June 11 2024 POD Tide Detergent Ad with GE Washer

[appnut]

This was the washer that replaced our Bendix front loader because I woudln't leave it alone and kept opening the door while it was running. Ours looked ezxactly like this one except it didn't have the word Filter Flo on the metal trim on the top front of the cabinet. Our model didn't have the Filter-Flo system. Otherwise the same looking machine. This washer stayed around until it was replaced with the Norge15 Dispense-O-Mat TOL model December 1963.

 

[seedub]

Bob, did y'all have the dryer to go with? Also, was any part of that control panel - particularly the timer dial - lighted?

--Chris

 

[appnut]

Chris, no we didn't have the matching dryer. All clothes dryers my parents had were natural gas heaed. the dryer we had with the washer was a very basic Norge Timeline dryer.

The timer dial rotated. AT that position in the picture, the dial said "off". At that posisition there was a little plastic green colored bezel that a little back light shone through. As the timer dial rotated, that little area lighted that little portion of the dial as it rotated. In that area where the bezel was backlit, was a little vertical red line that was for the specific slection on the timer dial you wanted to set it to.

 

[ea56]

My maternal grandparents moved in to a brand new track home in Pinole, Calif. in 1955 that was equipped with an all electric GE kitchen which included a GE Washer/Dryer combo right next to the DW. The builders replaced my grandparents and all their neighbors combos with a GE Filter Flow Washer and Dryer just like in the POD for each of these homes because of problems with the combos that all the owners were unhappy with. Curiously they only removed the “guts” from these combos and left the front of these machines in the kitchen cabinets next to the DW.

Of course every time we visited I made a bee line to the kitchen to fool around with the phantom GE combo controls. It was turquoise just like the DW, built in oven and stove top.

My grand parents used the replacement GE FF set until ‘64 when they downsized and moved into a brand new New Moon mobile home in Hayward, Calif.

Eddie

 

[bajaespuma]

OK Bob, now I'm very curious

Can you post a picture or a facsimile of this machine?

 

[appnut]

Ken I've gone through everything I'd downloaded and looked through Ephemera. There's nothing of what I've downloaded and whwt's in Ephemera that has a 1955 GE without Fflo. 1953 & 1954 had the old style GE control panel that had a timer control knob and matching water temp knob with the water saver horizontal toggle in between. Friends from church at the new house had matching 1953/1954 GE washer & dryer from that control panel design. They lived at the complete other end of the block. That would be about 1963 or 1964 when I met that family and I was so impressed they had a matching set and an electric dryer to boot. I just remembered this family also had Waste King appliances in their kitchen, but the dishwasher was the less expensive model to ours because there were no cycle buttons.

At the old house, friends from church had their washer & dryer in the kitchen. They had the exact same GE washer we did but they had a Hamilton gas dryer. [this post was last edited: 6/14/2024-01:07]

 

[bajaespuma]

Was it one of these?

 

[appnut]

No, that was the 1953/1954 GE. The neighbors at the other end of the street I referred to had the washer you showed as well as the matching dryer. I didn't save this POD that started the discussion, but it had it had the timer dial right at the center or just right of the center and to the right of that were the 4 dark turquoise buttons for off, warm, hot, and water saver to force agitation to begin before the full fill water level. I'd hoped you had nnoticed the control panel from this POD as it was only for 1955 & 1956 model years. I found in archives Jetcone's 1956 GE FilterFlo like he had as a child. It's in a thread Your First Automatic Washing Machine. You will have to scroll down until Jetcone's post and it has the exact washer and control panel. As I have said, our GEe looked exactly like Jetcones, but it had no Filter Flo mechanism. After finding the exiastence of Jon's washer I mentioned this to my dad that ours didn't have the filter flo systme but looked exactly like it otherwise. My dad's response was it most likely a less expensive model. They were so desperate to get rid of the Bwendix because of me crawling out to the garage where the washer was and opening the door while it was running. I was so premature I didn't begin walking until I eas between 2 & 2.5 years old.

Also, go to Jon's youtube channel (jetcone) and you can see the video of his 1955 GE Combo that utilizes the exact same control panel style.

Your first Automatic Washing machine

It would be nice to know either your first memory of or your actual first fully automatic washing machine. the first one my mum owned was in 1971 & it was a Philips with the soap powder dispenser at the top. It lasted till 1989 where my great aunt owned it. A lack of programmer units had seen it...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[glhturbo2]

1955 Filter-Flo

Hello All,

This is some pictures of the 1955 Filter-Flo. Bob O'Rear (Frigidaireguy) was kind enough to give this machine to me recently. Many thanks to him. I am building up a supply of parts to give it a proper restoration. This machine has the earlier generation two-belt design and spins north of 900rpm. Bob's (appnnut) machine was slightly different but this should be close enough for reference photos.I do have the activator and a filter pan. This machine is currently taken apart as I restore it.

Thank You

-Tyler

 

[appnut]

Tyler, thank you for posting the pic. The bottons and backface of the timer are black rather than turquoise. There's got to be a significance for that. Jetcone's 1955 GE Combo buttons are black.

 

[DADoES]

 
Does this help?  It's a Filter-Flo but appears to be the correct color scheme for the timer and buttons.  Cut-and-edited from a full PotD so hopefully doesn't violate the rule on reposting.

 

[Unimatic1140]

The 1955 models had black buttons and activator cap with a light gray filter-mount and filter-flo flume. In 1956 they went to a black cap but turquoise greenish buttons and flume/mount.

 

[appnut]

Robert, thank you for the clarification of the difference of button/flume color between 1955 & 1956. Fits inlne with timeline of model years and my parents desperation to get rid of the Bendix to remove my tempation of crawling out to the garage and opening the Bendix door and water flowing out of the garage and down the driveway. Which is part of my site membership early days lore neighbors knew I'd gotten to the Bendix once again.

 

[combo52]

1955 GE washer

Hi Tyler, thanks for posting your pictures, I’m on the lookout for some of the parts you were looking for for this machine.

I always assumed when you looked at the belt ratios that this machine would spin north of 900 RPMs
But apparently I am wrong and it spins more normal. 600 RPMs, the belt with a smaller pulleys, apparently drives the gears for the Agitation.

Robert pointed this out to me because I had one of these machines a year earlier and I thought that it would be a super fast spinner but it turned out to be just a normal like later GE, it’s a shame since they were using 2 Different Dr. belts, it would’ve been easy for them to make this machine spin faster.

The first GE combo with the black buttons that Jon got and repaired is now living at the museum in Beltsville, which now houses the largest collection of early washer dryer combinations in the world.

John