Washing Machines

We have just had a good thunderstorm (if they can be “good”!) with heavy heavy rain.  It certainly cooled down the temperatures and sent us rushing to shut windows.  The cats came flying inside and we had to turn the stereo up to be able to hear it! 

A display at Matamata Museum (2007)

In my lifetime I have experienced three different types of washing machines.

The first was the wringer washing machine, an upright agitator machine that was used with a wringer/mangle to squeeze the water from the washed laundry.

My mother had one of these and I remember her using two concrete laundry tubs with the wringer mounted between them.  Fascinatingly, one tub always seemed to have blue water in it with a little deep blue bag sitting on the soap dish.  In later years I discovered that bluing was a popular way to stop your whites from looking dingy.

My grandmother also owned one of these, and when she had finished her washing she would carefully empty out the machine and bucket the water out to her garden.  She always maintained her citrus never suffered from any pests or diseases because she regularly threw soapy water over the trees!

A wringer washing machine

My mother eventually traded her wringer machine in for a twin-tub washer made by Hoovermatic.  Because of its superior ability to spin water from the washed items, her sheets would dry in one day while the neighbour’s would sit on the line for a few days.  I think it was a sort of competition between them!

When I married in the early 1970s we received one of these machines as a wedding present.  It was fantastic for conserving water as several loads could be washed in the same hot water, the same as a wringer machine but so different from today’s automatic machines.  One would start off with whites and progress through the washing until the dirty work clothes were done last.  Fresh cold water was used to rinse each load, before spinning them almost dry. 

It used to take me about an hour a day, when the children were small, to stand at the washing machine and wash everything.  When a load was finished washing I used a good-sized stick to lift it into the spinner side of the machine.  The hot washing water was spun back into the wash-side, and then cold water attached to the spinner.  When the water level was high enough, the machine would spin it out into the laundry tub.  A couple of these rinses and the things could be left to spin longer before throwing them into the clothes basket to be hung up on the outside line.

The twin-tub Hoovermatic washing machine

We bought an automatic washing machine ten years later, but I still kept my old twin-tub to wash very dirty clothes and anything that had sand in it.  The first automatic I ever saw was a top-loader that the lady I boarded with had purchased.  She was very fussy about what was washed in it, and it used to bounce across the laundry floor as it washed.  It was her pride and joy!

Nowadays, everything goes into the machine.  With its fancy computer technology, the machine can wash everything from delicate drip-dries to the dirtiest overalls (in different cycles, not together!), and even sense how much water is required.  Throw the washing in and walk away!  When the machine beeps, then it is ready to throw into the dryer or hang out on the line. 

Only trouble is, these machines do not seem to last as long as their predecessors, as we have purchased a few of them now.

Our current Fisher & Paykel automatic washing machine

Most of my laundry is hung on an outside line to dry.  Not a propped-up line like shown in my first picture, but on a rotary clothes line.  I like the smell of fresh air, sunshine and wind in my clothing and linen.  One of our neighbours used to always wash her sheets when rain was threatening as she loved the smell the rain gave them!

What type of washing machines have you used?

Margaret