My Gran passed away last sunday and as I was looking at some old photographs of hers I found this one of her old Hoover washing machine. This was the first machine that I fell in love with and loved the smell of persil that the drum had when nothing was init. I have never seen any other pictures of simialr models and I wonder if anyone knows anything about this machine. I think it was bought in 1984ish. Excuse the foot but that was me standing on a chair when I was 4 making pancakes with Gran. I cut out as much as I could.
Many thanks
Post# 263241 , Reply# 1 2/4/2008 at 15:53 (5,923 days old) by matchboxpaul(U.K)
many thanks for posting the picture. your gran had the same machine that an aunt and uncle of mine had and that i remember with fond memories.
i have a real fixation with this series of machines (see my username) for this be a 'Matchbox' machine.
This particular machine is the Hoover Automatic E - model number A2018. Sold only through the Electricity Board Shops as an exclusive machine, this was one of the final machines from the matchbox series to be produced.
It was a cold fill only machine and i remember tipping the cupfuls of powder (Surf!) into the drum of my aunts machine before the clothes were loaded in. Her machine was written off by a 50p piece in about 1988.
This machine was based on the 3235 Automatic, which itself came in two versions - an early version when the series was newly introduced (circa 1970) which sported a facia panel which only extended half way across the front. The later machine had a full width panel, still with no powder drawer.
Spin speed on the 3235 was around 770rpm, but this may have been boosted to 800rpm on the later exclusive machines.
Going from what Which magazines show, the A2018 was last on sale in 1976/77, which was a good two years or so after the matchbox series was discontinued and replaced by the A3006 Automatic and A3008 Keymatic. Pretty safe to assume that Hoover were using up spare parts in producing the A2018, as well as the A3040 Automatic de Luxe (sold through currys only) and the A3052 Automatic de Luxe (sold through house of fraser only).
A great series of machines (I am biased though), although by virtue of the fact that no one seemingly has seen or heard of a matchbox washing machine in a lot of years, the question has to be asked whether there are any left.
thanks for taking the time to post this picture at this difficult time. I for one really appreciate seeing it.
Best wishes Paul p.s the picture below is the best image i have of the early half panel 3235 Automatic from which the A2018 is derived. Thanks to a mate of mine for enabling me to take the picture of the 3235 facia plate - i'll get him to join one day.
Post# 263244 , Reply# 2 2/4/2008 at 16:07 (5,923 days old) by matchboxpaul(U.K)
here is the matchbox part of my hoover spreadsheet - plenty of machines produced. Be great to see what others people have piccies of in their image collections!!!
p.s model 3235 was replaced by model A2020 (has anyone got a piccy of the A2020 - i have never seen an image of this machine before). Whether the A2020 is actually a matchbox is a bit of a mystery to me - anyone care to solve this little mystery? model A2018 could be based on the A2020, as shown below, but was definately identical (barring colours used on the facia) to the later 3235.
Thanks for your condolences and information match box. They were indeed super machines with wonderful distribute cycles. My Grans machine lasted right up till 2000 when the drum bearings finally went. Replaced with a hotpoint not nearly as good
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