Washing the '47 Way

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Very kool finds! I remember the Fab with the gold foil wrapper but not the Rinso soap. Would love to smell the fragrances of them both! I used to use Ivory Snow all the time, back in the day. IMO It had a great fragrance. It was great for towels and sheets, and spiked with a bit of Clorox, did very a good job of cleaning undergarments as well.

I did not care for it as far as shirts were concerned because I felt that it did not remove perspiration odors very well.

I always ran hot water into the machine and dumped in the soap, then while the water level was still low I started the agitation to dissolve the soap well. Then, once the soap dissolved, I would re-set the machine back to fill and change the wash water temperature to a lower temperature if I needed to. This assured the soap would be dissolved completely.
I did not need to do this when using the Frigidaire, as the roll-over was so powerful I did not have to worry about clumps of undissolved soap floating on top for long!

I had a friend who's mother used Ivory Snow in her 'Kenmo (pregnant Roto-Swirl) and just dumped the soap right on top and started the machine up regardless of the wash water temperature. There was many a time when I peeked inside during a warm wash and huge clumps of undissoled soap were floating on top. No doubt in my mind that those clumps did not get dissolved before the wash cycle was over! Yech!

Also the usual ring-of-grease/oil-around-the-top-of-the-agitator, so common with neutral-drain machines was really bad on her machine!
 
Wonderful!

Thank you Robert for those pictures. What a neat way to start the New Year!
And, yes, the GE does look even better than in your last posts. Did she get back from the beauty parlor?
 
Don't remember the '47 looking so mint.
Mike and Keven the I cosmetically restored the GE back in the summer of '06...

7-30-2006-09-29-12--Unimatic1140.jpg


I don't have a warm rinse option on the TL Frigidaire.
In my basement its not whether the machines has a "warm rinse option", its whether it has a "cold rinse option" lol. I can't imagine a washer that didn't have a warm rinse, feh! Oh yea that GE Harmony of mine doesn't, but since I don't use it, it doesn't matter lol. Shhhhhh don't tell anyone, but on occasion I do something really naughty, I rinse in HOT. Oh I'm in trouble now.

Robert - when you find all those old soaps and detergents at estate sales and such, are they really still good after all these years?
Oh god yes, 90% of the boxes I find are perfecly usable. On occasion there is a clump or two, but that easily disloves. These boxes are almost always stored in nice cool dry basements which keeps everything inside intact. Sometimes you can tell if the basement had been damp over the years because the contents in the box is rock hard, but that is very unusual, the humidity in my basement this time of year runs around 20% to 25%.

There was many a time when I peeked inside during a warm wash and huge clumps of undissoled soap were floating on top.
Steve there we clumps of undissolved soap at first, but it all dissolved in the hot water pretty fast after agitation began and some of the clumps went through the holes at the top of the agitator which sent them through the recirculation pump and back through the lint filter screens, so I was clump free in no time. When the GE was designed all they had to wash clothes was soap.

Fabric softeners were around since about the 1940's
Very cool information Laundress, I never use fabric softener on my towels because it makes the less absorbent over time, but I wonder if using soap and washing them in very hot water prevents this build-up? By the way the very first rinse cycle Fabric Softener I believe was introduced by NuSoft in 1956.
 
Hey Robert, dying to know

Which machine rinses in HOT or do you do it manually, flicking off the cold tap on a warm rinse. I do it to. Makes ya feel so decadent, wicked and then you laugh.

Of course, I've seen the restoration pix and operation flix many times, but these seem so pristine. Could have been the beer, the bourbon, and the wines of a Saturday eve or as Eugene says the "stretch out and relax after the holiday-fest of the past month."

What an absolutely dazzling washing machine! Know better than to ask how much you would sell it for, because I bet you wouldn't sell it for any amount. Neither would I. Suddenly seems rude even to mention such sacrilege, so warm chaste hugs extended.
 
Pardon my ignorance but

Whats the difference between SOAP and Detergent?

The GE is a beauty Robert, you did an excellent job on it!
 
Soap vs Detergent

Basically any substance that cleans is a detergent, but soaps are made from natural fats and oils, whereas "detergents" are made from man made surfactants, mainly petrol derived.

Both soap and tallow based fabric softeners can and will leave a build up on fabrics after awhile. Remember both contain the same substances, ie tallow/fat/oils. However modern fabric TOL fabric softeners are more and more based upon silicone and other substances designed to avoid the build up problem.

Routine use of soap for laundry causes more problems than it is worth sometimes. The results may not be seen the first several washes, but usually after awhile one begins to see whites turning dull and dingy; that means tattle-tale grey has set in. Soap is such a pain to use is the reason "detergents" took over laundry duty. Even today when modern detergents advertise they contain "soap", it is usually a very small amount, it is the petrol stuff that is doing the heavy work.

L.
 
To be more technical, soap is the sodium salt of fatty acids.

Detergents are a bit more complex, in that they are the sulfonated salts (generally speaking) of fatty acids.

Theoretically you could have a soap made from a synthetic fatty acid, and a detergent made from a natural fatty acid. And in practice this sometimes happens, as in the "plant based detergent" that some eco-oriented laundry detergents tout.

The simpler composition of a soap molecule renders it more susceptible to combination with and de-activation by hard water minerals. The sulfonated salt groups of detergent molecules are resistant to combining with hard water minerals, and thus don't form "soap" scum in hard water or with really dirty laundry.

The plot thickens when one considers the interactions between hard water minerals and other components of a modern laundry detergent, but that is perhaps grist for another mill.
 
Well thanks everyone, the GE looks much better to say the least. It's one of my most favorite washers ever.

Routine use of soap for laundry causes more problems than it is worth sometimes.
I agree Laundress, while its fun to use soap every once in a while, because of how soft everything comes out and how nice and "Ivory" smelling everything is, I wouldn't use it weekly. It's a once or twice a year as a special treat.

which machine rinses in HOT or do you do it manually, flicking off the cold tap on a warm rinse. I do it to. Makes ya feel so decadent, wicked and then you laugh.
just like you mike I switch off the hot facuet, you can't do that on all washers because of the thermostatic valves, but I love doing it on the ones I can. The Super Unimatic of course comes with a built in hot rinse function, love that! And yes I do feel so decadent, wicked and then I do laugh as steam is coming from my rinse cycle. :)
 
Fab! Finds

The '54 Speed Queen has a hot water spray rinse after the wash, then a cold rinse and another hot spray in the final spin.

I've used some Ivory Snow for towels now and then - makes them so soft!

Too bad you missed out on that Hoover 913, it would have pulled that whole living room rug up into the bag with barely a "GULP" ;-)
 

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