Mangling/Wringing vs Spin Drying - Which Is Better At Extraction?

[launderess]

Was reading a website of a current maker of hand wringers, were they state that wringing laundry removes more water than spin drying, leaving items dryer.

Company is Lake City Wringers, and to be fair the seem to make mangles for use at car washes, beach/pool clubs etc, where mainly towels, bathing suits and such are wrung dry.

One does understand both wringing, mangling, and spin drying are all mainly methods of contraction, that is pressing/squeezing water from wet textiles. However cannot imagine even with rollers set very tight, that one pass though a mangle would remove more water than say a final high spin extraction cycle.

Perhaps the aforementioned company is comparing mangling to standard American top loading washing machines, which have very low final spin speeds?

L.

 

[2drumsallergy]

Dear Launderess,
Having used a Hoover single tub power wringer machine many years ago I found the wringer surprisingly good at extracting water from terry toweling, especially when the towel is folded and passed through the wringer a second time. However it was very poor and uneven with Denim Jeans and most Synthetic fabrics. I honestly don't think any wringer would extract more water than a good fast A grade spin, but it could possibly extract some water from towels washed in say a Whirlpool DD Top Loader. My 1996 Whirlpool DD Top Loader is a good machine but at 650RPM extraction leaves a lot to be desired.

David

 

[jons1077]

Hmm...

Sure do wish I had a wringer machine now! I'd be up for some good old fashioned testing. That sounds like a good wash-in game. Place bets and such... I need to get me a wringer.

Jon

 

[abcomatic]

Jon

HI, I did a big wash today in my ABC wringer. Blue jeans can be a problem. The legs are pretty dry but along the top, not so much. I passed them through a 2nd time and it was somewhat better. I would think that spin drying is better at water removal. Gary

 

[ptcruiser51]

I've been waiting for this!

Please don't flame me. I've wanted to ask and didn't know which forum to post in. Would some kind soul take a moment to explain how a wringer washer is used and solve that mystery for me?

My dear aunt who passed 20+ years ago had a 1940s Maytag, replaced by a new circa 1962 Maytag. I can recall wash days (Mondays always) when she would have the entire kitchen loaded with piles of separated loads.

Fill the machine with hot water using the hose from the Youngstown sink. First load was always nightgowns, underwear, bras and the like. Agitate awhile, stop. Then she would use a loooong wooden spoon to fish items out, run through wringer and drop into deep side of the sink to rinse by hand. Then run rinsed items thru wringer from where they would drop into a washbasket lined with an old plastic tablecloth. Next load: Sheets, add cup of bleach, agitate while she hung 1st load on the line.

Repeat the process above with the sheets, only this time adding something to the sink called "bull dog blue" which came in an ink-bottle kind of thing with perforations in the top. Wring out into the basket, go to hang, next load: Regular whites, towels, shirts.

Following were colored items like sport shirts or house dresses, last was always dark things: Pants, socks. My uncle was a bus driver, so his grey uniforms always were in this one.

She filled the sink with fresh water for each rinse, but never changed the water in the machine. From time to time she would pump out some of the water, since the machine would be overfilled with wrung-out rinsewater, but never the whole thing until she was done washing.

Each load digging around with that wooden spoon! After clothes were dry, LINT all over the dark load(s), removed with cellophane tape as they were ironed. Plus, after a period of time, all the dark stuff would slowly fade from leftover bleach used for the white stuff.

I thought in later years, it would have made sense to drain and refill the machine for a rinse cycle, then fill with fresh water for the next wash. However, I remember seeing on the detergent products my mom used in her automatic (Dash, Rinso, AD, etc.) the instruction: "For wringer machines, start with 1-1/2 cups of powder, add 1/2 cup for each additional load". So, apparently, the process was intentional to re-use the wash water for additonal washes.

My question (finally!): Was my Aunt's process the correct one? It just seemed so labor-intensive with that wooden spoon and putting hands into red-hot water, also seemingly not getting things really as clean as they should have been.

Thanx to anyone who'll take the time to comment!

 

[abcomatic]

Hi PT

Here is what I do. Fill the ABC washer with hot water. I have a "clothes stick" to fish the whites out from the washer. I start with sheets first. While the washer is washing the sheets, I fill the rinse tubs up with fresh water and put some bluing in the last rinse. I don't bleach all of the time, but when I do,I do all of the things that need to be bleached before I empty the machine and then re-fill with bleachless water and Tide.
Wring that load out; put in underwear next and start. Rinse the sheets in both tubs and then hang out on the line. Come back in(about 15 minutes of washing time) and wring out the underwear. I leave the lid off of the machine so the water does cool down for perm. press. In goes colored shirts and perm.press pants and dark socks. Rinse and hang out underwear.
When wringing out shirts, make sure the collar and buttons go through so that they are not bunched up or you could break the buttons and mess up the ends of the collar.
I change the rinse water if it gets real soapy. I put the perm. press items in the 1980 Maytag dryer. Towels go in last (colored towels that is) same steps and hang towels out.
When finished washing,empty machine and tubs. Take out adgitator and rinse that and the machine so that all of the soap and dirt are out of the machine. Do the same thing with the tubs. Leave adgitator out to dry and dry down machine. Leave the lid off so that the tub can dry.
You are now ready for another time of, as I call it:"playing in the water!" lol I hope this helps. Gary

 

[ptcruiser51]

Honest,, Gary.

I had totally forgotten about taking the agitator out and rinsing the machine. IIRC the tub was stainless and Aunt Mary did wipe it out with a washrag and let everything air-dry until suppertime. The machine sat in the kitchen with an embroidered scarf over it, and the breadbox on top.

She always did things in that order because the clothesline space was limited, sleepwear and sheets dried fast and could be removed for subsequent loads.

This whole process just struck me as odd because their landlord was generous and didn't fuss about water or hotwater use. It would have been no problem to run clean water each time.

Thanx for solving an age-old enigma for me!

BTW, my friends think >I'm< cuckoo because I occasionally have dampened shirts "marinating" in a plastic bag in the fridge until I have time to iron. These are the same ones who say, "your clothes always look so nice".

 

[launderess]

Whole purpose of using a winger washers was to plough though mountians of laundry, formerly done by hand or other means, very quickly.

Just as in the days when laundry was done by hand, not all households had unlimited supplies of running hot and cold water, thus the reuse of both wash and rinse water.

Soap was not inexpensive either, especially better brands. If one had to make due with homemade soap, well that usually had to last as well.

Persons of the period even if they were of means and or had access to unlimited hot and cold water, weren't like persons today, that is to say "wasteful". Why cuck out perfectly good heated soap and water when another load or two (or three or four), could be washed and or rinsed.

Today of course persons would say "ick" and "ewwwww", but since the wash water started out near boiling, and was kept pretty hot until darks came up for their turn, things weren't as so "dirty" as persons may think.

Also consider for some, by the time laundry had reached washing machine stage, it had been soaked once or perhaps twice to loosen and remove much of the muck. So that water counted as well.

If you scan the Internet, there are lots of postings from old timers who used wringer washing machines, marveling at all the palaver modern women put themselves through, trying to have an "automatic" wash with wringers and or wash tubs. That is using fresh water for each wash and or rinse. That essentially takes a practice that should take an hour or two, and stretches out.

Have to say when first got my Hoover twin tub, did the above, but soon got wise to myself and began to reuse wash and rinse waters.

 

[frigilux]

I don't understand why some are so averse to reusing wash water. As long as the first load isn't diapers, it really isn't a problem. My mom would often wash three loads---granted, none of them were heavily-soiled---using the same wash water (1960 Kenmore Model 80 w/ suds-saver), and our clothes were always very clean.

Most of the sediment falls to the bottom of the sink. She would set the washer to return the water, then rinse out the bottom of the sink. She would almost always add a bit more detergent to subsequent loads.

She conserved many thousands of gallons of water!

Have always wondered: Why no suds-savers for front-loaders? It would be simple enough, you'd think. Just load the clothes, set the dial for 'return' and away you'd go. Is there some mechanical reason why it wouldn't work?

 

[launderess]

Amount of water used by H-Axis washers is so small compared to other methods of washing laundry, seems hardly worth the effort to reuse water, IMHO.

Commercial laundries do however have advanced filtration systems that allow them to reuse wash and or rinse water from their washers, top and front loading.

Just did two loads of heavy towels and other bath linens in the Hoover twinne. Wanted to do a really hear boiling hot wash, while keeping the electric rates down,so poured a few kettles of boiling water into the tub as it filled with already quite hot water from the taps. Two hot rinses followed and now every thing is on the lines.

One can do towels this way as there isn't a huge risk of setting any stains by starting out with hot water. Have to say the Hoover does keep water quite hot, provided the lid is kept closed, and washing results were fine using one wash water for both loads.

 

[74simon]

Hey Laundress,

I've got both a Hoover power wringer and a twinnie, and the spinner on the twinnie wins hands down. The biggest issue with wringing is that uneven thickness items come through with uneven drying, and even after several passes, everything is much more damp than the spinner gets it.

A wringer does kinda make sense for garage/poolside applications etc, but there are a lot of disadvantages in domestic use. Wool and drip dry fabrics aren't meant to be wrung at all, buttons and fasteners can break, straps and cords can wrap themselves round the rollers and get ripped out, and feeding items through a wringer is tiresome compared to dumping them in the spinner and closing the lid.

I've got a copy of the 'Hoover Book of Home Management' from 1966, and this is what they reckon how much water as a percentage of the laundry's dry weight remains after using the various different methods:

Hand Wringing: approx 120%

Heavy Power Wringing: approx 105% (although Which? magazine put the Hoover at 131% and the Hotpoint Countess at 127%)

Spinning in a Twin Tub: approx 50-60%

Spinning in an automatic: 70-120% - The worst rated automatic I've seen mentioned was the Imperial Rex I think, which left 165% of the dry weight...

Si