Philips Variotronic 082 - Another classic saved

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vacbear58

Well-known member
Silver Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
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5,064
Location
Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK
After spending quite a lot of money, time and petrol procuring two twin tubs which both require remedial action I promised myself there would be no more. That was before tempter-in-chief "Matchbox Paul" got to work! Well it was:
1. Laughably cheap - £5.50 ($7.00)
2. Close - 8 miles away
3. And most important, the first washing machine I ever bought, back in 1980
 
Oh, my cue...

GORGEOUS!

 

Love the facia.....and the very explicit 'PUSH KNOB FOR OFF'

 

....so I gather one must pull the knob to turn it on?
 
Cold fill only

No "Y" connectors on this machine! I well remember when I got my first one how the instructions showed how to easily convert the machine to cold fill only. In the previous picture you can see a spare terminal on the cold solenoid. You simply take the cable from the hot and attach it to the spare terminal

vacbear58++11-26-2011-17-09-39.jpg
 
Go to video

Quick video on the link. This machine was designed to launch into the spin while the drum was still full of water. And for those who complain of low rinse water levels you can see this does not suffer from that problem. I might add that the regular (as opposed to delicate) programmes have five, yes FIVE, rinses! I am on metered water where I live, I dont think I will be using it all that often.

The video has been edited, it does take quite a bit longer on this rinse, which is the one where fabric softner is added

Al

 
Philips "Simply Years Ahead"

These are such very smart machines, and yours looks to in excellent condition, well done again Al, lovely lovely lovely :-)
 
Costly to run?

What a gorgeous machine! And what thorough action too - not just those 5 deep rinses but a very positive wash action from what I've seen. Water hog it may be but at least it makes good use of what it's filled with - none of that infuriating filling to high level only to drain immediately after a few anaemic tumbles like some machines of its era. You can be in no doubt the clothes have been well washed!

 

I have to confess some ignorance to the exact workings of the permanent magnet motor - just why does it need more electricity at the lower wash rpm than to spin? On the cost front it's not just the metered water you'd be thinking of - pulling a full 1050 watts for the best part of an hour (it's not a workshy machine) would soon run up the electricity bill!

 

Alex
 
sorry to be a pedant, but...

The photos label the "induction" motor.

It is NOT an induction motor, it is a DC permanent magnet motor.

These are a great little motor, allow a much higher speed spin than the induction motors of the time.

re: the oddity of using more power to tumble than spin...

The Philips machines of the time used a crude, and to my mind awful, method of slowing the speed for the wash (tumble) parts of the cycle - they put the heater element in series with the motor, so that of the 240 volt supply, about 210 volts was dissipated in the heating element and about 30 volts across the motor. This series circuit was switched on and off rapidly (during tumble) using a type of transistor to give more precise speed control.

To keep the explanatory mathematics easy I will assume that the washing motor is consuming 4 amps, x 240 volts = 960 watts. (not far off actual figures)

of this, 4 amps x 210 volts = 840 watts is wasted in the heating element, and 4 amps x 30 volts = 120 watts is used by the motor.

so when washing, the heating element is used to dissipate and waste seven times more energy than the motor actually uses.

this is not the fault of the permag motor(which is in fact exceptionally efficient), but the control circuitry which is a crude design. Using a transformer to supply 25 or 30 volts to the motor for washing would have added a small amount to production cost but would have made for an amazingly efficient machine.
 
Phillips Variatronic

Congratulations Al, now one washer becomes 3 Lol, told you the bug would bite, lovely machine and this is the first version 082 and in 1981 they relaunched the Brown Fascia series, mainly sold through independants of the day and the Co-operative stores....

I started selling the Brown Series at Agri Electrics and they where very popular, the Spin Drain is amazing to watch and of course it was the first machine with the Polypropylene Drum and the much smaller Permag (Permenant Magnet )motor...

These where launched with a 10yr guarantee on each, so confident (and rightly so) that Phillips where, your washer was one of the first made in the UK at the Hipperholme factory in Halifax.

Interestingly that the drum is hung from four springs slung from the cabinet top and two U shaped metal snubbers that the drum rests on, certainly kept them stable, in fact because the drum was wide and had a narrow depth these machines where often used in built in kitchen as they could sit in the space behind a flush kitchen door...

We are on the look out for the rare tub to pump sump hose as you can see it has a groove which just pushes into a hole outlet of the tub no clamp outlet as such...

The matching dryer has been on ebay recently, so all you need now is the 2000sx dishwasher!!!

Enjoy, Mike

chestermikeuk++11-28-2011-10-34-35.jpg
 
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