GB817801A - Improvements relating to clothes washers - Google Patents

Abstract

817,801. Washing-machines. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Nov. 11, 1955 [Nov. 12, 1954], No. 32352/55. Class 138 (2). In a washing machine comprising an outer tube 14, a rotatable clothes basket 15 having a flared annular side wall, an agitator 22 mounted on a hub 26 within the basket, a pump 49 to circulate liquid from the tub to the basket during the washing operation, such liquid escaping from the basket back to the tub, and means for spinning the basket to dry the clothes, the agitator is provided with a downwardly and outwardly flared skirt 25 which forms with the bottom of the basket an annular cavity which, during the washing operation, constitutes an area of limited turbulence in which relatively heavy insoluble particles extracted from the clothes can accumulate, and the bottom of the basket has a discharge nozzle 59 of inverted conical formation through which the particles are discharged into the tub. The pump 49 is connected by a flexible driving connection 50 to the shaft 51 of a reversible motor 33. The pump may be of the type discharging into one of two outlets depending upon the direction of pump rotation. Alternatively, a pump having a single outlet and appropriate valve means may be used. When the motor 33 is rotating in the direction corresponding to a drive to the agitator 22 the pump 49 discharges through a conduit 53 and nozzle 54 so as to return the liquid to the basket 15. On reverse rotation of the motor 33 for spin drying of clothes in the basket the pump 49 discharges through a waste pipe 55. In a preferred example liquid flows through nozzle 59 at the rate of 1 to 3 gallons per minute, and a flow restrictor 63 in the conduit 53 limits the recirculation flow to e.g. 6 gallons per minute. The excess water overflows through apertures 20 in the basket 15 and maintains 2 to 4 inches of water in the tub 14 during the washing period. This permits heavy soil particles to settle to the bottom of the tub 14 where they remain until all the liquid is pumped from the machine during the extraction stage. A strainer having outwardly extending vanes 62 passes soil particles and the like, but prevents laundry articles passing into the pump 49. A boot 57 extends from the basket hub 26 to the bottom wall of the basket which preferably has a sloping portion 16 and one or more downwardly stepped areas 17, 18. Drive for the agitator and basket is through a bi-directional clutch 34, 35, belts and pulleys, and drive mechanism in a casing 30. Specifications 646,403 and 817,802, [Group XXVI], are referred to.