Thread Number: 81709
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
who remembers the washer dryer set there grandmother own when alive or still alive |
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Post# 1057164   1/10/2020 at 17:08 (1,360 days old) by pierreandreply4 (St-Bruno de montarville (province of quebec) canada)   |   | |
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hello to all aw members do anyone remember what kind of washer dryer set there grandmother own in there life time i will start
my grandomther own a 3 cycle push to start inglis liberator no water level but 5 wash rinse temp knob if she own other brand before my birth i do not know with dryer then a 1988 belt drive kenmore her last washer before illness was a direct drive whirlpool washer with matching dryer own by my cousin today this set to be pricise feel free to share your memorys as well
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Post# 1057165 , Reply# 1   1/10/2020 at 17:15 (1,360 days old) by ea56 ![]() |
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My maternal grandma had a 1956 GE FF and matching dryer and my paternal grandma had a yellow Bendix Economat TL and a 1956 Norge Timeline dryer, which she almost never used, but instead hung out everything on the clothesline. The Economat was replaced by my Dad with a 1959 Montgomery Wards Signature FL and we took the yellow Economat to our summer cabin.
Eddie |
Post# 1057166 , Reply# 2   1/10/2020 at 17:31 (1,360 days old) by wayupnorth ![]() |
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Post# 1057176 , Reply# 3   1/10/2020 at 18:53 (1,360 days old) by jamiel ![]() |
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Father's mom: 1951 Whirlpool automatic with the aluminum nameplate and the two white dials (center button to unlatch top). 1956-ish Rheem Wedgewood clothes dryer (the one with the lifting top to an area where you can dry things flat). Mom's grandmother, I vaguely remember a bolt-down round-front KM, but then she quickly got a new-generation Maytag (with black agitator). She didn't have a dryer until a little later when she got a big WP Imperial (with the full-width door) about 1970.
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Post# 1057181 , Reply# 6   1/10/2020 at 20:36 (1,360 days old) by eurekastar (Amarillo, Texas)   |   | |
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![]() My maternal grandmother had two washers that I remember. The first was Maytag wringer washer that she had since the 30s. In 1967, she purchased a Maytag Automatic to ease her workload when my grandfather was dying with cancer. She never owned a dryer -- just a clothes line.
My paternal grandmother had a GE Filter-flow and matching dryer from the 70s. That's all I can remember her having. |
Post# 1057187 , Reply# 7   1/10/2020 at 21:05 (1,360 days old) by countryguy ![]() |
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My grandmother had a wringer washer...I don't know what make it was. It had 4 legs but definitely not a Maytag. There was no electric pump...it drained by gravity.
She did not have a clothes dryer. Then when my mom got her Maytag automatic washer in the mid 60s, she gave her wringer washer (which I think was a Beatty) to my grandmother. It did not have an electric pump either. Then in the 70s my grandmother got a Simplicity washer/spin dryer with the regular style agitator. I remember the control knobs on top were square. She used this machine up until about 2007 when she had to move out of her home. Gary |
Post# 1057202 , Reply# 8   1/11/2020 at 00:50 (1,360 days old) by tolivac ![]() |
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Kenmore-The washer had the pregnant RS agitator-loved watching the washer work-she encouraged me to go outside an play instead-still snuck in views!That was SO LONG AGO!!! |
Post# 1057212 , Reply# 9   1/11/2020 at 02:07 (1,360 days old) by jons1077 (Vancouver, Washington, USA)   |   | |
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My grandmothers 1969 GE set. I used the photo to find my first collectible set.
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Post# 1057217 , Reply# 10   1/11/2020 at 05:23 (1,360 days old) by Tomturbomatic ![]() |
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Who's a precious boy? |
Post# 1057247 , Reply# 12   1/11/2020 at 09:57 (1,359 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c )   |   | |
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Had a maytag Master wringer washer, Mothers Mother, who we lived with, had a 55 Frigidaire Pulsamatic until I was 4 then we got a WCDAN Custom Deluxe solid tub Frigidaire in1969 |
Post# 1057258 , Reply# 13   1/11/2020 at 13:09 (1,359 days old) by abcomatic ![]() |
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My grandmother had a 1930's General Electric wringer. Aunt Ada had a 50's GE and no longer used Conlon wringer from the 30's before the GE. |
Post# 1057262 , Reply# 14   1/11/2020 at 13:44 (1,359 days old) by rpms (ontario canada)   |   | |
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My Dad's mother had a G.E wringer out in the wood shed off the kitchen. It had the rinse tubs on a wooden cart I assume she rolled into the kitchen. I never saw her use it.Only a clothes line.
My mom and dad had a huge fight when mom got her dryer. Mom was working and had hung her clothes out in the winter. The wind broke the line and she came home at lunch and waded in snow to get the wash. When she told dad she had bought a dryer he was furious. He said his mother never had one. My mom's mother had a Beatty Washwell wringer. It had a black bakealite agitator with holes in it.It could really whip up the suds. The pump was incredibly noisy.She had a Norge time line dryer that her son gave to her when he got a new dryer. It was the first dryer she ever had. After the wringer started peeing on the floor my mom got grandma a used Kenmore with Roto Swirl. Uncle Bob was mad about that.He didn't think she should get an automatic. Not sure why? |
Post# 1057263 , Reply# 15   1/11/2020 at 13:58 (1,359 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
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Well, the dryer, a Kelvinator BOL with a knob offering 120-minutes of Timed-Dry and a Heat On/Heat Off toggle-switch, designated by (1) and (2) and all that mounted horizontally easily outlived the washer that I remember being put out to the curb when the General Electric washer arrived, boasting a left-opening lid, and somehow Grandpa and even Grandma said the washer was a front-loading Sears Kenmore that I never saw, coming most-likely before the Kelvinator pair did...
If only I could show you the dream I had about going to their house and looking down then going down the basement stairs to all those washers and dryers there—paired Kelvinators of that vintage, the GE washer with its matching dryer, and even Whirlpools and Frigidaires, and everything in white, as the real stuff there was... — Dave |
Post# 1057265 , Reply# 16   1/11/2020 at 15:10 (1,359 days old) by DADoES ![]() |
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![]() First recollection of paternal grandparents is a 1956 WP Imperial washer. No dryer. Then they got a 1968-ish WP Supreme 80 washer (white, backlit timer), and a few years later a Supreme dryer (avocado, two-speed drying [not tumble speed]). I don't know what the step-grandmother had there after Grandpa died. Maternal grandmother had a flat-top Kenmore and a KM wringer. A neighbor gave a 1958-ish Kelvinator to her that had continual trouble with blowing its fuse so she didn't have it for long. A 1970 Kenmore 70 was next, then a 1972 WP dryer added (her first dryer). The washer was replaced with a 1984 WP Design 2000. Those stayed until 1999 when I passed on my 1991 KitchenAid set, then my 1999 F&P set when I upgraded to the IWL12 and topload dryer. |
Post# 1057268 , Reply# 17   1/11/2020 at 15:49 (1,359 days old) by revvinkevin ![]() |
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![]() My grandmother (mothers side) had a 1954 or 1955 Westinghouse washing machine, similar to Roberts beautiful set in the photo, but her "dryer" was the clothes line in the back yard. When ever she was doing laundry I could be found on the "back porch" watching the washer.... that is until she saw me and would tell me to "Kevin get out of there, go play outside". Kevin
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Post# 1057269 , Reply# 18   1/11/2020 at 15:50 (1,359 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD)   |   | |
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grandma had a ~1967 maytag set,but would never use them-always used the Hoover twin tub of about the same vintage instead...Asked what was wrong with the Maytags and grampa just "hemmed and hawed" :) |
Post# 1057279 , Reply# 19   1/11/2020 at 17:29 (1,359 days old) by gansky1 ![]() |
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![]() Velma always had Maytag that I was around to see. Her first automatic was a Kenmore set from the early 50's. The gas dryer was rarely used and the washer got a hiatus from duty for about a year when she had ( ) surgery and was unable to climb stairs. She had a twin tub in the kitchen and then a 2-speed, Filter-Agitator Maytag Highlander was purchased in 63-64 with a move to a new home. She used that until another Maytag was bought in May 1975, which I later inherited. The Kenmore dryer lasted until we sold the house after their passing in 1987, the new owners used it for several more years.
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Post# 1057308 , Reply# 21   1/12/2020 at 05:54 (1,359 days old) by toploader55 (Massachusetts Sand Bar, Cape Cod)   |   | |
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1953 GE.
Washer First, Dryer Later in which my Grandmother gave the Dryer to my Mom. Her Model was almost Identical except hers had the "DeLuxe" Logo and the Dryer Door Handle was different. That Dryer was so hot you could smell the cotton being singed And too hot to handle. Photo from the AW archives Imperial Thread www.automaticwasher.org/c...
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Post# 1057312 , Reply# 22   1/12/2020 at 08:12 (1,359 days old) by foraloysius ![]() |
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Neighbours of us had that 1953 GE too. In the fifties American washers were rather popular here, they were about the only options when you wanted a fully automatic machine.
Picture #1 shows the Zanussi frontloader my maternal grandmother had. Picture #2 the machine on the left is the Miele toploader my paternal grandmother had. The machine on the right is the Miele twintub (H-axis), the one on the left the same machine but no attached spin dryer. It would wash (prewash and main wash) and rinse 6 times. Then you could take the wet laundry out and put it into a separate spin dryer. |
Post# 1057350 , Reply# 23   1/12/2020 at 09:29 (1,358 days old) by turquoisedude ![]() |
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![]() My maternal grandmother in the UK never owned an automatic washer or dryer! The first washer I recall seeing at her house back in the 60s was a single tub Hoover with a hand-cranked wringer. In the 70s she upgraded to a Hoover twin-tub which was still working when she passed away in 1990.
Eddie - I have the GE washer that your grandmother had! It's on my to-restore list for 2020. |
Post# 1057354 , Reply# 24   1/12/2020 at 09:47 (1,358 days old) by appnut ![]() |
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![]() My paternal grandmother had a GE washer. I only saw it from a distance a couple of times as it was in the garage. I remembered what it kind of looked like. And the memory flashed back to my consciousness when Robert found his 1947-1949 GE automatic washer. My dad knew of my fascination with Frigidaire Unimatics. He remarked that grandma's washer spun just as fast as the Frigidaires, but didn't tangle the clothes into a rope like the Frigidaires did. I thought he as just pulling my leg until Robert found his washer and gave out its specifications. She had that washer until she had to sell her house and move out of it in 1964 to make wasy for a future freeway in Houston that didn't become functional until after I'd moved out of Houston in 1986. My other grandparents never had home laundry. I remember going to the washeteria with my grandfather a couple of times where they had Bendix double loaders. |
Post# 1057394 , Reply# 29   1/12/2020 at 18:35 (1,358 days old) by twintubdexter ![]() |
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![]() Don't remember grandparents. Father's parents died before I was born. Mother and her sisters were raised in a state-run Catholic orphanage in Oakland CA. The nuns were nothing like the ones in "The Sound Of Music". They beat the kids up and threw them against the walls when they were thirsty and ran out of communion wine. They eventually were "farmed out" as teenagers to a family from Italy who owned a huge fruit orchard in what is now prime San Jose real estate. It was very valuable back then too. They were fed and clothed and attended school in exchange for working the ranch...sort of a legal form of white slavery. No socializing or after-school activities. It was go right home and get to work. They received a nickle at Christmas. I do remember the wrinkled Italian lady having an old grey Maytag wringer with strange levers on the side. It smelled like Ivory soap. These were people that could have afforded the most expensive laundry equipment you could buy in the 1950s/60's and not blink twice at the price. Oh were they cheap!
If you remember your grandparents you are lucky. Even more so if you still have them. |
Post# 1057450 , Reply# 30   1/13/2020 at 09:39 (1,357 days old) by Unimatic1140 ![]() |
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My maternal grandmother had a 1958 Frigidaire Pulsamatic washer that I just adored! Before that she had a 1950 Westinghouse Laundromat that was replaced with the Pulsamatic before I was born.
My grandmother on my Dad's side had a 1957 middle of the line Kenmore with a straight vane agitator and water-fall lint filter. |
Post# 1057461 , Reply# 32   1/13/2020 at 12:09 (1,357 days old) by robbinsandmyers ![]() |
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The ONLY washing machine my grandmother ( RIP 1988 )ever owned was a Blackstone 150 she bought new in 1950 and it overflowed one day not long after she bought it and she was too scared to use it again. She went back to the wash board in the bathtub. It sat 30 years before I got it in 1988 and sold it to gansky in 2006 when I moved. I'm sure its happy in its loving new home after traveling half way cross country lol.
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Post# 1057483 , Reply# 34   1/13/2020 at 14:01 (1,357 days old) by gmpayne (INDIANAPOLIS, IN)   |   | |
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I remember grandmother on my mothers side was a Speed Queen wringer washer, it had a pump. Then she would hang the clothes out side. My grandmother on my dads side had a Maytag square sided wringer washer, I never saw her using it. She use a wash board and made her own soap. |
Post# 1057499 , Reply# 35   1/13/2020 at 18:33 (1,357 days old) by akronman ![]() |
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Grandma had been gone 2 years, but her unmarried daughter still lived in the house:
mid-60's model aqua-blue(ish)Hotpoint automatic paired with a Hamilton Gas drier from the early 50's. I remember the tall side door on the right of the clothes door, just like my 1952 or so electric Hamilton. When some load of clothes, hotter than hell fresh from the drier, started on fire, the old drier was replaced with a new Kenmore, Sears got lots of business from Aunt Pat. And I remember the washer as DIRTY, like no one ever wiped the top clean. Clean clothes just dragged out across 5 years accumulation of underwear dirt, dog bed dirt, etc! There was also a GE Mobile Maid in the kitchen, mid-50's rounded edges type as opposed to the squared-off 60's era. Bow-tie impeller, not a spray arm. And a 30" Hardwick range, as close to BOL as I can remember. Would the cheapest have had all 4 gas burners the exact same size? I seem to remember that. No clock, nothing electric at all, and I think the pilots did not work and everything had to be match lit. Lol, maybe some more money should have been spent at Sears. |
Post# 1057503 , Reply# 36   1/13/2020 at 19:17 (1,357 days old) by lotsosudz ![]() |
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My Paternal Grandfolks had A matching Westinghouse laundromat, W/matching how dry I am dryer. Later when my Gramps passed, she moved into an apartment with a 56 GE filter flo pair, Later she inherited a 59 80 series Kenmore washer with an old mechanical timer Norge dryer. My Maternal Grams had a Voss Wringer, Bendix Economat, then a 1963 Lady Kenmore washer.
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Post# 1057516 , Reply# 37   1/14/2020 at 00:08 (1,357 days old) by seedub (South Texas Hill Country)   |   | |
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Shown here is a representative of my Grandfather's (maternal) Laundromat stacked pair, bought new in 1964. His were white in color. They replaced the early '51 Laundromat pair that were my family's first automatic laundry machines. My Aunt claimed he bought them solely because Betty Furness was hawking them.
The architect of the house that the family built in 1962 committed malpractice and designed a laundry closet that had a 220 volt outlet for a clothes dryer...but no room for a dryer. We used a clothesline until the washer died. Despite what I've seen here at AW about spotty reliability, we were very lucky - ours had only two repairs, and outlived Granddaddy; and I went from Watching The Clothes Go Round at age 3 to washing the last load at age 20, when we decided to replace the thing rather than repair it. The dryer was replaced three years before with a 1981 Spacemates.
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Post# 1057517 , Reply# 38   1/14/2020 at 00:23 (1,357 days old) by seedub (South Texas Hill Country)   |   | |
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On my Dad's side, my Grandma had two sets of machines, loosely represented here. The Kenmore I saw at the age of 4 for a total of two hours (she and her husband lived on the other side of the USA from me) in the first house she moved in when she arrived in Los Angeles. It would be another three years before I visited my Dad; by then, Grandma had relocated to a bungalow that had a Westinghouse stacked Laundromat pair. Hers were yellow, and more deluxe than these, with the multicolored pushbuttons. I last was in California in 1976. When I visited again nine years later, she had replaced the washer with a gold unit circa mid '70s. It featured a tub light and a Weigh-to-Save drop down door which locked during the spin portions of the cycle. She still had that and the ancient yellow dryer when arthritis and Alzheimer's forced her out of the bungalow and into my Aunt's house.
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