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Thread Number: 66212
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
I found a Jacobs Launderall! |
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Post# 888075 7/4/2016 at 13:10 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude  (.) |
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 You know when you find something that you never thought you'd ever find, weren't actively looking for, or even sure you'd ever want one? Do you find that you can't resist getting it? Yeah, well, this where I'm at... LOL
I saw this ad on the Plattsburgh, NY craiglist for an old washer and freezer. I nearly fainted when I saw the washer was a Launderall and before I caught my breath, I had contacted the seller for more information. The machine was found in a home that was being renovated for resale following the demise of the owners. The contractor who saved the machine could not believe that it was a 1940s model that had to be bolted to the floor.
The machine looks a little rough, but is largely intact. | ||
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Post# 888076 , Reply# 1 7/4/2016 at 13:15 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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The mechanical bits were in good shape, but it looks like this washer lived in a very damp basement.
Check the motor - I have never heard of the Jack & Heintz company...
The coin trap reminds me of an old vaudeville-era megaphone.
And although original, the power cord was in bad shape and had to go. Note that 'pigtail' for the ground connection - although not a molded-on plug, it had a hole for the ground wire and according to the Jacobs manual, this was the plug supplied. | ||
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Post# 888077 , Reply# 2 7/4/2016 at 13:17 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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The glass lid was in good shape and so was the wash tub.
Inside was the obligatory dead mouse and a souvenir of the former owner. That handkerchief looks like it was part of a 1950s wash load for sure! It was actually stuck to the tub, so it must spin pretty well... LOL | ||
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Post# 888079 , Reply# 3 7/4/2016 at 13:29 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Post# 888080 , Reply# 4 7/4/2016 at 13:34 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Full disclosure, the person I bought this from had tried the machine, so I already knew it worked... BUT what I didn't know was that it would run a cycle all the way through! I got the manual from the doctrine available here on the board and had read up a bit about it - I got to see first-hand the washer going through it's wash, drain, spin, rinses, and final spin. And bonus - it shut itself off! I was over the moon, to say the least.
Here's a longer video showing what would be the wash drain and spin portion of the cycle:
More coming soon... I actually did a water test yesterday! | ||
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Post# 888082 , Reply# 5 7/4/2016 at 14:03 (2,851 days old) by Jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers) |
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I'm  | ||
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Post# 888083 , Reply# 6 7/4/2016 at 14:14 (2,851 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Post# 888088 , Reply# 7 7/4/2016 at 14:51 (2,851 days old) by d-jones (Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh Area)) |
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Post# 888090 , Reply# 8 7/4/2016 at 15:56 (2,851 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 888094 , Reply# 9 7/4/2016 at 16:11 (2,851 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Oh Paul Congratulations You are probably the only living collector that has seen one of these machines run [ without catching on fire ] now the big question does it leak. You might consider converting it to a dry-cleaner.
In any case if you get it to run through a full cycle with clothing and laundry be sure to video tape it as I dough this machine will become a daily driver [ and people wounder why FL and H axis machines did not catch on in this country ] LOL | ||
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Post# 888097 , Reply# 10 7/4/2016 at 16:14 (2,851 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Bob - I didn't know the Launderall cleaned itself at the end of cycle. Did it do some kind of a purge?
John - I actually did a water test and filmed that; I'll post that as soon as I can. But you're right, I can't see this machine becoming a daily driver. Not even a Sunday driver... LOL The way it shakes during spin I'll definitely want to bolt this beastie down for any laundry tests! | ||
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Post# 888099 , Reply# 11 7/4/2016 at 16:22 (2,851 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 888103 , Reply# 12 7/4/2016 at 17:43 (2,851 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Self-Cleaning Automatic Washers | ||
| Post# 888152 , Reply# 14 7/5/2016 at 03:07 (2,851 days old) by washdaddy (Baltimore) | ||
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Congratulations on a great find!! Will be neat to see when you get it to the point to put it thru an actual test load. I'm sure you'll be making a video of it when it happens and everyone here will be anxiously waiting for it. Best of luck with everything on this machine. | ||
| Post# 888153 , Reply# 15 7/5/2016 at 03:10 (2,851 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
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| Post# 888161 , Reply# 16 7/5/2016 at 04:04 (2,851 days old) by brucelucenta () | ||
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That's really cool. Never much liked front load machines from that era, but this one is truly unique! Consumer reports sure gave it a bad review back in the day... | ||
| Post# 888188 , Reply# 17 7/5/2016 at 08:34 (2,850 days old) by alr2903 (TN) | ||
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That is a nice find.. Congratulations. It works! | ||
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Post# 888195 , Reply# 19 7/5/2016 at 09:02 (2,850 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains) |
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This is beyond cool. | ||
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Post# 888196 , Reply# 20 7/5/2016 at 09:13 (2,850 days old) by RevvinKevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land) |
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| Post# 888212 , Reply# 21 7/5/2016 at 10:22 (2,850 days old) by ken (NYS) | ||
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| Post# 888214 , Reply# 22 7/5/2016 at 10:27 (2,850 days old) by toploader55 (Massachusetts Sand Bar, Cape Cod) | ||
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| Post# 888220 , Reply# 23 7/5/2016 at 11:03 (2,850 days old) by Northwesty (Renton, WA) | ||
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Very Amazing I had one for a short time, got it to spin and cracked it open a bit, boy did it look complicated. It is truly amazing that yours works. I would say it is in very good shape from the pictures. Congratulations! | ||
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Post# 888246 , Reply# 24 7/5/2016 at 13:01 (2,850 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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All righty then, here's a video of the first water test, showing the fill portion of the cycle. I was sure those solenoids were dead, but nope!
Rick - about the handles - one is a selector for hot or warm wash (it moves a cable that activates a lever on one end of the tranny unit to power on the water solenoids) and the other is just a 'starter' button that activates a relay to get the motor running. Interesting thing about the Jacobs - it doesn't have a conventional timer. It's kinda like the 50s Blackstone (especially that Charcoal Gray BA250... *giggle*) in that the motor drives a series of cams that run a sequence of fill, wash (oscillating back and forth), drain, spin, fill, rinse, drain, fill, rinse and spin. Once you start a Launderall ya can't stop it and the default wash time is 10 minutes. Definitely not for the really delicate items in your wash!
The video is unedited and shows there are a few leaks. The ones coming from the supply hoses are probably just because I didn't have an appropriate clamp to attach them properly; as for the leaks observed from the pump housing and what I think may have been from the coin trap, I'm hoping that these are the good old cork gaskets and will swell with further testing. Yes, I am the eternal optimist... LOL
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Post# 888248 , Reply# 25 7/5/2016 at 13:06 (2,850 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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And of course I had to film the spin... Yes, I think we're all now convinced whoever built that mock-up washer on the famous I Love Lucy episode where Ethel gets slapped in the face with a wet towel was inspired by a Launderall... LOL
This video also proves the following: the machine really should be bolted down, weak wooden floors will not be your friend with this washer, and Canyon is smart enough to get the hell away from leaky vintage washers.
And although my marketing degree served no useful purpose in my so-called career, the tag line I thought of while witnessing the Launderall spin was: "Yes, the Launderall by Jacobs is the machine you want if you really, really hate your downstairs neighbours...." LOL
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| Post# 888253 , Reply# 26 7/5/2016 at 13:37 (2,850 days old) by toploader55 (Massachusetts Sand Bar, Cape Cod) | ||
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Post# 888260 , Reply# 27 7/5/2016 at 14:11 (2,850 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Lovely washer drama! A pity these machines didn't have suspension, perhaps it would have been more popular. On the other hand, one cycle and two temperatures isn't a big selling point.
Ten minutes of tumbling in the wash isn't very long for an H-axis machine. I presume it didn't do very well on cleaning. I guess the next H-axis toploader that saw the light was the Swiss V-Zug Unimatic in the fifties. | ||
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Post# 888292 , Reply# 28 7/5/2016 at 17:29 (2,850 days old) by Ultramatic (New York City) |
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Congratulations Paul! | ||
| Post# 888298 , Reply# 29 7/5/2016 at 18:38 (2,850 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada) | ||
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Post# 888305 , Reply# 30 7/5/2016 at 19:54 (2,850 days old) by akronman (Akron/Cleveland Ohio) |
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WOW | ||
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Post# 888363 , Reply# 33 7/6/2016 at 07:36 (2,849 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Post# 888392 , Reply# 34 7/6/2016 at 10:29 (2,849 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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'Daily' use might be a stretch... LOL
The basement in Ogden has a pretty rickety wood floor over a good solid concrete one - I've been campaigning to have the wood floor removed for sake of the ol' washer collection but that may not happen for some time. I was thinking of making a concrete pier to bolt it to but that may not be really practical either. Oh, such decisions!! | ||
| Post# 888426 , Reply# 35 7/6/2016 at 17:08 (2,849 days old) by christfr (st louis mo) | ||
this is the only pic I have of the one I had with case off the gear box on mine was shot
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| Post# 888427 , Reply# 36 7/6/2016 at 17:17 (2,849 days old) by christfr (st louis mo) | ||
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want to see it in action with water unless well you know there are any problems
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| Post# 888680 , Reply# 37 7/8/2016 at 22:27 (2,847 days old) by launderall (Minneapolis, MN Orig home to Listerine & pop up Toastmaster) | ||
L U C Y, you got some splaing to do......
I have this very prized working leaking & never on fire in my humble collection. No timer to break,yea... select water temp warm/hot, turn the handle to lock the lid sending the machine on it's way to hands free clean laundry. However, no control of the time, or cycle. Unplug it, open the lid, lock lid & plug it in, begins cycle where you were, has to finish out cycle, to shut off ready for next load. I did fill it, run it into spin with a few towels, it jumped up off the floor in the air. Three of us sat on it, what a great ride, had to unplug, no wonder it had such long bolts into the concrete floor.
Mine was still bolted to the floor 1988, had a hell of a time to find where the 2 7" bolts were located to get the machine moved. It was plugged in and hoses connected, it started humming and the tumbler turned. A 1970's "shredmore" was installed as daily driver. Did you know? Jacobs a Detroit Motor City Co part of the automotive industry making transmissions at the time. Other auto makers like General Motors/Fridigaire, Nash/Kelvinator(ABC), later years Ford/Philco-Bendix were making entry onto showroom floors in department stores to impress the husband designed & manufactured by an auto industry company & delight the housewife with end of the most labor & time usage to keep the home & family clean at the push of a button. This unique machine was in production for a few years by Jacobs 1946-1950. it was a cash cow for them, built plants in other US cities & Canada too. At one time , F.L.Jacobs Mfg began manufacturing refrigerated machines for Coca-Cola,Pepsi,Royal Crown Cola & 7up in the 1940's while located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Later, around 1950, they moved to Traverse City, Michigan before going out of business in late 1953. Jacobs machines have a unique shape that many collectors nicknamed the "mailbox". This design has become a trademark of styling for F.L. Jacobs. Bendix the 1st automatic home laundry company introduced the port hole in 1937, held all the patents, so Jacobs &, Westinghouse had to be clever to design around their machines around them, and beat them at the game. The cone shaped coin catcher, vs Bendix can shape, Westinghouse tilted tub, designs to avoid royalties. The design of Jacobs top load horizontal axis was also used in European home laundry equipment, it provided a larger wash tub in a compact movable unit. Westinghouse also got into this market early with the "Revolving Agitator" touted by our beloved Betty Furness in the mid 1950's. It's great to see another Launderall by Jacobs rescued now available for viewing on this sight. Their print advertising like the automobile ads of the day, with large image of the gleaming white cabinet, round glass window hinged door, chrome trimmed with brushed aluminum family crest escutcheon, with printed story telling sales pitch below. BTW....Enjoy the 20 anniversary Wash-N-combo convention, in our nations capitol. The meet & greet,sights and smells, the bells (how-dry-I-am) with stories & show and tell for days on end. I will miss it all this year, however please let me vicariously enjoy thru all your posted memories of the event. Bye for now | ||
| Post# 889014 , Reply# 38 7/11/2016 at 16:02 (2,844 days old) by Launderall (Minneapolis, MN Orig home to Listerine & pop up Toastmaster) | ||
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Facts on F.L.Jacobs Co
F. L. Jacobs Company, hereinafter called Jacobs, is a Michigan corporation formed on January 7, 1933, with its principal office in Detroit, Michigan.
The company that marketed the Monitor steam iron, Monitor Equipment Corporation, was the brainchild of Theodore K. Quinn, a former executive at General Electric (GE). His idea was to engage small manufacturers to sell their products through an organized network of distributors, thereby making it possible for these small companies to compete with the ever-more-dominant big manufacturers, such as GE. Monitor engaged the F. L. Jacobs company to manufacture the irons. F. L. Jacobs of Detroit, Michigan originally specialized in manufacturing home appliances like the Jacobs Launderall washing machine. They began manufacturing soda vending machines for Coca-Cola in the 1940’s from a plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. The F. L. Jacobs Company moved to Traverse City, Michigan around 1950. Unfortunately, there weren't to be any more Jacobs soda machines coming down the production line. It seems that in 1951 the F. L. Jacobs Company was encouraged by the U.S. Department of Justice to repay $15 million “in excess profits from producing necessities and munitions of war during World War II”. They voluntarily paid back the money, and it obviously put a strain on the company. They closed their doors in 1953. | ||
| Post# 889025 , Reply# 39 7/11/2016 at 17:54 (2,844 days old) by Launderall (Minneapolis, MN Orig home to Listerine & pop up Toastmaster) | ||
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Eisenhauer Manufacturing
Although the plant was shut down on December 1, 1945, a close relationship was maintained with F.L. Jacobs. To meet the post war demand for appliances, the tank wheels were replaced with parts for Laundrall washing machines. On June 1, 1946, an article in the Van Wert Times Bulletin reported, “Completely renovated, modernized and reequipped, the plant will now manufacture the interior aluminum tub assembly for a new washing machine, the Laundrall, developed by the F.L. Jacobs Company.” The plant retooling took four months and 24 -30 employees to complete. Harry Hendricks sold his portion of the business to the Eisenhauer brothers, who now owned 90 percent of the company. Initial tub deliveries occurred in July, with plans calling for five, dedicated, trucks to deliver a total of 900 tubs each day to Jacobs’ Indianapolis assembly plant. Leigh Sr. and family moved to Lousiville, KY to open a plant dedicated to supplying other metal components for the Laundrall Washer.
Unfortunately, the washing machine developed a reputation for poor quality that was made all the worse by the F.L. Jacobs Company ‘s failure to establish an adequate sales and service network. A flimsy transmission, designed by one of the Jacobs brothers, and the lack of product support brought production to an abrupt halt after only a few years. (Wheels of Time. The Eisenhauer Story by Pete Costisick, Sept/Oct 2003) | ||
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Post# 889061 , Reply# 40 7/11/2016 at 22:14 (2,844 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Thanks for the history lesson on Launderall. Very interesting. I knew our local Launderall dealer here in Omaha and he said his first entry into the business nearly failed because of those washers, he had to practically give away many new washers to replace the Jacobs machines after they went under. He said the machines were "junk" and parts were hard to get. He took on ABC/Kelvinator and stayed afloat until he got KitchenAid sometime in the later 50's. By then, he was doing OK and lasted over 60 years.
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Post# 897589 , Reply# 41 9/7/2016 at 07:33 (2,786 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Some further tinkering on the Launderall... I had some pent-up desires to work on vintage washers over the long Labour Day weekend (three weeks of visitors then the big Wash-In in Beltsville took its toll... LOL) and I'm now 'on notice' that I'd better start making some room in the garage for cars to be stored there - what better motivation than to do some more exploratory work on the Jacobs Launderall!
I wanted to get the cabinet sides off to check belts, hoses, wiring, etc. Now you'd think that wouldn't be a big deal and for the left side panel (left as you look at the front of the washer, that is) it wasn't. But that right panel.. GGGRRRR! I will admit that an 8-year-old child can probably undo screws that I can't in most cases, but the ones on the right side of the cabinet were truly impossible. I let them marinate in PB Blaster. No luck. I managed to drill out one of them; I then went through 2 titanium drill bits trying to drill out the others. I tried heating the screws (note the scorch mark...). Nothing. I managed to cut a gap in the screw heads and shear them off with a chisel. When I finally got the panel off and exposed the screw threads, the came out simply by turning by hand... My only guess is that the screw heads got rusted solidly onto that metal track that holds the chrome trim into place.
Well, now the cabinet is off and it may well be repainted at some point!
The washer still seems to run fine but I have one component that is not working. In the fifth photo, I am trying to show the cam that fits on the rear of the transmission shaft - this should control the wash water temperature selection by moving back and forth to move the spring contact fingers to the water inlet solenoids. But like the cabinet screws, this cam seems to be solidly rusted onto the transmission shaft. I've been soaking it with PB Blaster and I even tried tilting the machine to allow the PB Blaster to run down the transmission shaft. That led to fluid dripping out of the transmission onto the motor. I caught that in time - old motor windings and transmission oil can't be a good mix...
I do have the manual (which I found right here in the Ephemera Library) but no suggestions as to how to free this up - it should move back and forth as the cable actuated by the Hot-Warm wash selector is moved. Is this something I should try heating? I don't have a good close-up, but there appears to be some kind of a plastic sleeve at the rear of the cam and I would really hate to melt that by mistake.
I'm keeping my thinking cap on this week but anyone who may have tackled a Launderall has any suggestions, do please chime in! | ||
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Post# 1083791 , Reply# 42 8/3/2020 at 19:02 (1,360 days old) by GELaundry4ever (Nacogdoches, TX, USA) |
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jacobs launderall Nice videos of this machine! How do you use this washer? Does it have dispensers? If so, where are they positioned? Does it have a hatch you have to close, or does it close automatically? Is it top loading or front loading? I'd love to know. Please inform and post more videos. | ||
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Post# 1083794 , Reply# 43 8/3/2020 at 19:57 (1,360 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Jerome, this has to be the most basic automatic washer that I have ever seen. There are no dispensers for detergent, bleach, or fabric softener; geez back in the 1940s they didn't even have fabric softener! All products had to be added manually during the wash or rinse periods. The machine has a horizontal-axis tub mounted in the cabinet - there is a manually-operated access hatch to get to the tub. The tub itself has an access door where clothes are loaded and unloaded. Technically, you'd have to call it a top-loader. I never seem to get around to working on it...but it still leaks badly. It's a somewhat annoying machine - once you start it, you have to let it run through the entire wash-rinse-spin cycle; wash time is a default of 10 minutes. No wonder these weren't million-seller washers!! | ||
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