Thread Number: 6224
Hotpoint and GE wash action |
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Post# 127005 , Reply# 2   5/6/2006 at 12:52 (6,536 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)   |   | |
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We had, all told, 9 General Electric Washers, in several homes and renter's apartments. The only trouble they gave us, as I recall, was that occasionally a sock would get into the outer tub and clog the drain. The repairman would have to come, pop the top and remove the washbasket to get at it. It prooved impossible to persuade my parents to by Maytags; they had always had good luck with GE appliances. Unfortunately, towards the end of their run they became disillusioned with the very last batch of machines they bought from GE. By then, GE had betrayed their customer base by outsourcing to WCI for some stuff and some of their own products had become so visibly junky. The last washing machine that Dad bought in 1990, however, is still going strong. Ge machines allowed partial indexing of the tub so it would "creep" counterclockwise during agitation, oops, I mean, "activation". The machine would beging the wash cycle with the tub spinning freely so it would do a 360 with the firs agitation strokes then the tub brake would "grab" and it would begin its "creep". Rollover was never better than on the V-12 models--that spiral activator really did it's job. I observed that the fewer "fins" towards the top of the agitator, the better for rollover. I guess they started putting vanes towards the top of the activators to service the mini-baskets. I remember our 1958 Frigidaire Unimatic (?) Custom Imperial used to start its wash cycle with a brief spin to get the clothes moving in the right direction. In fact, the first time I saw it work, for a split-second I thought the machine was broken. I'm still not quite sure how that was engineered because, from what I've learned on this site, the motor reversed to change from agitation to spin. Unless they were able to reverse the motor very quickly... |
Post# 127084 , Reply# 6   5/6/2006 at 20:33 (6,536 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)   |   | |
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My uncle owned this machine for about 10 years. It was in a Dutch colonial "Jug" house built in 1762. He only had the washer; the dryer that came with the house was a very crappy Norge, probably bought years later. I remember it had a painted drum that was peeling. When I first saw this picture, I recognized the machine immediately. It had a beautiful speckled dark blue porcelain tub and a black rubber agitator that had a detergent dispenser in the middle that looked like the basket on a coffee percolator. There was a looped piece of metal in the center that made it look like you would pull it out, but I couldn't budge it. I believe this is a "Unimatic"?:
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Post# 127086 , Reply# 7   5/6/2006 at 20:38 (6,536 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)   |   | |
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When we lived up there on a farm we had this machine that was in the house when we moved in. I believe it was a "Custom Imperial". It was paired with an ancient Hamilton dryer c. 194-something. I wish I had known back then that this was top-rated by CU, but it was a gorgeous machine. I remember the WASH temp selections were HOT, WARM & COOL, and the RINSE temp selections were WARM, COOL & COLD. I always thought that was smart. I'm kicking myself for not having had the forsight to somehow keep these machines. We had barns to put them in but of course my parents wouldn't allow it. Oh well, would'a, could'a, should'a.
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Post# 127123 , Reply# 8   5/6/2006 at 23:30 (6,536 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)   |   | |
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