I had a later version of these, less stylish than the pictured ones. The wash action is fantastic. The brochure shows a black/white photo of the paddle. It swings back and forth like a windscreen wiper. I gave my machine to a distant relative to use in a holiday house, when they moved permanently to that house they threw the machine out to a hard garbage collection! I am very keen to find another but had no luck.
The washing action is furious, the paddle has quite a wide swing and moves reasonably fast, the whole wash tub it moved vigorouslt all the time, there are no zones of slower moving water. The clothes are pushed to one side very vigorously, you'd expect water and clothes to be pushed right up and out of the tub but the paddle swings back just in time and pulls them back again. The opening in the top panel is smaller than the tub underneath so there is a lip around the top edge which helps keeps splashes in but it always threw a little water around in use.
The spin is fantastic too, 2800rpm huge induction motor, it accelerates from nothing to full speed in a second or so, the water blasts hard against the sides of the spinner drum, you really hear it.
Lightburn had fibreglass top panel, lids and wash tub, they were really known for the fibreglass. Surprisingly the outer spin drum was only galvanised sheet steel which rusts, so there aren't many left now. I repaired one once for an old lady who just loved it, but it had rusted out so I fibreglassed the base of the spinner.
There is no seal in the base of the spinner, just a collar about 4 inches high around the motor shaft and the base of the inner spin can covers it. It is easily possible to overfill the spinner and have water running over the motor, fortunately there is at least a steel deflector over the motor. Not a safe design in my book. The spinner brake is woeful too, a solenoid engages a leather belt around the spinner shaft when the lid is raised. The effect is marginal, it still takes ages to wind down.
Lightburn haven't made washers for many years but still make concrete mixers.
Lightburn also sold a very small car (the Zeta) but it was really dreadful and only sold a few hundred over about three years. They are highly sought after now by collectors and masochists. They also made a convertible, the Zeta Sports which was better but sold even fewer. The Zeta had no reverse gear, you had to stop the engine and re-start it with the engine running backwards (two-stroke) so it could go as fast backwards as forwards.
I have googled for over an hour bout can't find any more pix of a Lightburn washer but found this about the car...
Chris.
