The Wash & Wear Cycle

[launderess]

Most if not all European FL's that do "boil" washes have some sort of cool down phase before spinning. This prevents set in wrinkles. But wash water temp has to be brought down gradually to prevent textile shock.

Some washers will drain the hot water from the tub and replace it with cold water in several batches. Others remove the hot water but have several fill/tumble/drain cycles where cold or warm water is added to gradually bring down temps.

Personally believe items washed in hot or super hot water should be rinsed in warm with perhaps the final deep rinse in cool/cold.

Remember to back in the days of laundry "soap", warm rinses were needed to get all the soap out of the laundry. Sudden drop in water temp would cause textile fibers to constrict and hold onto soap. Of course modern detergents do not suffer from this problem.

Launderess-+

 

[gyrafoam]

I also admit that I never use the PP or WW when provided. I think most wrinkles are set by leaving the clothes in the washer for a prolonged period of time after it has finnished its cycle. However, I almost always use a cold rinse. I have read that if the cold rinse water temperature falls too low, then the rinse is not as effective as a warm water rinse, but I have had no problem rinsing out the Fab detergent I currently use. I do remember (during a "back to nature" phase of my life) that one had to use a warm rinse to effectivly remove laundry SOAP from clothes. I was using "Ivory Snow" and it left a "high water" ring around the tub and agitator even WITH a warm rinse. Some of those old machines had hot spray rinses, such as Robert's Wizard because of the need to rinse away soap scum.

 

[frigilux]

Scott55405--- the 1960 Model 80 had one-touch multi-colored pushbuttons. There was no cycle dial. The rhythmic clickety-clacking sound it made as the cycle set up is what I miss most about it. I wish I still had the owners manual so we could scan it. It was a very cool machine. There was a hot-water saver toggle switch on the side, which reduced medium temp water to warm, and warm water to cold. It had the waterfall lint filter and a timed bleach/fabric softener dispenser, as well as a tub light. Oh, and a 100-decibel out-of-balance buzzer (at least it seemed that way).

It was a machine that required quite a few service calls over the years (although I suspect my mom was having an affair with LeRoy, the serviceman) but it was pretty high-tech for it's day.

 

[scott55405]

Frigilux, I'm familiar with the model you're talking about too. There was one at the 2002 convention. Save for the buttons and timer dial, it's not too different appearance-wise from the one I was thinking of, which was probably a step or two lower. Sounds like a fun machine!

Remembering machines like that now almost seems surreal when you think of what we have today...good thing collectors still have some around, or one might be tempted to wonder if it all really happened or was it just a dream!

 

[david]

Yes, Yes, Yes!

Yes Frigilux, I remember that machine-An aunt of mine had one in Rancho Cordova outside Sacremento(I have coast to coast relatives). It was the coolest Kenmore I ever saw. I believe it had a console lamp and a light inside the tub with white porcelain and a "scrubber cap". What a beauty, I thought. And it clickety-clacked the buttons on start-up(I accidentally started it up once) Thank God Aunt Marj was not the fly off the handle type. We washed daily the diapers of firstborn Robby, this was before the days of disposable diapers.

 

[kenmore1978]

Principle of Wash & Wear and Permanent Press

The treatment the original Wash and Wear cloth got and the later Permanent Press finish completed items got was designed to relax and release wrinkles when warm and stiffen to resist wrinkling when cold. Hence, the cooldown before spinning, and the slow spin to further retard wrinkling. But it's true that the dryer had more to do with de-wrinkling W & W and PP clothes. The big difference there is the cooldown at the end of the drying period that allows the clothes to "stiffen" in an un-wrinkled state. So the washer cycle "helps" to prevent wrinkles, but as Robert says, the dryer is where the "magic" really happens.

 

[re563]

If you pull up "archive.org" and in the search bar type in "Whirlpool", this is a video about "wash N wear". Of course it feature the Whirlpool Imperial with a time line dial of that era. It's pretty cool to watch as they have a cut away machine going through the "Wash N Wear" cycle of the time, but none the less very similar to today's PP cycle. I have to agree with most of the post on this thread. With today's all cotton or mostly cotton fabric's of today the PP cycle is really obsoulete. Looking at today's washers, and Having an HE3 in my laundryroom, I have a cycle on mine called "normal/casual". It's really the PP cycle just re-named.

 

[agiflow]

Nice WP set

That WP set on the "archives.org" is absolutely beautiful.That was another design they should have kept longer.

 

[scott55405]

I am downloading that movie now. That is the washer my great aunt had. I thought it was from about 1958. One of the east coast Whirlpool folks remembered it when I mentioned it once, but generally nobody remembers it because it was so short-lived, and ironically one of the most attractive machines they ever produced, one of those rare times they could have been almost on par with Sears. It was a neat machine. It replaced her 1948 Westinghouse Laundromat. She was still using the washer and the dryer that had matched the Laundromat at the time of her death in 1993.

 

[agiflow]

Yeah Scott,those were attractive designs WP had.The 52 Robert (Uni) has,the center timer dial that they produced for a few years and this timeline style model were IMHO some of the most beautifully designed washers WP ever made.Or anyone for that matter.