POD Malleys

[askomiele]

Hi guys,
There is not a day that I not end up on this website and every time I'm in for a surprise. Like today.

The "Malley" drumtype washer must be somewhere from the late 50ties. Thinking that Bendix and a few others make the only frontloaders of that time, and Laundrall being the only one to make the toploading drum-type, this POD was nice to see.

Thing is that this washer was, at least to my knowledge, never discussed here. So what do we know of this machine and for all, why did this niche of the laundrymarket did not survived?

Assumptions are that the selfheating washer was much slower than the agitator toploader due to its selfheating capacities. And the drum type washer suffered from a heavy patented market so the "spin dry" was much worse than ex. the whirlpool / GE / frigidaires it had to compete with.

So nevertheless... thoughts - info - stories... bring them on!

 

[brisnat81]

Hi,

I actually have two of these. The userguide turned up on Ebay and my partner emailed them to find out whether they still had the machines. It turns out they had two and they'd been stored on a farm for the last 50 years since they'd been taken out of service.

I'm slowly working through bringing them back to life, but they are definitely an odd machine. Australia had a range of H-Axis Toploaders in the 50's, they were all bolt down and had two motors with an over-running clutch to switch between wash and spin.

I've attached a couple of photos, none of them great, the first is the day it arrived with Leon and Combo who was visiting from the US.

I've got the timer up and running, so now I'm slowly piece by piece trying to bring it back to life.

 

[brisnat81]

User manual and Advertising Brochure

I've attached the Sales leaflet and the user guide that lead me to the machines

 

[vacerator]

When did Malley's begin

making Whirlpool products?

 

[brisnat81]

1960 Seems to have been the first year of the Malley's Whirlpool beginning with the 10XX series.

They ran through until the 23XX series in 1979. Slightly more than one model range per year in almost 20 years of production.

The machine in the POD dates back to 1954/1955

 

[simpsomatic]

Malleys

I have talked about finding one of these machines in previous threads. Malleys in the early 50's and earlier years produced garden maintenance equipment (Wheelbarrows etc.) home wash boilers, electric and gas and a range of what we now know as tankless water heaters although back in the day they were called "instantaneous", no technology and were hazardous with variations in water pressure could be explosive. The Malleys "12" (available as semi-automatic and automatic) was an attempt to break through the wringer washer status quo that existed at the time. As semi automatic and automatic washing machine development industrialized our continent the wash industry was prohibitive financially, Malleys as seen here in this thread disappeared and had nothing to do with the name brand "Malleys Whirpool". Quite an interesting acquisition, two Malleys 12 and in the not so distant in the past two Healing Thor Trimatics are added to the collection. Truly amazed at findings down under, Simpson, Pope, Stampco, Turner, Frigidaire. Still others to be found, Astor, Westinghouse and perhaps an "Ozzie" Bendix. Cannot wait for the restoration videos, still can remember the sound of laundry day at Nana's. Washing very quiet, draining noisy but spindry loud like a freight train and rattled and shook like one if load was off balance.

 

[easyspindry]

I find it interesting . . .

. . . that at first glance, the Malleys looks like the second generation of the Bendix Economat. They certainly look like interesting, entertaining machines.

Good luck with the restoration.

Jerry Gay

 

[askomiele]

Thx...

for the replies, apparently these washer where sold in Australia and US?

@Brisnat 81 Enjoy the restoration of these machines, any machine is fun to work on. Take your time and enjoy the fiddling. I think we all are looking forward to the first tests and maiden wash.

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Asko

Thank you. These machines were unique to Australia

Cheers

Nathan

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Just LOVE that Malleys. I was expecting the traditional tub, what a surprise it was an H-Axis. Pity it was never sold in the states. Would love to see a video of one in action.

 

[gizmo]

Hi Nathan. How exciting.

are these Malleys related in design to the Launderoll? (NOT Launderall)
It was a H-Axis TL in Australia too, I think similar era.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm wondering how that machine could do anything with all of the thick suds promised by the product they were showing.

 

[brisnat81]

Hey Chris

I've never seen a Launderoll in the flesh. I do have an Easy H Axis TL machine machine and it works on the same principle, but is a much lighter cheaper design. The Malleys has the same timer and Thermostat as the easy.

They all seem to be roughly the same, a Wash motor with a pump on the back, a spin motor with the two connected via a belt through an overdrive pulley.

The wash motor runs for the entire cycle (once heating is completed) with the spin motor cutting in and out for the spins. That way the clothes are always semi distributed before the spin starts (Kinda like a keymatic).

I'd always wondered how the machine could fill, pause to heat and then tumble with the simple controls. What happens is the thermostat has a double throw switch. When you push the heat button, it turns the heater on as long as there is another water in there, if there isnt it'll fill and then heat. When it finishes heating, the button pops out and control goes back to the timer again. If you didnt push the heat button then it would just run through a cycle with no heat period.

Thats why the instructions make sense, start the machine, add soap while its tumbling, let it tumble for a few minutes to dissolve the soap. Then push the heat button and the machine soaks while it heats, then just continues on with the rest of the cycle.