My favorite washer is normally whichever one that I covet and don't yet own.
The more I think about it, however, the more I think that my all-time favorite washer was the solid tub 1960 BOL Filter-Flo that we had in a beach house in Old Saybrook, CT. And that's because, by some unbelievable fluke, not only did my Parents take me to Bombaci's appliance store in Centerbrook in 1964 on the buying trip, but by some even more unbelievable circumstance, they let me pick it out. Fortunately, my only criterion that day was a blue plastic filter-pan, and, as luck would have it, there was a used FF in the store that day and my Mother, the cheap-seat, was more than happy to buy a used machine at a discount. Had I chosen the 1964 TOL WA-1250Y that was in the store with a white filter-pan and a white Mini-Basket, it wouldn't have happened unless it was just me and Dad in the store . I will always have a place in my heart for that little machine. It washed the clothes; that's all it did. No dials lit up, no two speeds, no bells, no whistles, just a beautiful turquoise filter pan that you had to push hard to seat it on the top of the 3 straight-vaned activator with the weird cap. It had one of the first safety switches on the lid, but you could lift the lid more than halfway up before it cut the power. It stopped in the middle of the first spin; I never knew the reason why until it was explained by somebody, probably Tom Turbomatic on this very site.
We never had the dryer; nobody at the beach did, not even the rich family. Everybody's laundry was dried by on-shore breezes from the Long Island Sound. It was as close to Heaven as one could hope for; I will be forever grateful to my Parents for that luxury.
The model numbers are a guess; the Filter-Flo 600 series had about 9 variations. I can't even remember whether it had two wash cycles or one.
The more I think about it, however, the more I think that my all-time favorite washer was the solid tub 1960 BOL Filter-Flo that we had in a beach house in Old Saybrook, CT. And that's because, by some unbelievable fluke, not only did my Parents take me to Bombaci's appliance store in Centerbrook in 1964 on the buying trip, but by some even more unbelievable circumstance, they let me pick it out. Fortunately, my only criterion that day was a blue plastic filter-pan, and, as luck would have it, there was a used FF in the store that day and my Mother, the cheap-seat, was more than happy to buy a used machine at a discount. Had I chosen the 1964 TOL WA-1250Y that was in the store with a white filter-pan and a white Mini-Basket, it wouldn't have happened unless it was just me and Dad in the store . I will always have a place in my heart for that little machine. It washed the clothes; that's all it did. No dials lit up, no two speeds, no bells, no whistles, just a beautiful turquoise filter pan that you had to push hard to seat it on the top of the 3 straight-vaned activator with the weird cap. It had one of the first safety switches on the lid, but you could lift the lid more than halfway up before it cut the power. It stopped in the middle of the first spin; I never knew the reason why until it was explained by somebody, probably Tom Turbomatic on this very site.
We never had the dryer; nobody at the beach did, not even the rich family. Everybody's laundry was dried by on-shore breezes from the Long Island Sound. It was as close to Heaven as one could hope for; I will be forever grateful to my Parents for that luxury.
The model numbers are a guess; the Filter-Flo 600 series had about 9 variations. I can't even remember whether it had two wash cycles or one.
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