Twin Tub Comparison Please.

[74simon]

Mickey/Louis/Peter

when I fire up the auto rinse, I find I get best results if the water level in the spin can 'sits' on top of the wash, if it's run too fast and flows over the top of the can it leads to a poor rinse - with less absorbent or large loads I keep it at a trickle, but one can get away with a faster flow with cottons.

Also, I try to load the can with bulky synthetics at the bottom, then bulky cottons, followed by light cottons and then light synthetics at the top - as heavier fabrics seem to soak up the rinse water more slowly, they tend to block the flow of rinsing water to items at the bottom.

I listen out for the sound the spinner makes as it switches on, if it sounds like it's picking up speed unevenly, it normally means that only the top of the load has been properly saturated, making the can top-heavy.

The spin mat does help a wee bit, as it can scatter the water flow, always use mine as I've had items catch on the water nozzle, also Hoovers had a reputation for small items escaping into the outer can, blocking the pump or jamming the can - easily fixed, though!

The spin can rinsing was never great on any tt though - Which magazine didn't rate any better than fairly good, istr auto rinse Hoovermatics only got 'fair'.

Your Easy is gorgeous, is it much larger than your other tts?

Louis - the Philips was built in the UK - the factory in Bradford originally built washing machines for Ada, either Philips bought them out or took the factory over. The AEG (the Turnamat, I think?) was the only H axis sold in the UK, I find the concept a bit odd as it looks like it combines the inflexibility and long wash of an automatic with the effort required of a twinnie! Also regarding Dutch machines, the first sold by Rolls over here were exported from a Dutch manufacturer.

Peter - yeah, I believe the version with the rinse outlet was unique to Australia, shame, as it seems both sensible and easier to manufacture. It's funny how even though all worldwide versions have a strong family resemblance, there are lots of differences between them all depending on which continent the machine was built on!

Simon

 

[vacbear58]

Philips

Cheers for that nugget of info. Simon, I wondered about the Philips twinnie, and where it came from. As far as I recall there was only one model although it must have been around for 7 or 8 years. I wonder also if it was designed by Ada but did not make it to market under their name - the drain mechanism seems to have been "borrowed" from Hotpoint. A well featured machine its a shame it never had the popularity of Hoover/Hotpoint/Servis.
Al

 

[launderess]

H- Axis Twin Tub Units

Were simply a variation upon the "washer & extractor" system of early washing machines, and indeed used and continue to be in use for commercial laundries.

While washing machines appeared early, electric power, much less powerful enough motors and other parts required to make them automatic, and or extract did not come until later. So one washed and rinsed in one machine, water drained (or not), then the wet laundry was transferred to an extractor to be spun out. Until extractors came about, or if one did not have such a machine, the laundry would be put through a wringer (mangle).

 

[mickeyd]

Simon, your diagnosis makes a lot of sense

Indeed, the loads would spin unevenly and I "intuited" that a powerful fill would yield best results. So much for that. ;-> Next time, I'll follow your lead in loading, but most of all in water pressure adjustments. I knew I was doing something wrong and guessed that the UK, Headland of TT's, would have a brother who knew. Thank you.

The Easy washes 9 pounds and holds 18 gallons of water. Unlike most other machines, the wash tub's upper levels are not used. The agitator sits rather low in the tub and the load line, while high on the agitator, is only about 2/3's of the way up the tub. Again the rinsing is superb, full and multiple saturation of each item with 1560 needle sprays squirting out at 900rpm's.

We didn't really have TT's in the US till the Hoover was produced. Unless you count the Dexter Twin Tub, which was effectively a real TT with identical washtubs and a wringer, but ironically, not at all a TT as we have come to know them with a small spinning chamber attached to a larger wash tub.

The Easy is only called a TT retroactively. A true one of a kind, it was known simply as an Easy Spin as far as I know.

Simon, what brands did Which magazine rate as fairly good?

 

[launderess]

Mickey

You can read the entire Which ratings for twin-tubs over on the Hoovermatic site at Yahoo.com. Think you'll have to join the group, but that it pretty easy.

IIRC, there are two issues on file.

 

[launderess]

If the Which issues aren't on "Hoovermatic", they are on the "Twin Tub Empourium" group. It's been awhile since have been on either, but know the stuff is there.

 

[akronman]

buying in USA

Any twin tubs available in the USA besides the Danby DTT420?

 

[launderess]

Aside From Vintage Models

Am going to say with reasonable firmness, no there aren't.

Small portable automatic washing machines pretty much killed off the need for twin tub washers. While the Easy version could be considered "full sized", the Hoover and Maytag are a different story.

 

[mickeyd]

Thanks, Cimberlie, for the source. It should be good reading

A sharper lens would do a better job OR

When I get to Maryland, John has an Easy Spin with glass fronts and LIGHTS which would really illuminate the sprays. Maybe Jason would fire up the spinner and show us the show.

The spinner~

 

[mickeyd]

Under the nut

you can almost see the water level marker ---

 

[keymatic]

Philips...

Hi Al,
Not over sure, but i would say that Philips Twin Tubs ran for about 8 (1965 - 1973) as you say. There was only a standard & de-lux models, main difference was that the de-lux model had the controls raised at the back of the machine, and the std model just had the controls down the front. The De-lux also had the discharge arm as apposed to the std model whereby you had a hose out the back for the spinner and you plugged in a hose to empty the wash tub.
"borrowed from Hotpoint"...?
These were great machines and were built so robust, the one i have has 3 motors, wash, spin and pump.
If anyone wants any more information on the Philips twin tubs, i have quite a bit of literature.
Cheers
Keith

 

[keymatic3203]

Philips

Hi Keith,

I remember working on what I suspect was one of the 70s philips twin tubs, as the console was blue and would have matched the washers and dryers of the time, but seeing yours the tub deck and spinner were the same, but this one had two pumps running off the wash motor, so you could only run the spinner when the washer was on, the drain was via two seperate hoses coming out of the back and the washer had a spring loaded ball as a sort of stopper to stop the wash tub emptying itself.

Simon,

it's as if you'd been watching over my shoulder, yes I find rinsing in the auto rinse twintubs requires quite a slow flow of water, so as to soak through the clothes rather than run off the top, if this happens when it pumps out the water looks clear but most of it hasn't been been through the load. This may make the rinsing a minute or so longer but it's automatic and you can be pegging out the previous load lol, knowing it is rinsed through.

Has anyone, had any experience with the rinse tube in the AEG lavalux super, I saw one years ago but never so it in operation.

Happy rinsing

Mathew

 

[volvoguy87]

Very interesting.

I'm enjoying reading this, keep 'em coming.

Dave

 

[keymatic]

Morning Mathew,

I think the Philips twin tub you refer to could either be an early/mid 60's one or an early 70's, the latter i think..I have read somewhere that the standard machine (without the discharge arm) use the principal of ball & spring to stop the wash tub emptying.
I think the idea had previously been introduced by Frigidaire, i can vaugley remember seeing an promotional advertising video for the mastertwin(late 60's, not the killer heal's one of the 70's) showing this feature.
I see you mention about the Mk2 AEG Lavalux, i did have one of those machines about 5 years ago, I the rinising is really good, and part of me thought they had taken the principal from "Easy" twin tubs in the US, albeit minus the spray cone in the middle of the can. The big chrome arm was also a good idea, as it enabled filling of the wash tub as well, sadly had to get rid of it as it was a bit beyond restoring.
Cheers
Keith

 

[launderess]

I Told A Lie

There is one maker of twin (and triple) tub washer/extractor in the United States.

Pipe:

http://www.unimac.com/adv_pdf/au04-207.pdf

 

[74simon]

Mickey, hope that improves your rinses! My machine has been used to wash 3-5 loads twice a week over the last three years or so, so I've had plenty of time to experiment! I tend to do four rinses, with fabric conditioner in the last one. The water never runs completely clear, but I put that down to the spinner switching off while there's still water in the outer can, which I reckon leaves rinsed out detergent on on its surface until the final spin starts.

I believe that Apex also built a twin tub, both it and the Easy were either built under licence here or imported over and rebadged by two British appliance manufacturers.

My belief is that those American machines were doomed to relative failure as Bendix introduced their automatic at around the same time, with other makers joining in after the war. The 60s machines seemed to fill a niche in the States for a small and/or cheap machine. In the UK at the same time the market was not as affluent as the USA making automatics too expensive for most, but twin tubs were cheaper than automatics and much less work than wringer machines hence the huge popularity of TTs in the UK. They were seen as full sized over here too, being able to wash a load of between 3 and 7lb in one go, while automatics could handle 5-10lb, depending on who built it.

Mathew, likewise, I'm usually hanging stuff up as one load rinses and spins - love the auto rinse as it does make using the machine regularly much easier. A full spin can of heavy synthetics is a pain though, sometimes I have to leave the water on a mere trickle...

Al, I learnt about the Philips in John Bloom of Rolls fame's autobiography, I'll have to dig it out cos it's got quite a few cool facts in it - the stillborn Rolls automatic was to have been a rebadged Rex, and was to be called the 'Rolls Robot'!

Such a shame so few Philips's survive, it's very elegant, wonder why they stopped building it so early? Maybe to do with the-then upcoming safety regs about interlocks?

Si

 

[launderess]

Quite a few households one knew in the late 1970's had twin tub units, and they were still being sold in the United States until the late 1970's or mid 1980's IIRC.

Automatic washing machines did help kill off semi-automatic machines, sure; but wringers were being made and sold here well until about the 1980's even with the availablity of other machines.

Portable automatic and semi-automatic washing machines were always a niche market in the United States. Aimed at "young marrieds", those living in apartments, and so forth.

Given the relative large size of familes in post war USA, and push to move into the suburbs, small washing machines were shot of as a family could afford. The post war years also brought about something else, easy credit terms which made purchasing "major appliances" something most anyone with a job could do.

Full sized washing machines developed all sorts of designs to allow a housewive to do "small" loads as easily as large ones, thus again why have a small washer when you can have the flexibility of a large one?

 

[aquarius1984]

Out of the 3 UK manufacturers mentioned I feel the Hotpoint Supermatic is the best.

Looking at reasons given why it shouldnt be I feel most of those come down to us guys being over critical on our own part.

The height of the machine would be a problem for todays men but giving that the current average height of a UK female is 5'2 according to some quick Googling I just did, I suspect the average height of the 1968 counterpart may have been a few inches smaller.

The wash time of 12 minutes is perfect to prperly rinse the clothes in the spinner while the next load is washing without the housewife having to rush in a flap competing against 2-3 rinses in a hoovermatic to beat the 4 minute wash timer only to have to final spin cottons for 4 minutes anyway.

The HP auto rinse is the most even in saturation plus allowing for the pooloing of water on top of the load helps even more.

The wash times itself is more reasonable as 4 minutes in the Hoovermatic certainly wouldnt not remove stains, I think Hoover didnt really give the adverts promoting quickness any favours as one needed to fill the machine with hot (tap hot @ 60*c?) or cold water add the soap then the clothes and heat the whole solution up to 85 degrees for any detergent to benefit whites.
This process can take up to 40 minutes using hot water and certainly more using colder.

Subsequent white loads would not come out as clean or stainless washed in 4 minutes unlike the extra detergent solution contact in the Hotpoints 12 minutes.

I am also a fan of the filterflow especially where pet hairs snd fibre shedding items are concerned.
This feature puts it ahead of Servis in my books although the Servis has the wash times of the HP.
Not a problem in FL's but having washed the garment in a Hoovermatic the moment the action stops you get a crust of floaty crud atop the wash water which one must then drag out clothes through and re litter.

Not to mention the 3100rpm spin in the HP machines. A real boon to housewives even today.

 

[keymatic3203]

Though Rob

if the hoover is leaving a `crusty crud layer' then it's obviously an effective washing action lol.

Yes the filtre is obviously a good idea for lint and pet hair etc, though I find planning the sequence of loads is the key.

As for rinsing i think whatever the machine, it's down to the users skill and judgement as to the results obtained.

You won't be keeping the Hoover then lol.

Mathew

 

[launderess]

Best Set Up IMHO

My vintage BD Whirlpool portable with the Hoover's spin basket, failing that another separate extractor.

While the Hoover *may* hold more than the Whirlpool, this is only due to no center agitator. However the Whirlpool's wash action is far more through (IMHO), and less hard on fabrics. Best of all no tangles.

Hoover says leaving items in the wash longer than the maximum four minutes on the timer is what causes tangles. However some stains or soils won't shift in a short amount of time.

The Hoover can clean well, but you need a good strong and low sudsing detergent. Forget about enzymes because your wash won't be in the tub long enough to benefit. Instead stains should be pre-treated before than to get things started.

Rinsing in the Hoover.

There are as many schools of thought on this as there are grains of sand on a beach! *LOL*

Am almost certain the directions in the owner's manual for my TT states to saturate laundry totally, and until one can see water just over the wash. Doing this however have been "set straight" by some who say this will strain and eventually kill the motor as it has to cope with pushing out all that water. Also the spray of water from this method can lead to rusting out of inner parts of the machine if water goes down that way.

OTHO having to move loads between wash tub, spin basket, back to wash tub (after filling with fresh water), is time consuming and back breaking work if one has several loads to get through. Not to mention if one is rather obsessive about rinsing, having to drain that wash tub and add fresh water for each load adds yet more time. All this while the Hoover is making enough noise to wake the dead.