My brand new twin tub washing machine.

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Having used both a Maytag wringer washer and a Maytag A50 Twin Tub as my only washers years ago, I found them both no problem at all. Granted the wringer had a larger capacity, but that A50 would handle double bed blankets, quilts and bedspreads, and got them spotlessly clean too. The tub was full to capacity, but the double, reversing impellers efficiently moved the large items thru the water, and I did have to really push hard to get them into the spinner, but it worked out just fine.

If you use the same method of washing and rinsing with the A50 as with the wringer, washing whites first, following with light colors, and so on it really goes pretty quickly. Yes, it was a full hour of concentrated effort, but then the wash was DONE.

The only thing I did differently with the A50 as opposed to the wringer, was that with the wringer, I rinsed in the bath tub (I didn’t have a laundry tub), with the A50, I followed the owners manual instructions, and rinsed in the impeller side of the machine, in the same order as they loads were washed, allowing the rinse water from the spinner to drain into the kitchen sink, then topping of the rinse water with fresh water to replace what had been spun out in the load before. So, the rinse water wasn’t murky with detergent, and did a great job rinsing from the first load thru the last. But 4 loads were the max I would wash and rinse with one fill. This equaled two regular sized laundry baskets full, or a full weeks wash for two. The bed linens were done on a separate day, by themselves. To me this was a whole lot easier and less expensive than schlepping the laundry to a laundromat.

I suppose if a housewife was doing the wash for a family in a Twin Tub, she would have needed to either drain and refill at least once or twice to get a full weeks wash done in one day, and spend 2 or more hours to finish, or wash on more than one day a week. But it would still be less labor intensive than hauling heavy laundry to a laundromat, and then back home again, especially if she lived in an urban location with no car at her disposal. And it sure would be less work than using a wash board!

Eddie[this post was last edited: 7/20/2018-17:41]
 
rinsing in the spin can.

I used a twinnie as my main washer quite some years ago. There is a trick to getting better rinses from rinsing in the spin can:

Twinnies with auto rinse (Eg: Hoovermatic Deluxe) have a pressure switch connected to the spinner outer container. You add clothes to the spinner, spin them, then switch the control to auto rinse and turn on the hose to add water to the spin can. The spin can will be stationary as water slowly percolates down into the spin can, the spun clothes will be thirsty for water and will soak it up. Once the clothes are saturated, excess water will flow to the bottom of the outer spin container, and build up till the pressure switch senses the surplus water and switches on the spinner. Water will be spun out of the clothes, and get pumped away till the water level drops enough for the pressure switch to reset, whence the spinner will stop and the clothes will resume soaking up the water.
Note that during spinning, the water is still running over the spinning clothes, but it won't do much rinsing, it will get spun away almost instantly.

The big trick is to have the water running SLOWLY into the spinner. You should have it going in at a rate that it can be soaked up by the washing, if the tap is on too fast, the excess water will splash straight into the outer spin container and trigger the pressure switch too soon, before the washing has soaked up much clean water.

Having the water running in too fast also loads up the motor, as it is trying to spin out water in the clothes, spin away new water coming in, and pump away accumulated water below the spin can. If water is coming in too fast, it builds up too high and starts to drag severely on the spinning can.

My earliest laundry memories as a kid was doing washing for our family of 5 in a Hoover twinnie. I don't know how young I was doing the washing, maybe 5 or 6? It wasn't a chore, I loved it! That machine wasn't a Deluxe, so manual rinsing only.
 
Age 5 or 6 ...

Doing the washing?! Ohhh, slave labour! LOL

The problem with the twintub 'spin-a-rinse' feature was that babies nappies did not get rinsed properly. Residue detergent caused terrible rashes.

The automatics of the day (1960s) apparently rinsed very well, but were perceived by some housewives (mum and both grannies) to not wash as cleanly as twintubs; this was probably as much due to early detergent formulations being a little lacklustre.

Twintubs certainly had the edge in terms of spin efficiency, which was vital in our usually damp UK climate.

However, by the time mum got her first automatic - a frontloader - in 1980, spin speeds had become much more sensible, and detergents improved too.
 

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