POD 3/21/2017

[brucelucenta]

Kelvinator made some big promises in that advertisement and pretty well fulfilled them. Out of the vintage washing machines I have had and used, Kelvinator was my absolute favorite. It may have had a pretty small capacity, but it washed, rinsed and spun out quite well. It was also very quiet and was entertaining to watch. Kelvinator washers did tend to tangle when overloaded, which people tended to do since they were a smaller capacity machine, but the tangling was not nearly as bad as Frigidaire of that era. I could wash a king size set of sheets in it, which is probably the largest thing I used it for and that worked for me. That machine rivaled Maytag for quietness when operating.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Domestic Kelvinators were not very long-lived machines according to people who had them when new; lots of things going wrong. The drive design was simple, but the controls and other parts, not so dependable.  This one is, I think, for the Australian market. It is not a US domestic machine.

[this post was last edited: 3/21/2017-09:07]

 

[gyrafoam]

The "Fountain Filter" vs Hotpoint's "Filter Fountain". The PR folks sure had a great time with all the filtration gimmicks. Strangely, the filter in mine does actually collect some lint. Not like a Filter-Flo but at least as good as a Burp-a-Lator.
Pretty remarkable considering the water is splashed into it!

With my machine, what has really limited it's life is the stupid balance rings that rust and come off in chunks------only to destroy the damned pump. Replacing the pump is only good to the next chunk that flies off. An annoyance to say the least. A friend down the road from me has managed to keep TWO early 60's machines (fairly TOL) in working condition! That's an accomplishment!

 

[simpsomatic]

Australian model

This machine was an Australian made machine under the names of Kelvinator or Leonard. The description reads 3 way pump and no hot water needed. This machine was way ahead of the years in automatic washing. Most homes back in the 50's, early 60's had limited hot water for daily use. This machine along with most other automatics of the day came equipped with heaters. Because the wash tub was solid the outer tub was utilized for the wash fill and the element heated the water to desired temp. The three way pump was used for transferring the heated wash water from the outer tub to the wash tub and continuously running to enable the filter to do its job, it was used to pump out wash and rinse water to standing wash trays and thirdly would be used to return suds from wash tray if saving the suds for the next load was selected. Quite innovative for its day but made a load of wash take a long time. Simpson brand automatic washers of the same era operated the same way. There is a video presented by one of AW.org members explaining and showing the process.