Swedish Kitchen Advert - 1973

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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It's not Mary Hartman - I mean, she's a fictional character of course (played by Louise Lasser on the American TV show of the late 70's).

I just came across a posting of a real estate ad from the late 30's in Stockholm for a rental flat with a.... wait for it.... dishwasher. I find that hard to believe, even for a luxury flat.
 
Evalett Washer 1953

Washer with very unusual dryer - its not a spin dryer bu rather uses water pressure to compress the inner "drum" forcing water out of the clothes

The washer must be tiny but even so I would be wanting more water than that in the tub, otherwise every surface in the kitchen would get washed as anyone with a Hoovermatic would know :)

 
Evalett washing machine:

Isn't it odd that she changes the direction of the coupler after the laundry has been dried in that extractor? Is there space for holding the water that is used for extracting? Or doesn't use it any water at all for the extraction process? Does it rely on the simple build up of pressure? Intriguing!

BTW, love that sink with the lower opening at the front. You still see those now and then in Scandinavian houses.

Surf commercial:

At 7:50 into the video we see the Bohus washing machine from this thread:

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?89261_9~1

Look at the rinse water level at 830!

Detergent Advert:

The washing machine is most likely a Miele 420. It has the square window design for the timer. The later 421 and 421S had a round window.

Luvil and Corall were/are detergents from Unilever. Corall's name has been changed to Corall.

Luvil was never sold in The Netherlands, Biotex was the only soak and prewash detergent here.

Osby commercial:

Now that was modern at that time. Make a reservation by calling with your Ericophone!

Wonderful washing machines with a card reader for several programmes.

After stretching the sheets she uses a cold mangle.

One of the signs that the video is from before September 3rd 1967 is that the cars are still driving on the left side of the road.

New and useful products for the home:

There's a lot of cooking with ready made products going on!

The Philips handmixer was the first they brought onto the market. That was in 1959 IIRC. I still have two of those with the top in grey. They were also available in green and yellow and perhaps in pink too, but I'm not sure about that. With 85 Watts and only one speed they were rather anemic. A miracle they can handle those potatoes, I'll have to give that a try too sometime! It's the first time I saw it with a rack to hang it on the wall. I'm sure my grandmother's didn't have that, she always kept it in the box.

Thanks for posting all these Al!
 
Louis

It seems that the Evalett uses the pressure of the water to force water out of clothes, the tap valve allows the vessel to first fill up with water (this is not rinsing) and then changing the valve allows the water to drain using the venturiie principle avoiding the need for a pump.

I thought that was the Bohus washer that we recently saw, it looks like a really interesting machine.

I have one of those Philips mixers in my collection, I must give it a try!
 
More detergents

Interesting to see that 1960 kitchen early on in the video, and I have never seen and iron like that before with the removable cord, I wonder if the temperature control is in the connector, it seems very large otherwise. And of course a Philips iron too.

I am not sure I would like to have to do washing in the bath although I have heard of it before, particularly sheets which would be allowed to soak for a while and then tramped, rather like grapes. Double benefit - clean feet too!

 
For comparison ...

This was from an ESB Country Living exhibition back in the 1960s sometime. I think 1961 may be the wrong date, as the washing machines featured are slightly later. It is soooo much starchier than the Swedish film clips!

ESB was (and still is) the state owned power utility, and back in those days it regularly ran 'Ideal Homes' and 'Country Living' shows to sell, what were then new concepts, for homes - obviously featuring lots of electric appliances, which they both sold through their retail store network and sold energy for. There were other appliance stores too, but ESB had them in every small town and you could 'put it on the bill.'
Most households bought appliances using hire purchase agreements and the repayments were just added to their power bill.

Incidentally, the presenter went on to be the Mayor of Limerick City - lots of images of her greeting JFK a few years later. For some reason she always reminds me a bit of Endora from Bewitched the way she speaks and is styled in this, but she'd have made Hyacinth Bucket panic looking for the Royal Doulton with hand painted periwinkles.

(When she was Mayor of Limerick: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzPXh2SWoAMVYL_?format=jpg&name=large)

Skip to 1:30 -- there's a lot of random footage of people at a horse show first in the intro!



Also btw, we used 'Schuko' outlets back then (and some old style UK round pin type) both were replaced with the present day rectangular pin type from sometime in the late 1960s. Some unfamiliar fittings around that kitchen.

It also features what is known here as 'the hotpress' (press was a large cupboard, an old word that survives in use here). So, hotpress = heated cupboard = airing cupboard in the UK.
All cupboards / closets in Ireland are known as a 'press'.[this post was last edited: 4/30/2022-08:55]
 
Removable cord

Alistair,

No, that removable cord didn't have a built-in thermostat. It looks like an old fashioned iron without a termostate, just plug in and unplug it when it's hot enough. The contra plug is a universal plug for appliances. Many appliances came without a cord, so you had to have one of these. It was used on all kind of appliances, we had them on vacuums, toasters and like here on irons. Many people also used these as an extension cord. Because the pins of normal plugs were too small to keep them attached, people used elastic bands to keep the plugs together. Ofcourse that meant a fire hazard as many people experienced. Therefor the introduction of a new type of contra plug in later years.

The little Philips mixer is fun to use when you have loads of time! It's one of the most anemic mixers I have ever used. Only worse was a small Philips one with only one whisk, that was meant for stirring sauces.

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Not to go way off topic, but it was an Schuko implementation of what is known as a 'Cooker Control Unit'.

There's a lever/rotary switch on the right hand side of the device, which you pulled down to switch on the power. The fuse was there to protect the socket at 16amps max.

They were a combined unit that provided an isolating switch for the cooker (either 32 or 45 amp) and a switched socket, usually used for something like an electric kettle, or perhaps some other cooking appliance like a skillet or a deep fat fryer that needed to be near the cooker.

With present day BS1363 plugs (the UK type), each plug top carries an individual fuse. So, you can connect the sockets to higher rated circuits and the appliances are still all fused to 3, 5, 10 or 13amps depending on what's fitted in the plug. However, with Schuko being unfused, the regulations, even back then, required a local fuse to protect the socket as it was connected to a 32amp (or even a 45amp) circuit. So there's a Diazed fuse on the device.

Modern version, actually not used here, as we no longer allow sockets on a cooker circuit, but they're common in the UK and in pre 1980s installations here.

I remember the Nilfisk GA70 you've posted above! My grandmother had one for decades and it *still* works! I think it must date from the 1960s sometime. The removable cord was always a standard feature of those machines and the models that came later in the 80s continued to use a modern IEC connector.[this post was last edited: 4/30/2022-11:07]

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The main reason for it was that old flexible cords were extremely prone to fraying and breaking. So they had to be easily replaceable / maintainable.

I wouldn’t be surprised in this day and age if a large % of small appliances would end up being disposed of because of a minor fault like that.

Nilfisk was probably the only commonly found Scandinavian appliance here back in the day. I remember encountering a pair of older semi commercial ASKO machines running in a canal stop services area. You operated them with a smart card into a meter on the wall.
 
In the Netherlands vacuums with a connector were often sold with a Draka cable, a rubber coated cord in one part. It was supposed to be more durable, but eventually they deteriorated as well. Draka was a Dutch manufacturer of all sorts of cables, later bought up by Philips and much later it was bought up by an Italian company.

Here's a picture of a Nilfisk on display with a Draka cord.

Picture from the Dutch "Stofzuigermuseum"

https://www.stofzuigermuseum.nl/de-verzameling/nilfisk

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Actually forgot, speaking of Sweden. I’ve an Electrolux Model 12 1930s vacuum in the attic, including its original wooden box and accessories.
 

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