have something to say start a new thread.

 

[agiflow]

I assure you this was not ill intentioned. I didn't realize or try to stir up negative feelings about a passed on former member.

If Robert sees this maybe he could take this thread down.

My apologies for resurrecting this thread.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #12

There’s zero reason to make such remarks for someone reviving an old thread. Sometimes, it’s nice to turn back the clock and go back down memory lane.

Sometimes, it’s remarks such as that which makes me want to take a long, long break for the forum. Definitely has pushed away people from the forum over the years.

 

[agiflow]

Thank you Sean. There was no ill intent. Other people do it here. I knew there were threads about what I wanted to say so why start a new one?

 

[DADoES]

 
Reviving an 'ancient' thread is OK IMO, if the new post adds something relevant ... not the manic repetitious ranting that a certain someone is continually spouting. 

Perusing a thread from years ago surely can be interesting and bring up fond memories.  Robert wouldn't have included a search function within the board if he didn't want the material to be easily accessible.  I believe he can manually lock threads against additional posts if circumstances warrant, and probably could have programmed that to happen automatically after a "time-out" period if he didn't want it to be possible.

 

[circlew]

I think it's better that he be remembered through his posts, rather than be forgotten.

 

[circlew]

I think it's better that he be remembered through his posts, rather than be forgotten.