Oh, I agree with Rick, the Surgilator is VERY aggressive. The electric version of pounding clothes on a rock! Like so many of the older designs, it was meant to get really dirty clothes really clean, back when much of America worked a farm or in a factory. Lots of jeans and overalls/unionalls. I had friends whose families thought using the same bath towel for a week was perfectly acceptable----scandalous!
Combine that Surgilator with Whirly's "brisk" agitation speed and you had aggressive cleaning!
Kenmore took great delight in promoting that Roto-Swirl. I remember the first ones I saw at Atlanta's big old Sears (on Ponce de Leon) years ago. Seems like those display machines were almost always a "pank" pair of LK's with multi-colored poker chips in them for pleasing visual display. I remember how the roto-swirls would move the chips in a circle as well as rolling them over. It does the same thing with a "normal" load of clothes. Put a load of stiff and bulky denims in though and it tends to just pump everything up and down with little roll over. None the less, they sold a gazillion of 'em, so something worked!
I don't know if I EVER remember a Whirly/Kenmore back in the day that did not suffer suds-lock. It was just "normal", kind of like water dripping down the door of a "Rustinghouse". Also, the main line detergents of the day were nearly all high sudsing, and most people in those days equated a good layer of suds with good cleaning. (My family "killed" a Unimatic with Tide, I mean it got choked to death! I can't tell you how many times I discovered it with the overload button popped out----but of course could'nt say anything for fear of being blamed for something! Motor finally burned out!.My Mother finally "discovered" (red box "Fluffy") All and along with a new '64 Multimatic, the problems stopped.)
Anyway, both agitators were a lot of fun to see in action.
