What age were you lot???

[HooverJames]

When you started collecting? If you started young (like me) did you have much bother with your parents and did you travel far to get your first pieces? I need answers because I'm having a spot of bother.

James.

 

[aquarius1984]

Um depends really

Depends.

First "Intended Collection" appliance I bought I got when I was 22 in 2006.

However I have appliances I bought with my own money from 10 years ago when I was 16. A Kenwood Wizzard hand blender IIRC.

However at the age of 12 I inherited my Grans Kenwood Chef A901.

I still have it so maybe that counts?

 

[brianl]

I didn't start collecting until I was 27 even though I had the fascination as a kid. Space, resources, or family were my deterrents all the way up until 2008. Now I am happily collecting nice vintage top loaders.

 

[bajaespuma]

I didn't start collecting large appliances until I bought my house in 2000. I never had the room. I didn't start to collect washers and dishwashers until I discovered this club in 2006 i believe.

 

[pulsator]

I got my first washer for my 10th birthday. A Kenmore portable World Washer. I still have that machine today 10 and a half years later! And it seems I've come full circle as I now also have that machine's new cousin, the BD Whirlpool Cabrio. I hope to have the BD agitator washer at some point soon too!

 

[abcomatic]

My first washer as an adult was a 1950 Dexter, double-tubbed washer. I have a big basement so I have all sorts of washers now, most of them wringers.

 

[turquoisedude]

I embarassed the hell out my parents by dragging home a 1960s McClary wringer washer that someone had chucked out when I was 12... But I had already bought my first vintage coffeemaker and mixmaster by then... LOL My first vintage dishwasher wasn't obtained until I was about 24 or 25!

 

[hotpoint95622]

hotpoint 95622

Suppose it was about 12 years old until I was about 15 when my dad ordered a skip and removed them while I was at school. He thought I should have more interest in old cars or motor cycles. Then started agene when I found this website and found the 95622, think my step dad is getting fidgety over them being in his garage, I keep saying there will only be one more when I find it and that’s a Hotpoint liberator. That will only be 4 in there.

 

[mickeyd]

Have always had a working Easy since I was 28, then added two wringers in 1995, a Norge and a Maytag, then an Aunt gave me her '78 WP in 2000, next a friend gave me a '77 GE in 2004; but that was it, a handful of machines, until I found Automatic Washer when I was already 50 years old. And now I have exactly 25 washing machines, my childhood dream fulfilled. Look how long it took!

I continue to envy and celebrate the people who discovered a community of washer lovers while they were still young. I lived more than half of my life in total washer-buddy isolation, never having met one single human being who had an interest like I did. Very sad. Little wonder why I worship Robert.

 

[cfz2882]

i started with washer parts at around age 8,at age 10 stripped
down my first complete machine;a filter flo from around 1967.
The first one i drug home(a paperboy helped-LOL)was a monster
whirlpool combo from around 1961(was very fixable,wish i had
that combo today!!)it was 1979 when i drug home and stripped
that WP combo.

 

[gansky1]

Though I'd been wild about anything appliance-y for years, as soon as I could drive at 16 I brought home a Hoover twinnie to play with. A few weeks later, I brought home a very early 70's Whirlpool dishwasher. Mother said that was enough, we were out of room. Since the boundary had been established, I gave the dishwasher to a friend who had none and brought home a KDS-18 dishwasher that had a terrible iron affliction. While never getting rid of the Hoover, I had a few other appliances until my mother re-married and we moved. I got rid of the Hoover then and took my '66 Whirlpool Mark IV washer that I had stashed at a friend's house to my grandparent's garage 1 1/2 hours North. Until I bought my townhouse in '87, I found and repaired washers & dryers for my friends who were also moving into their own places. Few appreciated the Hoover and Maytag twinnies the way I did ;-)

 

[matchboxpaul]

Hi James.

Started very young - possibly from a year or so after the word go!

The earliest photograph i have of me with laundry stuff is at my 3rd birthday (in 1981), with me and an Uncle holding open a card from my Grandma and Grandad Nicholls.
On the inside left cover of the card you can just make out brochure pictures of Hotpoint 18580 facia and powder drawer, Hoover A3108, A3110, A3112, Servis Mk206 Comapact Double Six, plus about 6 to 8 other pictures that I forget the identities of.

The interest started earlier though, as I have memories of the previous house we lived in and of marching down to the garage to look at the dryer (Hoover 3022 Dryer De Luxe), which was kept in the coal house.

My parents had no issue with my hobby, nor did any of my family - they probably thought it mildly amusing though.

Many a family member was dragged round Comet, Currys, Rumbelows and my favourite - the Electricity Board Shop NORWEB.

Hobby went underground from 2nd year at secondary school, before resurfacing again in 2007 thanks to a certain ChesterMike!

All this expense, hassle, mileage on the car and fuel costs + having a partner is your sodding fault Mike!!!! You have a lot to answer for!!!!!!lol........and I wouldnt have it any other way.

Paul

 

[PhotonPanda]

I can't say I've been collecting any large appliances, but I did get a Hoover Constellation vacuum from my grandparents quite a few years back.

We currently have (inherited) a '75 Maytag washer and a Lady Kenmore electric range. I've been using them (but not caring about them) since I was about 11, 20 years ago.

 

[matchboxpaul]

Shoudl have clarified - I didnt own any appliances aged three - thats just when the interest started.

No. My first appliance was about aged 4 in the form of a Creda 275 Tumbler Dryer, which was a cast off from my best mates Grandparents.
The heating element went and my dad moved it quietly into the back room one night.

Came back from where ever I had been taken and there was a proper Dryer and it was mine.

It lived behind the back room settee for about two years, surrounded by washing powder boxes and all my brochures, before heading into the shed with all my stuff.

The shed became mine and there are a handful of photographs of me with everything out on the patio.

The 2nd appliance was my Grandmas Hotpoint Liberator Dryer, around about aged 9 or 10. again, the heating element had gone and it came to me for a few years.

The Creda and Hotpoint lived together for about a year, before the Creda was dispatched with my permission to the tip.

The Hotpint was taken to the tip, again with my permission, about a year after that.

Oh flippin heck! Having written all that I will have to reprise the numbers!

My first appliance would have been about aged three! The Grandma who had the Hotpoint Liberator Dryer, for some reason kep hold of the machine it replaced!

My first appliance was a full size ACME Sun Breeze (my grandma always knew it as an ACME Summer Breeze - a better name for a dryer in my opinion).

It lived in her coal room, off the kitchen at her house and was two units away from the Hotpoint.

My Grandad passed away in 1983, where upon all her appliances were rejigged.
Her Washing machine was plumbed in for the first time (my granded had always dragged the Electra across the kitchen), the Liberator was moved to the kitchen, her Chest freezer was moved to my parents (it was a massive Elcold deep freeze) and my ACME was taken to the tip.
I remember being asked whether it could go and, for the better good, namely helping my Grandma out, I agreed.

Therefore my first appliance was an ACME Sun Breeze circa 1981, aged 3.

There is my Appliance Ownership history - the Early Years. lol.

Paul

 

[washernoob]

Technically I am not a washer collector... Yet of course!

But for vacuums I suppose I dont even remember when It was started. Every family member I know would talk about how I loved to mess with their vacuums when I was just a baby.

That phase died when I was about 6. Then, just a few years ago... out of the blue it bit me hard. And from then on I was a vacuum collector!

 

[DADoES]

 
Interest began before age 5. Probably between 3 and 5.

First working collectible machine as such was prior to age 10. It was a square-tub Maytag wringer given to me by a neighbor (her daughters were sitters for us) when she bought a Whirly automatic pair. Probably I was 8 years old, based on what I recall about the Whirlys. However, I had toys and 'bits and pieces' before that ... a stray agitator, a couple discarded machine tops (a family friend managed the city trash collection service). I remember a Norge top with intact control panel. I'd set it atop a trash can with an agitator inside and play like it was a working machine.

 

[paulg]

Very young

I was taking small appliances apart before I was 10. While I was still using the wooden child-seat, my barber caught on to my love of electrical things and every time I got a haircut he'd give me a broken toaster, or an iron or whatever. I was so thrilled when he'd go through the back door and come back out with some new toy for me. Those were the days!
Actually in some ways I think he was trying to get into my mom's pants... but can't prove that one. I'll prescribe to his nobler intent on that one....
I dragged my first big appliance while in grade school. I found a Hoover twinnie under the bridge - on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. I dragged that thing over many sets of tracks and rolled it three blocks home. I'm sure all the neighbors said "Oh - there goes Paul...."
Some day at a wash-in I'll tell y'all about rolling a dehumidifier down Michigan Avenue... Or the time I had a TV roll into traffic on Michigan Avenue.
... My sweet home Chicago...

 

[tolivac]

Didn't own or collect major appliances until late in my life-same with vacuums.Admired washers and vacuums,samll appliances as a child-and remember the machines(washers,kitchen appliances)my Mom and Stepmom had.Also my grandmother-so enjoyed her pregnant KN RotoSwirl-wished I had that machine-and my Mom's Norge with the Big black "Burpilator"-and its polished shiney metal lint pan.Now to many,many vacuums and 4 washers.Its hard for the washer collection to grow-WP,KN BD machines have disappeared around here-the swap shop owners say Norge,Wards,Speed Queen machines are rare in my area.They seldom encounter those.And no basement in my place to keep the machines.The laundryroom is full already.I did take apart small appliances as a child-but couldn't at that time put them back together again so they would work-usually the machines had burned out motors or other parts anyway.

 

[48bencix]

Probably 10 years old

We had the Bendix front loader, but my mom would not let me touch it. I don't think I ever did, even though we had it until the mid-sixties. ( I think it was a 1944 model). I asked my dad if I could have a washer. Milt's appliances on Pachecho Blvd. in Martinez, CA where I grew up had some for $15.00, not a tremendous amount of money even then. He didn't realize that I wanted an automatic washer and got me a wringer, but afraid I would hurt myself, removed the winger. I did play with it, but was disappointed. It was an Apex with a big spiral agitator (Alunimum ?). But it was so nice of him to buy it for me, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I didn't tell him.

Later at college I found a Maytag AMP in the yard of my apartment building and brought it in. I used it that year and really loved it. I had to move and just couldn't move it, there was no hook-up at my new apartment. I don't know why that stopped me, because I had made one for it in the other apartment.

From the next apartment (in San Francisco) on I always had a used washer, and several different models, Kenmore and Ge. That wasn't really collecting, but I enjoyed them beyond just having them to wash for me. I also had a portable top-loading dishwasher, I think it was a Kenmore. I took the pump apart several times trying to seal a leak, I think it was just a loose clamp on a hose.

Much later here in Sacramento I found a Whirlpool washer in the street and brought it home. It barely worked and I eventually set it back on the street. Then I got a GE filter flo, which I thought was old, but found out it was a 1994, not old enough for the Imperial section. Later I found my AMP, just like the one I had in college. That is my treasure, because it brings back memories of college and our family friend who also had one when I was young.

Since then I have had several 1-18's and still have one.

Martin

 

[nrones]

since kindergarden xD

I was really young, like I was born with washing machine interest, I just know that everyone knows, and remembers me about that..
Sometimes happends:
-Do you know Dejan?
-No
-Really, that"s the washing machine guy
-Oh yeah, I know him xDD

 

[whirlpolf]

early enough to get on the nerves of my folks

being thrilled? Ever since (see pic)
being collecting? Not until I had enough space of my own. (had some tabletop washers all along when I was a student).
But even having grown out of a toddler's age, I'd have all kinds of "logical" explanations, very much to the dismay of my old folks (I'd been chewing off their ears bloody with all that sermon). Thanks goddess, they had a very forgiving attitude to so much "knowledge". Sorry Mom and Dad, being thrilled is a full time job, y'know... *g*
My poor Dad even used the moment and took this pic (look at the marvellous "Bienenstich" cake on top of the washer which my Granny made that day)...Sort of similar to our young Youtube-kids-experts, what do you think?

 

[aquacycle]

I've never collected washing machines or larger appliances, but I do have a little collection of vacuums. I didn't get a vacuum of my own, in any form, until I was 16 and got my christmas bonus from my first part time job. I had to sneak it into the house so my Mum wouldn't notice.

My Mum was never very supportive of my interest - she always found it embarrassing. If ever we went anywhere when I was younger and I would mention vacuums or washing machines, I would get grounded as Mum would be "so humiliated by my behaviour". Dad was much more supportive and used to pick up leaflets and such for me. He's a gas engineer and whenever I had to go with him for a job, he would say "where's the man with the vac?" and I'd be there with Henry ready to help clean up. He'd also tell me about interesting washers and vacuums in peoples houses that he had seen, and tell me about my Grandma's Constellation they had when he was young.

It wasn't until I was 18 and moved into my own place that I started getting more and more bits and pieces. Mum still doesn't like the fact that I am interested in appliances, but she can't do anything about it now - HA!