My first vintage ironer

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turquoisedude

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Well, I must admit that I was never quite sure what I would do with one, but when Phil and I were in Boston last week, this ABC Deluxe ironer jumped on the truck and begged us to take it back to Ogden... Well, we did.

I felt compelled to save this one because it's in great shape and the fact that it's an ABC (and that I have actually visited Peoria...)

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Control lever. Sounds kind of ominous...

I know absolutely zilch about ironers or how to use them, so when I get this one humming again, I'll be asking for advice and techniques on how to use on these!

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Hide-Away controls! Very advanced...

I was fortunate enough to obtain the Kelvinator version of the manual for this machine, which I guess would have been printed after ABC sold their business to Kelvinator. Would anyone know what year that would have been?

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Seal has no other meaning than PR and marketing. Something to make the new owner feel she was joining some exclusive club or some such.

Heating power:

Yes, these old ironers pulled allot of power for their day from a 115v/120v circut. Doubt if it would pass code today but was required then in order to generate the heating power for dealing with all those heavy cotton and linen "linens". Greater heating capacity also allows for faster recovery and keeping of temperature is it drops upon the shoe's contact with wet/cool laundry.

Since domestic ironers have only one rolller it is important to dry and iron the item if possible in one pass. If this doesn't happen you end up with crumpled work and poor results. If the ironer cannot dry/iron in one pass the thing must be sent through over and sometimes over again until it is done.

Owner's manuals for these domestic ironers then and now direct Madame or whomever is going to be doing the work that laundry should be drier than what is normal for hand ironing. The greater pressure and heat of the ironer worked to give equal or better results. What counted was the bit of moisture trapped between layers or in fabric that would turn to steam upon contact with the heated shoe.
 
Lilly Tomlin used to say "I was an impulse shopper, thee worst kind. I would buy anything on the shelf at eye-level." With me it's anything that says "De Luxe" on the front, epsecially in chrome lettering like that ironer. Times change and I guess "de luxe" is now "premium" or something similar...not nearly as much class.

"I would even buy fresh bread and day-old bread the same day I was just not using good sense"

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ABC Ironer

Warranty my A.. you never even paid for it Jon, + warranties do not transfer to Canada. This was the ironer that I bought at the Carlyle Pa. Chrysler in early July last summer. It was 100 degrees in the shade and we put that ironer in the back of my 1986 Chrysler turbo limousine and transported it back to the camp site and brought it back in Smitties motor home, it is a beast to move.

 

Paul be sure that you got the leather upholstered steel chair that comes with this great machine. Yes it does need a mechanical repair, hopefully you could get the very talented Phil R to help fix it since Jon couldn't do it.
 
 

 

YAY PAUL!   

 

Now, once you get it working again, you'll need to make a video of you actually USING it so the rest of us "not in the know" can see how it's supposed to work!

 

CONGRATS!

Kevin

 
 
oscillate feature

Whoah, this is a fantastic machine, congratulations! (I love ironers anyway, but this one is really something).

What is behind the little door on the front side of the right-hand "standpost"?

Oscillate: I can only guess, but when it is what I think, then ABC did a marvellous job making it automatic:

Just recently I've even learned how to iron more "complicated" items on a roller-type ironer (such as shirts, pants, jackets.)
Quite a few of these are made of darker fabrics that cannot stand excess heat (they get somewhat shiny or "shimmering" from that). (You can iron them easily when you put a wet thin cotton sheet onto them, ironing this all along the way). When done you need to soak it in water again, wring and reuse the same way. Quite tedious, all your saving time is gone.

All in all it just means "steaming" those darker garments. (But you need the full heat to produce the steam).

Now what I do is this: I dry those pants only to a point as to contain enough moisture to produce some steam. Fold the front crease, step on pedal halfway down (shoe will press), release. Repeat with back crease, release. Now that the main creases are made and to iron the remaining "side surface" of that leg, I put it in at the very bottom, 1 cm peeping out under the shoe and the rest hanging down in back of the roller. Then: Press down, release, pull a handwidth, press, release, pull, press... etc, all the way up to the upper part of the pants which were ironed before.

If I was ironing the fabric in some gliding motion (as would be the case with a contiously running roller), the dark color would get shiny. But with press, pull, press, pull I get a perfect steaming job keeping the colors all dark as they should be. (To be on the safe side not to start the roller motor, I select no speed = off.)

It might be that the ABC corp. had automated this job. What a great idea!
But I am just guessing.

Maybe this on-off motion is just a short in the wiring... (I hope it is NOT)
 
How common are the Maytag versions of these mangles?  I just saw one with the 1950's red logo on white/gold today at Salvation Army, ridiculously over-priced, of course.
 
Maytag Ironers

Pop up now and then, however there are several flavors.

Not sure if Maytag built any of their own ironers because the at least some model generations are exactly like those offered by Frigidare,Conlon, and GE who were the only ironers to come with 30" rollers. My Frigidare ironer is almost exactly the same as a Conlon version which makes me think GM got it from them. Even the patent numbers on the serial plate reference Conlon ironers.

Maytag also sourced ironers from the Ironrite company including a model that used natural gas for heating. Whooaaaa Nellie!
 

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