# Did you (or your parents) ever own a "mangle"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239 "2010-07-01T21:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/21 "2010-07-02T07:23:14Z")
My mother has at least two of them. Electric, steam, the whole bit. Uses one of them at least once or twice a year on tablecloths, which they are absolutely perfect for. I get most of my crazy from Mom. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/22 "2010-07-02T09:20:13Z")
There was a mangle in the undercroft of the church I grew up in. They were used every time there was a wedding reception or special church event, to press the tablecloths and, for weddings, linen napkins. My grandmother’s house still has an old wringer-washer, though it was placed out in the yard and turned into a birdbath. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/23 "2010-07-02T10:53:11Z")
I remember my mother using one in the 50s. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/24 "2010-07-02T11:03:17Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > [Stephen King](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mangler) had one. The laundromat (Waschsalon) I used occasionally in Germany had one, and it _is_ called a Mangler. It was big and a bit scary, and I had no idea how to use it. Probably should have given it a try. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/25 "2010-07-02T11:13:27Z")
In the 70’s I used one quite a bit. My Grandmother had two. An old one that was like the ones linked in the OP and a newer electric one. She used the electric one but under protest as she said the old one was better and got more water out but she didn’t have the strenght anymore to use it. When I was around that’s the one she got me to use. I really liked doing it. I miss my little granny ☹ ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/26 "2010-07-02T11:52:40Z")
Yes, but we used it as an end table. We also had a foot-operated sewing machine we used as a table. My parents love that sort of thing, but don’t go so far as to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/27 "2010-07-02T13:47:31Z")
My dad has one hell of a scar covering most of his right elbow/outer arm where he stuck it in one of those in the 40s when he was off pre-school age. Hell of a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/28 "2010-07-02T14:02:55Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > We had a [wringer washer](http://repearworld.net/mylifeinpictures/800/wringer.jpg) up to about 1979. > > It was freaky scary, and frankly didn’t do a particularly good job. Not only was a modern washing machine safer, it was more efficient, faster, and worked un-supervised. It was a revelation. Yeah, but with those early washing machines, you needed service every couple months. We had a wringer washing machine, but I don’t think I ever heard of a mangle before. Considering how much ironing my mother did, it is something of a surprise that she didn’t have one. ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/29 "2010-07-02T14:23:22Z")
My mother had a wringer washer that she used up through about 1975 or so. I never got near it because at that point I had long straight hair down past my butt and she was always warning me that my hair would get caught in it and she’d have to cut it all off. Apparently that had happened to her older sister when they were children and made a big impression on her. Don’t even ask about the pressure cooker story. Last year she gave it to a local museum, which was happy to have it. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/30 "2010-07-02T15:05:43Z")
My grandma had a wringer washer, and yeah, Hilarity, I thought it was so cool too. I could only get to use it when I visited her in Virginia in the summer. We would be out there on her back porch, carefully feeding the wet laundry through before we put it out on the line. Man, I miss my Grandma. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/31 "2010-07-02T17:56:55Z")
Believe it or not, the only place I ever saw a mangle was at the museum in my hometown. One of my grandmother’s had a wringer washer; my other grandmother and my mother had one of the first Hoover washers with a spin-dryer. You wheeled it over to the kitchen sink and hooked up to the faucet and the used water would go down the sink drain. In my mother’s case, that little Hoover lasted some 15 years before she got a top-loader. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/32 "2010-07-02T20:35:26Z")
When I first moved to Germany, lots of homes had heated electric versions of them! Used the foot pedal and let the laundry zoom right through it…sort of an instant ironing board. I thought they were very practical - and once you got used to them, much faster and easier than an iron and ironing board! Wonder if they are still popular there? If memory serves (it has been many years) they even would have one at local laundromats where you could stick in a few coins and use them for towels, sheets, etc. to get them nice and flat before folding. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/33 "2010-07-03T03:48:16Z")
My kid sister used a wringer-washer (a top loading electric washer with an electric mangle attached) until the turn of the century – this century. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/34 "2010-07-03T05:00:32Z")
Mine was a hand-me-down from Gramma to mother to me. And I hate to admit it but I just dumped mine a couple months back. I still used it for drapes and sometimes heavier blankets but it was so frikkin heavy and I always said “If I catch my hip on that damn thing one more time ------”. I did and now its gone. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/35 "2010-07-03T05:33:02Z")
When we were cleaning out the cellar of my grandparent’s house after Pop passed in 1985, we found one of those. Mom said that Granny used it and her flatirons that she heated on a kerosene stove religiously. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/36 "2010-07-03T05:45:09Z")
I think my mother had one when I was a little kid, or maybe it was my grandma. But surely, putting something through a mangle is not at all equivalent to ironing. No mater how you fold them, it is not going to get things bone dry. I thought the point of the mangle was just to remove enough water so that you could hang things out on the line to dry, without weighing the line down too much. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/37 "2010-07-03T11:10:25Z")
We had a hand-operated mangle when I was a kid. My mother used it all the time, but it belonged to the house, not to us, so we had to leave it behind when we moved. I think she missed it. I know I did: I was fascinated by it. Early 80s. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/38 "2010-07-03T13:08:42Z")
We had one when I was a kid. I used it as a teen. I could even do shirts. There was a working one in this house when we moved in. (the house also had a black, leased dial phone too.) We gave it to a small B&B in the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula, where it is still in use for sheets and tableware. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/39 "2010-07-03T14:34:51Z")
My great grandmother did, and she used it religiously. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239/40 "2010-07-03T23:10:38Z")
Yes. I grew up in Lancashire (north-west England) in the 1960s. I remember we had a mangle, and that I used it from time to time when helping my mother with the weekly wash. But I haven’t seen one in a long, long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-or-your-parents-ever-own-a-mangle/545239.md?page=3)