why top loaders popular in the usa

[bajaespuma]

Dr. Freud raises a point:

Front loaders present the consumer with a smallish dark boring hole down towards the floor. Top loaders greet the consumer by opening its big mouth and revealing a large colorful plastic appendage that (we must assume)is powerful and does something marvelous.

I would bet most of the top loaders in the Fifties and Sixties were purchased by men for their wives.

...and, yes, I know, sometimes a top loader is just a top loader.

 

[mielabor]

Louis,

I suppose that I lived in a poor environment then...

My aunt had a Frigidaire refrigerator that I would have loved to have. It had a two-colour white/yellow door, very unusual. I always associated Frigidaire with refrigerators only and never knew that they also made washers until I found the AW website.

 

[rayjay]

Front Loaders Cleaning Ability

I think a lot had to do with the detergent back then. I the late fifties and early sixties, we would use a loaundromat occasionaly, and they had the Bendix front loaders in various sizes. The owner of the laundromat advised on using low suding detergents, (back then ALL, Dash and AD) where all we had then. He said if you over suds a frontloader, the clothes just FLOATED in the tub, and did not tumble and wash properly, thus....poor washability. I did try this back then with two loads of diapers. One with a high sudser, and one with a low sudser, same amount of diapers, same amount of detergent and bleach. Well...he was right. The load washed in the low sudsing detergent came out spotless, but the load in the high sudsing detergent left notable traces of soil.

We always used a low sudser even in our top loading machines back then. WIth the rise of front loaders on the market,its amazing that there are still so many hi-sudsing detergents on the market now.

The front loaders accomodate more types of laundry and so a much better job a washing and rinsing too.

 

[randycmaynard]

Seems when I go to an L-Mat......

That I usually see a woman or man and woman come in with a @@@t load of laundry and they stuff the big FLs full and pour the powder or liquid deterg in them to the point of oversuds and overflow. Unbelieveable the amount of deterg that these folks pour in those machines..... many is the time that I've seen the suds and water running down the front of the machine or out the dispenser compartments.

I also remember a couple of years ago I had gone to an L-Mat to do some large bedding in the large FLs and a man, woman and childern came in and there were two rows of Maytag Neptune machines - I believe 12 on each side (24 total) and they kept carrying the laundry in.... bag after bag after bag and they literally filled all 24 Neptune machines and may have used one of two of the big large 3X load machines too! I was the most unreal thng I have ever seen.

 

[rapunzel]

People who could afford it imported appliances from the USA

If you were rich and had the space and amenities in place you could always have everything. Of course there were people well-heeled enough and able to afford expensive luxury imports from far-away places.

The vast majority of ordinary working-class people couldn't though. Nor could they justify the expense of buying expensive luxury goods, let alone some overpriced US import, considering that most European countries' currencies exchanged very low against the US dollar then. The annual income and spending power of the average European worker would have been half that of their American counterpart, if that. There was no such thing as easy credit and people had to save before they spent.

Mediterranean countries like Spain and Greece were very poor. If you had money there was a huge resource of cheap labor to pick from, thus no cultural or economic need for expensive appliances from overseas. You also wouldn't allow some illiterate domestic helper to operate your expensive American washing machine or stove. Nonetheless, they were available and some people had them. Doing domestic chores was considered degrading to women of means.

In reality 90% of European households had very few appliances in the 1950s. Many people still cooked on solid fuel stoves, still washed by hand or had only rudimentary washing machines and refrigerators were small. Bathrooms and in-house flush toilets were not the norm either.

Prior to the second world war, much of Europe was still caught up in its feudal past. Societies were largely stratified according to privileges bestowed by birthright. Aristocrats and the wealthy middle class had servants and no real need for appliances. The average factory worker or farm hand would wash only on special occasions, their families would live in one or two room tenements with few amenities, where parents and children often slept in one bed ate out of one bowl and where owning a pair of mended socks was a sign of the good times.

Owning a mechanical washing machine or other types of appliances would likely have been considered frivolous and wasteful by ordinary folk.

 

[foraloysius]

Olav

The neighbours that had the automatic toploader weren't very rich. He was a supervisor at a bus company, supervisor over the drivers. I don't think she had a job. There were eight kids. She did a lot of sewing work and they didn't have a car for a long time. Still they had that washing machine. Apparently they could afford it.

 

[whirlcool]

I remember when a German couple of ours came over for a visit. The wife asked if she could use our washing machine, of course we said yes. She had tons of questions about it, such as "How do your clothes ever get clean in something like that?" "All ity is doing is moving the clothes back and forth, how can you get things clean at all?"
She told us all the advantages of having a front loader and that we should consider switching immediately! This woman really thought that her clothes were not cleaned properly.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Amazing that abundant water scared her!

Everyone thiks that what THEY have and what THEY know, and what THEY do, and what THEY are used to is the only proper/right way usually.

Adding heat is one way to compensate for the lack of water and the lack of mechanical action.

Bottom line is that the results in any machine (WHEN THE USER IS COMPETENT) are acceptable.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Case in point. I have only had a front-loader now for a few years. Before phospates, my whites were quite yellow. Bought me a huge 20 quart/litre stock-pot.

Pre-washed the whites in the machine with detergent, extracted the water and spun them out. Put them in the "hot-tub" (20 qt./litre pot) stovetop with dishwasher detergent and phosphates. THE WATER WAS BROWN.

Spun them in the machine and re-washed them in the automatic washer.

If you think (need to believe) a front-loader is good/effective because of heat, you should see what a heated top-loader can do!

 

[hoovermatic]

As a child I grew up with twin tubs, right up to 1982 in fact, when my Mum finally got a FL.

For me it was the sheer convenience of not having to be in attendance while the washing took care of itself that was the MAJOR attraction of an automatic. From my Mums point of view she was cynical for two reasons and I remember them well:

1) The washing action isn't vigorous enough to get stains out (she had a Hoovermatic for years)

2) There are no suds so how are the clothes going to get clean?

It took some getting used to. Where was the steam, the noise, the smell of detergent in the air, the suds and with the case of the Hoovermatic, the splashes on the floor?

It was such a change in so many ways that she was not convinced that it was a change for the better. Looking back, it is easy to see why she felt that way.

 

[favorit]

Toggles,
I could say that every toploader tears clothes badly.
Guess everybody know that's false .... not every toploader is a Shredmore !

Likely different frontloaders may have different cleaning ability, depending on several factors as tumbling speed (too low or too fast cause poor cleaning action) baffles shape, cycle design .....

for sure I'm rather skeptic about US Electrolux frontloaders that have a maximum 21 minutes wash part of the cycle for a full load. Not enough time for enzymes to work. Also the 5 minute soak of the stain treat option IMHO is useless. It may work as fast cycle for light soil, not as a heavy duty cycle
If this is the case of your frontloader experience do agree with you

a hot cycle in my mieles cleans far better in the longer boilwash of the vintage Candy i've in the garage

As a clue, those old square door Philco/Bendix were very popular in restaurants, small hotels and B&B, cause they were very effective against stains and not so expensive as Mieles

 

[rapunzel]

Hi Louis,

There are always exceptions to the norm. People on limited budgets will buy items that are beyond their means. You said yourself that your neighbor did not own a car for a long time. Maybe the washing machine was the trade-off. Perhaps your neighbor's wife didn't only sew for her own family, but also to supplement their income. Could it also be possible that she did laundry for other people?

If I had been the only person with an automatic washer in my neighborhood, I would have considered turning this into an economic advantage.

Olav

 

[foraloysius]

Olav

No, I know that she only sew for her own family. Several women did in the neighbourhood and none of them sewed for others. And she didn't do laundry for others. Doing it for a household of 8 children was quite enough I think.

 

[irishwashguy]

When I was a kid, you only saw them at laundromats

You would see them only at the laudomat, I knew two people that had them in their laudry rooms,although, they did not spin out very well, you rarely saw them in a store. When you would, there was a choice of one, maybe two until the late 80's when european laundry came to the states.

 

[circlew]

We had two

front load washers, both Westinghouse Laundromats. The first was a '56 that my Mom got for Christmas when I was 5 months old, replacing a Maytag wringer. That machine lasted until '65, but remember it being worked on a few times. It sometimes would get out of balance, and move from its spot. Once it went so far it unplugged itself, and the top came loose.
The second machine was a '65 (also in white), with the flush fitting side swing door. That thing was lousy. The door started rusting out in a short time, and it required service on several occasions. It was replaced in Sept. 73 with a Maytag A206 (white), and a DE406 dryer was also purchased at this time.

I remember Mom using Instant Fels when I was real little, then All or Dash, and Salvo towards the end. She never bought Tide unless to use for other cleaning. Once the Maytag TL arrived, she started using liquids most of the time; Wisk at first, then Era. I don't remember her making any comments one way or the other as to whether the FL's or TL gave better results. She never overloaded any of them, and always used a sensible amount of detergent. The Maytag was still working when I gave it away in 2003. I still have the dryer.

 

[liberator1509]

We actually have top-loaders in the British Isles too

I believe that this is a question of market-driven production. Top-loaders were quite popular here from the 1960s through to the 1970s at a point when automatics were NOT the norm, and considered luxury purchases. Originally (in the 60s) automatics were generally bought by people on middle to high incomes, with larger houses and more flexibility in locating a washer. In the 60s, consumers could choose between a range of top-load, front-load and the unique half-way-house Keymatic. Kitchens weren't fitted with wall-to-wall cabinets and counter-tops, so any style washer could be accommodated. In the 1960s an automatic cost about £120 - one whole month of a healthy middle-manager's salary - about £3000-4000 grand today. In the 60s and 70s, the Hotpoint top-loader was considered very good in terms of results, spin-drying, capacity etc.

By the time cheap Italian automatics (mainly Indesit front-loaders) came in the 1970s, a trend for fitted kitchens meant the market swung to front-load machines. These machines were less than half the cost of a top-loader, and ultimately cheaper than the ubiquitous twin-tub, driving the UK manufacturers to cut production costs as much as possible to compete. Top-loaders were still popular for consumers with laundry rooms, but the market had swung so much to front-loaders that there was little reason to continue production. The traditional top-loader is much more complex, requiring a gear-box, brake etc etc, so could never be produced as cheaply as a front-loader. EU water and energy labeling finally killed the UK top-loader off.

There is still a market for US top-load washer and dryer pairs here, generally sold to the luxury market by Whirlpool and Maytag through specialist appliance/kitchen-porn 'lifestyle' suppliers - ironic as the models sold here are BOL US models. Top-loaders were even more popular in Ireland than the UK through the 70s and 80s with GE filter-flo pair marketed alongside the UK Hotpoint model - the GE was very popular amongst guest-house owners, hospitals, holiday parks etc - I bet there are still examples out there!

Personally I think there is very little to argue in terms of performance between top-load and front-load (I admit there is much to argue in terms of water consumption) - we have a Hotpoint Top-Loader and it washes as well as a front-loader, I think it rinses better and it is much quicker, and I manage to get brilliant whites!!