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Thread Number: 19603
Try to understand why H axxis in EU / V axxis in US |
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| Post# 315031 , Reply# 2 11/14/2008 at 13:56 (5,635 days old) by vivalalavatrice () | ||
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And this... ... 
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Post# 315064 , Reply# 4 11/14/2008 at 15:57 (5,635 days old) by launderess  (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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If you are asking why top loading washing machines came to dominate the US market, there are several reasons. Bendix held all the patents on their front loader, thus anyone trying to copy or improve on that design would have been in for a fight. The only thing to do was to design and build one's own version, which some did with various levels of success. Until suspension systems improved, front loaders had to be bolted down, top loading machines did not. Makers of top loading washing machines waged a war against front loaders, telling Amercian housewives that unlike the later, their machines did not tangle her laundry into one long rope. Front loaders at that time only tumbled one way, which depending upon the machine's design, could indeed lead to a tangled mass of laundry. Indeed one front loader with a tilted tub was knick named "the rope maker" by housewives. Top loading automatics were natural progession for housewives from wringer washing machines. Top loaders held more, and unlike front loaders did not require "special" detergents, but worked well with high foaming soaps and other products commonly on the market. One can soak in top loader, something women did quite allot of in those days. It was also easier to "check" the progress of one's laundry in a top loader. Again, a hold over from wringers and wash tubs. One simply took a peek at the washing by lifing up items, if they weren't clean, one just reset the machine to start washing again. Then there are all the same arguments American housewives today wage against front loaders, they require stooping and bending to use, and so forth. | ||
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Post# 315277 , Reply# 7 11/15/2008 at 19:40 (5,633 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Blue Mondays
Yes, for some strange reason, American housewives have clung to doing staggeringly vast amounts of laundry once a week, rather than smaller loads daily, as say their European counterparts. Laundry was treated as the most dreaded part of housework, to be gotten out of the way as quickly as possible. When it comes do doing lot of laundry quickly, nothing beats top loading washing, be it an automatic or even semi automatic such as a twin tub or wringer. Also consider American housewives stopped boiling laundry once, automatic washing machines came along, and in either case use vast amounts of chlorine bleach for whitening and sanitising laundry. Top loading washing machines are easier to produce, thus cost less, much less than front loaders, both then and now. Do remember reading an old issue of Consumers Reports that stated when comparing front loading washers to the top loading variety, the former could and probably would develop leaks around the door gasket. As Passatdoc mentioned, final high speed wasn't a big draw either, even if many machines had it. America had lots of natural and cheap (then at least) resources, and laundry was bunged into a dryer, be it damp dry or merely "wrung" out. This is one of the reasons vintage dryers were so darn hot. Poor things had to bake out tons of water from laundry that could be almost sopping wet. After WWII and the US entered the post war boom, between easy credit and a good economy, many homes could afford an automatic dryer, so again, any benefit of high speed spins would have been lost. Finally consider that the sheer size of the US laundry appliance market, meant often not one washing machine type would do for all. A housewive in a small NYC apartment may have welcomed any space savings from a front loader, but a housewife on a farm in the mid-west or west may have needed not only the large capacity of a top loading unit, but in times of drought and or other water shortages (such as being on well water), needed a way to save on water. That could be anything from a "suds saver" model to a wringer that allowed numerous washings and rinsing with the same tub of water. L. | ||
| Post# 315305 , Reply# 8 11/15/2008 at 22:38 (5,633 days old) by favorit () | ||
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Darn hot dryers ... know what you mean Ages ago, while I was in Wales to learn English, I baked some white shirts in a coin op gaz dryer. Have you ever used the CRISP feature on Whirlpool radar ranges ?? Well, that dryer was quite the same | ||
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Post# 315307 , Reply# 9 11/15/2008 at 23:04 (5,633 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Local laundromat dryers used to "bake" as well, but when energy prices began to rise, temps were taken down a notch or two. Commercial laundromat front loaders do a pitiful job of extraction, IMHO, and guess those high temp dryers are needed to get out all that water quickly. Afterall one cannot have one customer drying items for hours on end, would slow things down. L. | ||
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