...The name confusion is maybe due to this being someone who's old enough to remember the RCA Whirlpool commercials - we're all well aware of how long a commercial can stay in your head.
As far as the missing agitator goes - well, I think you might find out a lot more about how that could happen when you saw the house...
RCA was a badge used by GE for appliances in the 80's or most- likely the 90's. The machines looked exactly like (and were engineered as) GEs or Hotpoints, save for the control panels.
The RCA building was renamed the General Electric buildng (or was it the GE building?)[in Manhattan] at around the same time.
There was a common parent company or some such thing. This was the era when corporate buy-outs and hostile take-overs were in fashion in this country.
Could it have had the handwash agitator like the Hotpoints? I would like to think this was the situation, as I don't like to think anyone could be that stupid.
Bobby in Boston
I am watching the Dark Secret of Harvest Home. I'm a little "out of the weather" (if you know what I mean!) But, why did she take out the agitator? To wash a blanket? What would make the splish/splash?
You may be right, Bobby. My parents bought a washer & dryer branded RCA (GE/Hotpoint) in the mid-90's for their new retirement home but it didn't have the Handwash system. This one may have, I don't recall any dealers in this area that sold them so I don't know if RCA got the Handwash action or not.
Even if this was the case, the comforter probably came out as clean as the top of that washer - but wet and smelling like bananas is enough to qualify for "clean" now anyway!
THat is a Hotpoint designed washer with the removable hand wash agitator. The dope lost it?? How do you lose a damned agitator? Maybe she eventually found it under her bed???
I've seen on one of the owners manuals here, I just can't remember which one, that removing the agitator was recommended for washing large comforters or blankets, not sure though if it had the smaller one underneath. I'll look around to see if I can find it.
--top loading washers were the only ones I ever saw that had the Hand Wash Agitators.If this RCA washer had one,it was probably purchased at a second hand store that took a hand wash agitator off a Hotpoint to replace the original Activator swirled agitator on the RCA.That would be more conceivable as to explaining anyone's reasoning behind removing an agitator to wash a blanket or comforter.Otherwise,how in the heck would it get clean???
The handwash agitator was underneath the regular agitator, so you would remove the regular agitator to get the handwash effect. If I remember, the handwash agitator had very thin vanes that reduced turnover substantially. The RCA washers were, for at least some of their run, Hotpoint designs, not just GE designs, similar to the JCPenney washer.