Something interesting pulled me into the basement the other day...

[supremewhirlpol]

I pulled home another machine the other day, and it literally pulled me into the basement.

I have a riddle that provides key information about the machine that needs to be solved.

This machine falls some where between the "Mitty Mac" and the "Big Mac". What is the capacity, Brand, and manufacture year of this machine? The link to the video may help with the year and the brand.

Please fill in the blanks:

This machine is of ______ brand, model _______, of ________ capacity, made in the year _______, with a ________.

The first clue is below.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Here is the video link

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Here is another video that may help with the year, and the relative location of the brand.

 

[americansuds]

So the video is 1989, I am guessing that is the year it was made.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

1989? Not only 1989, but the videos are all UK groups. Yes the machine is made in 1989.

Here is another video. The rest of the answers can be found here with the exception of the model and the capacity. Watch it closely.

 

[askomiele]

Oké

blank 1: Primus brand, build in Gullegem in 1989?

 

[americansuds]

Is this machine one of Alliance's new products?

 

[supremewhirlpol]

askomiele: It's not Primus brand, but you get additional brownie points for living in Belgium. If I lived there, I would be at the Primus factory everyday!

americansuds:
Is this machine one of Alliance's new products?

well... The Brand is Ipso. In 2007, Ipso got gobbled up by Allinace, now Alliance-Ipso, so you now see Ipso Branded TL machines (yuck!), higher prices for Ipso parts, and timers for coin-op machines and other essential parts now NLA. So, I reject the Alliance and insert the Ipso. If you looked carefully at the setup of the machine in the Primus video, the machine has an additive injection system. My machine has one that is fitted to it as well.(more on that later) It is made by Ecolab! Now that we know who makes the machine, lets go on to get the model number and capacity. The following link has info on the later models.

http://www.claundry.com/washdesc03.htm

 

[supremewhirlpol]

The answer to the riddle:
This machine falls some where between the "Mitty Mac" and the "Big Mac". Mitty Mac refers to the WE73 machine and Big Mac refers to the WE234 machine. If you look at the last link, models WE234, and WE304 are too big to fit into a normal sized door way, otherwise, I'd find a way to get one of those. The model I have is WE165. The info on the site is specs on the later machines with bigger windows, which is incorrect for my year of machine. Here is the machine plate:

 

[supremewhirlpol]

If you look at the plate, you notice it weighs ~539LB. It was a pain to unload from the truck, and If you think your going to get it down some stairs by yourself, THINK AGAIN. I had to rent a stair climbing machine, and even with that, it was STILL a pain to get down the stairs. The climber was a help, but on the periods where there was nothing for it to grip, the extractor pulled me and my help(dad) down the stairs like gravity on steroids. We'd try our best to hold the extractor in place for the climber to grip the stairs, but the extractor just kept going DOWN, what a scary/dangerous ride! The machine is rated for 40LB. capacitiy, which I am still confused about why Ipso would rate it as 40LB, when they changed the newer models to 35LB. The machine does work, however, it has to issues that I am addressing. This machine has a additive injection system that custom fitted to it. The fittings that were punched into the drum show signs of leaking. The armature in the motor rubs against the inner part of the stator.(a separate thread on that) The belts need to be replaced. Several other things need to happen before the machine is installed. Machines this big have to be bolted down in 6 to 8 inches of concrete. I will also make a steel base to install this machine on so removing it for repairs, etc. will be easier. Here is a picture of the front of the machine.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

I also had to get a new handle, because the handle was just missing. There are apparently imposer handles floating around. The Genuine handle is NOT cheap, hence the plastic still on it. The other thing is that the wind blew off the top, ripped the hoses to the soap box all in one move, even though it was strapped down pretty securely. The top was irretrievable because it fell over the side of a bridge, which was a drop of several hundred feet. The machine is some-what wide, and it has a switch in the side for what looks like a starch cycle. Here is the back of the machine. Moving this machine across the floor is quite a work out, and it does weigh a little more than Primus W-10X^2. I have run the machine through a complete cycle, and they are longer. There is so far one thing that I HATE about this machine. That is there is no reversing relay. The tumble relay stays in, and the reversing timer does ALL if the work, that's VERY BAD!! I'm still deciding whether or not I'm going to change this.

 

[peterh770]

The switch on the side probably turns off the timer motor. When using starch, you have to let it tumble thru the clothes for a while, longer than the standard program will allow. It is an OPL machine, but probably has a standard coin-op timer in it that has a quick less-than-30-minutes cycle. With the switch, you can probably have a nice long wash, long rinses and long spin. Seems to me that these old Ipso's only spin out at 80g's.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

The switch on the side controls the water valves for the soap box. The soap door had a injector nozzle that went to the second compartment. When the switch is set to Starch, water only flows in the second compartment and not both compartments 1 and 2. Also this machine has a Starch button on it as well. When it is pressed in The timer advances to the main wash section, ativates the Ecolab injectors, drains, then advances to the last rinse, where a different pump is activated, and then the final spin. The machine has 2 rows of buttons. The first row are the cycles: 1. Hot wash with prewash 2. Warm wash with prewash 3. Synthetics with prewash 4. Washn'wear 5. Cold wash. The second row are the options: 6. Start 7. Starch 8. High water level with gentle wash 9. no spin 10. Advance button.

The cycle times are longer on this machine, as compared to the coin-op Primus, or the coin-op Wascomat P12 that I have. As far as timers are concerned, there is a difference between the Ipso timer for the Coin-op and the timer for the OPL machines. The Cycle motor and the gears operate faster in the coin-op version this timer is also NLA from Allinace(Thanks so much Alliance!). The OPL version has longer cycles, slower motors and gears, and inputs for injection systems. This timer is still available, but has undergone a price hike. They are now $500.00 to $800.00. I would not be surprised if these become NLA soon as well. Why can't Alliance be like Wascomat.

There is still lots for me to learn about this machine. Currently I am working on the motor, so I can't play with the machine any more until I get that done.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

The first major issue with this machine that I will tackle is the motor.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Given the above picture, there is only one safe way to remove the motor with the drum and basket assembly installed. The motor has to come out through the front of the machine. Removing motors from Gen 3,4 Wascomat, W series Primus, Dexter and some Alliance machines are a lot easier than this machine. The reason for removing the motor in this case is because the shaft does not turn freely, but instead stops abruptly with a deep grinding sound. SO LETS DO IT!!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

First the frame cross bar has to be removed. The bolts were a big pain to remove as they were super tight.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

cross bar removed; Next, remove the belts(2) slowly and gently and let the motor rest on the ground.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Remove the tension spring

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Then lift up on the motor tension bar and slide it out of place.