Frigidaire Jet Action washers. Ad say they made semi-automatic models. How did these work, please! Thanks, Greg
Today's P.O.D.
- Thread starter luxflairguy
- Start date
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That is an Australian machine.
That washer in the POD is VERY similar to the one I grew up with.
Ours had the same controls except had no water level selector - just a timer and 5 temperature buttons. Ours was the Deluxe. (Not rapidry.) It was the Multi-Matic mechanism underneath, but had the Jet Action agitator shown in the photo.
I'm not certain but I don't think Rollermatics were ever sold in Australia.
I'd love to know how old that advertisement is - that would tell me about what year our family machine was made.
Semi-automatics:
No timer, just a function selector - Wash/Off/Spin. (actually: Pulsate/Off/Spin Dry.)
Fill tub manually with a hose. Turn off taps when full.
Set selector to Wash.
If the model has a clockwork timer, set timer for Desired wash time. (Max 15 min.)
If model doesn't have a timer, it will start to wash when selector is set to Wash.
When Wash time is up, set selector to Spin to drain and spin. (again, set the timer if it has one.)
Repeat the process to rinse.
My round body Pulsa Matic has no timer, just the Wash/Off/Spin selector.
Ours had the same controls except had no water level selector - just a timer and 5 temperature buttons. Ours was the Deluxe. (Not rapidry.) It was the Multi-Matic mechanism underneath, but had the Jet Action agitator shown in the photo.
I'm not certain but I don't think Rollermatics were ever sold in Australia.
I'd love to know how old that advertisement is - that would tell me about what year our family machine was made.
Semi-automatics:
No timer, just a function selector - Wash/Off/Spin. (actually: Pulsate/Off/Spin Dry.)
Fill tub manually with a hose. Turn off taps when full.
Set selector to Wash.
If the model has a clockwork timer, set timer for Desired wash time. (Max 15 min.)
If model doesn't have a timer, it will start to wash when selector is set to Wash.
When Wash time is up, set selector to Spin to drain and spin. (again, set the timer if it has one.)
Repeat the process to rinse.
My round body Pulsa Matic has no timer, just the Wash/Off/Spin selector.
Thank you GIZMO...
I was curious about the Semi-Automatic myself...
Surely descended from when washers didn't fill themselves & required manual draining, and kept in production long after everyone else had gone Full-Automatic...
Thanks again...
-- Dave
I was curious about the Semi-Automatic myself...
Surely descended from when washers didn't fill themselves & required manual draining, and kept in production long after everyone else had gone Full-Automatic...
Thanks again...
-- Dave
Why did people choose semi-autos?
These were popular on farms with gravity feed, low pressure water supplies that didn't have enough pressure to operate a solenoid valve reliably. (Normal fill valves are quire unreliable at low pressure, might open and fail to close, as the water pressure is required to close the diaphragm inside.) It might take half an hour or more for each tub fill from a tank next to the house.
They were also a bit cheaper than an automatic, so some people bought them on price alone. My partner's family had a semi-auto Whirlpool belt drive when he was growing up, and that was in the suburbs. As you filled manually, if you forgot to turn off the taps in time, your laundry floor got a wash... He tells me it did happen, but only rarely.
Since household pressure pumps became common on farm houses, it became viable to use automatics.
We have gravity feed from a tank to our house, but the tank is up the hill so we have enough pressure. Not the same as mains pressure, but enough to operate our appliances reliably.
Rainwater collected on our house roof is piped to a lower (collection) tank, when it is full, we pump the water up to the supply tank up the hill. We do this maybe four to six times a year. We pump when (a) there is plenty of water in the low tank, and (b) there is plenty of space in the high tank and (c) on a sunny day - as our home is solar powered, we choose to do occasional tasks like this when we have surplus power.
Semi-autos disappeared by the 1980s except for twin tubs, which are still sold here in tiny numbers today.
These were popular on farms with gravity feed, low pressure water supplies that didn't have enough pressure to operate a solenoid valve reliably. (Normal fill valves are quire unreliable at low pressure, might open and fail to close, as the water pressure is required to close the diaphragm inside.) It might take half an hour or more for each tub fill from a tank next to the house.
They were also a bit cheaper than an automatic, so some people bought them on price alone. My partner's family had a semi-auto Whirlpool belt drive when he was growing up, and that was in the suburbs. As you filled manually, if you forgot to turn off the taps in time, your laundry floor got a wash... He tells me it did happen, but only rarely.
Since household pressure pumps became common on farm houses, it became viable to use automatics.
We have gravity feed from a tank to our house, but the tank is up the hill so we have enough pressure. Not the same as mains pressure, but enough to operate our appliances reliably.
Rainwater collected on our house roof is piped to a lower (collection) tank, when it is full, we pump the water up to the supply tank up the hill. We do this maybe four to six times a year. We pump when (a) there is plenty of water in the low tank, and (b) there is plenty of space in the high tank and (c) on a sunny day - as our home is solar powered, we choose to do occasional tasks like this when we have surplus power.
Semi-autos disappeared by the 1980s except for twin tubs, which are still sold here in tiny numbers today.
