Show us your Washing Machines

[FountainPenGirl]

Washing Machines happen to come up elsewhere in FL and I thought It might be fun to put up what we are washing with in case anyone has something interesting. This is the machine I use all the time. It is about a 1947 Speed Queen. I've had it for 20 some years now, I've lost track. I do several loads every week. It gets clothes cleaner than other newer machines I've used.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mine's an Easy from c. 1934, salvaged from a friend's cellar in the early '90s, and rescued from being turned into a lawn planter. The bottom wringer roll developed some severe cracks so I patched it up using waterproof rubber tape and a piece cut from a bicycle inner tube. I'm still looking for a good permanent replacement roller, but the repair is perfectly functional until then.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Looks Good

Hi, That's great, It looks like it survived quite well. I don't believe I've heard of that one before. I'm familiar with the roller trouble. The lower one on mine was split and came loose from the shaft. I found another one but with age they get harder and don't wring as well as they used to.

 

[tonyb]

... Mine's an Easy from c. 1934, salvaged from a friend's cellar in the early '90s, and rescued from being turned into a lawn planter. The bottom wringer roll developed some severe cracks so I patched it up using waterproof rubber tape and a piece cut from a bicycle inner tube. I'm still looking for a good permanent replacement roller, but the repair is perfectly functional until then.

But it would have made a great lawn planter.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hi, That's great, It looks like it survived quite well. I don't believe I've heard of that one before. I'm familiar with the roller trouble. The lower one on mine was split and came loose from the shaft. I found another one but with age they get harder and don't wring as well as they used to.

I've found that the top roller has softened up quite a bit from use, but there's more force on the bottom one since that's the one that takes the force from the motor, so it's more liable to stress damage. The drive shaft has a crosspin that engages the drive gear, and so far I haven't come across a replacement roller with that exact configuration.

I'm actually doing a load in it right now -- even with my ad-hoc repair job on the roller, it does a decent job of extracting the water.

Easy was a major washing machine company from Syracuse, up thru the late fifties. They're best known for inventing the "spin dryer," a washer that eliminated the wringer in favor of a second tub that whirled the water out centrifugally. You still had to move the load from the wash tub to the spin tub, so it wasn't an automatic, but it was a step in that direction.

 

[Flicka]

I don't own a washing machine, but in my building there's a laundry room and I'm pretty sure one of the machines is from the mid-60s when the house was built. That's as vintage as I get.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Lizzie, You got me to thinking. Years back we happen to get the remains of a Maytag dealer that was in the business in the wringer era. This guy saved everything. If they junked a machine they kept anything that was useable including rollers. I have about 2 or three dozen used rollers in the shed. This is where I found the roller for my Speed Queen. I found one that could have a crosspin in the shaft. I put some pictures below. It is about 14 3/8" long from end to end of the shaft. The roller is about 2 1/4" in diameter. If you think this looks close leave a post or send a message.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's close, but mine has a shaft that extends out about four inches from the right-hand end, the part that runs thru the wringer head to connect to the drive gear. It extends long only on that end -- the other side is as shown above.

If you come across anything that looks like that, let me know -- I'd have to take the head off and apart to get the exact measurement, but I'll do that if it looks like a close match!

 

[kaiser]

Mine's an Easy from c. 1934, salvaged from a friend's cellar in the early '90s, and rescued from being turned into a lawn planter. The bottom wringer roll developed some severe cracks so I patched it up using waterproof rubber tape and a piece cut from a bicycle inner tube. I'm still looking for a good permanent replacement roller, but the repair is perfectly functional until then.

When I was a kid the lady living next to us had her arm pulled into the wringer. A rather nasty injury resulted. My mother always had respect for that type of a washing machine and used the lady next door ( and her broken arm ! ) as a reason to put pressure on my Dad to buy something modern.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most wringer machines made from the thirties onward anticipated that danger -- and built an emergency safety release into the wringer mechanism. With my machine, the release is the top bar of the wringer assembly -- if a body part is drawn into the rollers, all you have to do is knock the top bar off with your free hand and the pressure is instantly released.

 

[kaiser]

Most wringer machines made from the thirties onward anticipated that danger -- and built an emergency safety release into the wringer mechanism. With my machine, the release is the top bar of the wringer assembly -- if a body part is drawn into the rollers, all you have to do is knock the top bar off with your free hand and the pressure is instantly released.

That's right Lizzie the machine did have the safety release, but the lady said that she was so shocked by what was happening that she could not hit the release for some reason, If I remeber correctly her arm was pulled in to above her elbow before she managed to activate the release mechanism.

 

[tonyb]

That's right Lizzie the machine did have the safety release, but the lady said that she was so shocked by what was happening that she could not hit the release for some reason, If I remeber correctly her arm was pulled in to above her elbow before she managed to activate the release mechanism.

Ouch! It hurts just to think about it.

Only a tad off-topic ...

Wringer washer safety features were apparently decades ahead of those on other quite potentially dangerous household items. Consider power lawn mowers, for instance. It's only been fairly recently (in my experience) that "dead man switches" became the norm on those things.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Of course I grew up listening to an expression about getting another part of the anatomy caught in the wringer and it rhymes with it.

 

[tonyb]

Of course I grew up listening to an expression about getting another part of the anatomy caught in the wringer and it rhymes with it.

As did I and many others, I'm sure.

Wringer washers were still a common sight when I was a youngster. I'm thinking it's doubtful that people younger than 40 or so have seen one in actual use. And chances are good that people not much younger than that don't even know what one is. So perhaps that old expression (the version most common among my people had to do with keeping Richard well clear of it, so it didn't rhyme, but it was alliterative) will die out.

It's not at all hopeful that I've seen wringer spelled without the w, and no, it wasn't in reference to the person who summons the crew at dinnertime.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

It's funny you should mention young people not knowing what they are. I have a 1931 Maytag aluminum square tub washer with the single cylinder gasoline engine on it. I was displaying it at our Steam & Gas Engine Club Show running with water, soap, suds and all. This was maybe about 15 years ago. My dad was nearby and noticed a younger adult woman looking at it. She asked the person she was with what it is. Dad told me about this later on and I was astonished. I had grown up with these, my grandma had a similar one, and it was a common item. I thought that the agitating and the suds would be a tip off but I guess not. Having spent my whole life with this era of stuff I sometimes forget that there's a younger population out there that doesn't know anything about what came before them or how they got here.

 

[tuppence]

I have one like this exactly the same model; a Stampco made in Melbourne in the 50s
http://www.eaauctions.com.au/item-files/20376/20338_1_full.jpg
It worked really well, but I think the belt has gone now, because I turn it on and can hear the motor running, but nothing will happen.
I know I'm in Australia but do you think a repair man would be able to replace the belt ?

I also found that even though I would put the clothes through the wringer twice, they would still be a lot wetter than the spin cycle on a modern machine and dry to the consistency of cardboard, if the weather wasn't windy.
I did catch my hand in the wringer, but it has a sort of lever system that automatically springs open.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Having spent my whole life with this era of stuff I sometimes forget that there's a younger population out there that doesn't know anything about what came before them or how they got here.

Last year one of the concession kids came over to my house to take some pictures for a school photography class -- and was absolutely transfixed by the washing machine. OMG THATS SO KEWL!

(One of her pics -- she insisted on seeing a demonstration.)

Tuppence -- can you get the access panel off to see what kind of a belt it is? If it's just a rubber belt it shouldn't be too hard to repair if you can find the right size. Possibly a timing belt or a v-belt from a car might fit.

As far as the wringer pressure goes, that's usually adjustable -- you should be able to get more pressure by turning the handle on the top of the wringer head. And if you throw a half a cup of vinegar into the rinse water, you'll find the clothes dry a lot softer!

 

[tuppence]

Lizzie, you are such an Angel. I wondered what the nob on top of the wringer was for. :eusa_doh:

 

[deco_droid]

Great photo -- man, there is a thread for almost anything. I'll have to take a photo of our pink "Lady Kenmore". We used to have it in our kitchen and would fill it with ice and soft drinks as a sort of large scale cooler for when we had people over.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Great photo -- man, there is a thread for almost anything. I'll have to take a photo of our pink "Lady Kenmore". We used to have it in our kitchen and would fill it with ice and soft drinks as a sort of large scale cooler for when we had people over.

I used to do that too -- you can put almost a whole case of soda or beer into the tub with some ice, and it stays cool all night. Try that with one of these modern front-loaders.

I also use the washing machine as a storage tank for keeping the milk, eggs, butter, and meat cold while I'm defrosting the refrigerator.