research help: why did front loaders drop off from 70s-00s?

[kenmoreguy89]

Is always nice to read at how people misunderstand totally what I write second their beliefs, I told about families! Not commercial laundry! Get it?
Bullied? Ahahahah! OMG! Bullied! You just have to show the opposite!
And since the oscillanting basins sounds like are a my invention you might go to the link that I'm attaching!
I'm not trying to rewrite history for nothing and the fact that I'm writing from Italy does not mean I can't write nor that I do not know history of US or washers!
And not, I'm not basing anything about the performance on european washers, I mostly know american models rather than europeans and I'm speaking for US since I'm half american amd know alot of more about US than Italy even I'm born and raised here I spent much time in USA, also the way a tumbler washer wash is not a thing you can change even if I were in ASIA! I talk from the things I've learned over time, you say I do not know anything,okay no prob!I just say what I know and till now I didn't find a person who showed me that Ipm wrong or uncorrect! At this point I always wait what you have to say! I can do and write whatever I want as if I were in US as if in Italy!
And you of course can't stop me, nor with your pathetic attempt claiming that I do not know nothing since I'm in Italy!
And what's the matter with the drums of westinghouse? If they become bigger is nothing but another thing that "bears" toward what I said!

http://www.oldewash.com/articles/lives.htm

 

[laundromat]

I may be incorrect,however, Using today's reasoning from previous top load/agitator washers my converted customers used for all of their previous wash loads which has verried from " They don't allow you to open the doors to add clothes to the load." to They fill too high to put any more clothes in." and "They leak all over the floor" or " They rust out in a few years.", I know that the inpopularity combined with the initional higher prices compared to top loaders,and Westinghouse being the only manufacturer making them in the U.S.,Front loaders were not at all a daily rutine for most of the continental U.S.s consumers. However, the commercial laundries (laundromats) made a killing on them and that was due to the well educated owners of them who were more comonly aware of the major water savings,sewerage costs lowered and drainage to a minimum.That saved them a bundel not only on operating costs but taxes as well.How did they make up any more?? By keeping the final spin speed to a minimum so they could make more of a profit on the drying costs. The slower spin made the drying time longer. That was what gave them the idea to gey a few of the Bock extractors and they made even more money having them too. At that time around 1965-1989, you had many different comercial brands that used to make domestic models but shied away when the demand plumitted back in the mid 60's. There was Dexter, Philco-Bendix, Speed Queen, Zanussi, FRIGIDAIRE, Westinghouse, Easy, Blackstone, Ald Wash, Norge,Whirlpool, Kelvinator, and Huebsch.Huebsch was the first comercial dryer that had a speed control for the tumble and a whopping 50 pound capacity.They are still in business and are with Speed Queen.SOOO what I would tell my customers was that if the comercial laundries use them and can charge a lot more per washload knowing they'll be making quite a bit more and have fewer repairs then the competitors with top loaders that 99.9% of the users overload and use too much detergent in,
there must be something they know more about with them then most consumers dnce they listened and it made sense to them, they'd convert and I can easily say that more then 75% of them who took my advice and would call me or walk in with any questions or problems,still have them. Some have upgraded and some still have the originals. My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alvin had the Frigidaire Gallery stacked set and I just replaced it(along with their range,refrigerator and dishwasher I replaced with a Maypool set all in black) with a nice LG steam pare in stainless steel. The F's were almost 20 years old and NEVER repaired. They sold them on Craigs List for $650!! Not a scratch,dent,mildew or rust anywhere.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Yep efficiency on costs of H axis washers also played a very important role on commercial laundries...even coin laundromats of course.
Forgot to mention it.....

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Uhhmm and this is only for record, not to show anything to anyone, I don't need that! But rather since it would be a great help for kbailey (if you're still tuned) here I finally found again a link I visited time ago regarding the early washers and a museum, the website is the one from which the first link was took from (didn't notice of it), and it is about a great washing machine museum...

http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/sprg_99/cox/wash_mach.htm

 

[kenmoreguy89]

lee maxwell's washing machine museum:

http://www.oldewash.com/

 

[launderess]

"Megalomaniac"? "Megalomaniac "?

Watch it pal, them's fighting words!

Have several vintage commercial and domestic laundry manuals from circa 1900's through 1930's and they all in one form or another state what we could consider H-axis washing machines gave better cleaning performance than top loaders with central beaters, suction cups or any of the now long gone other methods of agitation.

Wringer washing machines with central beaters were actually one of the few top loaders to give good results. However much of that lies in the fact one removes laundry from the tub and wrings it into another, thus leaving soils, soap, and other muck behind in the water. OTOH top loading washers that drained water through the bottom of the tub and hence strained it through the wash gave poor results unless the laundry was rinsed several times.

Since the idea of modern commercial laundries began with machines powered first by steam then electric motors the main design for washing machines has been the H-Axis washer. The tubs may have been made of wood and the machines didn't extract but that is another matter.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Well if really so I would retrieve my "charges " to

Ok since I really do not know the real existence and cannot see these phantom manuals, I just have to say okay.....it will be.... of course would be nice to see them.....maybe next time I get in NYC we could take a coffee and you could show me these manuals, what you think? Laundress? I would offer the coffee of course!
Anyway I think everything lies in the machines given in those manuals, it would be nice to see which were those machines and especially the ones that we could consider "H axis" and how they worked, so of course the agitator models took as sample, and of course also the very doubtful statements about being better....
They anyway were machines of the 1900...
Please tell me if I'm wrong but sounds like you said that the good wash of the central beater ones lies thanks to the wringer and "rinses"? I'm right?
Well if so...I just have no words with wich I could go ahead with you, really, it would really mean I'm only loosing time here. As I'm starting to think I'm doing at times....

Anyway..... in this thread and website I've read every sort of idea and opinion, also very laughable statements at times......
There's who say agitators washers are better, there's who say h axis are better, there's who say they're the same thing.....
Well what to say at this point......I don'think that americans would have looked or liked and so seeked for poorer machines rather than for better machines in terms of cleaning, it would be like saying that americans didn't understand anything in the past about clean....... I don't think so!
As I don't think they would not have looked for machines that costs less to run if they were as good or even better.
I mean if those h axis were better as you say so why they didn't caught on like in europe for example (where h axis were mostly preferred for the littlest consumption rather than for cleaning)?
Why they didn't become the only type since the early days?
I mean the strongest and more advanced country of the world where the majority have been uneffective washing machines is a thing that is a little a non-sense, don't you think?
Anyway, we have already turned this disccussion too much "off topic"......

[this post was last edited: 8/10/2012-19:59]

 

[e2l-arry]

THEY LEAK

They didn't hold as much, they vibrated like hell in the spin cycle and they leak. A neighbors Laundromat leaked so bad there were puddles of water all over the basement on wash day. That was the slant model. Then I had friends that bought the stacked set in the late 70's. After 4 years that one leaked. They were always trying to patch the baffle between the tub and the door to no avail. This one was in a utility room on the main floor so they had to get rid of it. I think they just got an overall bad reputation and people stopped buying them.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

I believe

I believe that front loading washers and HE detergents made a comeback in the late '90's.