Work Begins on the 1960 Coin-op

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Rich You Nasty little boy!

Now I understand all the guff I got sneaking into laundry rooms.
Tell NO ONE this next story:

We had a similar set up in my neighborhood in a long brick apartment block down at the end of our street.
But there were stairs down to it from the apartments and at each end of the basement there was a door outside. So it was perfect for little neighborhood kids to run right through.
We'll our gang leader Jay took us through one day, the building was full of just starting out couples and low income screamers. Which to our advantage,meant that the women were all really pregnant and didn't want to bother going down the stairs to chase us out.
Instead they would yell epithets down on us from the top of the stairs which made us insolent, very insolent so we would run out grab some sticks and stones run back in the other end and scream like indians and open the lids on all the running machines and throw the sticks and stones inside, crank the dials around in mid cycle ( that was my idea) then run out the other end of the basement and on home way, way down the street!!
Not a proud moment in washerdom but alot of drama! I was damn lucky my mother never found out. The whole Morrow Street gang was lucky their mothers never found out either!!

Dadoes thanks for the pointer I see the place where the button selector went now.
Hey Glenn, my sister finally got the matching top load dryer to her FP machine. She hooked the gas up herself which scares the heck out of me but so far she hasn't blown up yet! I'll try to get pictures out of her!

jon
 
Is the switch double pole, double throw? How did you get to do what was needed?

Steve it’s a single pole double throw switch. Since I didn't have a wiring diagram for this Cissel water temp switch/timer I had to do some electrical tracing to figure this out. Turns out it was pretty easy, here is how it works.

The fill circuit has two lines, the black line (connected from the timer to the water temp switch and the blue line connected directly from the timer into the cold water valve.

For wash, the timer sends 120 volts of current into black line only. The black line connects into my new toggle switch.

-When the switch is in the "up" position the switch transfers the electricity to the red wire which is connected directly to the hot solenoid, this makes the washer fill will hot water.
-When the switch is in the "down" position the switch transfers the electricity to the blue wire which is connected directly to the cold solenoid, this makes the washer fill will cold water.
-When the switch is in the "middle" position the switch transfers the electricity to the both the red and blue wires which energizes both solenoids so the hot and cold water is mixed into a warm fill.

Now for the Rinse Cycle:
The timer energizes the black wire to the toggleswitch just like for the wash cycle, but the difference here is the timer also energizes the blue wire which is connected directly to the cold solenoid. Since the timer is providing power to the cold solenoid directly the cold solenoid is always on during rinse fills. But the timer also energizes the black line so if the switch is in the "up" or "middle" the hot solenoid will also be turned on during the rinse fill. If the switch is in the lower position its only sending power to the cold line (which already is getting power directly from the timer) and makes for a cold rinse.

Clear as Mud?
 
cool machine,

It is great to see how that special timer worked, and to see number 7 come alive! Awesome work! Thanks for the pictures and the explanations.

Scott
 
neat machine

Robert.. is that the original agitator for that machine? I thought unimatics had the older style looking ones?
 
Even though the 3-Ring agitator had its pretty colors and awesome rollover powers, the Deep Action space capsule agitator is still my favorite. But, boyhowdy, did it ever use up a lot of tub space!

Thanks for the pics, Robert! From 1967-69 my sister lived in an apt. building with a Frigidaire coin-op. I used to live with her in the summer and I'd spend many hours doing laundry and watching it work. I eventually scavenged a cap for the agitator, which made the window-view much clearer. I loved the short cycle---it meant the 'show' could be replayed over several times an hour. As I recall, two quarters was all it took to fire it up...
 
Once again, my hat's off to you Robert!

You never cease to amaze me!

Thanks for saving this awesome machine.

Do you have a three-ring pulsator to replace the jetcone with?

Mike

P.S. The laundromat that was around the corner from where I grew up, had coin operated Bendix machines. They cost 30 cents a load. The dryers costs 10 cents for 10 minutes. By the time we moved away, the washers were still 30 cents a load, but drying time had been shortened to 7 minutes for a dime.
 
Hi Mike, yes I have all the related parts to build a three ring agitator if I wish, but since I'm not hooking this machine up in my permanent collection, I will probably just leave it as it.
 
Frigidaire coin op washer

I used to work for a Frigidaire authorized service company from 1965 to 1970 in Reading PA. Moved to West Palm Beach FL in 1970 and bought a coin laundry with 1965 Frigidaire coin op washers. They were priced at a quarter. I ran them until the factory discontinued the brake assembly and could no longer keep them running. In the 60's in south FL Frigidaire coin op washers were KING!!! They spun out at over 1000rpm and washed cleaner and used less water than other machines and did it in only 18 MINUTES!!! It was the ONLY machine that I ever saw people travel out of their way to use. They would become hypnotised watching the pulsator thru the glass in the lid. The entire cabinet was porcelain. Of course they were a high maintenance machine, but it didn't matter. It broke my heart to have to scrap them. I replaced them with Maytags. Still have a few parts. Also ran Ametek Troy Big Boys which were very popular at the time. Have several in the warehouse. All are 3 phase. Hope to return them to service.
 
Hi Spencer,

Thank you for sharing your story! I can only imagine a laundromat full of Frigidaires and the sound it would have made!

If you don’t mind I’m going to shoot you and email regarding any old parts or tools you may still have on hand.

Ben
 
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