Gizmorama: Life in the tech age

WASH DAY

Washing machines are changing. Hmmm, it was not long ago that the washer liberated the housewife from the "chore" of washing. Well, at least it made it easier and less work.

The earliest form of the washer was nothing more than a tub with a dasher (term for the churn part of a butter churn). You put your clothing in the tub and beat it with a stick until all of the dirt was out. Right next to the old rock and stream routine, there was not a more aerobic way to do the business of washing clothes.

Gasoline motors came on the scene and automated the dasher a bit. Now there was the problem of too much agitation and the dashing turned into thrashing. Maybe it was the supercharged 409 engine? Oh yes, the steamer folks had their version of the washer, too.

The late '40ss brought about the first real automatic washers: the ones that you did not have to attend to all of the time. As a mid-stage development, the washer was electrified and the wringer part of the ordeal was still the old crank model. Technology had not given us the spin cycle at this point.

Modern washers and dryers have a high level of computerization in them. They have sensors that tell the mechanism if the all the dirt is out of the water, indicating that the washing is done and ready for the next cycle. They have auto-sensing dryer cycles that can tell if the laundry in the dryer is done or not (still wet).

Along comes some crazed designer and builds a combination washer and dryer that takes up the room normally assigned to a dishwasher. The unit washes the clothes and promptly drains the water and fires up the dry cycle. Oh swell, so now if you have two loads of clothes to do, you will have to wait for the whole thing to get done before you can put in some more stuff. One

of the advantages of the separate units for washing and drying is that you have one drying and the washer preparing another load for the drier at the same time.

If it's the space that you want to save, there might be room for the stackable washer-dryer pair. These typically are only 30 inches wide and about 30 inches deep -- they're about 72 inches tall and are the same capacity as the separates.

One of the gripes of the industry has been the shaking of the washer when the load gets unbalanced. 850-rpm drums tend to send a washer into orbit when the load is all on one side of the tub. This is especially harmful when the tub is a horizontal design, and the washer hops away down the hall. A whole bunch of springs and some other vibration-dampening gear are worked into the designs nowadays, so the days of using the washer during the spin cycle for romantic reasons are numbered. Browse by oldewash.com for a cool collection of old washers and old washer information.

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