Reply number 41 high laundry guy
It’s great that they have machines that spin at 1600 RPMs in Europe but there’s very little difference in water extraction from 1200 to 1600 RPMs all the big front load washers in the US spin it at at least 1200 RPMs. From my extensive experience with huge front loading machines from all my vintage combination washer dryers, I would much rather have a machine with a larger drum. It cleans so much better. It lets the clothing drop a significant distance. It allows everything to flex and unfold large things like blankets and comforters and work coats where the dirt and sand gets out much more easily. I’ve had many European machines, including Meile and they just don’t get the job done when you want stuff them full, you can’t put 10 pairs of my work pants in them and have them nearly as clean as I get from either of my Speed Queen FL machines or my German built Kitchen Pro-Line FL washer.
I also don’t see the need for super hot water. I certainly don’t see the need for using expensive resistance electric for heating water heating I suppose if you wanna put a heat pump in the washing machine to warm the water that would make more sense, but cold fill machines an extraordinary amount of electricity doing laundry with all the heating of the water electrically in the washing machines. It also causes them to have to be de scaled because the heating elements build up a lot of stuff which we never have to do with US machines.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with US front load washers and when you consider that we make the best front loading washer in the world that’s available for home use with the Speed Queen‘s, which have exceptional durability and easy to repair. I don’t feel bad about our choices here.
John L
The difference between 1200 and 1600 on a European sized machine is around 10% residual moisture - an average 1200 machine will leave 53-55% residual moisture in a load, whereas a 1600 machines between 42 and 44%. In real world terms, that’s around 15 minutes in the tumble dryer. There is also a noticeable difference when unloading the laundry between a 12 and 1600 spin.
I don’t think Europeans and Americans will ever see eye to eye on capacity. I struggle to even fill our allegedly tiny machines here, but then we do tend to sort more thoroughly and wash as and when throughout the week. It’s not usual to wash everything we own on one wash day every couple of weeks, which generally seems to be the way of doing it in the USA from what I understand. (I also only own three pairs of jeans/trousers - so will never have the need to wash so many, plus I don’t like the thought of 10 work pants hanging around for a month in the dirty laundry basket, on the basis that they are changed every 2-3 days and worn over 4 weeks).
I will respectfully disagree that our machines don’t work when full - they do indeed work very well when filled to capacity, it’s very rare that I am able to fill our “tiny” machines to capacity but when I do (usually with towels) they always work just well as with half a load.
I also much prefer having guaranteed water temperatures especially for hot washes, being able to heat and maintain at 60°C for hygiene purposes is a must for me. That and it also means we don’t need to use chlorine bleach to the extent Americans do.
Our detergents are formulated to prevent limescale - water heaters in machines only tend to scale up if insufficient detergent is used, and even if they do scale up it’s nothing an empty wash with some citric acid doesn’t sort.
I don’t doubt the American front loaders work well, you have some nice machines on the market there, but it’s unfair to write off the standard European sized machines that most of Europe, Asia and Australia/NZ use with comments that just aren’t true.
