Question about Easy Spindriers

[Dick_S.]

I will be picking up my "new" Easy Spindrier tomorrow and it will be at least a 2 hour ride back home before it is unloaded. I am wondering IF it can ride those two hours on its back--in other words not standing straight up, without harming any of the mechanical components and not having any oil leaking out of the transmission?

It is supposed to be a 1967.

Thanks, Dick_S.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

I don't think it would be a good thing

to put it on its back. I seem to recall that it is a bit of a complicated procedure to replace/add transmission oil.

Anybody else???? ( I must have astral projected that too you , eh?)

 

[arbilab]

At the same time, the legs are said to be fragile to fatigue, which transportation induces. Can you block it upright where it is secured without the weight on the legs?

I envy your find, I'd give next to anything for a working Easy SD.

 

[limitededition]

transporting

Stand it up, the legs are not as fragile as you think, the machine vibrates while it is spinning as the spinner has no suspension. Also do not fill above the water line as the agitator shaft has no seal. Have a great time fun to use.

Rick

 

[kenmore58]

Dick,

I transported mine on its back. It didn't damage the machine, but I did experience a small amount of oil leakage, very minor.

It spent about two hours on its back, about an hour from where I bought it to Rich (Perk-o-Prince's) house. We played around with it for a while, then it went back in my truck for another hour ride home to Rhode Island.

Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[mickeyd]

Heard that you can't lay 'em down for too long because of fluids running out, but it's good to learn from Ron that he did it safely.

 

I have only had mine on their backs for a little while.

 

You have a real beauty there, a late 60's model with the wider, deeper indexed rim--really classy styling when seen up close-- and the red filter with matching red controls, one of the gems of the Easy line and not often seen, It also came in t two-speed model, but I can't see if the speed switch is there.

 

You will have a lot of fun washing with all the drama these babies provide: the sounds of the spin clutch and the pump, agitated fills, the rush of the suds-return. And the jet cone spray rinse is amazing; you can watch with the lid off.

 

[akronman]

Easy Spindrier

Mine was in my hatchback, almost 90 degrees over on its side, for a 2 hour ride. Some spillage of oil, yes, but running fine here a year later.
Send us pics when you get it, they are fun, EASY to use, do a great job, but don't overload the spincan. It does best for spin/rinse whn 1/2 to 3/4 full, and once during rinse turn off water until it's dry(ish) and pull out clothes to re-arrange, rinse spray again. The re-arranging halfway thru seems to do the trick, I get great results.

Once you get it home and practice a bit, give us some pictures and ask questions about use. Happy to throw you some pointers, but it's EASY-er to explain once it's home and running.

 

[mickeyd]

Mark and other Easy lovers,

Here's something I had not heard about from anyone, having seen Easy Spins in use since childhood. I read it in the first Easy manual that came my way a while back.

 

From pages 8&9 of the manual Model 5DE. There is no date any where to be found, but from the pic on the front, it's mid-to late 50's.

 

It says that after you load the spinner, push down rinse drain control, Excess sudsy water will be returned to the tub. Swing the fill faucet to rinse and run HOT water into the cone as it drains into the washtub. When the water level in the washtub has returned to the fill line, swing the drain faucet from suds to drain, Engage spin, and turn on the HOT water to flush through entire load. After 30 seconds turn on COLD and rinse for 2&1/2 minutes or until water runs clear. Water may be adjusted to give warm water rinses.

 

No one I knew ever rinsed this way, and I haven't tried it. Mark, are you using high water pressure for your rinses? I haven't tried rearranging, but change the temps and pressure throughout the rinse, and the clothes come out fresh and totally rinsed, after 5 minutes or so, less if Tide HE Powder is used.

 

Would appreciate hearing how you all rinse and if anyone follows the manual's method. There is also an "Alternate Power-flush Rinse" described.

[this post was last edited: 10/3/2011-12:02]

 

[abcomatic]

Mark and other Easy people

I just finished 6 loads of laundry in my Easy Spindrier today. I turn the machine over on its back once a month and make sure that the spinner assembly is tightend and all of the cables are lubed up.
For rinsing, the manual that I have says to load bigger, heavier items to the bottom and the smaller towards the top. Turn on the spinner and return wash water to the washer. Make sure that the water line, with clothes, is NOT above the water line on the side of the tub.
Rinsing is an art with these machines. Don't turn the water on full when rinsing with the spinner. Make sure the pump is on and that the amount of water that is going to the spinner tube at the top is not more than than the pump can handle while it is pumping soapy water out.
I use low suds detergent (Sears) so that the spinner can rinse better.
If you think you need to rinse better, then you could wait until all of the wash is done and then fill up the washer and do a real deep rinse.
Have fun with you new machine. If you have any questions, just let me know. Bye for now. Gary

 

[arbilab]

The couple years I owned a twintub (Panasonic) I prerinsed in the spinner then piled everything up to agitate-rinse after all the washing was done. I don't remember what grandma did with her Easy, even though I was "helping" her. That was 60 years ago and I can't remember what I had for dinner Friday.

 

[Dick_S.]

Thanks to all of you...

..for your comments and pointers, a few of which I need to question further in a future posting. Right now I'm off to work but want to let you know that it's home and runs very well. AND no leaks!

I did load it upright and stapped it in very tightly with lots of packing around it. It rode home beautifully. Cosmetically, it looks like new and judging from the year posted on the manuals, I guess it could be as old as 1962-3. It runs great although it's going to take a bit of getting used to. I also need to ask you all about some of the things it does that I'm not sure it should be doing! ((--::

 

[arbilab]

Truly handsome, can't spot so much as a smudge! Intuition will take you a long way to good results. Interactive laundry, not just a hole in a closet you put stuff in and take it out.

 

[pdub]

The machine looks brand new in the picture.

What an incredible find. I am so happy for you as I know you've been wanting one of these.

Can't wait to see and hear more about this machine. So glad it was well taken care of.

Patrick

 

[launderess]

All Rinsing Is A Process Of Dilution

Thus when rinsing via spray it is important that the force of the water not be so great in relation to the rpm of the spinning load as to merely throw off much of water. What you want is the water to penetrate and therefore saturate the laundry. Then the force of the spinning will carry the muck/detergent laden water out of the wash.

Directions for loading any extractor regardless if it rinses or no are pretty much standard. Heavy items go on the bottom so as to provide a firm "base" and keep the tub centered and stable. However with an extractor one is using just to remove water the load is packed down firmly. Obviously if you are going to rinse as well as spin dry then you have to pack things a bit more loose to allow eaiser penetration of water.

Personally have found with the Hoover TT for all but small mixed loads spin rinsing to be more bother than it's worth. Far better to extract the wash water and transfer the load to a tub of water (the machine's wash tub, sink, bathtub, etc....) for deep rinsing and then back into the extractor for a final spin dry.

Unimac makes a stand alone twin tub washer similar to the old Easy models. It comes with either one or two wash tubs and the extractor has the same "cone" spray rinsing system.

IIRC the units do not require bolting down but do run on 220v power. These Umimacs were originally sold for car wash and similar sorts of establishments but am told are quite popular with hotels, motels, restaurants and other places that need to turn around large amounts of small laundry (towels, wash cloths, napkins, shirts, tablecloths, etc) quickly. There also is the added cost savings of being able to reuse wash and or rinse water. With the double tub model one could wash in one tub, rinse in the other then spin dry in the extractor. Someone with a good system down could plow through mountains of wash quite fast.

http://www.unimac.com/tech_pdf/Production/F232113.pdf

 

[abcomatic]

Dick

HI Dick, Wow, just like brand new. I have a few ideas that I would like to tell you about that deal with the red plastic levers that more the various functions.
If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. Happy washing. Gary

 

[mikeklondon]

Love this

I wish we had them in the UK, what's the spin speed? Do they have build in heaters? The nearest we have was an AEG Luvalux in the 1960/70s

 

[frontaloadotmy]

What a lovely

Chatsworth ; er, I mean Hacienda Heights, Easy Spin Washer!  A beautiful chromed agitator bolt , and such a cheerful lint filter.

 

Are those burpilators , or does the "long" spout waterfall into the lint filter?  I am red with envy!!!!!

 

xo ,

Smithers

 

[abcomatic]

HI Mike

The Easy is a great way to do laundry. I sure do like using mine, but it is not a machine for the kitchen, eventhough people used them there. If you leave the lid off while the Spiralator is going; water all over the place.
No, they don't have built in heaters and I don't know the spin speed but clothes do come out very dry.
If you used one, you would love it. Happy washing. Gary

 

[mickeyd]

Hi Easy People

We had a debate here years back about the very existence of the filters. After the debate, I got a red one from Walt. Yes, old friend Darrel Frontal Smithers, you swing the long spout all the way inward to reach the filter.

 

I have no trouble with Spirilator splashing, but if you rinse at high pressure with the lid off, you get some spraying and misting from the spinner. My "good" Easy is used in the kitchen all the time.

 

The spin speed is 900 rpms. Somewhere, I have the number of spray holes in the spin can. Many hundreds which is why it works so well. Remember, this is "Precision Engineering," And if you rinse till the water runs clear, there will be no soapy water left in the clothes. The Hoover does not have a spray cone, and the clothes morph into a solid cylinder of fabric; in the Easy the clothes are distributed around the cone, so there is not as dense a a mass of fabric for the needle spray streams to penetrate. the Easy spinner is both wider and deeper than the Hoove. It is really not necessary to tub rinse a spinner rinsed load in an Easy.

 

Gary, you may have the model made after Easy was first bought out. Is your pump under the agitator gear, rather than in the front center of the machine. That model does not spin at 900, and does not rinse as well.

 

If anybody wants to experience the idea of what rinsing look like in an Easy, which is very difficult to catch on camera, see Robert's spray rinse in his Super Unimatic Video. The high speed spin and the force of water is what does the job.

 

But don't listen to me. I'm very biased, judging vintage Easy Spins as one of the most exciting, competent, and original washers ever made.

 

[akronman]

Easy spinDrier Spincan

1560 holes in that cone

 

[Dick_S.]

I'm back again...

....after a very busy week at work. Haven't had any time to "play" with the Easy since the initial startup last Monday but there is always this weekend. ((--::

I do believe the reason it looks so blemish free (and it is) is that is was put into storage in 1968 (in a corner of the laundry room) and was just uncovered and taken out shortly before I got it. That's 43 years it just sat there without being fired up. And these were the original owners. I was scared it might leak and that the pump might be frozen up. Neither appeared to be so and it does run very well.

I just can't get used to the way the rinsing is handled. I lean towards what Launderess says about an additional deep rinse but then I read what mickeyd just poated and it all sounds so "natural". I guess I'm just going to have to try it using a small stream of water with the spinner not that full of clothes and see for myself.

Yes, I was totally suprised with the rpms of the spinner. I was expecting damp dry clothes but not being spun out at 900 rpms! And let me tell you-when the manual says to carefully distribute the clothes, that is exactly what they mean!

Now Gary, you mentioned the red levers on front. Well, I have a few problems with them. On the Wash lever, when I engage it there is rather a loud clunk which I doin't feel should be there. It's like the cable (I guess) is out of alignment and is jamming the agitate gear into action. The Wash Drain lever seems to give me some resistance at just about the end of the travel toward the "off" position and thus I constantly get a dribble of water coming out of the drain faucet. In other words, it never shuts off completely. The Spin and Spin Drain levers seem to be fine.

And Mickeyd-you say that the Wash Drain faucet will swing over to the filter so that the wash water can be filtered. Well, the Wash Drain faucet won't make it over to the filter, falling short about and inch and a half. Can I do anything to correct this? And do I have to oil anything other than the spinner bearing?

Can't wait to get out to the washroom this weekend and do some serious washing!

In the meantime, thanks to all of your for your helpful suggestions and most generous offers to answer any questions I have. This is a different kind of machine but I am totally taken with it!

Dick

 

[arbilab]

It's a remarkable discovery, Dick. Completely operational and spotless. Envy of all Easy lovers (though I liked the long-throw clutch levers better than the console/quadrant ones). I would trade my hole-in-the-closet frontloader for a functional twintub any day.

Mickey, I don't remember grandma's ~1950 having the hollow spincone, but I think it did have a hub. Was hollow a later development?

 

[akronman]

Easy Lint Filter

The wash drain will not reach the lint filter at all. The long spout is meant to return suds to tub during first extraction, then swing it over your drain tub for rinse waetr once you start rinsing in the can. The lint filter was only an added attraction years later in the design of this machine, simply to compete with automatics in a small way, never designed for the waterspout. The filter, like ones on my speed Queen winger washer, only works at one stupid exact level of water sloshing over into it during agitation, it's just this side of useless.

You'll notice it's in almost no Easy advertisements, it was just a 50 cent dumb marketing idea, really doesn't work.

 

Your wash drain tiny dripping is really just the difficulty of closing a plastic flap inside the pump, possibly a bit of corrosion of the cheap pot metal. I have learned to just leave the spout over the wash tub while during agitation, since it's impossible to entirely shut off the port. It's a flaw in the design, it is not at all meant to filter the water through that filter. The pump runs at all times, those red levers are simply opening and closing ports. Truthfully, it sounds to me that your Easy is working quite well, you're just learing a few little peculiarities it shares with all Easy spindriers.

 

And yes, load the spinner VERY EQUALLY, there is really no suspension/shock absorber system at all. I am not picking on these machines, just explaining. I think they are well made, do a great job, and are lots of fun. But a 57 Chevy, for all its charm, just ain't the same machine as a 2010 Lincoln. The Easy is a unique piece of washer machinery.

 

[mickeyd]

Easy difficulties

The washtub should not be dribbling water, and the port valves in my machine are thick rubber not plastic. Easy Spins were made into the late 60's. Not positive, but pretty sure. Many models are solid tanks with powerful pumps, and the rinsing is meant to be conducted with at least a normal steady stream of water entering the spinner.

 

Beyond the "SUDS" position marked on the chrome plate of the faucet mount, the is another position where you pull the faucet all the way in over the filter. Mine works fine, and I so wish I could make a movie right now. Do you really think they'd make a filter that absolutely did not work? Even better, do you think I'd be standing here talking about using a filter that doesn't work? Jesus H., Gimme a break! The debate we had here years ago was about the fact that the filter made for the Easy Spin will not work in an Easy automatic. I was wrong about, mistakenly assuming that it would since the large black Spiralators were used in both machines, but the filter obviously works in the machine is was made for, the Easy Spin.

 

Again, I've been using these unique machines since childhood and have had so much practice that I don't appreciate how challenging they may be for a new user. Also lucky to have a late model, mint machine with perfectly working parts. Time will tell. And I have many machines with issues, including an Easy with a broken pump, now by-passed with graving draining, so it isn't all a bed of roses for me either.

 

Arilab, the ceramic hub was used in the less expensive models, still available as an optional the end of production.

 

[northwesty]

Beautiful machine Dick, congratulations hope you enjoy it. I've seen some very old versions of this, I had no idea they made them into the late 60s. I had imagined that this would be the premier machine in the pre-auto' era but they just kept going strong so folks must have been happy with them

Brian

 

[abcomatic]

HI Dick

It's the weekend and I bet you are ready to try your new washer! My Easy has central controls and I know what you mean about the "clunk" sound when you engage the washer. What I have done( you will need someone to help you ) is to carefully turn the washer on its back and lubricate all of the cables; as far up as you can, and all of the pivot places. Does your machine have a rubber boot that covers the spintube post towards the bottom? Mine should have and I have not been able to find one. Mine dribbles too a bit when washing and the control is in the off position for the drain, I just put the suds return tube over the washer when it is running and all is good. I can't wait to hear how this all works out. Keep us all informed. Happy washing. Gary

 

[mickeyd]

Thanks for the pix

The other day when I mentioned the 900 rpm spin and couldn't remember the number of the jets in the spray come, I was going to guess 1300. This morning when posting I didn't see Mark's pix. Delighted to know that there are 1560 jets. No wonder why the rinse works.

 

 

Dick, get some really hot sudsy water in both tubs and with both drains open gently move the levers up and down to get them loose. If they're really bad mix in a quart of vinegar. Imagine you could use a little oil around the faucets, and I hope you get to use your filter; they're a lot of fun and the sudsy water "sheets" out. I' ve got mine going now.

 

The new pix are stunning.

 

[mickeyd]

Hold your horses

Took the pix; it'll be a while for them to get to email and then tranfer to iphoto library, etc.

 

[Dick_S.]

Finally got some time this morning...

...to go out and get down to some serious washing in the Easy Spindrier! Washed a load of sheets first and divided the load in half when placing it in the spindrier. I turned on the spinner and ran it for a short time to extract the water from the washed items and then turned on the cold water which I left run for about 90 seconds. I turned off the water, let the spinner run a bit longer and then stopped it and took out the half of load which I then hung out on the line.

I repreated this method on the second half of the load and hung it out also.

 

[bradross]

Looks like a fun machine, Dick!

Those are some fantastic pics of your new (old) machine, Dick!
Interesting though, that with the Easy, one cannot put the entire wash tub load in the spinner. With my Speed Queen or Hoover twin tubs, the spinner will accommodate the entire wash load at one time.
Even though I do use the spray rinse function with the SQ, I also do a deep rinse at the end of the wash loads (because I like to use liquid fabric softener.)