Solid tubs go to the beach
When we lived in a beach community, almost all of the families purchased second-hand washing machines and, because this was during the early Sixties, that meant that all of them happened to be solid tub machines. Being interested in washers I was aware of who had what and how they differed. We had, of course, a Filter-Flo, our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Petruzelo, had many machines because her son had many rental properties and machines for his mother, appeared as needed. The one they had the longest was a beautiful turquoise Rollermatic and it fascinated me with that "Jet-Action" pulsator in that bluish solid tub with the ridges. My Mom's best friend Connie, who lived further down the street had an old Hotpoint with the solid tub and the long-necked agitator. Pretty much all the machines were from the lower end of the model lines. I don't remember anybody complaining about sand left in the clothes. Nobody had a dryer, everybody line-dried their laundry in the sweet and salty shore breeze. Even the oversized beach towels left no trace in the tub.
I remember towards the end of our time there, Consumer Reports did a very thorough review of washers and did cite machines that were rated Poor at "sand disposal" and I do remember that those were solid tub machines that somehow made it to 1969. Never gave it a thought before that.
My Mother's only complaint with the Solid-Tub Filter-Flo was the lame recirculation that didn't work with a partial fill (she thought the whole lint-filter thing was an inconvenience and because it was a 1960 model where they switched out the metal filter pan with the plastic one {which was difficult to remove from the Activator post}) she didn't bother with any of it.
Mrs. Petruzelo was very satisfied with her Frigidaire; we know this because if there had been ANY issue, everyone on the street would have known about it.
When we lived in a beach community, almost all of the families purchased second-hand washing machines and, because this was during the early Sixties, that meant that all of them happened to be solid tub machines. Being interested in washers I was aware of who had what and how they differed. We had, of course, a Filter-Flo, our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Petruzelo, had many machines because her son had many rental properties and machines for his mother, appeared as needed. The one they had the longest was a beautiful turquoise Rollermatic and it fascinated me with that "Jet-Action" pulsator in that bluish solid tub with the ridges. My Mom's best friend Connie, who lived further down the street had an old Hotpoint with the solid tub and the long-necked agitator. Pretty much all the machines were from the lower end of the model lines. I don't remember anybody complaining about sand left in the clothes. Nobody had a dryer, everybody line-dried their laundry in the sweet and salty shore breeze. Even the oversized beach towels left no trace in the tub.
I remember towards the end of our time there, Consumer Reports did a very thorough review of washers and did cite machines that were rated Poor at "sand disposal" and I do remember that those were solid tub machines that somehow made it to 1969. Never gave it a thought before that.
My Mother's only complaint with the Solid-Tub Filter-Flo was the lame recirculation that didn't work with a partial fill (she thought the whole lint-filter thing was an inconvenience and because it was a 1960 model where they switched out the metal filter pan with the plastic one {which was difficult to remove from the Activator post}) she didn't bother with any of it.
Mrs. Petruzelo was very satisfied with her Frigidaire; we know this because if there had been ANY issue, everyone on the street would have known about it.
