Unimatic Water Pump

[frigidaireguy]

Has anyone here added an electric water pump on a Unimatic ??? If so, could you share some information. I have a '55 Unimatic that the water pump is leaking.
I am thinking an electric pump would be better than tearing into the pump again.

Bob

 

[swestoyz]

I haven’t personally done it but am auxiliary electric pump Is a good idea and wouldn’t take much to install.

Is your pump leaking around the shaft seal?

Ben

 

[lorainfurniture]

I successfully rebuilt one of those for my friend bob. If you end up eliminating the original pump, would you mind selling me your old one? I wanted to experiment with it.

 

[frigidaireguy]

Ben: Yes it is leaking at the shaft seal - Darrell is going to try and get it to seal but if we go with an electric pump - How would you wire it to engage at the correct time??

Eugene: - I have an old pump that I can send you - Let me know if you want it.

Bob

 

[swestoyz]

You’d want to run the pump in line when the motor is running. You might get away with wiring it to the spin solenoid however I’d be concerned with too much ballast water sitting in the tub during the overflow rinse. This would also be a good time to throw a relay in place to power the motor direct off the line, vs through the timer if you haven’t already done so. Cheap insurance for a tough to find timer.

Bummer about the shaft seal. A few guys have had luck trying to reseal the bellows using RTV within the base of the impeller - but considering where you are at in the process a second with used parts has a low chance of success. Keep the original pump in place as is and route everything to the new aux pump.

Good luck!

Ben

 

[gyrafoam]

If you have a floor drain or can route the hose outside, why not just let it gravity drain? I have known a lot of people who have done just that, even with the pump working. Usually if the machine is in a remote location.

 

[combo52]

Pump Problems On FD Unimatic washers

If you go to an electric pump I would try wiring it to the spin solenoid so it will not have to run the entire cycle, these newer electric drain pumps are not continuous duty and will overheat and shut off after 15 minutes or so of operation.

Even if you add an electric pump to one of these washers you would have to leave the old pump in place as the pump housing and bottom plate supports the entire mechanism [ you could remove the impeller and shaft seal, but when removing these parts you would have to install a spacer on the motor shaft ]

John

 

[lorainfurniture]

Bob

I’d love to have it. My friend bob had one where the discharge “neck” corroded off. I was able to butcher something together and surprisingly it worked fine. I wanted to see if I can kind of restore one to like new condition

 

[Unimatic1140]

I agree with Ben

In my opinion you should run that pump off of the motor line (not the spin-solenoid line) so the it runs during the overflow rinse as well, otherwise it probably will cause motor stress issues with too much water in the outer tub during the water throw of the final spin. My experience with these electric pumps is even though they are not continuous duty they run for years without issue. They are cheap enough that they could be replaced as necessary.

 

[mickeyd]

Interesting puzzle.

On the one hand, we have the manual suds-return protocol which allows you to hold the full 10 gallons of ballast in the outer tub with no problem or stress to the motor during the spin; but on the other hand, if we held the rinse overflow ballast of 5 gallons, then threw in 10 more, hmmmm.........We have fifteen gallons in there now. We know how cavernous the outer tub is in the WO-65 & the WO-65-2's, but will it take 15 gallons or more if you have a model that rinses longer than 2&1/2 minutes? I'll do the test tomorrow.

 

[mickeyd]

Spring loaded ball & cock sudsreturn

 

[combo52]

Electric Pump For A Unimatic Washer

If you use a electric pump from a post 1995 GE TL washer with the larger drain hose it will easily pump the water out fast enough to avoid overloading the washers motor when spinning wired to the spin solenoid even with the overflow rinse water already in th outer tub.

 

These new electric pumps will not be harmed by continuous running but will cut off after about 15 minutes of continuous running and then you do risk overloading the unimatics motor when you try to wash two loads back to back for sure, also if you try to run the pump continuously you have to listen to the annoying racket they make when you should be enjoying the purr of the unimatics agitation.

 

John

 

[mickeyd]

a little bedtime algebra

The unimatic fill takes 4 minutes to fill the tub to its maximum of 10 gallons of water. The rinse is 2 & 1/2 minutes. Therefore the overflow ballast will be more than 5 gallons which will arrive in just 2 minutes. So how much water enters in a half minute? 4 :10 as 1/2 : X. Cross multiplying, 4x =5. Divide each side by 4; X =1&1/4. So the overflow ballast is 6 & 1/4 gallons.
Not 5 -- my mistake! We now have 16 &1/4 gallons in the outer cabinet, after the overflow and the rinse water throw before the electric pump kicks in. How many gallons can the outer cabinet take before the spinning slows and the motor strains?

THOUGHT I POSTED LAST NIGHT, DUH!!!! But here it is still onscreen now unposted, but thankfully saved.

 

[mickeyd]

Just did the test.

The cabinet accepted the first water throw of 10 gallons without a hitch as I knew it would because I’ve saved water dozens of times, BUT—and it’s a big but!—when I threw another full 10 gallons out, the sloshing commenced. So, although the cabinet will hold 20 gallons, it’s too much for a successful spin. I was surprised at this result; however we’re only asking the cabinet to hold 16 1/2 gallons. I’ll that next.

 

[mickeyd]

EDITS: ;’D 16 &1/4.... I’ll try....

Fun accidental water mirror reflection shot

 

[mickeyd]

DONE~

The Unimatic took the full 16 plus, and spun like a top at 1140 rpm's. Maybe the GM engineers foresaw the future of the pump bypass. But then I remembered something. Somewhere in the literature, there are directions for saving rinse water, and they did not expect people to wait around for the overflow, so we were instructed to secure the spring-loaded ball at the outset of the wash or rinse, which means they knew they cabinet could hold all the ballast. My practice has been to skip the overflow when saving hot, fresh, sudsy, pristine water for another load. Why dilute the washing liquors. So I never knew the capacity. But, then course, I'm there watching the fun when doing water saving games and tests.

Except for that ONE time. I had secured the ball on the Multimatic at the beginning end of the wash, and got called away for something. When I came back, the washer was trying to spin out the multi's luxurious 4 minute overflow rinse with the wash water already saved in the outer tub too. Alarmingly, the water had completely filled the outer tub--no cabinet in this one-- and it was sloshing back into the spinning tub which was still holding maybe a half or less of the rinse water. Had to abort the spin and pump out during agitate. It was exciting. Glad I caught it. But if I ever damage a machine doing suds games, I will be very mad at myself.

 

[combo52]

Electric Pump For A Unimatic Washer

Neat calculations Michael it is always fun to figure things like this out,

 

If you install the GE TL washer pump as I suggested with a larger drain hose it will pump around 20 gallons a minute, so by the time the UM gets to full spin speed it will already have pumped out more than 5 gallons with the rest following in the next 30 seconds.

 

It works I have done this on later FD ST washers that even had the larger 12 gallon tub.

 

John

 

[Unimatic1140]

Well there is a difference of opinion here. I have installed at least six or seven of these 1995+ large hose GE washer pumps on different brands of vintage washers including a Unimatic as this pump style is all I've ever used as a replacement. I have not ever seen one cut out, but no Frigidaire washer I have would run the pump for over 15 minutes without stopping the motor/pump and filling, so it is giving the pump time to rest. My '56 Hotpoint can run that electric pump for 18 minutes and I've never seen it cause any issue.

Also be careful between the models. The 1947-1954 models have no outer tub and can hold more water outside the tub than the 1955+ models that have an outer tub.

Again if it was me I was wire the pump to run whenever the motor is running as I have in the past. I would never wire it to only run during spin as it's asking for trouble in my opinion.