POD for 4/6 - Did Whirlpool invent suds saver?

[scoots]

The Picture of the day is a 50s ad that emphasizes the suds saver feature of the Whirlpool washer and the text implies (but doesn't outright say) that it was a Whirlpool invention.

What is the history of the suds saver in automatics? Who introduced it and when? Are there any brands of automatics that didn't offer this feature? When did the major players (Maytag, Kenmore etc.) discontinue it?

 

[turquoisedude]

My understanding that it was the Whirlpool/Kenmore folks that cooked up the notion of a Suds-Saver to overcome the objections of potential customers who thought they would be wasting hot, sudsy water with an automatic washer.  This would have been in the late 1940s when automatics were starting to get the consumer's attention and bearing in mind that the wringer washer had been the standard up until then.  

 

I recall that the person who I bought my '51 Kenmore washer from had said the original owner (the woman from whom she had bought a house with the Kenmore in it) had been quite pleased that there was a suds-saver because she feared flooding her septic system. 

 

Most major players (GE, Frigidaire, Hotpoint, Norge, etc) offered suds-savers of some kind or another from the mid-50s up until (I guess) the late 70s.  The one model I can't see ever having a suds-saver would have to have been the Westinghouse laundromat. Come to think of it, I don't think Bendix or any other front-loader offered this, but I could be wrong!

 

[frigilux]

Three cheers for suds-savers! I grew up with one (all together now: a 1960 Kenmore model 80) that was used all the time. A great way to increase the water and energy efficiency of classic top-loaders.

 

[cornutt]

Interesting comment about the septic systems... I don't know how common this was around North America, but at one time, around here, if you were on a septic system the washer drain would be plumbed to a dry well. No longer allowed where I lived; the code changed in the early 1990s. That's what I was told by the city when we were building our house and I asked about it.

 

[askolover]

Septic

Growing up in small town Tennessee, we didn't have municipal sewer system until 1993-94 when we installed one city wide.  Several people in town would run their washers out into the back yard or even the drainage ditch.  Others simply went into the septic with the rest of the waste water.  As homes aged, septic systems were having to be refurbished and leach fields extended.  In the late 70's my dad had a separate hole dug and filled it with gravel just for the washer and bathtub to drain into.  It worked well for many years but he eventually returned all waste to the same tank.  We extended our leach field in the mid 80's for prevention's sake.  A local septic service man told us that many people have problems with their systems due to NOT ENOUGH WATER for it to do its job properly!  Looking back, several of our neighbors who diverted their washer drains were also the ones with the most troubles.  I don't know what's true and what isn't, but I'm so glad we now have city sewer.