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Thread Number: 73324
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Single Speed Washers? |
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Post# 968609 , Reply# 1 11/17/2017 at 19:55 (2,344 days old) by appnut  (TX) |
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 I had a GE set purchased April 1978 at Foley's. Was one or two from tol. I felt normal agitation was too aggressive on things such as knits I was still wearing, sweaters. Used normal wash/slow spin speed combination for my perm press poly/cotton shirts. Got a 1st generation Lady Kenmore DD October 1986. I think many people found DD normal agitation to be too aggressive. The only thing I didn't use delicate for was sheets and towels. Eventually by the 1989 or 1990 renditions of WP & Kenmore, they'd begun using stepped down agitation whereby started on normal and switched to gentle on PP & Normal Cycles, Heavy Duty had all normal. Sears eventually put speed control switch on many of its models. Regular/Normal speed setting was gentle wash/normal spin. Heavy duty was Normal/Normal. I had several things ruined in that machine. One being an expensive wool blend sweater that managed to get ripped by getting caught under the agitator fins at the base and that was with just that sweater and medium high water level. I only got to wear that sweater a few times before it was ru8ined. Similar with a heavy cotton woven sweater. Hence I coined the phrase Lady Shredmore. I'll never go back to a top loader. I despise them. My Duet with onboard heater far out cleans anything I've ever used in 53+ years of laundry. Plus my water gets more expensive the higher my sewer rate usage is calculated for the year. I cringe every time I hear that thunka thunka from a DD machine.
My Duet is the 2011 version of Frigilux's 2015 Maytag Maxima and he immediately could see such a difference and understood why I am so crazy about my washer. | ||
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Post# 968612 , Reply# 3 11/17/2017 at 20:34 (2,344 days old) by Washerlover (The Big Island, Hawai’i) |
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Post# 968618 , Reply# 5 11/17/2017 at 20:51 (2,344 days old) by Losangeles (Muscle Shoals, AL 35661) |
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Single speed washers
I have a single speed Maytag A 282. Since getting it I have been washing anything and everything that even remotely smacked of unclean. My wifes uniforms are a cotton/poly blend. Spinning them on low in my Whirlpool Duet FL and not crowding the dryer they come out looking smart and ready to wear. No iron needed. Soo, I washed her uniforms in the Maytag but stopped the spin just before reaching full speed both after the wash and the rinse. I get pretty much the same results. It takes a little more effort but it works. I will admit that I would love to have wash/spin speed selections.
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Post# 968619 , Reply# 6 11/17/2017 at 20:55 (2,344 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Post# 968623 , Reply# 7 11/17/2017 at 21:35 (2,344 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey) |
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having separate controls for wash and spin are great advantages for flexibility in a TLer...
you can combine any speed to any cycle......such as converting the Gentle cycle into just a Short cycle for say a half load in a hurry... all spins are set to high.... there are times when you want the clothing to have an extended time in the detergent solution, first few minutes of a long cycle are regular agitation, then switch to slower speed for the rest of the agitation..... a FLer is fool proof....basically one cycle, Normal, for all loads, reduce wash time for smaller loads.....warm/hot wash, cold rinse......lather..rinse..repeat....one thing I like about Neptunes, just load and hit start, the cycle just repeats, over and over... our first automatic was a one cycle, 2 temp, 2 water level GE V12......I switched it out for a TOL Kenmore Digital.....only to figure out, we used Cotton/Sturdy regular cycle, warm/hot wash, cold rinse....just a waste to have everything else...it was nice to know I had everything available if needed.... everyone always asked why I got such a big capacity machine......I could always reduce the water level, I cant make a small capacity machine bigger! | ||
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Post# 968653 , Reply# 8 11/18/2017 at 05:15 (2,343 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Mine was bought Foley's Sharpstown in preparation of me having to move from SW to NW Houston where the apartment I as moving into had hookups for washer & dryer. I've also used gentle speed for special table linens.
My mom basically washed everything together. A few of my things were ruined in 1966 due to that. I had begun noticing how her friends did laundry when I'd get to do laundry at their houses so I could watch the machines.
At some point she began to appreciate some of how I did laundry. It got to the point , probably bruising her ego, when I'd visit, even after being transferred out of Houston, when I'd walk into the back door/laundry room and there was a pile of clothes next to the washer, it meant I was supposed to take care of them while I was visiting.
One of the many reasons why I love my Duet. I have control over water temps of 85-100 degrees, 120, 127, 131, and 150+ degrees and various tumble/wash speeds on certain cycles appropriate to various fabric types. I use hand wash to take care of my compression stockings. Wrinkle Free cottons get medium tumble and medium spin speed. I refuse to iron--my washer & dryer iron for me. | ||
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Post# 968670 , Reply# 11 11/18/2017 at 08:42 (2,343 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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 My family and myself always have had 2-speed (or 3-speed) washers (my F&P and Calypso have more than 3). Only 1-speeders I ever used is one of those ubiquitous Filter-Flos that a family friend had at a weekend/vacation home that we often visited during the 1970s, and the first washer the grandmother had at the start of my born-days with her was a 1-speed 1950s flat-top Kenmore automatic that a friend had given to her. | ||
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Post# 968677 , Reply# 12 11/18/2017 at 08:59 (2,343 days old) by akronman (Akron/Cleveland Ohio) |
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Low speed
I have a 1960 Kenmore, average size tub and agitator for the era, and the gentle cycle is perfect for 5 shirts I wear to the office, when the week is done.
I also have a single-speed 1974 porcelain (smaller) tub peed Queen, and it's one speed is TOO aggressive for dress shirts and pants, no way. Maybe the stainless, larger tub models, having more space with the exact same transmission and agitator, would not be as rough? Before this hobby and so darn many machines hooked up in the basement, I never worried when I had a single speed washer, but am glad now I can pick and choose. | ||
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Post# 968686 , Reply# 13 11/18/2017 at 09:48 (2,343 days old) by chetlaham (United States) |
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Most fabrics get clean on slow speed. One thing I have discovered is that high speed agitation is often over kill for most loads- especially DDs. Switching to slow agi triples the life of clothing in my experience. What forces people to use a none delicate cycle is often the slow spin speeds and short times associated with most delicate cycles.
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Post# 968696 , Reply# 14 11/18/2017 at 10:40 (2,343 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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| Post# 968758 , Reply# 15 11/18/2017 at 16:12 (2,343 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
 I am currently stuck with BOL WP DD...which has only one speed. I am getting by--fortunately most of what I wash is reasonably tough--but I really wish I had a lower speed. A slow agitation/fast spin seems ideal for these washers for many normal loads.
But I'd miss that lower speed less on other washers. Although, while a slow speed is not necessarily a "must have", I'd rather have it "just in case." It might only be used a few times a year--if that--but at least its there if I do want it. | ||
| Post# 968767 , Reply# 16 11/18/2017 at 16:40 (2,343 days old) by Whatsername (Denver, CO) | ||
I use delicate on the LG FL for sweaters and crew neck sweatshirts, whose collars always seem to get out of shape after a while, so I'm trying to prolong their "like-new" life. Also, ski clothes, oodles and oodles of ski clothes go on delicate--ski pants, long underwear, turtlenecks, knee high ski socks, helmet liners--I like the higher water level, long soaks, and gentle spin. Delicate seems to be a wintertime cycle for me.
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