UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

And too have a look at Als latest treasures outside in the twintub room .

First up the Hoovermatic Twintub, its the rare model without heater and linked timer and no Auto Rinse, it sold for not a lot less than the De-Luxe 3314 of which sold extremely well. Not surprising given the price difference.

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

And this NIB New In Box Servis MK108 Supertwin twintub , never been used, first produced in 1978 so it celebrates its 45th Anniversary this year along with the 50th Anniversary of the Servis Supertwin MK2 & Autowash Models.

This model has the stainless steel washdeck (no flaking paint) and brown plastisol lids for durabilty , it also has the 3 top controls and indicator lights , you can actually boil, wash, rinse & spin continuously with this model.

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Now whats happened to the Frigidaire Mastertwin Twintub?

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

It was a bit parky out there for a full demo, and it worked beautifully until the 2nd spin when the re-set button on the spinner kept popping , turns out we need a new re-set switch (which someone happens to have ) but thats for next time !!

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Time for final dinner & drinks before we all leave .

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Big Thanks To Alistair for holding the March Meet and fabulous hospitality, food & drinks - Until Next Time, Bye For Now !!

 

[combo52]

Wow, the first big wash in of 2023

Looks like a great time for all. Thanks so much for documenting all this Mike and thank you Al for making this all happen.

Can’t wait to get back over sometime and see this in person

Does anybody have an English electric machine like in reply? 29 looks like an interesting machine.

Hope everybody stays well. These things inspire me to get back to work on our museum here it’s sort of got left behind during the Covid thing.

Thanks everyone, John

 

[beehiveboy]

Looks like a fabulously fun time indeed!

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Morning John, thanks for reply, always good to get back in touch with everyone and start a few more repairs. Hopefully can get over to see you and the museum now that family ties have changed !!

The machine in question is this one and actually one has surfaced recently with a fellow member , it was basically a spacemate but with the first type of crude electronics .

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Afternoon Paul, we did indeed and look forward to you visiting again this year with us all, anything new with you ?

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Heres the full video of the Hooverette Made Cordless.

Dr Mathew of the Appliance Surgery bought a new 12 volt vac motor and after removing the old mains 24v motor and a few different screws fitted it into the original casing , the wires for testing protrude out of the back
to a small lithium re-chargeable drill battery and recharge pack.

The testing proved great , lovely little vac, now to make a cover and housing for the lithium battery and fix it to the rear of the Hooverette.



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHwaitKhuUuW7SLPq9gXttw

 

[launderess]

Another fine meet-up with the lads!

Always fun to watch what you lot get up to.

Fantastic haul from appliance dealer closing shop. It's amazing what is still out there lurking in backrooms and on shelves.

Love the Pfaff sewing/emboridery machine. What model is it?

Have an older Pfaff 1209, Bernina Record 930 and Elna Supermatic which handle most of one's sewing and embroidery needs. Have been toying with getting modern fully computer embroidery machine, but don't know much use it would be.

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Meet Up March 2023 at Als Emporium

Morning Launderess

Yes we are still searching through the boxes of parts but yes its great we can find these treasures before they end up in the skip.

Jamies Pfaff Sewing machine is the new AI Pfaff Creative Icon2 mesmerising to watch it work, hes busy getting to work on some vac bags for us !!

We had these on the go as well, Soapflakes worked a treat in hot water, the Fairy bars are used with my Nans original glass wash board and the tin for the Colston Dishwasher Detergent is in good nic

Cheers, Mike

https://shop.pfaff.com/en-gb/machin...*MTY3OTgyMzgzMC4xLjEuMTY3OTgyMzkyNi41Ni4wLjA.

 

[foraloysius]

Wonderful meeting again! Great to see a group appliance afficianado's help eachother to restore things. And I bet the food was great again too.

BTW, did I spot a Braun KM3 or KM31 somewhere?

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire De-Luxe Twintub 1968

Here is a video of the Frigidaire De-Luxe twintub washing machine from 1968 we showed earlier in the thread. After a once over , hoses replaced and motors check it worked fine on its maiden wash until the spinner
overload cut-out kept cutting in but it didnt trip the circuit braker, so next visit will see us looking at the electrics and switches etc.

 

[keymatic]

Evening Mike..,
Glad you guys got it going..
In the recent stash of literature there was quite a bit on the Frigidaire WTD from circa 1968. A poster (back item) pamphlet, instruction manual and a few other bits. Nice marketing material of the time.
Cheers
Keith

 

[anthony]

great to see all that stuff being saved

that sewing machine is amazing .but the frigidaire TT is a rare find .It must be 40 years since i've seen one of those .They were so troublesome and the little spin motor which was fine for driving the spin dryer for a few mins was not up to running the washer .They were always burning out so much so that Frigidaire came up with a slightly beefier motor to try and solve the problem also rinsing in the spin dryer was not a good idea as the motor would cut out if too much water was in the outer spin can . the later revamped model was much more robust with its bigger motor .Another problem was the spinner switch arm .Water would seep under the arm and eventually get to the switch that was mounted in a plastic bag in an effort to keep it dry but water would get in through the hole where the arm went causing the metal arm to be LIVE .I still have a two inch scar on my little finger after being bitten by one of these machines way back in 1974 but lovley to see one again after all these years

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire De-Luxe Twintub 1968

Morning Keith

Another great stash , could you do a scan please for Al so we can include it in the next video please , dont have any information on it at all ?

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire De-Luxe Twintub 1968

Morning Anthony, great hearing your stories of this rare machine after you having worked on them first hand , we can now understand what you meant about the smaller wash motor and then having to change to a more beefier powerful one later in the production run.

So the electrical cut out on the spin motor (which was what was happening to us) is because of over filling on the rinse water ?

Glad you like Jamies Pfaff computer AI sewing machine, "I`ll send one round - That will be £5k please ....

 

[slowspin66]

The wash speed

Well that Twin tub does give that washing a good session !!! It’s lovely to see machines brought back to life and being enjoyed by everyone …. It just seems strange hearing a spinner motor racing away and the wash tub going around and the spinner being static !!!
Well
Done everyone for the hard work getting the old lady going again ….

 

[keymatic]

Anthony, good to hear stories of the associated machines !!

This machine made such a whiny noise, i thought it was going to blow up, albeit it was how it was meant to be, but i thought time to move it on, plus i have the later Frigidaire Mastertwin (below) so didn't need both.

Enjoy it
Keith

 

[anthony]

yes

I see you have the beefier version .I cant imagine why anyone in the Frigidaire design team would think that small motor was a good idea but both machines were simple and easy to work on .I prefer these two models to the later Phillips clone with its flimsy knobs and all those hoses on the back of course they sold well because they were considerably cheaper than the Hotpoint or hoover equivalent . If i remember rightly the outer spin cans were not sealed on those machines rather like their spin dryers [if you put too much water in the spin dryer it pours out onto the floor and the electrics] .I don't think they were designed for rinsing in the spinner.We had at least a dozen of those machines in the warehouse all returned under guarantee where the wash motor had burned out after only a week or two of use. I would .The customers would demand their money back and then go for a Hoover or Hotpoint .We would be left with all the returned machines to strip for parts.Have you tried getting the top off that machine? yet [all those little caps over the screws that get wet and go rusty] Don't even get me started on the infamous Jetamatic

 

[keymatic]

Hi Anthony,

Nope i haven't tried to get the top off yet and i don't think i want to, as you say all those little push-in screw covers will be a nightmare to replace, although i think i know somewhere, where i can get some replacements if i need them.

With reference to the Frigidaire Jetamatic, i found some information on this infamous machine the other day, it is more from a sales and marketing perspective..
Cheers
Keith

 

[anthony]

bit

of interesting reading there keith. I wonder if any of those venues would have the see through Jetamatic?

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire Jetamatic

Great information again there Keith, any chance of a scan so we can read the blurb ?

Anthony did you attend one of these training events at all ?

Cheers Mike

 

[anthony]

Yes

I attended numerous training sessions on various machines .All held at team Valley Newcastle. I remember doing one on the commercial version of the jetamatic .These were the ones used in frigidaire Launderettes [same machine no heater the hot and cold being mixed as it entered the machine but simpler controls a temperature selector and a slot for the money]also the big dryers and the large spin dryers all manufactured by GM

 

[slowspin66]

I wonder ?

Anthony I wonder why there are are little to no survivors of the machine ???

 

[chestermikeuk]

Frigidaire Jetamatic

Hi Anthony

Oh do you have any documentation left by any chance, be fab to go back in time to resurect one.

I remember seeing the Frigidaire models in the local launderette, a line of turquoise washing machines, all jumping away with the sudz hitting the glass window.

They also had a Spencer dry cleaning machine, self service but there was a lady there to help when required , as as young kid I would help my nan haul around in those shopping trollyes her deep burgundy crush velvet lounge curtains for their yearly re-fresh . Got high on those fumes!!

 

[anthony]

Hi

All .Well i don't think many will have survived because they were prohibitively expensive and very heavy on water .I only ever saw them in well to do homes and i don't think they were marketed well as i said we had a demonstration model in the show room but i never saw one in any of the department stores Binns CO OP ect and personally i don't think it was a very efficient machine as i've said before if overloaded the agitator would be banging up and down while the washing didn't move. Unfortunately i don't have any paperwork now . I got rid of lots of stuff back in the 80s .I had books full of high quality photos and exploded diagrams of the various machines .At the time i had a messy divorce going on and i had no option but to get rid of most of the stuff i had . I could kick myself now of course

 

[keymatic]

Hi Mike,
In addition to what Anthony says, i wonder if these machines didn't sell in great volumes due to the fact they were mid/high priced and coupled with an unknown / unfamiliar wash action this could have contributed to the low sales numbers.
When i was looking through vast amounts of ERT magazines a few years ago, there was a section about the Jetamatic, it was saying something about poor sales, Frigidaire had been disappointed in respect to the vast amount of money invested into advertising and publicity for this machine but failed to see the return, however the launderette industry embraced them for their mechanical simplicity and minimal breakdowns.
I will get the sales literature scanned when i back at work next week.
Regards
Keith