Rescued from the Cold - Orphaned Filterflo

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gefilterflo

gefilterflo

Well-known member
Bronze Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
109
Location
Newark, Ohio
Generally I check out the "Used Appliances" section of Menard's whenever I am there. This particular day in Ohio it was about 20 degrees outside and not a soul was around. Something caught my eye amidst the normal late 90s/early 00s things I normally see there. That profile looked awfully familiar...

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Naturally, for only $19, I had to have it. I moved in September and sold my Filterflo when I moved, leaving me with a 2008 DD Kenmore that works reliably and saved me the hassle of moving the old one. My matching GE dryer had some motor issues so I figured I would just have modern ones from now on. That was about four months ago.

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I finally today got to tear into this beast. It had been outside for a while (unsure of the actual amount of time) and it was fairly covered in ice. I had no idea of its functional capacity other than I looked underneath it and it had not been puking transmission fluid everywhere. The other thing I noticed immediately was that the tub was cocked to the left when you opened the lid. Obviously something was wrong with the suspension. There was something else under the lid, though.

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After finally getting into the machine, I noticed that there was in fact trouble in paradise. Herein lies the problem: the machine has to stay out in the garage because I have no room for it inside. Since I had some time today, I pulled out the heater and decided to see what mysteries the machine held. I popped open the top and was immediately overwhelmed by "FilterFlo smell" and mold smell. I noticed that the air gap hose clamp had disintegrated as had a piece of the lid switch. The rest of it seems to be in acceptable condition.

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I decided to be brave and try to pull out the inner tub. I have had very little success with getting those bolts out but figured I might as well; I have very little to lose. I sprayed them with some Kroil and waited. I got out the 1/2 ratchet and extensions and hoped for the best. To my utter amazement, the bolts came out very easily. Far easily than I had ever expected. With the outer tub out, I gazed upon the glory of a FilterFlo that has been outside in the cold for a while: solid ice.

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I figured that was enough in there today so I decided to tackle the suspension and see what exactly was going on with it since I cannot do anything with the outer tub for quite some time. I was amazed to see that the suspension had somehow jumped away from one of the snubber supports. I put it back into place and saw about the belt. It was ancient-looking and extremely loose. Though I have not had a FilterFlo for a little while, I still had a belt laying around and went to work. I discovered that the ice has completely jammed the pump so once it thaws, it is anybody's guess if I will have to replace it or not. With the coupling off, I finally got to try the transmission pully to see what it would do. To my relief, it turned in both directions. I put on the new belt, said a prayer, and plugged it in. Set the timer to spin and it starting spinning like nothing had ever happened.

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I see toggles. Excellent find !

A pump with water in it, that has frozen, will cause the motor to no spin.

I've never seen a water fill hose so rusted like that.
 
No, the basket was almost immaculate. That black water was in the pump hoses; the ice chunks that came out of it before I ran it had that black stuff in it too so I'm not sure what exactly it is but I am assuming it's worked it way out now. There is a bit of rust around the top of the outer tub from where the wash basket hit it going off balance but otherwise it's remarkably solid. When it gets warmer, I'll try to patch up the rust at the top.
 
Wow! What a score!

So, I frequent hardware stores all over Columbus fairly often and have never seen them offering second hand machines! How have I managed to miss this??? Where did you find this?

Either way, man that's a great find and I'm super pleased it's going to be looked after and not end up in a scrapping yard!

Cheers
Steve
 
The ubiquitous FF smell is a combination of the smells of rubber, tide, and downy.
No matter what you do, it doesn't seem to be removable.
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's not overwhelming, nor really a bad smell.

I wish they made Glade room fragrances in "GE Filter-Flo" scent.
 
Wow!  Great save!   You were really lucky to not have had any pump damage from that freeze-up - glad you got the machine safely defrosted and running so quickly!!
 
Aferim!

Nice find! My parents had that exact model installed in 1978 and it did its job for 16 years and was still working when they moved. Fortunately, they improved the Straight-8 Activator by turning it into a Straight-4 with larger bottom vanes, but I would still suggest that you find a spiral ramped Activator to fit that machine; you'll have much more effective rollover. Did it come with the mini-basket?

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It did not come with the mini basket. I have the mini basket from my old FilterFlo but it had an Activator so I'm a large capacity Activator shy of using the Mini Basket. Maybe one day I'll find one but until then the straight vane should be acceptable. Probably easier than trying to find a mini basket from a large capacity machine with the four vane agitator.
 
Love your washer...can't wait for more videos...finally can you please
post more pics of your type of Heavy Duty 18 Activator agitator (4 straight-vanes)...inside the tub but, outside the especially.
 

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