Late 60's Kelvinator and Canadian Viking Washers

[bobbins]

Yes I remember those 1960's Viking Franklin washers made with non-indexing tubs. Great machines and I agree about the agitator design was not great for washing. They had huge capacity (much more than the GE 18 lbs).

In the 1970's up to early 2000 - Viking washers and Dryers were made by GE. They were mainly the 18lbs capacity with a filter flow. In the 1970's and 80's, the only real difference between GE and Viking was the lid hinge (design like the Hotpoint).

However, their dishwashers were maybe by WCI - What a piece of crap...when they worked they were ok....but the pumps always leaked, drain solenoids burn out, drain springs seem to caused a lot of grief too. (The Viking dishwashers were similar to the Westinghouse dishwashers - both worked opposite to the GE's dishwasher - where the solenoid stays activated during the whole wash cycle and deactivates during the drain). This puts a lot of strain on the solenoid and spring. In the 1980's Eaton's Viking dishwashers were manufactured by GE.

Bob

 

[ingliscanada]

Franklin or Another Company?

I wonder if the non-indexing tub Vikings with tub brake was actually built by Franklin, or another company. I saw a post of this a year or two back, and the washer actually resembled a Maytag. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Gary

 

[roto204]

Hi Harry

Thanks for the pics Roto204, did you save any parts of your Kelvinator?

No, nothing was saved.

What cause the final break down...weren't able to replace or repair the part?

It was stuck at the curb because we wanted something else to play with, and had no idea at the time how rare these are . In all fairness, though, it was so BOL that many a time was spent filling the tub with warm water at the 12-minute mark, and then spinning the timer back around to the 14-minute segment otherwise assigned to "hot."

What washer that you own with the largest capacity could you compare the Kelvinator to in similar tub size (TALL and WIDE)?

Hard to compare--like a thinner Norge. Not very deep--very similar to a ramped Westinghouse tub.

 

[scrubflex]

How about compared to a 'deep tub' 806 or 712 Maytag washer?

Is that a late 60's, early 70's Westinghouse washer tub? Or, the 80's washtub, which are small capacities.

I would really love to see the wash action of the later 'angel wing' finned agitator...I believe the agitator base size is larger which is why the turnover is much better.

If you cut out ' 5" flexing slits' in the lower 5 vanes, it will increase the rollover ability 50% stronger.

 

[macboy91si]

Speed Queen and "Imperial" Twin Tubs

The Speed Queen is actually a British design from the Servis company. Made here, but is essentially a 110v Servis SuperTwin sans heater.

The other twin-tub is a Japanese unit that was also sold under the Toshiba name, it was an "automatic" twin tub with some interesting features like overflow rinsing in the wash tub. It could use more water than any automatic in it's "automatic" cycle. This design is sort of still around in the Danby DTT-420 still sold today, just look at the wash tubs and the pump setups are the same to allow water to enter the pump from a chamber in the right-rear corner of the tub.

-Tim