In the EU/US wash times thread Louis made a very interesting statement: during the 50ies hot water availability (lack of central HW sys) influenced H axxis "leadership" in EU.
So I'd like to understand why V ax has ever been the main design in the US.
Commercial, non spinning H ax machines (side loaders)
appeared on both US and EU since 1920
Household wringer washers were "common" in the US, while in EU they were a rarity. So in the US "many" people had their agitator washers and get used to them.
Then came the time for automatics : the LAUNDERALL ...
maybe people were used to control and interact with their laundry while running... maybe it has been "simpler" and "cheaper" to produce a spinning V ax agitator washer (at those time there were very few electrical devices to solve design issues)....
To cut a long story short, the Launderall didn't become so popular. Later, in the 50ies even the BENDIX and the WESTINGHOUSE didn't invade the US market, otherwise they were even exported in EU, where wringer washers had just become quite common.
So here in EU it happened much later but faster : pratically we had a wide choice in the meanwhile : Wringers W, agitator/impeller twin tubs and non automatic&non spinning H axxis W.
In those times electrotech had improved, so it was mechanically simpler to upgrade old commercial H axxis hard mount washers with the spin feature. No more need of those beautiful but expensive control gears that run the Launderall .... for sure Bendix gave a lot of inspiration.
Could it have gone this way ?
Those are my own guesses, maybe I'm wrong ... can't have a 360° sight.... so I'd like to read your opinions
Carlo
So I'd like to understand why V ax has ever been the main design in the US.
Commercial, non spinning H ax machines (side loaders)
appeared on both US and EU since 1920
Household wringer washers were "common" in the US, while in EU they were a rarity. So in the US "many" people had their agitator washers and get used to them.
Then came the time for automatics : the LAUNDERALL ...
maybe people were used to control and interact with their laundry while running... maybe it has been "simpler" and "cheaper" to produce a spinning V ax agitator washer (at those time there were very few electrical devices to solve design issues)....
To cut a long story short, the Launderall didn't become so popular. Later, in the 50ies even the BENDIX and the WESTINGHOUSE didn't invade the US market, otherwise they were even exported in EU, where wringer washers had just become quite common.
So here in EU it happened much later but faster : pratically we had a wide choice in the meanwhile : Wringers W, agitator/impeller twin tubs and non automatic&non spinning H axxis W.
In those times electrotech had improved, so it was mechanically simpler to upgrade old commercial H axxis hard mount washers with the spin feature. No more need of those beautiful but expensive control gears that run the Launderall .... for sure Bendix gave a lot of inspiration.
Could it have gone this way ?
Those are my own guesses, maybe I'm wrong ... can't have a 360° sight.... so I'd like to read your opinions

Carlo