Wringer Washers for Dummies

[qualin]

Hello everyone.

I thought I'd start this in a separate thread because I want every bodies opinions!

Let's say that through a time space freak of nature, I'm transported back to 1936. (Let's ignore the fact it's not possible, this is all theoretical.)

A landlord lets me rent a room, but only if I'll do the 100 lbs worth of laundry stacked up in the back room. (They have a big family and don't have time to do laundry, I dunno..)

Unfortunately, all they have in the laundry room is a (Insert brand here) wringer washer, a twin tub porcelain-covered steel sink, endless boxes of (Insert Brand Here) laundry detergent and clothes pins. I have the option of asking for additional laundry supplies if I need them. (ie. Bleach, etc.) There is a very very long laundry line in the back yard and the weather is nice and sunny.

I know it sounds like a stupid question, but how on earth would I do their laundry??? What are the steps I would follow to get their laundry clean without looking like I never did laundry before in my life?

Would anyone care to indulge this laundry washing fantasy and describe how they'd do it?

 

[arbilab]

I'd say "buy an Easy Spindrier and you've got a deal". I ain't feeding no hundred pounds of laundry through a wringer.

And they by gawd better be SPRING clothespins.

 

[wayupnorth]

How the lady of the house handled big washes in the "olden days" was to first sort into similar loads, light to dark. Then starting with the first light load, to the washer, to the first laundry tub for rinsing then to the second for blueing, back through the wringer and into the basket. All the while the 2nd load was washing then to the clothesline, on to the second load, rinse and repeat as many times as necessary. Many times using the same water for all the loads, which was great if you were on well water.

 

[qualin]

To Arbilab

Ok, let's say I could convince them to go with an Easy Spindrier, how different is using it from a wringer? How does the wash method change?

(I'll admit, I don't honestly know how to do laundry _PROPERLY_ using a Wringer or Twin Tub. I can hazard a guess, but it's probably wrong.)

Indulge me!

 

[abcomatic]

I would buy a Maytag Grey Ghost model. It would wash lots of clothes and the wringer works well. Have a couple of rinse tubs and the wash is done quickly.
I don't know if Oxyodl was invented yet? If not, soap would be what you would use. American Family soap flakes or Fels Naptha. If you hard water, lost of product was needed to try and soften the water, borax would be helpful too.
Use spring loaded clothes pins and hang it all out on the line. Be careful with zippers and buttons so you don't break any of that.
By the time you have washed one load, rung the clothes into the first rinse, loaded the washer for another load, rinsed into the 2nd rinse, rung it out and hung it all out on the line, by the time you have done that you are ready to wring out another load and repeat the process. If the wash water gets really dirty, drain it and re-fill the washer and proceed as before. Some of the washers that were avaliable then would be: Apex, Maytag, Easy, Thor(not a very good machine),ABC, GE,Universal,Conlon, Speed Queen,Dexter, Hotpoint etc.

 

[polkanut]

Spring loaded clothespins would't have been too common.  More than likely the pins would be just the plain old type that you push on, and pull off.  Having grown up around grandmothers that only ever had wringer machines, I would choose a Speed Queen because they were workhorses, and the brand is still made in Ripon, WI.

 

[launderess]

Wringers equal about 200rpm spin speed which is pretty low on the extraction scale. Even the "slowest" spin drier or cycle of a washing machine removes more water and residue.

Keep in mind also to gain maximum extraction from wringers you have to either bring the rollers close together and or fold items in such a way to have good compression as they go through, then refold and pass again (and maybe again). This can and often does lead to creasing that no amount of tumble drying and or ironing will remove.

Finally it must be said using a wringer/mangle simply is not for those whom cannot pay attention to the matter at hand. A minute of distraction can lead to bodily harm.

 

[launderess]

Ok, Found It

Since one had to dust the bookcase anyway.....

Model is Hoover 0319.

Only a few (about three) pages showing various parts and so forth, then a few more pages in the repair/trouble shooting section. Considering the vast coverage given to the twin tub washer (0500) and Blackstone built automatic washer one can safely conclude that buy the time this manual was published at least the Hoover 0319 wasn't a "big".

Quick peep through the service portion reveals the wringer could be left or right hand mounted. The pump has an oil port and required a drop or two now and then.

 

[arbilab]

answer to Qualin

The spinner not only gets about 3 times drier but it does batches where the wringer does one item at a time and breaks buttons and zippers. And fingers unless you're really paying attention. Since the Easy already has two tubs, other than the drain the sinks don't need to be used at all.

In my (glorious) twintub days I did the first rinse in the spinner then set stuff aside for an agitation second rinse. But that was Hawaii where one doesn't necessarily go through a lot of clothes and I was just washing for myself and sometimes a roommate. And I relish the process. Grandma didn't agitate rinse in her Easy.

The (lower-case) laundress of 1936 would need to control the chemistry, which today pretty much comes in one box. Otherwise laundry would shortly look like an unkept bathtub. "Soap" is really messy stuff by itself.

 

[norgeway]

The Main Thing!

Fold the shirt etc, over the buttons and make sure they are FLAT going thru the wringer...otherwise they will fly out like bullets!!!

 

[launderess]

Laundry 1936 Style

Happily one has several vintage laundry manuals and a few are from around the early part of the last century.

By the 1930's a housewive/domestic laundress had her pick of various semi automatic washing machines or doing the wash by hand. In the United States at least that choice would largely depend upon the financial circumstances of the household (could they afford a washing machine), and if the area/home was wired for electric power.

Going with the family has electric power and a wringer type washing machine.

Washday most always began the night/day before when the laundry was gathered and sorted. There would be several loads:

Whites - table linen
Whites - bed linen
Whites/lights - clothing/undergarments
Coloured items (non colourfast)
Darks

As items were sorted any stains would have been treated and or otherwise attended to.

Whites would then be placed into tubs or the washing machine (usually tubs to keep the washer free to be filled the next day), that was filled with warm or cool water with a bit of soda. This was the soaking phase and did much to remove surface soils and muck so the washer would have less work. The addition of washing soda helped break down oils/fats on the laundry. Non-colourfast items and darks were never soaked.

Nearly 99% of typical soils and stains found on laundry are water soluble. Sugar based stains will wash out in cold water and that temperature prevents the "cooking" in of protein based stains. So soaking in cold water did much to lessen the work on laundry day regardless of the wash being done by hand or machine.

Next day came the washing. If by machine the thing would be filled with hot water and perhaps a water softener (phosphates, washing soda, borax, packaged water softener) in the amount whomever was doing the wash knew was required to deal with the hardness of the local water. Then soap would be added, again this could have been packaged product such as Gold Dust, Lux Flakes, Sunlight Soap, Kirkman Soap,or if out in the country homemade stuff. Washer was turned on and once the machine was filled items wrung out of the soaking tubs would be added.

The usual order was to do table and bed linens first because normally such items weren't *that* dirty. The former mostly had food and beverage stains (if any) the latter would have bodily oils and secretions (use your imagination), as well as perhaps various medications administered if someone was ill (Vaseline, etc...).

After the machine had done it's work and the load was clean it would be fed into the wringer and usually allowed to fall into a sink or tub filled with hot water. There it would be manually rinsed (wealthy households may have had one of those double wringer washing machine units, or two separate washers), wrung out and then either rinsed again or sent to the boiling coppers.

Whilst the rinsing of one load was going on another load was placed into the washer (with more hot water and or soap added if needed), and allowed to agitate.

Boiling laundry:

There are two schools of thought on this. Some ladies of the house/laundress felt that *all* white and colourfast laundry should be boiled at each washing. Others felt that the washing action of "automatic" washing machines removed the need for boiling and that the process was hard on textiles. To it's credit however boiling did allow textile fibers to open up and release any remaining trapped soap/soil residue and thus give a cleaner wash.

Items that weren't boiled were rinsed at least twice or three times in water hot as the hands could bear (if using a machine that point was moot), and should he wrung out between each rinse. Finally there would be one or two cool/cold rinses with the last often being a bluing rinse for whites and light colours.

Finally the wash was mangled out of final rinse water, and hung out to dry.

*I'm getting tired typing this, cannot imagine doing 10 much less 100 pounds of laundry this way* *LOL*

After laundry was dried then came starching and ironing.....

 

[qualin]

Oh wow... Well, at least I know most of the procedure!

Thanks for the contributions!

 

[launderess]

Forgot To Add

Soaking period acted as a "break" in that it broke soils away from the fabrics. This meant the soap in wash water had less work to do and more important there was less acid/scum producing soils to make washing with soap difficult. This in turn allowed more than one use of wash water with perhaps using less soap.

 

[launderess]

Another Thing

Unless they were living out in the woods and or the lady of the house/laundry help was ill, there never would be 100 lbs of washing in a household in the 1930's.

For one thing even the very wealthy didn't own that much clothing on average. The lower one got down on the social scale meant fewer change of clothing. Because there was so little of it persons wore items much longer than we would consider decent today. Only those with funds for large wardrobes and or the funds to pay someone to do the washing changed clothing (including undergarments) daily if not several times. Bed linen often was changed only once a week or fortnight. Remember this was the era when many only bathed once a week (Saturday night).

A large amount of linen would to me at least imply a boarding house or some sort of fully or quasi commerical establishment. In either case in most all urban areas there were plenty of "steam laundries" that would have made quick work of that washing with probably better results than doing it at home.

 

[wetguymd]

OMG

I would be in heaven!! I love my wringers! My favorite would be a Kenmore Vista with a roto swirl agitator and the big open wringer. I would separate the 100 pounds into loads...sheets, whites, towels, light colors, dark colors, etc... Back the machine up to the sinks and fill it up with the hottest water possible. Put in about a 2 cups of "old" Tide and about a cup of bleach and put in the white sheets. These would wash for about 30 minutes. During this time I would fill both sinks with cold water and put a few drops of blueing in the first tub and some Final Touch fabric softner in the second one. After about 30 minutes I would run them thru the wringer into the first tub and then put in the whites and put the lid back on and while they washed for about 30 minutes I would rinse the sheets in the first rinse and run them thru the wringer to the second rinse with the Final Touch and then into the clothes basket. Now its time to take them out to the clothes line and hang them on the line. Spring clothes pins. No prettier sight than a nice line of bright white sheets blowing in a breeze! By the time this is done its should be time to run the whites out and repeat the process changing the rinse water as needed...usually after each load. I would wash the light colored next and then the towels... if I didn't have a lint filter going on the machine I would change the wash water before I did the dark clothes.

I use my wringer every week. I have for years. I have a Maytag that belonged to my Grandmother that I use but the reason I mention the Kenmoe here is because that is what my Mom had when I was a kid before she got a GE Filter Flow. I have such fond memories of the Kenmore running in the early morning before I went to school. To this day I follow this pattern when I wash and usually only wash once a week... although I don't hang all the clothes outside anymore... I do hang the sheets out and always the dress shirts. Sometimes in the summer I will put every thing out. Its so nice to have that fresh smell in the clothes!

So 100 pounds of clothes would only be like 8 or 9 loads in the wringer and I would be a very happy camper!!!

 

[launderess]

Knock Yourself Out!

*LOL*

 

[qualin]

To Wetguy

Well, this is a forum about laundry and washers, so I kind of figured this would be like a bit of a fantasy, at least to some degree...

What I kind of wanted to aim for was, if there was a LOT of work to be done, how would you do it with a wringer instead of a full automatic washer?

30 minutes of agitation seems like a lot to me though, I thought it is supposed to work like this:

15 minutes - For very soiled / heavy fabrics
12 minutes - Normal Soil - Good for most loads
8 minutes - Light Soil for for casual / delicate fabrics
4 minutes - For very delicate fabrics (ie. Lace, etc)

Most washes I've done in a top loading automatic had 12 minutes of agitation, except for denim which got 15.

So, when you rinse the clothes in the sink, is it just as simple as putting the clothes in and manually swirling them around with a wash stick briefly? Or do you just let them sit the sink for a few minutes, then take them out and wring them?

Just curious.

 

[wetguymd]

I agree that 30 minutes is excessive. But thats what my Grandmother did...especially with the heavily solied ones like the sheets and whites and demin. They washed while she did the rinsing and hanging and I guess that took about 30 minutes. Her machine (Maytag that I have and use today) didn't have a timer on it. Mom's Kenmore did and she would set it to the fabric she was washing and then the machine would shut off.

As for the rinsing.. yes you need to get in there and work the clothes in the water to get the soap out. Since its cold water a washing stick is not needed.

 

[cehalstead]

my wringer rinse tubs are ALWAYS filled with warm water....never cold.