Is this a top loading washer/dryer?

[robliverpool]

Hi guys. Was having a few hours to myself and was looking on the net. I came across this machine which I've never seen before and I was wondering if anyone had seen one or used one before. This is my tenth year on AW and I think I remember briefly seeing something about I.
Rob

 

[keymatic]

Hi Rob,

I think you will find it to be a Bendix Economat - the drying of the clothes was by a squeezing method, the whole tub collasped...bizzare !! lol
Attached is a pic from another memeber restoring one.
Cheers
Keith

 

[bigalsf]

Bendix Top Loader

Yes, this is a Bendix top loader with a flexible tub that squeezes the water out of the cloths instead of spinning them. A very unique design. This model is on the POD rotation and is described as a "giant pair of hands."

I'm not sure how long they were on the market, but John L. & Robert (Unimatic) have one in their collection and can tell us more. Robert made a video of how it worked; you can find it in the archives.

 

[robliverpool]

Cheer's for the replies. I thought it might of been. I've seen Roberts in action but he had used a clear lid so we could see the action. The reason I was curious as it was on the net and someone was saying it was their first washer/dryer

 

[tomturbomatic]

This was the first model of the Economat. . Very kind neighbors had one and invited me over one Saturday morning in the summer of 1955 to see it wash a load of clothes. It filed from under the agitator which was pretty amazing. This first model had the large dome in the lid to provide air to introduce into the tub at the end of the cycle to break the vacuum. There was a little red button in the gray plastic lid handle that you pressed to move the little disc in the belly button of the dome. Later models had shallower domes because they were not needed to store the air to break the vacuum. Bendix came up with a valve in the fill system to do that automatically at the end of the cycle. To make a good seal, the lady plucked a wash cloth out of the surging water and used it to wipe around the circumference of the dome then the lid was pushed down. They let me open it to see the rinse fill with all of the fabrics plastered against the agitator. After it was done, I got to press the button to release the vacuum and the load was tossed into the Bendix dryer.

When plans were announced for the orbiting space station in the 1980s, there was some brief description about the laundry facilities. The laundry was to be squeezed dry by inflating a heavy balloon within the washer since there could be no vibration which spinning would cause. It was ironic that the Economats and the semi-automatic Dial-A-Mats were allowed in multilevel apartment houses because they did not produce vibrations from spinning back in the late 1940s.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

And here you go!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

That looks like a Busby Berkeley Pudenda Extravaganza.

 

[launderess]

Squeeze Dry

Modern tunnel washers use the same method. Only via a huge cylinder.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thanks, Launderess

I like the smash-dried wash load, but I was surprised at how fast the disc fell apart in the tumbler. There just looks like so much equipment, both mechanical and computer, to go down and stop the whole process to say nothing of the cost of the system. I understand that there are even mechanical folding machines that can be added at the end of the line.

When I worked at the hospital in the summer of 1968, there were already plans for the huge addition and the new laundry would have a clean room and another room where the soiled linens were loaded because having soiled linens in the same room with the clean linens no longer met National Sanitation Foundation standards.

 

[launderess]

Mechanical folding and bundling.

Yes, there are such machines and thank goodness. Otherwise things must be fed manually into the ironers, caught when they emerge then folded, stacked and bundled.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/patricia-foster-st-francis-hospital-mangler/

vs. this:


No, soiled linens are *NOT* supposed to come into contact or even near soiled. In the best of laundries soiled linen moves one way while clean air goes the opposite. This even where laundries use barrier washing machines (washers built into walls):

Some in Europe have been pushing to make barrier washers the standard for healthcare laundries. Laundries OTOH want the option to be flexible. Barrier washers are expensive to install and once in aren't going anywhere anytime soon nor easily. If the laundry does not own the space and or whatever it can be an expensive or even impossible undertaking. I mean if the lease on space states anything "built into" the walls and or floors becomes the LL's property, there goes installing barrier washing machines.

As for tunnel washing systems a laundry really has to have the volume to keep the things working 24/7 or at least a good amount of the time. Otherwise all that expensive equipment is just sitting there costing money and not generating income.