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UM twintub

A very fun machine and by favorite twin tub ever.  Made for commercial full service car wash towel operations.  You could have 2 loads washing and one in the rinse/extractor compartment simultaneously.  The rise/spin unit leaves towels soap free and nearly dry.  Earlier models had WP style surgilators in the wash tubs. 

Good find and thanks for posting.

WK78
 
Years go spoke to someone who was a commercial laundry consultant (people who design, plan and so forth commercial laundries) and he said these units were popular with more than car washes.

Hotels, motels, restaurants, and so forth loved them because you can whiz through quite allot of "small" laundry. Napkins, shirts, small table cloths, etc... can be processed and ready for ironing by either hand or machine. Towels and wash cloths ready for the dryers fast as well.

Sadly for anyone considering home use of these units they do not run on standard 120v current. Rather 208v-240v, but think they are single phase at least.

The rinsing cycle takes page from the old Easy TTs in that a fine spray of clean water comes out of the center post.
 
Vuz chust gonna say, Launderess,

That years back, you had one of these up that had unmistakable Surgilators, and a perfect replica, though larger, of the Classic Easy spray cone. This cone looks way different as do the Speed Queenesque Agitators. Never forgot how exciting it was on seeing the Whirlpool Easy Hybrid.

Who owns Unimac, etc., allowing them to use the patented Surgilators and spray Cones ? Whence came the changeover? Does another company make a similar unit or only Unimac? Any and all info on these confounding matter is much appreciated.
 
I did some research online as soon as I saw this thread, because we have some of the original models here in town at car washes that have the Surgilators. When I first saw those, I too was stunned --- I thought sure the machine was home made and the maker had scavenged the surgilators and other obvious home washer parts from scrap machines.

But, such is not the case. There are apparently several generations of the Unimac UM202, which have been in production since 1985. The model 1s used the Surgilator until 1994, and later model 1s used what looks very much like a belt-drive gearcase. Later model 2s and 3s use Speed Queen agitators and transmissions and the parts diagrams have Alliance logos on them. There is even a transmission conversion kit from one configuration to another.

I'd love to know why they selected Whirlpool's black bakelite agitator in the mid 1980s when so many others could have been used that were just as available.

One of these would be fun to use!

Gordon
 
Before they had Surgilators, they had Maytag Gyrators in the wash tubs. Small dry clealer/laundry establishments used these also. I remember one on North Decatur road near Emory University with one of these visible through the plate glass window from the street. A very important part of the rinsing is the inline water filter. Jeff had a service call on one with a clogged filter. The place tried to use the machine without the filter and the laundry had terrible streaks etc. spun into the load.
 
UniMac UM202s

These machines go back to the early 70s and probably long before. The earlier ones as Tom mentioned used MT wringer washer agitators and the MT WW transmissions. At some point in the 1970s they added a high post to the MT WW T and extended the agitator shaft and put in the WP Surgilator Agitators, this was done to increase reliability over the MT design which was too prone to water getting into the transmission with their cheap to build Low Post design.

 

UniMac is now owned by Alliance Laundry Systems, owner of Speed Queen and they now use a SQ transmission and agitator. My brother Jeff worked for a company that sold and serviced these in the 1970s, most were used in places like car washes where they constantly had to be cleaning towels and rags, often they were used damp so they usually only had a home sized gas dryer for what little they needed completely dry.
 
This is fascinating!

So these machines have used Maytag agitators and transmissions, Whirlpool agitators and transmissions, and now Alliance/SQ. That's pretty cool.

Here is a link to parts lists for the UM202 models 1, 2 and 3. The model one lists the dates when changes were made surrounding the WP agitator, etc. Click the table of contents tab, then click the line items on the list.

http://www.pwslaundry.com/files/manuals/Alliance-Manuals/F232115.pdf
 
Not quite sure about how this works form the point of view of patent law. You don't open up a Maytag and see a Surgilator in it--unless it's one of ours (mirth), so how can you open up a Unimac and find a Surgilator, a Gyrator? Yes, an SQ agi, but they own them now, etc.

Any Enlightenment?

In any case, Unimac sure knew how to pick agitators, and on that point, I have always thought that the short shaft of the Mytags provided a lower center of gravity and was responsible for the intense power of the Gyrator and was a better rather than worse design. Indeed, the Whirlpool adopted the style for the direct drives of the vintage in the pic below.

Once, using my first Easy when I was 28, I fell asleep during the rinse, and woke about an hour later, only to discover that my formerly spotless white load was now speckled in brown. I quickly learned about the back door filter and keeping a clean cloth in there. Don't favor polka-dot outfits.

mickeyd++6-26-2013-12-35-43.jpg
 
"Mytags" (chuckle) and so they are!

Also fascinating and edifying to realize that conventional, "hands-on and in" laundering is still alive and well, even in industrial settings. I'll start hawking car-washes and asking around, since I haven't had the good fortune of seeing one of these in the flesh before.
 
MickeyD....I always thought the kickass of the gyrator was more from the solid non flexing vanes....and combined with the unique shaped tub....at least for the wringer machines, there seemed to be good agitation from the automatic even with the clutched belt, keeping with the solid vane and filtering undertoe, minimal loss.....then with the powerflex, not quite the kick we were used to....am I wrong?

makes you wonder into the future, long after most of us are gone, what will the AWO group have in their collections, there is gonna be a point of the vintage we have today will be just a memory.....can't help but think for good washing and rinsing, these unimac/twintub machines will be the daily drivers for members....if they keep reducing water useage in the future for an automatic...
 
No H2O washing

To branch off on Yogitunes comment:

Imagine , no water cleaning on aw.org member's appliance list?
1.3 million polymer beads in Sheffield coming to you

 
That WP Surgilator in a square washtub must produce some fantastic currents of water. Dirt just doesn't stand a chance!

Shame a domestic TT couldn't be built along these lines today but guess the market isn't larger enough to warrant costs.
 

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