Made in Deutschland, German washer pic thread

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Zanker Thermat 45E... It's worth a trip to Germany to buy one of these...!! Especially when my Zanker 502TS is crying, because she dont have a Zanker dryer on the top of her! :D

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Wow! I can't say enough about European machines, both vintage and modern! Louis, what kind of cycle selections did that pushbutton Constructa have? I have never seen so many choices!!

Fredricksam: How old is that "super super old Constructa"?

I thought only Hoover had a keymatic type control. Was there anyone else besides Hoover and (now) Bosch that used this type of keymatic system?

Envious of those great vintage Euro washers -
V.
 
My Miele W423

This is my W423 from 1978 that I found at a recycling centre. It gave me 12 months trouble free washing until the timer failed.

I can get a new timer from Miele and probably will, but I'm baulking at the $450 pricetag.

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W423 Dispensors

Left is pre wash, middle is softener and right is mainwash.

The prewash dispensor dumps the detergent straight into the sump of the machine.

The manual reccomends that you add the prewash detergent after the machine starts to fill.

I wrote to Miele in the DE to ask for a manual, they posted one out at a cost to them of 18euros for free.

The machine does a 60degC cottons cycle in about 70 minutes. Its cold fill and fills to the bottom of the door, so it does very well to heat and get through a cycle that quickly.

The standard for appliances in AU is 10amp 240v, this machine is 13.5Amp 240v and back in the 70's would've cost and arm and a let to have the wiring installed.

These days all circuits are 20amp, and its just a matter of having a 15amp style powerpoint installed.

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The washer and dryer in a stack

Unfortunately the matching dryer T337K (K = Condensor) is to expensive to repair, and uses 80L of water per dry cycle.

All of the rubber components inside have perished badly, and with a miele price of about $70 per hose, it was too expensive to repair.

The washer is installed up at Michaels mothers and sits next to her new Miele FL.

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That very old Constructa in the picture i uploaded is from 1959 or older, and they needed to be bolted down. Or else.....

On the subject of Keymatics. Zanker had one machine from 1964 that had a similar thing. It kinda looked like a small record and you placed it in a "reader" The "reader" was placed beside the detergent dispenser. The machine had a drop down door, like that cool Aeg Regina. Unfortenly i have no pictures on this washer
 
Venus,

I'm not sure about the cycles on that pushbutton Constructa. But the amount of pushbuttons comes close to what average washers of that time would have. And probably a few buttons for options like a prewash. Normal programmes would be 100*C (boil wash!), 60*C and 40*C cottons, 60*C and 40*C permanent press, a few delicate cycles, one or two wool cycles, drain, drain and spin, perhaps a rinse cycle.

Jon,

I think Fredrik is right about the age of the old Constructa. It was a fully automatic machine. I love the Miele backsplash machines, a schoolfriend's mother had the washing machine (not the dryer). She was so proud of that machine!

Fredrik,

I'm not sure if this is Kai's machine. He has a similar one, but I don't remember where I got this picture.

I didn't know about the problems with these Miele toploaders. I knew somebody who had one like that and it worked for many years without a single repair. Are you sure it was with this series? I thought the later ones with the control panel at the back were a bit problematic. Here's a picture of that series.

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Baukneckt quality

Hi Louis

Sorry to hear you had a such a bad experience with your Bauknecht. Ours was good until my sister put an underwired bra in the machine and the wire went into the outer drum. I couldn't get the machine back together again properly and it rattled on spin after that.

Thanks to you Louis and and others for their great pics, keep them coming. I attach pic of my AEG (Zanussi really)

Calling Tom from Norway, do you have a pic of your youtube Zanker?

Rob

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