WM 66
The WM 66 was a washing machine that was built and sold in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1966. The name WM stood for wave gear washing machine . Due to its simple technical construction, it was comparatively inexpensive and characterized by ease of use, a compact design, very low susceptibility to malfunctions and errors, and a long service life. This contributed to the fact that it was produced millions of times both for the GDR market and for export . The widespread use of WM 66 made it one of the best-known electrical household appliances in the GDR and a symbol of the rise in the standard of living that characterized social development in the GDR from the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. The manufacturer was VEB Waschgerätewerk Schwarzenberg - Operation of the Household Appliances Combine.
technology
The WM 66 was a top loader . The laundry was circulated in a metal tub with a capacity of 30 liters of water via a so-called wave wheel in the bottom of the machine. The device did not have a water connection, instead the water was manually filled into the tub, for example with the help of a bucket or a hose. This enabled operation in areas where there was no pressurized water connection, for example in gardens , in camping tourism or in older residential buildings in rural areas. For operation, the device was equipped with two rotary switches with which the respective function ( heating , washing and heating , washing and, in the case of the model with emptying pump ) and the running time of the corrugated wheel could be set manually. The water temperature was displayed on the thermometer, but not controlled by the device. Instead, the user had to turn off the heating as soon as the desired temperature was reached. The simpler model version was not emptied by a pump, but by simply hanging the drain hose down. The laundry was rinsed in a separate operation, for example in the bathtub , and drained in a separate spin dryer . The "TS 66 household extractor" was offered to go with the device and could be stored in the WM 66 tub to save space when not in use.
The device weighed around 23 kilograms and was about 60 centimeters high, 45 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters deep. Around 1.5 kilograms of laundry could be washed in one wash cycle, the washing time averaged five to six minutes. Although modern semi and fully automatic washing machines later came onto the market in the GDR and the WM 66 was increasingly considered technically obsolete, it remained popular due to the advantages mentioned. In particular, their longevity contributed to the fact that many copies were used for decades. A slightly modernized version of the WM 66, in which, in addition to a revision of the design, the thermometer used in the original model for temperature control was replaced by a thermostat , was produced in small numbers by a successor company in Schwarzenberg until 2000 .
Other possible uses
Since the water in the tub could be heated to boiling or 100 ° C, the WM 66 was also used to boil ("boil out") laundry, hygiene items and other items, for sterilization, for laundry dyeing or for boiling down . At celebrations or community festivals, it was used to heat sausages and other dishes in a water bath . It is occasionally still in use today for mashing and wort boiling when brewing beer at home.
literature
- Stefan Sommer: Lexicon of everyday life in the GDR. From waste material collection to a circle of writing workers. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89-602302-0 , p. 385