Pause Between Cycles

[washerlover]

Am wondering how many manufacturers had the (up to one-minute) pause between agitation and spin.

It seems most did other than Whirlpool/Kenmore, Speed Queen and early Frigidaire. Am assuming the pause was for the motor to cool off, but was it really necessary? Just curious after doing laundry tonight using my Maytag, Wards and Kenmore machines and noticing two out of the three have the rest period between cycles...

 

[yogitunes]

most machines by design that used a reversing motor had to pause...

that was also in part with the timer, as many were incremented in one-minute segments...

for slow clock moving timers, they weren't always exact of shutting off all components, before starting the next....the one-minute sort of gave it a safety

I know with my filterflos, you can hear the pins inside clicking off during the pause, as the next sequence it getting ready to engage

also, when your waiting for that one-minute change over, it seems like an eternity....

I always like machines like Speed Queen with the banging solenoids, or WP/KM belt drives....in our mind they seemed quicker as they jumped from one sequence into another almost non stop...

 

[washerlover]

Yeah I agree that the pause seems like an eternity...but those machines with noisy timers (Norge/Wards, GE) certainly help it move along..!

 

[DADoES]

 
Length of the pause depends largely on the design and increments of the timer.

GE FilterFlo timers move along smoothly and continuously like an electric clock. 

Others advance in discrete increments ranging from 30 seconds to even as long as 3 minutes.

WP belt-drives and DDs are typically 2-min increments but there are also continuously-moving cams for functions such as spray rinses.  "Ancient" belt-drives may be 1 minute increments.  Our 1962 WP was 75 seconds - 1 min 15 secs - setting it at a 4-mins wash was effectively 5 mins, 10 mins was 12-1/2 mins.

Most machines with pauses between cycle functions do so for a full timer increment.

DDs typically do the motor pause during the moment the timer rotates from one increment (wash agitate, for example) to the next (neutral drain, for example).

A 2003 DD I have apparently has a timer that advances continuously like a GE, and also "disengages" when pulled to Off and can be turned both directions to set the cycle before push to Start.

 

[combo52]

Washers and DWs That Pause For The Motor To Reverse

It was cheaper to build a timer that just uses the longer period that the timer normally advances at for this necessary pause when stopping the motor to restart it in the other direction.  [ this was not done to allow motor cooling, ALL appliance motors are continuous duty, they can run 24 hours a day with no break ]

 

Companies like Maytag washers, D&M DWs and many others used these cheaper to build timers.

 

Many other machines with better designed timers used a Sub-Inteval switch in the timers escapement to allow 7-10 second reversing, like GE combos, all WP DWs with reversing motors and all WP DD washers, having this quick reversing makes for a much more satisfying appliance watching experience.

 

John

 

[bajaespuma]

To pause, or not to pause

In 1971 we moved into a house that had a 1958 Unimatic Custom Imperial (and it's still killing me that I wasn't able to find a way to keep it for later in life). I remember clearly that when it finished filling, the tub spun around once (which got the clothes moving around the tub) and then the jet-action agitation started. I remember also being startled when it went directly to SPIN without any pause at all when the wash cycle was complete. What an amazing machine that was; the whole time we were there I never realized that it was set up for suds-saving. There was no laundry tub so I would have had to use a new garbage can as I do now but I was still in the closet with my washing machine interest. Thanks to Greg for the picture.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I thought that these could save the wash water in the cabinet if the little spring-loaded clamp and ball was deployed over the end of the drain hose and the machine stopped after the first spin, unloaded, reloaded with a new batch of laundry with the drain hose removed from the standpipe, held over the washer, the ball removed and the washer started and the timer immediately advanced 5 clicks to start agitation. It was more labor intensive than other wash water storage systems, but the water did not have much chance to cool between uses and no separate tub was needed.