What Brand Are These Washers?

[Unimatic1140]

So I just ran across this commercial on YouTube. It is obviously from sometime in the 1960-1965 range or so I would guess. The quality of the commercial isn't great but what surprised me the washers in the laundromat I don't recognize. They clearly have big round window lids and at first I thought they were Kelvinators, but at the end of the commercial you can see the lid more clearly and these are not Kelvinator lids. They almost look like Apex lids, but the machines look too new to be Apex washers (or so I think) as they were gone by '58. Anyone have any idea, I'm rarely stumped at vintage top loaders, but this one did stump me...

 

[maytag85]

Norge maybe?

 

[mayken4now]

Hummmmmm

Didn't Frigidaire have a lid that looked like that on some early 1960's models? (Rollermatics) My guess.

 

[appnut]

I'm going to guess ABC/Kelvintor or Apex.

 

[yogitunes]

I am going to say more along the lines of Frigidaire Solid Tub Rollermatics.....as we had a local laundromat that had those....

we had a local laundromat 2 blocks away that had these....I would visit on occasion for a load or two, roughly around .30 cents per load.....I know they were still in use around my 6th grade school year(1974-75), as I would help a friend do her families wash on Sat....at the time there was no mention of loading these machines in quadrants, and so may went out of balance during the spin....

loved the look of the Space Ship JetCone agitator....

 

[ea56]

I also believe that Frigidaire had some washers with a window in the lid in the late 50’s early 60’s.

 

Eddie 

 

[Unimatic1140]

These are not Frigidaire washers. Look at the round Frigidaire washer lid used on 1963-1965 Frigidaire 27" wide coin-op washers. The window was round but it was no where near the entire size the whole lid, like in the screen captures of the commercial below it! Nor do our mystery washers have a lid handle. Frigidaire switched to square window in 1966. The gasket that holds the window is also completely different.

 

[pierreandreply4]

philco speed queen westinghouse or whirlpool making a wild guess here?

 

[Unimatic1140]

These aren't Kelvinator. Kelvinator had a double lid so you couldn't see the ring of the rubber gasket on the top of the lid. Also the Kelvinator window, while bigger than the Frigidaire window, wasn't nearly as big as our mystery machine. Kelvinator used a double lid to help seal and prevent water splash with its intense splashing action. In the first screen capture below my images in the image below (select view full size) you can clearly see the rubber ringed gasket sticking up from the closed lid...

 

[Unimatic1140]

The Apex lid on my 1953 looks the closest to these. The image of the washer below is the 1956-1957 Apex, and the lid also looks more similar to these machines. Apex was out of business by 1958. These mystery machines have a very 1960s look to them, so I don't see how these could be Apex. But maybe they are of a Beam design off brand and used the Apex lid design? I've never seen anything like it before.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Thinking more about what I said above, Apex was sold to White Sewing Machine which became White Consolidated, so they would not have been Beam made. WCI would have owned the designs to the Apex lid and WCI used Franklin parts to design their machines. Maybe just maybe these are never seen super rare Franklin Coronado or Wizard coin-ops? I have no documentation to ever show they made coin-ops, but maybe they did?

 

[bradfordwhite]

Could these be frankenstein creations?

Weren't we perplexed a few years ago by some window lidded co-ops on an episode of Andy Griffith?
The lid looked like one thing but the console something other.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Yes the washers on the Andy Griffith show were 1963 Frigidaire Coin-op 12lb Unimatics. But these too have a very different lid than our mystery lid.

 

[stainfighter]

These have a low profile console. I remember the TV commercial but just cannot get enough of a view. There is the hum of machines but no give a way sound of a solenoid "bang" or similar...and the mystery continues

 

[tomturbomatic]

Andy's laundromat had disguised Frigidaire coin-op machines.

 

[Unimatic1140]

So after doing some further research by looking at magazine ads of Cheer detergent, comparing them to the box in the commercial it seems this commercial would be in the 1960-1962 range. This along with looking at the grainy pictures of the machines from the video make me conclude that these indeed are Apex Bouncing Basket coin-op washers in that laundromat! If these machines were produced in the 1956, then by 1962 they would have only been 6 to 7 years old at that time, too soon to have been replaced.

Looking at the images of the home model of the 1956-1957 Apex and comparing them to the machines in the video they do have serval similarities. The lid shape is nearly identical and the cabinet is square (no rounded corners). The window lid seal is clearly round and extends down under the lid to seal off splashing. They wouldn't need to make the seal extended down for a less splashy agitator washer. Also the laundromat washers have a control panel that is slanted back, just like the home Apex washer, although the coin-op slanted panels seem higher but that could just for the coin-op models. I have never seen any documentation that shows Apex coin-op washers, but I have heard from a few older members that they remember them in laundromats when they were young.

Oh to be able to take a time machine back in time and visit the laundromat with a basket of laundry! How fun would that be, one can only imagine such dream!

 

[appnut]

Robert, that's why I mentioned Apex in one of my 2 guesses because I remember someone here at some point in time stating they'd seeen/remembered a laundromat with Apex washers.

 

[eurekastar]

Great detective work!

 

[bradfordwhite]

I hope this time travel trip will be a group thing. We can get discounted rates.

I want to stop off at ...

1968 see the Bewitched kitchen set,
1966 to see the Glass Bottom Boat movie set with that robot vacuum that scooted out of the cabinet
1960 typical main street to visit all the appliance stores and laundromats
1972 visit Maude's kitchen set
1978 stop in NYC and see Studio 54 at it's height
1980 Sears store appliance and vacuum dept.
I'm sure I can think of more...