Why do Australian Speed Queen Washers have a neutral drain pump
Firstly, what is a neutral drain pump? The system I am describing is where after the wash or deep rinse, the machine passes and then the washing machine proceeds to drain the water out before going into spin. The reason for this is while the water is draining out, the lint and dirt that is suspended in the water also drains out. Once most of the water is gone, (a predetermined time has elapsed) the machine will go into spin. If that makes sense to you, the next thought would probably be, every machine would operate that way.
American Style of Washing
In America they do not have the problem of lint being left on the clothes. Speed Queen is an American designed and built machine and when they built their washing machine with a belt driven mechanical pump, the pump would start to pump the water out immediately when the machine went into spin. They did design a slippage into the belt, but that was mostly to put less load on the motor. The belt would slip and the spin bowl would pick up speed gradually until most of the water was out of the bowl. Most American ladies of the house use a clothes dryer to dry their clothes. This is why American dryers are the same size as the washing machines. Any lint left on the clothing from the washing machine is blown off during the drying process.
Australian Style of Washing
Australian ladies of the house prefer to hang their washing on the clothes line outside to dry in the sunlight. There are pros and cons for that argument which I may cover another time. When the clothes are first brought out of the washing machine the lint that is left in the creases or folds are not immediately visible. If this clothing is put into a dryer the lint is blown off the clothing and is caught in the clothes dryer’s filter. When this same clothing is hung out on a clothes line, even though the clothing is stretched out the lint remains and dries along those crease lines.
Kleenmaid was first to introduce Australia to Speed Queen Washing Machines
Although Speed Queen had been bringing washing machine into Australia for the coin operated market for a long time, Kleenmaid was first to introduce Australians to the Speed Queen machine in the domestic market. Of coarse they had been re-badged with the Kleenmaid name. Kleenmaid had built up a fairly good reputation initially by importing a Brazilian made machine, based on the original Whirlpool washing machine design. Then when Kleenmaid changed to importing the American Speed Queen washing machine they had a huge backlash. I was a service agent at the time around 1985 and it would have cost Kleenmaid and Speed Queen a lot of money to come up with a solution. They went through a number of different modification kits before they came up with a solution. The end modification kit involved changing the timer, complete wiring harness and putting an electric pump into the machine. The complete modification kit would take about 1.5 hours to fit.
Speed Queen in Australia
Since the demise of Kleenmaid Australia, other companies have started importing Speed Queen machines into Australia without re-badging them. If you buy one of these machine you will not have a problem with lint because of the lessons learnt since the mid 80′s. Speed Queen is one of the biggest manufacturers of laundry equipment in the world, from domestic to coin operated and the large commercial equipment.
Speed Queen Washers in Mackay
For information and advice on the latest models of Speed Queen Washers and Dryers available here in Mackay, you can call me Rod Swan on 0408776405
