Washers with timed fill

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timed fill whirlpoool

I remember seeing a timed fill Whirlpool for sale in the mid 60's. It was 24" BOL - timer knob only. Single fill hose so you set the temp at the faucet.

A friend's mom had a timed fill Firestone. It was replaced with a BOL Philco solid tub with normal and short cycles. Single fill hose.

The strangest timed fill machine I remember was a Westinghouse from the early 1970's. Two cycle. Normal only gave you a hot wash with a warm rinse. Second cycle was prewash with a warm fill.
 
 
I'm not aware of any WPs/KMs of old (classic belt-drive) that were timed fill.  Early design had a float instead of a pressure switch but it wasn't timed.  BOL single/full-level models still had a pressure switch (or float), with the timer having a designated "fill" area but it wasn't timed.  Advancing the timer out of the "fill" usually started agitation (via bypassing the fill circuit) to manually provide a lower water level.

So, if there were some timed-filled models, that's hugely interesting.
 
Attn. DaDoes:

I thought there were some POD Whirlpool & Sears Kenmore machines that had no water level, but what now what you're saying in this area, now that I've read about what some of you'd said about a pressure-switch, is very different, versus my assumption that these washers (a box-control Whirlpool & some of those Kenmores w/ the dial & knob/knobs on the front of the cabinet come to mind, as well as Kenmores w/ full-width backguards employing such)...

-- Dave
 
These models had a fill portion of the wash cycle. It was not a timed fill, but rather a way of controlling the fill for a less than full tub. The timer only filled in a certain few minutes like from 15 to 10 minutes so if you wanted less than a full tub of water you started the wash in the fill portion of the wash area then, when you had the water level you needed, you pulled out the timer and advanced it to the portion of the wash period without the heavy line over the top of the minute markings and push the dial back in to start agitation. This was also needed to obtain a shorter wash period. There is a little float chamber on the back corner of the outer tub near the top to signal a full tub that stopped filling and started agitation automatically. The Bendix machines had a similar float chamber on the back of the outer tub to signal a full fill. These were before pressure switches were used.
 
I recall that on my stepmother's Kenmore, circa 1972, at one point we were living in a rental house in an area that had high water pressure. After the tub filled, the machine paused for 10-20 seconds before agitation started. It didn't do that when we lived in a different house with lower water pressure. I always assumed this had something to do with the timer, but I was never clear on exactly what.
 
Some KM/WP timers had a "rinse fill" increment. There'd be a pause for the remainder of the increment if the water level was satisfied before it advanced but that's not a timed fill, the pressure switch is still in control of the fill. The timer would advance and stop (until agitation started) if the fill took longer than the rinse fill increment. There wasn't a pause like that for the wash fill far as I ever saw.
 
Time fill Whirlpool

The Whirlpool I mentioned earlier was definitely a time fill machine. It had a fill section on the timer before the wash period began. It was not like other Kenmore/Whirlpool machines with the fill section underlining the 6 to 14 minute section of the normal cycle.

This was a very BOL machine. Perhaps it didn't sell well or none have survived. There was nothing very attractive about its design. I doubt anyone at the time would have considered saving or restoring it.
 
Rinse fill increment

Don't GE FF also have this? When the machine starts filling for rinse the timer runs for another 2 minutes? And if the pressure switch is satisfied you have to wait for the remaining time elapse?
 
Blackstone

Picture of the stainless tub on Blackstone models 250 and 350, from the 1950s. These machines were timed-fill.

There are drain holes in the bottom of the tub, through which water could drain when the tub was lifted up from the disk. At the end of the wash cycle, the tub would lift; some water would drain through these holes; and then the tub would start spinning. When spinning, the water would climb over the top, passing through the channels around the perimeter of the tub.

I believe the time for filling was 4 minutes. Since these machines had mechanical timers, you could move the dial in either direction for more or less filling time.

blackstone-2017112910353404184_1.jpg
 
We have a whopping 150 pounds of water pressure in my neighborhood.  I had to press the old A200 timed-fill Maytag Highlander into service a while back while I had the A606 apart, and had no problems with it overfilling.  The water inlet is well designed to meter the flow over a wide range of water pressure.
 

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