Washers in My Collection

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What a find

Alister its a super find and an excellent example.
. Like one, you will never need a smoothing iron again as nothing will have a crinkle in it with beautiful slow spinning . Just love it .. Darren
 
I love spin-drains like that/ There was a Big Boy huge washer at the Norge Village Laundromat we used to go to that did spin drain. This was back in like 1962 to 1965 when I was 8-11 y/o. My face was practically plastered to the glass once I figured out how it was draining and spinning.
 


Those are the shipping brackets you see at 1.56 and they are removed before use. It has a suspension but no wiring diagram or tech sheet, that is not unusual in Europe.

What I try to make clear in the video is that this is very much a budget machine, well below the purchase price of what might be called competition, even budget varieties of same. It was cheaper than many twin tub machines! Cost has been engineered out of this machine at every turn. The grade of metal in the cabinet is much lighter than in other machines, it does not have a "proper" top to the cabinet - what appears to be a counter top finish is a thin veneer (think the sort of panel you would put on the front of a Kitchenaid DW to change its appearance) held in place by a plastic frame with a metal cross bar in the middle from side to side for support. It is held firm by polystyrene and cardboard spacers!

It is cold fill only (not that unusual in Europe) so one water valve. There is no electric pump - I am told the pump is on the back of the main motor and runs all the time, but when tumbling it does not rotate fast enough to eject water, only when spinning. Hence the spin drain. I did wonder at the low water level when rinsing but that makes sense when you consider the pump arrangement and I suspect it could be prone to suds lock. The timer is of the simplest kind although, with variable temperature control, it is very flexible if you are prepared to think about what you are doing. It does not spin that fast although its not that far behind much of the competition at that time and slow spin was always a feature of budget, and not so budget machines. But of course, like everything, you get what you pay for.

On the other hand there is something attractive in the simplicity of this machine, and it certainly does the job as far as I can see - soiled clothes go in and clean clothes come out, what more would you want? And, apparently, they were as reliable as the competition so what you end up with is a pretty good deal if all you require is a simple machine to do laundry.
 
why the spin drain?

Spin drain because the pump is driven by the spin motor.
Same motor as wash motor, but on wash the pump turns too slow to do anything.
When the spin winding is energised, the motor turns fast enough to drive the pump.

I doubt it was usefully cheaper than a separate electric pump, but I guess Indesit's bean counters did their sums and that was the answer...
 
That Vintage New Washer Smell!

Great video Al and boy there is nothing more delicious than finding a vintage New-in-Box automatic washer!!! Congratulations, I love the picture of the machine in the box.

I absolutely love that spin drain, all front load washers should do it! I wonder how it prevented being suds-locked with the way detergents used to be formulated.
 
Wow new in the box.

Always exciting to find something like this what are the circumstances of you having found this machine Al where did it hide all these years.

 

And it’s also fun to find a basic machine like this that was made down to a cost and still got the job done.

 

It used to be that the most expensive parts of an appliance for things like the motor so having the pump driven off the main motor definitely would’ve saved cost at the time.

 

Today with mass automation it’s actually cheaper to put power windows on the car than to make manual crank windows that have to be assembled by hand for example.

 

A spin drain is certainly less desirable otherwise machines could still do that today, it’s just like top load washers there’s never been a top load washer that had the capability of having a neutral drain and did a spin drain instead because engineers at home economist know that performance suffers.

 

John L
 
Not Cheap, Just Ideal :)

Simply brilliant!

IMO typical EU machines are simply to complex with cycles that are not needed. Even this machine could have done away with thermal holds and the bio wash.

I'm guessing the slow spin is probably to off set the lack of distribution spins. Using the main motor for drain is almost common sense IMO.

The US for decades has needed a machine like this and still does. Simple and durable which brings FLs into people's homes. Sadly FLs, like the Neptunes and Duets bit off more than could be chewed IMO. The price point and complexity caused to many setbacks.
 


Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated :)

Robert, it did not actually sudslock as far as I could see but it sure as hell created suds which literally frothed out of every stand pipe on that side of the washer room - that has never happened before. In the end I had to dilute some fabric softener and pour it in through the powder drawer to kill the suds. I used Almat Colour Powder which I have used many times before with no problem. Lesson learned in any case :)

I always try to get some provenance on any machine that gets picked up. As this machine was in London our good friend SE Steve picked it up for me. I understand it was just sitting in a cupboard in an apartment alongside a brand new gas cooker in its box too - I hesitate to call it a range, it was the size of what you guys would call an "apartment range" with four burners, oven, and grill (broiler) mounted on the splash-back at eye level - the standard arrangement for gas cookers at the time. Unfortunately, the woman who gave Steve access did not have English as her first language so he was not able to get much of a story out of her.

But this is not the first time something like this happens. A few years ago a Hotpoint 1504 Top Loader (John, you may recall these from your visits) and a Belling cooker were discovered, in their boxes new and unused. These were both top of line and expensive appliances - how could they just be left sitting? The washer is now part of Steve's collection and the cooker now sits appreciated and in daily use in the lovely vintage kitchen of another friend Ian (TriumphDolomite). If I am not mistaken Steve has another Hotpoint top loader in his collection still in its box.

I have had similar things happen with dishwashers, not in box, but unused. One bought by children as a gift for their mother which their father would not allow to be installed sat in the back of a garage unused for 30 years. The strangest case I encountered was a late 1980s Hotpoint DW which sat, installed but never used in a kitchen right beside the sink for 26 years, the complimentary detergent and rinse aid and instructions inside, unopened.

Then there was the little 307 Hoover wringer washer (the first washer Hoover produced) still with the paper covers on the rollers. However that came from the same house where Darren (SlowSpin66) got the, probably unique, gas heated Bendix front load washer which he has so lovingly restored. With that as competition its probably no surprise that the Hoover sat unused for approximately 60 years. That is one of the fascinating things about this hobby, you never know what is going to emerge from the past - new or used - and you always live in hope :)
 

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