Today's POD

[rinso]

I always thought that some of the appliances from the Hotpoint division of GE often had better designs and ideas than it's GE sibling. Instead of a filter pan that had to be removed for loading and unloading, Hotpoint put their recirculating lint filter system around the rim of the tub which not only kept it out of the way, but cleaned itself as well. They also started out with better dishwashers that had food particle filters. Of course I'm speaking of the 60's and 70's designs, before GE turned them into a BOL subsidiary.

 

[peteski50]

Hotpoint!

I preferred the rim flo myself - we had the TOL 1977 model with the rear open lid and hand wash adjator - it was a great washer. I always felt the GE filter pan and mini basket only got in the way!
The hand wash adjator was a better choice in my opinion along with the rim flo!

 

[DADoES]

 
The glitch for RimFlo is obstruction of spray rinses onto the clothes.

 

[appnut]

Glenn is absolutely correct regarding impeding spray rinses. And I got to experience that with friends that had a Hotpoint rim flo.

 

[bajaespuma]

Look for them only in ads for they are Gone with the Wind.

Everybody needs to reset their Way-Back machines. When the Great GE Borg Collective assimilated Hotpoint, yes, they re-engineered the Filter-Flo system to flume into a lint recirculator lint filter, much like the one on the AW-6. In almost every other way they were FF clones.

 

Before that Hotpoint Silhouettes featured a lint filter pan(I would like to get my grubby little hands on many of them), very similar to the FF's except their water feeds came from a fountain inside the agitators.

 

But EuGene is right: many people (on this site and elsewhere) have said that GE used Hotpoint as a forum for beta testing a lot of creative and far-out ideas. I think it was a fine method for a corporation to experiment with new solutions for making their products better at the tasks they were designed for and more desirable to prospective customers.

 

In some ways it was similar to the more complex relationship between Kenmores and Whirlpools.

 

[launderess]

Hotpoint, Hotpoint, Hotpoint

Never paid much attention to them previously, more is the pity as they are a great bit of kit.

 

[washerlover]

Those fountain filter agitators are so cool!

 

[angus]

Another problem with any self cleaning lint filter was that if your washer drained into a sink instead of a standpipe and you weren't careful about always checking the drain or washed a particularly linty load, the lint would get caught on the crossbars of the drain and you would overflow the sink. Happened many times on our Kenmore. When we finally got rid of that one and switched to GE, the filter-flo pan was never an issue of being in the way. Easy enough to remove and clean and when not in use, rested on the inner side of the lid or on the top of the dryer. No more flooded basements...

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Guess if GE gave its stablemate a self-cleaning filter and made it look a bit fancier and attractive while offering a lower price, then people would be encouraged to buy the Hotpoint brand...

 

Of which I think in the way of that era of their washers and dryers and their ranges, and even the ice chute-featured side by side fridge, I thought Hotpoint had more competitive, elegant offerings...

 

Whirlpool and Kenmore may have also shared similar competition, albeit being the same stable-brands...

 

 

 

-- Dave