The history of Electrolux Wh 1085 + 1095 + siimilar models under name Elektro-Helios& Husquarna

[fredriksam]

In 1982 in Sweden a machine named Electrolux Wh 1085 began selling. The machine was made in France. It was made by Arthur Martin at the Revin factory France. The spin speed was variable between 400-1000 rpm. The machine had three dials. One for program, second temperature and third spin speed.

The program dial was "free" so you could turn it forward or backwards when setting the program you would use. It was then a motor inside that moved the dial, but only when there was power to the machine.

They used an idea Philips had made on their machines when spinning, Start the spin when there were full of water. The Electrolux didnt go directly to spin speed but stayed on distribution speed for a while before going up in speed.

It was also special machine for Sweden because it was the first one to have 95 celsius wash as an option. Before that all machines in Sweden did only 85 Celsius on boil wash. Even Miele did only 85 celsius in Sweden. That was made at the swedish part of Miele manufactuers who installed an Thermo-stop for swedish machines.

The biggest swedish detergent maker Via was very big at the time. Now these days they still are big but not as much as then. If you used Via on 95 earlier than the new detergent the machines oversudsed.

This machine was also the first one sold in Sweden with the economy program. No other machines sold there had that before. Indesit machines had something called bio but that wasnt the same thing.

The Electrolux WH 1085 become very soon an very big success. On most newly builded houses this was the machine they installed unless the buyer wanted some other machines installed.

As said before the machine sold very well, however they soon discovered there was some problems with the electronic boxes in the machines. Electrolux and Swedish consumer firm Konsumentverket signed a contract where they fixed the machine for free if it was the electronic boxes that was the problem.

The machine was replaced with WH 1095 in 1983. That model had a much different electronic box and also the highest spin speed was 1100 rpm instead of 1000.The WH 1095 become Electrolux big flagship in Sweden until the WH 280 came in 1988

I have used an Electrolux WH 1095 at a workplace where me and some others were cleaning buses. We washed our working clothes in the machine and also some small plastic mats that were in some buses. The machine was great even if the bearings were abit bad. The macine was still working when i stopped working there in 2000

The machines were also sold under different names. Elektro-Helios EH 1090 and Husquarna Excellence 1100. These two machines had only two dials. The variable spin speed was not on these. However the Husquarna had a button for reduced speed. If the button was pressed it did only approx 600 rpm on cotton programs.

 

[fredriksam]

There doest exist many videos of these machines but i have found three videos of such machine.

First one is from Maturasigma. It says WH 1095 on it but everything is editical to the WH 1085 so probably its a WH 1085 but with wrong number on it. For example. The fluffing after spin. On WH 1085 the pump was not on when it did the fluffing. It was however on when the WH 1095 variant did the fluffing. Its a good video showing the machine really good.



The next videos is from an model that wasnt sold in Sweden.Its an Husquarna Electronic 1150 alias QW 1150H. One video is from The Laundry Centre whlle second is from Hooverlux Restorations. Its great full lenth videos. This model have only one dial that regulates what temperature and program the machine does.

 

[statomatic]

Great machines, I like the look of the Husqvarna.
The 80's was the finest of French appliances engineering, sadly quality started turning down in the 2000's and nowadays real French appliances have almost disappeared.

Here's photos of the Artur-Martin 787.10 and the Lincoln LFL565.
Some models have a classic timer dials with an Ako P10100 timer and some have the easy to turn dial with a two motor Sibel timer (some Thomson machines also uses this).
My toploader Arthur-Martin 792.08 has this cool feature.

 

[miele4life]

thank you so much for reminding us about these 80’s rarities and for going into great detail about them as well, they still look smart and classy today, especially the Husqvarna versions, they’re certainly great fun to see them working too, these models also had an in-drum filter, I wonder if Zanussi-Electrolux were inspired by them for the early 10’s Flexidose models which also had it, I’m guessing the timescale of these models were from around 1982 to about 1988 or so when they were effectively replaced with Zanussi-based designs and the factory solely producing top-loaders by then, again, thank you for all the info, much appreciated

 

[fredriksam]

The machines were also sold with less spin speeds too. The one who had the poorest spin was WH 575 and it span at only 460 RPM.

I know something odd that happened of such machine. I worked with recycling and repairing machines. One day an older lady come in and wanted to buy a high spinning machine. She bought a Cylinda. She was asked if she wanted any help with transport and installation. She wanted us to drive to her home. Remove her old machine and install the new. It was ok so we did that.

When we come down to her laundry room i saw she had an Electrolux WH 575 that she wanted to get rid of. It looked very well used and she mentioned that the machine was moving around quite abit during spin. That sounded strange because these machines has very sturdy schock absorsers. Anyway we installed the new machine and took the older back to our job.

Here comes the strange thing. When we opened it we noticed the transit bolts were still in place. And most probably never removed. Because it was a low spin machine, it had survived the vibrations caused by the not removed transit bolts. There were bad electric contacts at some placed but we removed the transit bolts and fixed the bad electric connections and gave the machine to our cleaners who mopped the floors. They needed a low spin machine at that time. When the machine finally gave up after 8 years washing rags and mops it had really did good working for its lifetime.

 

[foraloysius]

BTW Fredrik, have you seen this thread:

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?85027_59~1

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hello all.

Thanks for the background info Fredrik, to this lovely range of machines.

1970s and 1980s Electrolux washing machines were always a rarity in the UK (from my experience) and all of them were cases of rebadging of other manufacturers products, with the original mid 1970s offerings being rebadged Zanussi's (WH30 and WH31) and the late 1970s offerings being provided by Creda (WH32 and WH34).

The offerings were changed in the early 1980s, with an overhaul of the range resulting in an initial 3 model laundry range:

WH1075 made by Arthur Martin
WH810 made by San Giorgio
&
WT40 tumble dryer made by Creda

A lovely range of appliances, very smart visually and very rare on the ground over here, although I remember that the next door neighbours of an aunt and uncle of mine had a WH810. Mustn't have lasted long, as it will have been new circa 1981 and yet it was gone between three and five years later.

I have attached the 1982 range brochure below ....

 

[matchboxpaul]

The WH1075 sold in the UK was a different version of the WH1075 that was sold on the continent, in that our model didn't have variable temperature of variable spin.

The WH1075 and matching WT40 dryer were part of a range of colour co-ordinated appliances, being available in:

White
Almond
Coppertone
&
Poppy Red

 

[matchboxpaul]

and the full kitchen ranges:

 

[matchboxpaul]

It was great news that the Husqvarna QW1150 was able to be secured for preservation recently, with Chris managing to secure it.

Brand new condition, it was a machine that I knew existed as a youngster, but never saw in the shops. Must have been a very exclusive machines sold through posh shops only? Certainly I never saw one in the likes of Rumbelows, Comet, Currys or the electricity board shops.

Was eagerly awaiting the videos of it in action and what a lovely machine it has proven to be.

The QW1150 appeared in the February 1984 copy of Good Housekeeping magazine - definitely on the expensive end of the spectrum!

 

[matchboxpaul]

We also had an 1100rpm version of the WH1075 ..... the WH1100.

Looks to have been visually identical to the WH1075, just with the extra 100rpm (image below).

Just a shame that we will never have the chance to see a WH1095 in the flesh over here. Ah well.

All the best everyone.
Paul

 

[miele4life]

I think those Electrolux’s in the different colours looks wonderful, I’d have the almond 1’s myself of course, Bendix and the later Tricity Bendix brand as well as Zanussi would offer almond coloured models right up until the year 2000.

 

[fredriksam]

Very cool scans for the magazines there Matchboxpaul. The WH 810 model by San Giorgio was also sold in Sweden but under the name WH 5515 instead.

The cheapest model in the Electrolux series under 1982 and 1983 in Sweden was the model WH 212. That one was made by Indesit and had only 400 RPM spin. Then least cheapest was WH 575 model. It was made by Arthur Martin and spin speed about 460-500 RPM.

The WT 40 dryer was not sold in Sweden. Instead we had an Blomberg made machine named WT 46. These were good but had overheating problems. It was later replaced with WT 55, also made by Blomberg.