[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

 

[user 12105]

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.

 

[user 12105]

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.

 

[user 12105]

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.

 

[user 12105]

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.

 

[appliguy]

Remembering Austin Wilder......

I agree 100% with Tom, Glenn, and Sean. Austin was a very fascinating person and even though I never got to meet him in person I always enjoyed his posts and Youtube videos, he does indeed deserve to be remembered. PATRICK COFFEY

 

[maytag85]

I never got a chance to meet or interact with Austin since I joined the forum in 2017, but certainly would have been an interesting person to have conversations and interact with.

It is quite disrespectful to make condescending remarks over something not only trying to engage in an interesting conversation, but also to remember and honor a member who is no longer with us. In certain cultures around the world, the only way someone actually dies off is when they are forgotten about.

I’ll admit I’ve may have said things some things over the years here in the forum, but would never stoop down to that level making condescending remarks for someone resurrecting a thread from a member who’s no longer with us.

 

[washerlover]

Austin was amazing! I never met him in person but did reach out to him once when I was having trouble with my mid'70s WP washer. He was extremely kind and helpful and is dearly missed.

 

[bajaespuma]

This Hamilton gets my vote

This pair belongs to a member. The washer looks like an interesting machine; I like the color of the plastic parts. When I examined the agitator, though, I thought it couldn't be a good cleaner. It looks like one of those "Delicate" agitators that lives under the "Regular" agitator, like the ones on TOL Westies and Hotpoints.

 

It looks like it would perform worse than the Straight-6's on some Filter-Flo's

 

[user 12105]

This was owned by another esteemed late member.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

GE straight vane.

I'd go with a GE ramped activator over any straight van any day of the week.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

powerfin64

I'd rather take a Whirlpool super surgilator any day of the week.

 

[user 12105]

I'd say the Penta Swirl is probably my favorite now of the belt drive agitators along with the Surgilators in all their flavors.

 

[bajaespuma]

The video tells the story

As with the GE Straight-8(early version)and the Straight-6 (the later green versions; the black bakelite versions had a little bit more of the bottom, horizontal fins sticking out over the Activator base), the laundry is being swished back and forth...there isn't a lot of rollover going on.

 

[user 12105]

That load was quite full and still turned it over. I mean it isn't to borrow a phrase "dolphins at SeaWorld" turnover but it is still turning over and that whole load circulated well.

 

[tomturbomatic]

2 Minute Deep Rinse

One problem with the deep rinse in Kenmores was because the fill aerated the load at the back of the tub and large items like sheets took quite a while to be pulled under. The 4 minute deep rinse in the KitchenAid washers, combined with the dual action agitator gave totally satisfactory rinsing.

As far as the least effective agitator from the time period, I would have to nominate the Maytag Gyrator used in the narrow tubs of the automatics.