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mixfinder

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May 1, 2006
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In deference to the funniest man of all wringing washer's, Mickey D, I am renaming the continuing thread of Church Lady (gansky1) wringer washer.

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Terry and I

At the request of (Northwesty) I found a bucket, some dish soap and a terry towel to wipe the face of this dear 58 year old soul. If you look into the folds under her oversize wringer you can see where I missed a few spots.
I was hoping for a warmer day but as the wind blew and it hovered in the 30's I contented myself with doing a minor water test. The machine holds water, the wringer works great and while the agitator moves freely there wasn't enough water to perform a load test. Like every Kenmore wringer washer I have ever encountered used, the pump is seized. Tomorrow I'll try to lay the old dear on her back and get a hose job, I mean remove the pump. Some mineral build up, pitting of the pump housing and seized pump shaft bushing are waiting for me I am sure. Next week is predicted to be in the 60's and I need to get a real bucket to carry hot water from the kitchen sink to fill the machine. We have a boiler in the garage designed to provide both heat and domestic hot water yet I couldn't locate a drain faucet to attach the hose. For the hot water it's just like the days of my childhood, after heating water on the wood range we carried the hot water by buckets to the washing machine. At least the water it will be hot. I am excited to be able to use bleach on sheets and towels since the machine won't be draining into the septic system.

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What a pretty Lady!

I'm sure you'll have no trouble getting your pump back on line, and I;d love to see your eyebrows raise when you see how powerfully she pumps, just like the Mighty Maytag. I've raced them, and it's always a draw.

I see your Visimatic was made prior to the Ninga Borgean Forcean Vulcan Mind Meld bend in chrome feed trays.

Oh well, Kell, ya can't have everything!
 
YOUR TIMER

is advanced with fingertips rather than a grip. It's like the one on the GE AW 6. How cool. I noticed in your other thread in the close-up shot: half the timer is embedded. You can see it here too. "Let your fingers do the walking....." lalalala la la la.
 
The Day Of Reckoning

The pump was easy to fix. It turned by hand and after cleaning and some oil on the shaft it pumps mightily. Next came the water test after reattaching the pump.

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Holy Sheet

First up a set of king size 800 thread count sheets and pillowcases in hot water with Tide.

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Cooler and Bigger

Lost some more of the hot wash and added cool to fill the washer. A little more Tide and it was time for colors. The machine did well but the oddity was that all the Nike sportswear and poly blend underwear stuck to the rollers like Velcro and needed to be peeled off before double wrapping the roller. I would normally use the machine for towels and linens and do wearables in the automatic but this was a photo op.

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Outside

I would love to have a basement and be able to use the wringer and automatic in tandem. I have never perfected splash free wringer washing so a concrete surface would be nice to have. Today was our first "warm" day and it hit 60 so it felt good to open the house and wash in the garage.

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Just look at all that room in that great big tub!!!

How beautiful. I'm so happy the pump came back to life so easily. You know Kelly, for sheets and towels, conventional is the way to go. Nothing gets squished or bunched in the tub; there is just so much more room in the conventional tubs than in the automatics.

Ummmmm, nothing gets squished, that is, until the Wringingue, and then, Oh my Lord in Heaven! ;'D

Such satisfying shots. Thank you.
 
Great pictures Kelly.  Thanks for posting.  Looking forward to wringer washing when our weather gets better.  

 

Question - do you find that laundry completed in the wringer washer take longer to dry?  Curious?  Mine seems to.  Sometimes I put the finished load from the wringer into the automatic to spin for better water removal.  I always like to learn more about various processes, and many of your threads serve also as tutorials that have been quite educational.

 

Thanks

John
 
Longer?

I always spin them in the washer before adding them to the dryer. Besides taking longer to dry the added weight of the wetter fabric is hard on the dryer. Before we had an automatic as a kid, my mom used to blow through a dryer every 3 years drying all the laundry for 7. She didn't hang anything after she had her first dryer. She'd still be drying 2 days after the wash day.
 
Thanks

Agreed, as my experience has always been.  Can't recall where, but was surprised to read of someone's thought that the wringer did better removing water than the spin process, as mine never has.  Especially effective, the Frigidaire 1-18 seems to spin loads more effectively than the Kenmores.  My Grandmother used a Norge wringer washer - did her laundry early in the day - line dried and some items weren't dry until late afternoon - quilts, heavy towels, etc...   Of course it didn't help that she had a shaded back yard. 
 
Wringers always lost the contest in water removal expect for some of the combos and early Bendis.

Up here, many people did the double or triple wring before drying either on the line or in the dryer. You can enjoy watching how much water comes down the tray on the second wring, hankies and silk babushkas excluded.

Like you, I final spin else where, so water retention is moot.

Kelly, I had to smile when I realized you fill your Visi to the max just like you do your mixing bowls. How fun!
 
Wringing does take longer to dry

I timed it and compared to spinning in my front loader, drying clothes from the wringer alone takes about 25% longer to dry. This summer I going to put up an umbrella clothes line in my back yard. I saw them at Home Depot and Lowe's. In the low humidity Colorado air, I bet stuff still dries almost as fast as the dryer. Plus I don't really like putting them through a spin after the Maytag. Just seems to defeat the purpose of using the wringer over the automatic. But I don't disagree that from an energy usage standpoint that it does make sense, hence the clothesline solution. I do run them through the spin cycle currently myself from time to time.
 
Well I'll Be Double Dipped

I never thought of double wringing.  Are your knees weak when you go for seconds?
 
Cannot Recall Where One Read It

But IIRC wringers equal about 200rpms to 300rpms of extraction via spinning in a washing machine or spin dryer. This was the "best" with rollers set close enough to wring out as much water as possible without causing textile damage and or creases that would never come out even after ironing.

This all goes far to explain why housewives or anyone else doing laundry that relied upon wringers or mangles for removing water where advised to wash on days with crisp good weather that had a gentle breeze. When you consider often how much heavier linens and clothing were back in the day even then it probably took ages to dry mangled laundry, even on a really good day. Of course if weather didn't cooperate one could have all that wet dripping laundry hanging all over the kitchen/rest of the house.
 
Yes, and my biceps bulge, too!

If you're hanging out, it really doesn't matter if they're spun rather than wrung, because the clean laundry is usually out all day, so however much moisture there is/ was, it's all up in the air in the end, and the dry laundry is none the wiser;'D

At the other end of the retained moisture spectrum, when hanging a Unimatic load on a warm breezy day, some of the first items are actually dry by the time you get to end of the whole while load of clothes being hung.
 
True, true

But one of the other qualities of good extraction is it "pulls" laundry product residue and so forth out of textiles.

It is interesting watching rinse water drain from washing that appears clear only to become murky or froth laden as the spin portion begins. IMHO laundry is not properly rinsed until water extracted from the final spin is clear.
 
Simulposting

It would be fun to get the reference. I would have guessed that it's closer to 500, only because Visimatic loads feel just a bit heavier than 62 Lady K Auto loads. My guess could be well off. I'll bet a case of crisps you'll get the right weights and measures.
 
I use my wringer machines all of the time, but I must admit that I rinse in the automatics. Wring into a clothes basket and then put them in the automatic for rinsing and spinning. More water is extracted from spinning than from wringing. In the summer, I hang everything outside and in the winter I hang them in the basement. The dryer doesn't get much use. Gary
 
Interesting....

Launderess - that article was interesting and informative.  My how things have changed over the years as product developments have occurred. 

 

Kelly - this thread is great.   Thanks everyone.

 

John
 
The Big Gahoonas

Most of the Big Cheeses of the day are on full display in the article: the Easy Spin,* the Bendix, the AW 6, the E2LP, and the Speed Queen.

What a fascinating read. The 72% water weight measure for "excellent" wringing points us in the right direction for what we're trying to find out.

Interesting that research for the automatic was "round-the-clock." We learned elsewhere that the main hold up for Whirlpool was perfecting a system to re-use the wash water.

* Pretty sure it's the uber-elusive (only Darryl frontaloadotomy has one) bottom valve spray rinser.
 
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