Progress report on the 57 GE washer

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Interesting!  

 

Ken, I didn't see any kind of a metal diverter plate on the broken fill flume nor on the NOS replacement I put into the 855...  And further, I did not observe power to the cold solenoid during the spin after the wash cycle either while testing or in the timer cam charts in the book.  I can't help but think the suds-saver models didn't do a cold spray sudskill...  The manual that I have seems to detail on both of the suds-saver models offered in '57 but not the non-suds models.    I have to do me some more diggin'.  

 

I have observed a bit of splash back while the machine is filling and I now think it may be due to the rinse tray inlet.  That didn't debut until '58, n'est-ce que pas??  Thanks for that illustration - it has been most enlightening!!

 

 
 
Just use Rosalie's

I don't see why that would be so. The suds saving would happen during the "throw"; the water isn't sprayed until a few intervals after that. I am assuming that they designed the saver pump solenoid to divert back to the regular drain hose in that time. You will want to cap off that rinse port, most probably. I've seen NOS Solid Tub flumes both with and without that port; I have to assume my flume wasn't OE.

 

More importantly, is the Suds Return System working? I just was given a Solid Tub Suds Saver by Jon Charles and I can't wait to get an external tub and a return hose to see and watch it work.

 

I remember first reading about the feature in 1969 in the 1969 Consumer Reports article on washing machines (those Debbie Downers poo-pooed them overall), but I had never seen one. I guess they might have been popular in rural areas where housewives were being encouraged to give up their Wringer Washers where they were used to saving the water. My maternal Grandmother would have bought that feature but I'm betting my Mother steered her away from it because the idea back then was to get her to stop going down to the basement to do the laundry where she had a wringer machine and one of those old beautiful huge laundry sinks for storing the water. Exactly what I need right now but I know I have a Homart tub buried somewhere in the bowels.

 

There isn't a cycle description in the manual for the 855 P? I'll dig my 1957 GE Service manual out and look at it. Then I'll clean up my entire house and property, by myself,  sell it and move to Vancouver BC so I can look at pictures of Justin Trudeaux instead of Krusty the Klown, and have Chinese food in Richmond. Hey, it could happen.

[this post was last edited: 6/12/2018-09:53]
 
None of the solid tub GE's of this period had a spray rinse. The pause during the first spin is standard on ALL GE's. It has nothing to do with the suds saver. The models without it have this same pause for suds kill. Not sure when the spray rinse was added but the 56 thru 60 models definitely did not. We had a 59 with no suds saver when I was growing up and it had the pause on both the normal and short cycles.
 
No return on suds

I've decided not to put the suds-saver system back into the 57 GE for the moment.  I have the key component, a brand-new-still-in-the-GE-envelope gasket for the suds valve but I have to do some finagaling to replace the rotted hoses and figure out how to mount a modern replacement solenoid on the valve.   I am itching to play with the 'new' GE, what can I say... 

 

Interesting that the sudskill-spray-rinse was not around in the later 50s machines.  Always good to know!
 
Beg to differ here

Both my 1960 T models have/had spray rinses. My WA1050T has the spray rinses I described above and the WA630T that we had in the '60's also had spray rinses. 

 

I'm pretty sure the '59 TOL also had it, but I hope members with 1959-1957 models will chime in. I have service manuals from all 4 years; when I find where I put them I will publish the cycle descriptions if they indicate spray rinses. It may be that 1960 was the the last year of the Solid tub but the first year with spray rinses and plastic filter pans.

bajaespuma-2018061213173905400_1.jpg
 
'57 GE Spray Rinses

My aunt had a '57 GE that was pretty much BOL. It only had one speed - Hot & Warm Wash - Automatic warm rinse. It did have the water saver option. It did pause in the middle of the first spin and I always wondered why. There was no spray rinse. It would fill for the rinse and then the final spin.

Bob
 
The little nozzle on the top of the fill flume is for the fabric softener dispenser. The suds kill pause (75 seconds) was simply meant to stop the tub before reaching full 610rpm speed and let the suds settle down about before going into spin again. If there are a lot of suds in the outer tub, the suds act as a brake and stops the tub from coasting very fast, otherwise the tub usually doesn't even reach a full stop during the suds kill pause. I remember the 1951 model having a spray during the suds kill but my 1958 model does not have a spray rinse at all. I wish it did and may have add that lol.
 

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