POD 4-5-2021 Bendix Power Surge Washer

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tomturbomatic

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Gansky is the only person I know who has one of these. Do you still have it Greg?

Here is some copy from the September, 1955 Electrical Dealer about this machine.

"Bendix Introduces New Washing Principle That Replaces Agitator With Water Action"

"Using a new washing principle based on energized water, Bendix Home Appliance div., Avco Mfg. Corp., recently presented distributors with a 'power surge' washer that is designed to eliminate any wear on clothes that might be caused by the thrashing action of agitator blades.

Cut-away view of the new automatic shows how the washer uses powerful water currents instead of an agitator to clean clothes. An energy disc capped with three web-connected rubber vanes rests on the inclined shaft at the base of the tub. As the shaft rotates at 590 rpm, the disc undulates energizing the water with spiral, conical and undertow actions. The cylinder has a perforated liner which quivers constantly during washing, spurting jets of water and creating a fourth water motion. Prior to spinning, the unit stops for a slight pause after which the motor reverses. The reversal releases a lock spring engaging the sleeve around the shaft. The sleeve is connected to the cylinder and liner, which then spins, thus no transmission is needed." A spin speed is given, but the copy is blurred at that point. "Web-connected" meant something far different in 1955 than today.

It is this mechanism for which Whirlpool had to acquire the patents to make the Calypso washer's nutating mechanism.
 
Bendix Power Surge Agitation

Thanks, Ben, for posting this video. It helps to better understand just what Whirlpool did and changed in developing the Calypso.

Does anyone know if this was the forerunner of Philco's (Philco-Bendix) later "Blades of Water" agitator, or was this a different development?
 
The 1959 Automagic and subsequent Philco-Bendix top load washers were all based on the 1956 Power Surge. The drive side saw some clutch changes and the agitator saw a few revisions as well, but there are roots back to the Avco-Bendix Power Surge and even the Dexter-Philco ball point balance system.

Ben

Photo one - Power Surge cutaway. Photos two and three are of the ‘66 Philco.

swestoyz-2021040517353905687_1.jpg

swestoyz-2021040517353905687_2.jpg

swestoyz-2021040517353905687_3.jpg
 
Thanks, Ben

I would like to venture a guess that the spin speed was the same as the wash speed, 590 rpm, since it looked like a direct connection to the non-transmission only in spin between the tub and the tub shaft instead of between the energy disc and its drive shaft.

The television ads for the Philco Hi Frequency Agitation washing machines in 1958 talked about them having the power to pull a 7th sheet into the machine and showed it happening. They placed a sheet on the corner of the top and had a corner of the sheet trailing down into the water and just like a kid sucking up a strand of spaghetti, the washer sucked in the sheet. They compared it to the old Philco with the solid tub and the metal agitator. The solid tub Philcos of that generation had greater turnover, more akin to the Power Surge than the later machines with the perforated tub.
 
This is mine

Hi Tom,

 

This is the Australian version, called Healing / Thor Trimatic. 

 


 



 

 

 

 
 

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