Why UK machines usually different from US

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what a 2 up 2 down house is?

Simple...

2 living spaces downstairs - Kitchen and 'Front Room' (living/lounge room)

2 bedrooms upstairs...

Note that there are no bathroom references. A 'traditional' 2 up/2 down property would have had an outside toilet with bathing most likely to take place in the kitchen in a removable tub close to hot water and warmth....
 
Ronhic got it spot on! A lot of these were also back to back houses. Most of these were built for mill workers in the 1800's and often large families were crammed into these small houses. My house is an old 2 up 2 down house. I do have indoor plumbing and a bathroom now though, thankfully!
 
and this one...

this is the type of house I live in now. I'd like to point out though, it is not of low quality, or poorly lit, or poorly ventilated anymore lol. But you should get what I mean. Even after modern refurbishments, it would be an incredibly tight squeeze to fit in an american-style toploading washing machine and matching dryer. This is how my washing machine and dishwasher are set up in my kitchen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-back_houses
aquacycle++10-14-2010-06-18-23.jpg
 
I will simply echo what everyone has said...

That many UK houses wern't bulit with utility rooms hundreds of years ago. It's also I think convenience, as many kitchens are located next to the garden door, so if it's a sunny day you'd take the washing out and hang it to dry. I think US users tumble dry all year long, with many of us using it mostly during the rainy weather. (That being said, we don't have the best of weather either!)

Of course we still have top loading machines but they're not very common. I reckon that due to us liking to have our washing machines in the kitchen, manufacturers have taken a hint and instead made large capacity machines like the 11kg LG steam and Hotpoint Aqualtis to fit standard kitchen spaces so they fit in the kitchen. It's mostly common to see just a washing machine installed in a kitchen with no dryer, sometimes the washing machine is placed next to the dishwasher. People with utility rooms have washers and dryers, or even have both in the kitchen too.

I think back in the 60's or 70's people preferred twin tubs and toploaders, but gradually everyone has grown to accept front loaders, which is probably why they are so common here.
 
When I was young, a couple of my older relations still clung on to their twin tubs (that was in the 90's) simply because when their homes were built or modernised, the kitchens were not kitted out with extra water taps or drains for a washing machine. I have fond memories of my maternal Grandmothers Hoover twin tub that had its agitator mounted on the side of the tub rather then in the bottom. My other Grandmother’s Hotpoint Liberator was more interesting though!
 
And I will echo it too

With the added proviso that a great deal of the housing stock built in the UK in the 20th century, at least pre-war, also had very small kitchens. When house hunting in the past I have been staggered to see kitchens not much more than 5ft wide - certainly not big enough for 60cm counters on either side, and often with two doors as well. Certainly not built for the wealth of modern appliances. It was only with changes in building regulations that houses began to have decent sized kitchens, especially public housing stock
 
solsburian..

I know just what you mean. Both sets of grandparents in my family were on automatics by the time I was born in 1990, but my great grandparents both still used Twin Tubs - my Great Grandma Parker (grandads mum) had a Hotpoint twinny, and my Nana (grandma's mum) had a Hoovermatic. My Nana was 96 when she died in 2000. She was still very mobile, but couldn't deal with lugging out the twin tub once a week to do her washing. In her early 90's my great aunt bought her an automatic, but she always swore blind that her old Hoovermatic cleaned everything way better than the Indesit that replaced it, but she appreciated it's ease of use.
 
In the end both of my grandmas gave up their washing machines and let my parents do it. When they used to do their washing, I always used to love to help out, especially with the Hotpoint!

At out flat, we have just replaced our beloved Bendix Super Compact (its spin was too slow for me) with a Hoover slimline washer dryer, space is still a bit tight though!!
 
In all honesty, dude, I think you were probably better off with the bendix lol. Not a fan of modern Hoover washers, I'm afraid, but hope you're getting the best out of it and enjoying it all the same :). I've got a Miele W562 Prestige Plus and a Hoover Electron dryer. Grandma still has her 1980 Hotpoint matching set :)
 
When we can afford to get the kitchen done we'll probably get a Miele WD.

To be honest I'm not a fan ether of the Candy "Hoover" machines but its quite handy with its slim depth and the dryer side is not too bad ether. However on its first wash, when on the final spin, it was so unbalanced that it knocked out one of the plugs covering the holes for the transit bolts! I just hope it can last a couple of years!

Unfortunately my Grandma who had the Liberator chucked it out when she got a Bungalow. She also had a Hotpoint dryer stacked on top of it (it was the next generation one as it had a clear door and didn't have the pasted buttons). She only ever used it as a store for the soap powder!
 
OMG !!!!!!!

Here she is !!!!

Thanks Louis for posting that Constructa dishwasher with the window :) She's the very one we were talkin' about time ago

AquaCycle, what about that slimline Zan-o-Lux dishwasher ??
Is she nice at washing pots and pans even on the fast cycle ?
 
OMG now I`m getting excited, too !

Notice that dishwasher has 4 little seperate sprayarms for the bottom rack !
Have seen one of them in the trash when I was still a child but I didn`t know until now it was a Constructa.
Did they also come without a window ? I don`t seem to remember it had one...
This one and an old Bauknecht are the only German DWs I have ever seen with a plastic interior.
 
Actually there was a model without a window, at least Siemens sold the same machine without a window. It was a Siemens GS. According to the brochure I have (I must reinstall my scanner sometime) there was a model GS 12 (without water softener) and a model GS 13 (with water softener).

In the late seventies (early eighties?) Bosch and Siemens had a BOL dishwasher with a plastic interior (in the Dutch brochure the material was called Hostaleen PP). The Siemens model was the WG3800. I don't know what the equivalent Bosch model was but I know there was one, I once had a date with somebody who had a BOL Bosch dishwasher with plastic interior.
 
I once had a date with somebody who had a BOL Bosch dishwash

Louis you made me laugh after a heavy day with that line!! That could be straight out of a Victoria Wood Acorn Antiques sketch...LOL

Talking of British washing machines - my avatar pic is the first true all British Washing Machine - The Servis Model A produced 1929...about to undergo a spa & motor tuneup...only 50 of them ever produced and its thanks to the Spa of Neil (aka Fanny) that it was found in a local spares shop around the corner from the Servis HQ in Darlaston, West Midlands...
 
Favorit...

The Lux is absolutely brilliant! The longest cycle is about 55 minutes and washes everything without the need to rinse things in the sink before hand.
 

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