Lucky Day in the Rain -- AND ! -- Whose Worse : Surgio or Super Roto ?

[mickeyd]

It's pouring here, which means chore time, and the dead bug gunk stuck in the bottom of the Lady K Dial was ....... well, I'd had enough. But how to get the dial off?  It won't pull, it won't turn without everything turning, and old guys NEVER want to break anything, so what should I do, call FEMA? 

 

The Great Spirit of rain & wind came unto me. With the dial in the locked position,  if you turn it counterclockwise, wow, easy as winding a watch.  Then just two little phillip's heads, and boom  -- off !

I'll spare you the crud and just show the pretty after shot.

[this post was last edited: 6/8/2014-16:26]

 

[mickeyd]

With the agitator out and the Mark XII nearby stewing because I broke part of his fill valve, I decided to test the power of the two famous agitators: the Surgilator and the Super Roto Swirl.  Up front admission of bias toward Sergi. Here he is. The opposing and alternating curves confuse the water and equalize the chaos, and make the water furious.

 

[mickeyd]

The S Roto's curves all move in the same direction with the ends of the fins sticking straight out. I stuck my hands down and under  several times with both agitators and had to admit that the suction of the currents was stronger with S Roto but quicker with Sergio, leaving him a bit gentler on clothing.  Used his cap for both tests.

 

[hippiedoll]

oh what splashy fun!!!

and that control panel looks BEAUTIFUL!!!

i LOVE it!!!

thank you for sharing those pictures....

)

 

[mickeyd]

All for you, Gorgeous ! Here's the rest.

I was attempting to install another quick connect so that Mark would have both hot and cold to do summer laundry on the deck. I needed an easy way to disconnect the hot water hose each day because the hot water would be coming from the garage, and in order to close the back door at night the hose would have to be out of the way of the door slam.  Here's the old cold one from last year. Worked great, even though I didn't need to disconnect because it ran off an outdoor cold tap.

 

[mickeyd]

It ain't all roses, friends !

There was a rubber gasket over the attaching part, which I had removed for last year's cold water installation, but forgot to this year, squeezing too tight and breaking  part of the valve.  Miraculously, with pressing a few of the cycle buttons, the valve still works, gushing out the broken side only if I select Cold Water Wash Cycle. How I love Whirlpool's genius.

 

[mickeyd]

Close up of the Damage:

The rubber gasket I should have taken off so I could see what I was doing, the crushed hot fill valve, the sediment filtering screen, and you can even see the piece of the valve stuck in the quick connect.  When I was doing this the other day, I got so excited and was  moving so fast,  I wasn't careful.  Haste indeed makes waste, but as e. e. cummings famously said: "Nobody loses all the time." ;'D  

This one's for you, Wonderful Paul Turquoisedude.

 

[mickeyd]

One might say, "You don't know your  own strength."  Others have encouraged me to get inside a Unimatic mechanism or the drying components of a GE 66 Combo. 

In what Universe would that go smoothly? LOL

 

 

[mickeyd]

Close-ups of the Business Ends

 

[mickeyd]

S Roto's base is a quarter inch wider than Sergio's

And he fits in nicely. Fun on a rainy day. Hope you had some, too.  Thanks for tuning in.

 

[hippiedoll]

question........

that knubby agitator cap, why exactly is the agitator cap knubby like that?? i think i've read it say something about scrubber on it. but did people actually pull an article of clothing that had a stain on it, out of the agitating water, to hold up against this knubby agitator cap, to scrub on the stain??? or am i imagining this all wrong here???

 

[mickeyd]

You're exactly right on both counts: the nubbies are for scrubbing collars, cuffs, stains, etc. And you could use it while the agitator was in motion or not. And you could pull an item out and do it, or do it as you loaded. The cap was also available on the conventionals or wringers.  Guessing many here might have tried it once or twice just for the novelty and to actually USE every available gadget on any washer which we all like to do, but whether or not non-washer people ever did it is up for grabs. 

 

For me, it looks and feels appealing and have tickled my inner wrists a time or two and let the nubs massage my hands, but I honestly can't remember if I ever used it on a stain, which doesn't mean I didn't, (smile).

 

[hippiedoll]

thanks for the reply

& confirmation mickeyd.

i personally have never seen or used a washer that had a knubby agitator top. i've only seen them in pictures, here in this group, that i can rememeber. are they "rubber" knubs? or more of a hard "plastic" knubs??

 

[mickeyd]

Hi Christina

 

 

They're rubber nubs, firm but flexible.  Have heard that with time they can get hard,  then brittle. I make sure mine get a nice dosing of washing liquors & rinse water to keep them supple.  

This  one on the Visimatic is a highly prized  gift from John Coldspot66 that saved the Rotoflex from being headless. 

 

[DADoES]

 
The scrubber caps can and do deteriorate over time, to a sticky/tacky condition with the nubs breaking off.  My aunt with the late 60s Kenmore 800 eventually had the rubber taken cover off, leaving a white translucent plastic agitator cap that was beneath.

 

[hippiedoll]

ahhhh....

thank you both mickeyd & dadoes for the description & explanation of deterioration in both the rubber either turning hard & brittle and also sticky & tacky. i wonder what makes the rubber cap deteriorate in one way or the other??

i am guessing that when it gets hard & brittle, that the rubber cap has become dried out. but i wonder what would make it turn sticky & tacky???
hmmmmmmm???

/

 

[cornutt]

Sticky & Tacky

My guess would be exposure to laundry chemicals, particularly chlorine bleach. I could see that breaking down the vulcanizing.

And yes, I can remember my mom using the scrubber on shirt collars.

 

[washerlover]

And Wards Signature washer agitators also had a scrubber, but not a rubber cap, it was stronger plastic that was more ribbed that nubs...is this acceptable verbiage for this website?

 

[hippiedoll]

sounds good to me!!!

washerman, i knew what you were saying.
hm hm hm.....

;o)