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Post# 321551   12/28/2008 at 18:54 (5,568 days old) by pulsator (Saint Joseph, MI)        

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I received this lovely agitator brand new never been used for Christmas! The date stamped on the bottom says it was made in 1987, so it's older than me and holds one of my dearest childhood memories. My grandpa worked for Whirlpool designing new special features for the TOL washers and thus my mother had a lovely childhood of getting brand new TOL coppertone Whirlpool appliances every 6 months to test out all the new features!! Some of which resulted in disaster, my mom recalls multiple floods from the washing machine and scorched clothes from the dryer. When my parents married and had their first child, my older sister, my grandpa replaced the Kenmore washer that their first house came with with a prototype BD Whirlpool washer that lasted until I was 8 years old. When it broke, (faulty transmission, agitation wouldn't engage and my dad had no clue how to fix it, my guess is a wig-wag issue,) my mom decided that we'd have to resort to the nearest laundromat. She told me that there were rows and rows of washers and dryers and that there were washers that were loaded in the front just like a dryer and had windows for viewing what was happening inside them. I of course, did not believe her one bit, clothes simply could not be washed any other way than with an agitator in the middle of a tub moving back and fourth! We didn't have enough laundry to use the giant dryer-like washers so she told me we'd be using a couple of the toploaders from on of the rows and rows but that I would likely be able to see the front-loading washers running. When we arrived, I will never forget the smell, the flourescent lights, the humidity, and most of all, the rows and rows of washers and dryer, all of the front loading machines with windows showing suds splashing all around, the occassional jet plane take off or landing of the Wascomat double loaders, the loud clunk and screeches from the giant Milnor triple loaders as they took off sending suds all over the window, or the water splashing into the trough between the rows of washers as they drained all the water away. We walked up to 2 topload Speed Queen washers that had giant coinslides for starting and they contained the very agitator I got for Christmas this year and I remember thinking how awesome and industrial looking their agitators were with fins going all the way to the top of the agitator and no decorative cap! They filled all the way up just past where the chamfer of agitators top fins began. I was simply stunned by this!!! And now I can finally see that again 10 years later now that I have the ability to simply buy that washer brand new and that's what I plan on doing!!!! They general design of the machine has not changed much from my understanding and it is even made by a better company now, I only hope that this agitator fits! I believe it should though!!!




Post# 321556 , Reply# 1   12/28/2008 at 19:43 (5,568 days old) by queeny77 (BERWYN, ILLINOIS)        

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yes you will be able to put this agitator on a new speed queen,it pulls right off.

Post# 321580 , Reply# 2   12/28/2008 at 21:41 (5,568 days old) by appnut (TX)        

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Jamie, how exciting!!! Bob

Post# 321612 , Reply# 3   12/29/2008 at 06:59 (5,568 days old) by toggleswitch2 ()        

oh junior:

My mom says one of her earliest memories of me as a 2-year old pulling her into the laundromat, which convenenently was a door or two away from their residence!

My grandmother didnt have to really watch me in the laudromat; she knew I'd stay put, transfixed at the old Wascomats!

Grandpa took me to the Zoo at a very early age and instead of wathcing the animals, I was inspecitng the mechanicals of power, light, heat, water, food, cages, etc! LOL

One of my first words was "BRIZA" being ethnic-talk for "Power-outlet!" LOL.

My grandpa used to say "mankind/people are not formed (later in life) they are born (that way).

Great how we find each-other on this site!


Post# 321630 , Reply# 4   12/29/2008 at 12:01 (5,567 days old) by jons1077 (Vancouver, Washington, USA)        
Laundromats...

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Gosh it's been years since I've been to one. I think the earliest I can remember one was when I was probably 6 or 7. We were on a family vacation somewhere and we had to do wash. I always think of laundromats as having Maytags or Speed Queens, but this one was different. This building was completely Kenmore belt-drive machines! Imagine how that sounded??? Rows and rows of belt-drives whirring away and all those super rotoswirls quietly washing away. That was the first and only time I had ever seen a coin-op Kenmore belt-drive. First time I had seen a super rotoswirl too.

I do remember another time when I was probably in middle school having to go to a small laundryroom at a campground we were staying at. This was a particularly "nice" one because it was a mix-matched set up of machines. There were some older filter-flos which, of course, I used. The one I should have used but didn't was an old 60s solid-tub Speed Queen down at the end of the row. That was a handsome avocado green Speed Queen!

Maybe I am old! hehe

Jon


Post# 321638 , Reply# 5   12/29/2008 at 13:02 (5,567 days old) by kenmoreguy64 (Charlotte, NC)        

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I don't have a lot of memories of laundromats either, with two exceptions:

The first was in a building adjacent to the A&P that my Mom took me to several times per week before I was in kindergarten. It was FULL of Pink GE Filter Flos. 30 of them or more - can you imagine a building full of pink washers! What kind of mob of AW.orgers that would cause today! We had to use that place a time or two when we had snow/ice storms and had no power. Of particular interest to me was this massive extractor that was anchored in the rear corner of the building. Mom put their heavy king-size bedspread in it one time (it was so big that the spread would only cover half the diameter of the basket). I was certain the machine would fly off it's mounting with an unbalanced load like that, but it was fine. AMAZING. Talk about jet-engine sounds....

The second is a more recent and much clearer memory. One set of my grandparents retired to a beautiful 8-story condo building in a northern suburb of Tampa. It was about 30 yards from the beach, with the community laundry on the second floor overlooking the visitor's parking lot. I had been to that building multiple times since 1975 or so when they moved there. Fascinating to me was the row of 8 Avocado Whirlpool coin-op washers. I'd have to guess that they were early 70's models, as they all had the metal/porcelain tub rings. There was a unused 9th connection box, and it always irritated me why there wasn't a 9th machine to go with it.

In summer of 1980, I visited after school got out, which became a common practice. My grandmother was always happy to have someone to do the wash for her or at least with her, as their unit was on the 8th floor and it was just work for her, not fun. Naturally I volunteered. One rainy afternoon, I met a servicer from the contract organization who was there to swap out one of the machines as the old one had a timer issue that they wanted to service in shop. I looked out the balcony and saw his truck in the lot. Naturally I struck up a conversation with the guy, who seemed all too glad to have someone to talk to who enjoyed his profession. In his truck were two white Whirlpool machines. I asked about them naturally, and he said they were pulled from another part of the complex and were original to the first building there (from the later 60s). He then said "it's a pain to carry three machines in that truck along with all that other stuff I have". I said "are both the machines broken?" He replied that one had been giving trouble, so they swapped two new ones vs. having one old and one new. I asked what would happen to the machines - the guy said "probably for parts". I said, well, then why don't you take the working machine and put it here at this unused hookup, and you won't have to carry three machines back, only two broken ones.

The guy looked like someone had opened a shade in a dark room, and 15 minutes later the machine strolled in the laundry room on his dolly. It was there until 1982 when they got a whole new supply of 9 GE Filter Flos. Each time I saw that white WP in front of the line of 8 green ones I'd say to myself "that machine owes me!" and it was always my washer of choice to use first.

G



Post# 321697 , Reply# 6   12/29/2008 at 23:09 (5,567 days old) by revvinkevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land)        
Laundromat or first washer memories

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Wow... I really enjoyed reading these memories! Someone should start a thread about this type of story (hint-hint).

While I don't have any specific (solid) laundromat memories, I do remember seeing the solid tub Speed Queen washers in some laundromats AND specifically in a K.O.A. campground we visited!

I also remember being at a Holiday Inn (somewhere) and finding the guest laundry room. Someone was doing laundry, but the poor GE Filter Flo there was SOOO jam-packed full and overloaded, that it had a difficult time agitating and could NOT achieve a full RPM spin!


Post# 321698 , Reply# 7   12/29/2008 at 23:11 (5,567 days old) by revvinkevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land)        
Speed Queen

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I just bought a (mid-80's?) Speed Queen washer this afternoon, that's being delivered tomorrow afternoon. I believe it has the same agitator you have pictured Jamie!


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