The Fisher and Paykel is an ECS top loader. Later versions were sold as "Gentle Annie". These are a really high quality machine, in my opinion more robust than the later Smart Drive machines. My mother has one, I also have a couple for spares. If someone in the UK buys one, I am happy to send parts if needed, though they are VERY reliable machines. Mum's has just had a new tub-to-pump hose fitted.
Technologically - F&P used to assemble the Hotpoint UK top loader under license for the NZ market. They decided to develop their own machine, this was the result. It uses a belt drive from a three phase electronically controlled motor, to a pulley on the agitator shaft. The motor reverses very fast to give a good agitator action. The motor is made in the USA by General Electric.
The "simple but clever" part - The spin shaft has its own pulley just above the agitator pulley. There is no belt on the spin pulley. Each pulley has a finger on it, the two fingers will touch when the pulleys are in alignment. The spin shaft connects to nothing else, there is no brake so the tub is free to turn. To wash, the motor turns back and forth fast, never turning more than about 3/4 of a turn at the agitator. So the fingers never meet, or only touch lightly. To spin, the motor turns fast in one direction. The fingers touch and the spin pulley is driven round by the agitator pulley. It is amazingly simple, no transmission at all, just a shaft within a shaft. It is beautifully made, I have never seen one with leaky shafts or bearings.
The electronics is more bulky than in Smart Drives, there is a full board behind the control panel, and another sheelmetal box full of electronics in the base of the machine.
These machines cost AU$1000 new in about 1990, a new Smart Drive can be bought today from about AU$500.
So, somebody buy the thing.
Chris.
