Why were solid tub washers discontinued? More specifically why did GE discontinue solid tub machines? Looking at how these operate, I don't see any major disadvantages. The solid tub design is anything saves on water since the outer tub doesn't have to hold all the water back.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks John! :)

I remember many years ago seeing a picture here of a solid tub Frigidaire out of the machine and it was massively plugged with lint....I think in the upper portion of the tub if my memory sticks aren't failing me.

When I had my WCI-63, it was "ok" at floating some of the dog hair out but not nearly as well as the Maytag and I didn't like the idea of sending it all down the drain even though I was on a public sewer system at the time. I was most likely plugging up those upper holes in the tub, too, I'm sure. I didn't use the washer very much nor tested it out with dirt/sand, so no comment there.

Now that I'm on 3.3 acres and spend a lot of time gardening/mowing/weeding/ every inch of it, there's no way a solid tub, front loader, and even a neutral draining perforated tub could handle the mess I throw in there. Even with a pre wash, main wash, 1.5 minute spray rinse and 3 minute deep rinse (we're talking over 65+ gallons of water), I occasionally have a little grit at the bottom corners of the tub with my dirtiest loads.

Robert, I can't thank you enough. You've given me so much to think about here. I'm tempted to opine solid tub machines should've been in production longer. 

Why/how did the Hotpoint use so much water? That has me asking lol.

When we lived in a beach community, almost all of the families purchased second-hand washing machines and, because this was during the early Sixties, that meant that all of them happened to be solid tub machines. Being interested in washers I was aware of who had what and how they differed. We had, of course, a Filter-Flo, our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Petruzelo,  had many machines because her son had many rental properties and machines for his mother, appeared as needed. The one they had the longest was a beautiful turquoise Rollermatic and it fascinated me with that "Jet-Action"  pulsator in that bluish solid tub with the ridges. My Mom's best friend Connie, who lived further down the street had an old Hotpoint with the solid tub and the long-necked agitator. Pretty much all the machines were from the lower end of the model lines. I don't remember anybody complaining about sand left in the clothes. Nobody had a dryer, everybody line-dried their laundry in the sweet and salty shore breeze. Even the oversized beach towels left no trace in the tub.

I remember towards the end of our time there, Consumer Reports did a very thorough review of washers and did cite machines that were rated Poor at "sand disposal" and I do remember that those were solid tub machines that somehow made it to 1969. Never gave it a thought before that.

My Mother's only complaint with the Solid-Tub Filter-Flo was the lame recirculation that didn't work with a partial fill (she thought the whole lint-filter thing was an inconvenience and because it was a 1960 model where they switched out the metal filter pan with the plastic one {which was difficult to remove from the Activator post}) she didn't bother with any of it.

Mrs. Petruzelo was very satisfied with her Frigidaire; we know this because if there had been ANY issue, everyone on the street would have known about it.

Ive been thinking. Could the switch have been that as inner tubs got larger, outer tubs could only get smaller? And thus less space to hold all that water?