Square Door Hoovers

[superelectronic]

Classic Hoover water levels

What a great thread about such a good look!

The comments earlier about a decent wash level of water slightly surprised me as I personally was surprised when using a vintage Hoover A3350 (picured above) just how low the wash water level was - almost comparable to today's machines. Of course, Hoover's approach to water is a bit schizophrenic when you consider the super high rinse level. Was this more for good rinsing or load distribution I wonder? And would a classic Hoover have been more economical on electricity than other machines of the time (e.g. Hotpoint who had water coming 2-3" up the glass - 16 litres actually). Anyone got some historical consumption figures? Anyone want to get their bucket out and measure the drain cycle? Shades of retrospective Eco-guilt have me interested...

Toodleoo!

Al

 

[electron1100]

Water levels

Pah! i have never known a bigger marketing con than this new eco religion, it raises huge amounts of taxes for the goverment, allows greater control of the masses through guilt and indoctrination, allows energy comapanies to make huge profits without having invest in new equipment, it makes me mad to hear and read the shite that is pumped out from huge marketing companies for the govement so that they can brainwash the masses into beleiving this crap.
Wash levels, to get clothes clean you need to move them through water its simple, this why toploaders and older front loaders wash so well. modern machines (i have current model Bosch), wash for hours in a thimble full of water to only just achieve the same results......all so the water companies like South West Water for example dont have to invest in new water treatment equipment and can maximise the profits for their shareholders, it is disgusting, the utilities should have never been privatised, thanks Mrs thatcher, you old witch.

The hoover and other older machines rinse by dilution which why the rinse level is so high.

Bah! thats my rant over

Good evening to you all

Gary

 

[superelectronic]

Crikey - should just have stuck with general curiosity!

Eco and political debates aside, I'm still curious...and not necessarily slating high water levels - it is a renewable resource after all.

Al

 

[matchboxpaul]

How do Gary.

from chin-wagging with others on the forum, the production of posters with images and descriptions of machines seems to be the way to go. i will have to get to work in microsoft paint and hand them out at currys and comet etc. always one of those 'do it tomorrow things' unfortunately though.

The installation leaflet is great and was the first time i ever saw what the A3108, A3112 and A3114 looked like - discovering the entire series in one fell swoop. for some reason though, i didnt purchase it - was on ebay about a year ago. probably got too expensive.

keep ypur eyes peeled for more goodies and, again, heartfelt congrats on your new acquisition.

wonderful find!
cheers
paul

 

[electron1100]

A3110

Hello Paul yes a good idea poster prints etc........lovely lovely. it grieves me sometimes at work becuase i do not have the room for all the machines i would like to save, i wont say what some of them have been for fear of being lynched by an angry mob.

Hello Al sorry about my rant, but in my line of work i have to put up with guilt ridden people day in day out going on and on about "the planet" , CO2 footprint" "turn to 30" blah blah blah, it just annoys me when i see the affects this eco religion is having on people and how private companies are making a financial killing out of it

Manufacturers have had to adhere to the water levels set down in Europe otherwise of course they would not sell machines, Every machine sold has the "A" rating etc system splashed across it, an engineer was telling me about a certain "Beko" machine that takes 2.5 hours to do a 40 degree coloureds wash, the buyers were contacting Beko saying that there something wrong with the machine only to be told that wasnt anything wrong with the machine and this was normal, it may save water but what tumbling fabrics around for this sort of time does to them i wonder to say nothing of the poor old motor, ah well

Anyway this is a great website and sanctuary.

Cheers chaps

Gary

 

[seamusuk]

Beko

Hey Gary and all the normal 40 deg programme on the basic Beko is indeed 2.5 hours odd!. I tend to mention it if i sell one ! Strangly most ppl dont seem that bothered - as you say tumbling things for that time cant do then a lot of good !
Seamus

 

[electron800]

2.5 hours sounds about right for a modern machine from my ex

My whirlpool takes at very least 2.5 hours to do a 40 degree cottons wash. The instruction booklet says it should take 2 hrs 10mins at 40 and 2.25 at 60 but thats crap. In actual fact most full loads take 3 hours at 40 and longer if it gets out of balance on spin (which is most of the time). The manual also says it can only hold 5kg on a 40 degree wash and 5.5 on 60 or 95, even though these programmes, as far as I can tell, are actually shorter. The 1200 spin also leaves clothes slightly wetter than the Ecologic's 1000 spin and noticably stiffer due to poor rinsing.

 

[electron1100]

2.5 hours sounds about right for a modern machine from my ex

Christ these washtimes are ludricous, my Bosch takes 1 hour 48 minutes to do a stains extra/aqua plus 40 degree wash (I need the extra time and water to get my work clothes clean), my old Hoover A3308 takes just under an hour to do the same wash with excellent results everytime.

However if i add 6 litres of water (4 kettle fulls of water) to the Bosch and do a standard 40 degree wash it takes 1 hour 22 minutes with equally good results as the Hoover

Lets go to an even greater extreme my old Hoover twin tub, a wash takes 4 MINUTES! I joke not, the actual wash time is upto 4 minutes for cottons, obviously though that doesnt include the time it takes to heat the water which is about 20 minutes (cold fill) heating time would obviously less if i put hot and cold water in, add about 10 minutes for spinning and rinsing and the results are excellent!......

so where are we going with these ridiculous wash times

*shakes head*
Gary

 

[robm]

Water levels

This may throw some light on the water levels about in the 70's. Not sure's who's pic this was and I hope they don't mind me using it! Anyhow here is the Which report which includes a Hoover. The Electrolux I believe is the same as my S218T Zanussi.

 

[electron1100]

Hotpoint Microtronic SparkyMarky

Hello Mark i found this today and wondered if it was the correct soap draw front for your Microtronic

Gary

 

[electron1100]

Water levels

Hello Rob

thanks for the picture from the Which report, the Hoover 800 is great looking, i remember many years ago changing the bearings on one of these which was unusual on these machines (very common on the 1100s), it had an enamelled drum and tub.

Infact thanks to everyone whio has posted such great pictures of the various square door Hoovers

Lovely stuff

Gary

 

[sparkymarky1973]

Hi Gary

Thanks very much mate for that but unfortunately it's the incorrect one. I do really appreciate you looking for one and getting that one.

It unfortunately does not matter now as tragedy struck the other day with the microtronic and now it has passed away.

Thank you Gary
Mark

 

[superelectronic]

Tech specs

Hello again...

Gary - there's nothing wrong with a cathartic rant or a robust opinion! It seems many share your frustration with modern machines with long cycles and too little water. A 2006 Indesit I used recently certainly seemed to produce a lot of lint on my shirts even on a short cycle so I guess they're a bit rougher on clothes. My usual machine on the other hand is a water-hogging Proline and goes a bit too far the other way - and it's only good housekeeping to have a bit of efficiency in a machine. It's been said here somewhere European ratings put paid to my dream machine, the Hotpoint top loader so I'm not too happy about that (this may well be a new/resurrected thread when I get some pics from home to contribute...am I in good company there?)...anyway, I'm in no rush to turn to 30 or rinse in a heavy dew.

I take it I can enter Cornwall without being burned at the stake!

Rob M - thanks for digging those figures out. As I thought, Hoover was relatively miserly with the 'leccy by comparison and I'm pretty sure this continued into the 90s (contrasting the Hotpoint 95s with the equivalent (Eco)logics for example). Have you any idea what the low and high fill levels for your Electron 800 are? My guess is somewhere around 10-12l low and 24-27l high. Seamus's earlier post states max hot water consumption was 14l and bearing in mind hot wash programmes used hot fill only, this kind of supports it...and is pretty economical really. Incidentally, does anyone know if the Ecologics actually used a reduced water level or just cut out the cool down - I seem to remember the water saving was only something like 10% (11 or so litres)?

BTW Rob - I was tickled to view your photo collection - seems we collected the same brochures! Hotpoint 92 - now that's when a brochure was a brochure - money shots on every page! And from looking at the vids of your rather handsome Zanussi, I don't think it's quite as extravagant as the Electrolux in the details above - rinse level looked normal...unless it does 6 rinses maybe!

Bye for now...(hope you're not finding my quest for tech specs too obscure!)

Al

 

[seamusuk]

Mark

Hey mate what happened :-(
Seamus

 

[electron1100]

Mark

Ah well no problem matey, i would have taken the whole machine if i had the room
poor microtronic
Gary

 

[electron1100]

Tech specs

Hello Al of course you are welcome in Cornwall, if you are here i might show you my very water thirsty Hotpoint timeline toploader doing a splendid wash.

Gary

Thank christ most of the guilt ridden trendies that annoy me live in St Ives

 

[electron1100]

Hoover A3110

Have been sorting out the A3110 I brought back from work, so far i have changed the Motor brushes, Drive belt, Replaced the suspension (git of a job), used copius amounts of de-rust, re-rivetted the base on and de-fugged the soap drawer and used ACDO washing machine cleaner to de-fug the rest of the machine, i need to source some rear wheels as the originals are like doughnuts and totally useless, oh and I changed the pump, i thought it was noisy and when i checked the pump it turned to be a modern magnetic type thing, so that went straight in the bin and a nice old quiet Hoover pump went back in.

Not too bad so far

Gary

 

[rolls_rapide]

"...nice old quiet Hoover pump went back in. "

Ahhh yes, the "Shaded-Pole, Self-Cleaning Vortex Pump", as used by Hoover (and Hotpoint too, but I presume that was later on, when Hotpoint made their own machines?)

 

[electron1100]

"...nice old quiet Hoover pump went back in. "

Yes thats the one, lovely and quiet, i have a modern Bosch and whilst the motor is quiet that uses a noisy cheap magnetic pump :-(

I have filled the machine with sound deadening pads and damping which makes it super quiet but that pump still drones away

 

[sparkymarky1973]

MICROTRONIC DEATH

Hi all

What happened was the internal cold water hose which goes from the inlet valve to the soap dispenser drawer came off at the dispenser end when it was filling. Our cold water has high pressure so you can imagine all that pressure in a tiny hose. Water sprayed all over the inside of the machine soaking all the electrical components. And "piff" "puff" "poof" the machine was dead. I was left with a flood and a machine dead and stinking of electrical burning with a bit of smoke added in!

I was very lucky to have come in not that long after it happened otherwise it would have been a major flood!

Im not embarresed to admit that I did have tears in my eyes as I loved that machine. So flexible in its programmes, 4 rinses etc etc. I will really miss it.

The only good thing to come out of it is that I now have a "spare" whole for another machine. I intend to get another old Hotpoint if I come across one as I dont now have an old Hottie front loader. I expect it wont be of that vintage but who knows.

Mark
x