which company invented the Magic Minute?

[passatdoc]

I believe that the Magic Minute was some sort of prewash or soak, correct? Was it Kelvinator or some other company? I have seen the term applied here to other washers besides Kelvinator. Does anyone know when they stopped marketing the feature in advertising?

 

[peteski50]

Magic Minute

Even though ABC invented the the xcentric washing action, it was Kelvinator using the same washing action that created the magic minute. Correct me if I am wrong.
Peter

 

[frigilux]

Kelvinator used the term Magic Minute, but early ABC washers did the same thing (agitation with a concentrated detergent solution), calling it Shampoo Action.

Go to the Cyber Museum page of this site and click on ABC. There is great video footage of an ABC washer in both Shampoo Action and regular wash modes.

 

[passatdoc]

shampoo action

Yeah, that's where I saw "magic minute" applied to another brand, in the Cyber Museum.

Did these cycles really last only 60 seconds, or was it a figure of advertising speech?

 

[bongobro]

SHAMPOO ACTION and the MAGIC MINUTE

Since Nash-Kelvinator purchased Altorfer Bros. Co. (ABC and ABC-O-Matic) in 1953, the ABC washing machine line (and the ABC agitator action that the attached commercial from 1956 describes as "a smooth, continuous off-center motion") morphed into the Kelvinator automatic washer line shortly after that.

My mother's first automatic was a 1963 Kelvinator automatic, and I remember that MAGIC MINUTE ran about two or three minutes and provided that so-called "shampoo action." Since all AMC-Kelvinators had timed fill rather than pressure fill, the amount of water in the tub varied with the pressure of the water coming into the washer. If the water pressure was too low, there was not enough water; if it was too high, the detergent wasn't concentrated enough.

The commercial describes a pre-treatment cycle on the "Do-All Dial" that is essentially the "MAGIC MINUTE" minus the fancy name; I think Kelvinator began using the phrase somewhere around 1960 or so. Amazing that Mom's Kelvy had the same basic agitator Hillary Brooke is displaying, minus the soft rubber fins, with a lint filter that was held down in place by the agitator cap. (What a pain that was to clean out!)