Vintage photos of wringer washers

[aldspinboy]

Nice picture Brad ...
The one with the mans hand on the wringer seems to be a GE ?
The other I cant make out.
Do you Know...
Hey you might have to open a new thread its getting rather large its so popular.
Darren k

 

[wringer]

Any idea

on my part would be a guess. It does appear that maybe the two unnamed ones may be used since it appears they have marks on the legs. No matter tho. I hope someone knows what the brands are.

Jim

 

[wetguymd]

My guess would be

the one with the man's hand on ABC and the other one GE

 

[abcomatic]

HI Brad

The middle washer is an ABC. The way you can tell that is to look at the wringer set(reset) on the left hand side of the wringer. $42.50 for a brand new ABC. I love those machines! They are quiet and wash well.
I can't wait for you to visit so we can use the ABC. Gary

 

[fnelson487]

Those Have to Be

Used machines. Check out the scratches on the legs and bodies.

 

[wetguymd]

Gary do you have a money shot to share of your ABC... I remember the aluminum agitator in my Grandmothers.

 

[abcomatic]

Lyle

HI kid, If you look up at replies 40 and 41 you will see me using my 1955 ABC wringer. The ABC in the above picture (reply 209) is older than my ABC. There are 3 things that I notice in the reply 209 photo that tells me it is an ABC. 1. on the left side of the wringer is where you "set" the wringer to use it. 2. On the wringer face at the top where you "push to release" is what ABC used. 3. If you look at the lid of the ABC, the way to open it or close it over the washer is a handle that is set off to the side and sticks up a bit from the lid.
Look at reply 40 once again and you can see that there are things that are both close to each other, ---- lid handle, shape of the wringer top and release bar. I would guess that the picture of the ABC in reply 209 is a bit older than mine is.
Look through the window of the store and you can see an early Maytag automatic.
Now that I look at the wringer washer that is next to the ABC to the right; no, not a GE but maybe it is a Dexter? The reasons why I think this maybe a Dexter are: 1. the way the wringer release bar is attatched to the wringer and 2. the way that the control is to move the wringer to different positions to rinse etc.
I just love these wringer machines.
Lyle, I live 35 miles from where the ABC's were manufactured. I want an ABC O Matic so bad! lol Gary

 

[bradross]

An old Dexter "Speedex" in green porcelain

Found another pic of a vintage machine - this time a Dexter "Speedex". Gotta love that vintage green color! My grandmother had a Thor wringer washer in almost the same green.

 

[abcomatic]

Brad

Wow, I love this Dexter from the 30's it looks like. I have a double tub Dexter which I haven't used in a long time, it is now time to get wash going in it. From the looks of the adgitator in your picture, Dexter did not change that style. Mine is from around 1950 and it is the same style. Dexter was made, and still is in business for commercial laundries, in Fairfield, Iowa. Hope you are well? Gary

 

[wringer]

I

am green with envy of this Dexter. Thanks for posting this !!!!

Jim

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Italian Candy "modello 50" circa 1946

 

[kenmoreguy89]

other Vintage shots....these ones missed the wringer though! It came later!

 

[kenmoreguy89]

P.S The last one got a matching spinner though, didn't see that!

 

[mickeyd]

A hand-cranked wringer, but with a heater. WOW! Ya don't see anything like that over here. A boiling wringer. YAY

 

 

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Wringer washers and water heaters

In USA washers didn't have water heaters because in most cases they didn't need that.
Italy and europe was common, I know the english wringer washers usually does have an heater, in europe every washer came with an heater and for some reasons this use was kept during the time, it was because hot current water (very hot water from electric or gas water heaters I mean) in homes wasn't common at those times, most houses didn't have hot water piping, so they needed to make washers equipped with water heaters.
If not owners had to heat water on the stove, the most "lucky" ones had wood powered boilers for kitchen and or bathroom uses, but they used to make water just warm.
The "tradition" of putting heating elements for the wringer washers has been kept for convenience I guess over the time and to be practical even for the ones that for some reasons were still without current hot water in their homes....
About hand powered wringer, well I wonder why they didn't make it automatic.....
I just do not know...

 

[chestermikeuk]

Heater in Wringers

It tended to be in the 1950`s that we saw many machines here fitted with heaters, for some like this first Hoover wringer from 1948, companies made IMMERSION heater elements that fitted the shape of the washtub if you needed to heat the water, (rather like those heaters in a cup)...

Heres the Hoover 0307 - 1948, Hoovers first washing machine,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chestermikeuk/sets/72157601117658734/detail/

 

[chestermikeuk]

Hoover 0343

The next styling change for Hoover was the larger rounded tub and offered heated or no heat models, many homes here where heater with coal fires in the living room with a back boiler that always supplied a constant supply of hot (boiling) water, if in the evening the fire was raging and the back boiler was bubbling you usually have to run water off down the drain - my Nan would say - "Hang on Joe, let me wheel the washer out, cant waste that boiling water" - and off she would go filling the washer with STEAMING water and the smell of Persil wafting everywhere...LOl

This was the first power wringer, it was driven by a flexi drive off the motor, the big blue button at the front was the "Emergency Off" button, if you fingers got stuck you could hit it with your knee and shut it off, the handle on top off the wringer (Push to Release) was the Emergency Release to open the wringers..

 

[chestermikeuk]

Hoover Wringers

These machines where still being produced in the 1980`s with squarer styling but all the same features, and where often seen with the matching Hoover SpinaRinse spin dryer...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chestermikeuk/sets/72157601117658734/detail/?page=2

 

[PinkLady]

Newby Pink Lady Kenmore owner

Hey ya'll...this is my first post. I just brought home my Pink Lady Kenmore Visimatic wringer washer. I hooked her up tonight but can't get the water o stay in the tub. Does anyone know where I could get a owners manual for her?Thanks in advance...Dee Dee

 

[pierreandreply4]

General electric wringer washer but the stange part is a ?

well here is a general electreic wringer washer that was own by my aunts cecil and laurette in there appartment on monseigeur cooke tree rivers quebec but the strange part of this general electric wring washer is that it has an inglis agitator they own it until they moved and gave there old wringer washer to charety sorry no full view of the wringer washer but its viewable at least the top

 

[scoots]

eBay Picture

1

 

[heppniva000]

[No message]

 

[hilovane]

GE Wringer Washer photo...

That plant was in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By the mid-1950's GE has moved its major appliance manufacturing to their present location in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

[bradross]

Two more historic photographs...

The first photo was taken by FSA photographer Russell Lee, September 1946 ... "Mrs. Furman Currington, wife of miner, hangs up laundry in kitchen of her 6 room house which rents for $15.00 per month and houses 12 persons. Black Mountain 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky." Note: Looks like a Kenmore washer - anyone agree?

Second photo also by Russell Lee, March 1942, at FSA Camelback Farm, Phoenix, AZ. Woman using an Easy wringer washer, with a Maytag in the background.

 

[launderess]

Second photo

Demonstrates one of the major frustrations with using wringer/mangle powered or manual; having to guide laundry into the thing properly.

For small items it isn't much of a bother, but sheets, tablecloths, blankets, anything that has become twisted/bunched up during washing will need attention.

Of course the easiest why (IHMO) is for the washing to be prepared well before going into mangle. That is lifted, spread out, untwisted, etc.... and thus more "flat" can easily be guided/folded as it goes into the rollers. Having to deal with untying or bunching sopping wet and or hot laundry is a huge annoyance to one's mind.

Some power mangles such as those on Maytag washers were more forgiving than others. Unlike units with various set tensions, these wringer self adjusted and thus in theory could handle thick things and so forth, but even then there are/were limits.