Too much washing in the tub
Yes, had the same problem with my mate. He always complained about these "bloody Twinnies, he's not going to use anytime at all"....then found him in the laundry room in the basement several times quarrelling with this or the other machine - bitching at the machine being the stupidest invention ever constructed! But he never ever listens to me BEFORE he starts doing a wash with it - and each machine is different! Worst and most hated by him is my newly refurbished and rebuilt AEG LAVALUX - as to me a very poor machine indeed. He didn't know that this machine can cope only with a maximum of 1.5 Kg dry-weight (3 lbs), so he was complaining in the cellar that it doesn't wash even three pairs of jeans in one go....! Smile!!
Well, to say so it's good German quality - weighs a ton and is built very sturdy - but the tub is definitely too small! It can hold only 30 liters of suds and the pulsator wheel isn't as effective as the Hoover one, too.
But overloading a tub washer isn't just hampering the wash-action like in an overcrowded tumbler. Overcrowded TUB-washers put a lot of strain to the fabrics washed in them and destroy the fibres as well as themselves. Heavily pressed down loads in the spinner will be badly wrinkled and not even reasonably rinsed! Our landlady at home was working in the textile research and development in a laboratorium and she always used to say to my mom: less is always more when washing with any kind of machine! Never put the maximum in that is given in the user's guide! I never forgot that! A Hoovermatic is said to take 2.75 kg in one go - but I never put in more than 2.5 kg! Same with the Hotpoint! Big wringer-washers can cope with 4-5 kg but I would never put in more than 3.5-4 kg in one go! And even tumblers which are labelled to take in 6 or 8 or 10 kg I would not load with more than 4.5, 6 or 8 kg in each go!
If I use conditioner, I use it in the spinner (1 little cup diluted in a liter of cold water which I add in a thin stream from the pitcher while the final rinse is filling, so that it can soak into the fabrics during the water level is rising) or after all washing and all spin-rinsing has taken place I mix a tub full of fresh water with conditioner and do the final rinsing in the tub - load after load.
To all of you a nice and calm WE!
Ralf