Best washer for towels/cleaning cloths

[panthera]

I am curious,

but what advantage would accrue from using either a GE filter-flo or a Kenmore or a Whirlpool as opposed to, say, a Maytag or a real Frigidaire or any twin tub or FL?

The GE-Filter-Flo (which should NEVER have been dropped) would do a much better job of, well, filtering, the just about any other machine.

Kenmore and Whirlpool TLs use neutral drains; this means the whole gunk gets dumped back on the clothes after the wash cycle. I should think they were the last good machine I would take for this task (I assume we are talking vintage here).
Their spin speeds are inadequate to the task of removing soil by extraction.
I think a unimatic through a WI-18 would do a far better job of actually cleaning, at least a unimatic would also be able to extract soil well.

 

[sillysuds]

With a kenmore or whirlpool(Belt Drive) you could see the lint being picked up off the clothes.direct drives you can not.

 

[rickr]

Spin drain v/s neutral drain

Unless a machine has a solid tub, there is no advantage between a neutral drain and a spin drain. In fact, the spin drain may deposit more gunk on the clothes,as it mixes the dirt and oil through the clothes as the machine does the spin drain. With the neutral drain the clothes are floating on the top, and the dirt has settled to the bottom, or into the outer tub.

The old "draining the dirt through the clothes" statement that we here over and over around this site is from the old days, when most machines had a solid tub, and the water was spun over the top of the tub. With a solid tub, that "draining through the clothes" statement made some sense. It makes no sense to use that statement today, when all brands are using a perforated wash tub.

 

[panthera]

valid point

There is some truth to that, I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks, Rick.

 

[rickr]

No prob Keven.
A spin drain does not really "spin the water out" unless it is a solid tub machine.

A spin drain with a perforated basket may be more fun to watch, but other than drama, there is no advantage.

 

[panthera]

I guess I am too conditioned by thinking

on the H-Axis. In FLs, the perforations do play a role - the opening around the drum at the front is quite narrow, the rear is, for obvious reasons, solid.
I had the opportunity over the last two years to do a lot of washing at my folks house.
Pretty icky clothes, including lots of grease and other nasties.
Seems the "Frigidaire" (White crap) was good at distributing the grease throughout the fabrics whereas the Frigimore actually removed most of it.
I wonder how much mechanical action can actually accomplish compared to chemical action and time - this electrolux series washes a good 17 minutes and the TL ground and shuddered its way through 12.
Sorta.
Spin on the FL: 1200. Spin on the TL: Supposedly 400, but I think that was more optimism than reality.

 

[danemodsandy]

Volvoguy87:

:1987 240 GL sedan. Dark green, almost blue, exterior, tan leather interior. It runs like my A208, like a fine Swiss watch. Companies like Volvo and Maytag should stop what they are doing, think for awhile, and realize that they had it right the first time!"

Y'know, I can't figure out if vintage Maytags are the Volvo of washing machines, or if vintage Volvos are the Maytag of cars! ;-)

And you're right- both companies would do well to take a look back at their older products and work hard at replicating their virtues on their new models.

 

[DADoES]

I ran a cycle on my DD KA toploader a few days ago, to rinse out any dust/debris that may be in the basket left from the machine sitting unused in my garage for a couple months, and from my repair on the agitator dogs recently. Interesting, I watched the neutral drain, and saw a particular bit of flotsam dance around for a few moments and then get "sucked out" through a perf. It did not remain in the basket and settle to the bottom. Of course there were no clothes involved so it's reasonable to assume that some bits of detrius may be left on the clothes as the water receeds, but I doubt it's as serious as all that for the normal household laundry situation.

 

[sudsmaster]

I ran my '78 GE Filter-Flo for about four years before I replaced it with the Neptune. While the filter tray did snag a fair amount of lint/cat hair, a lot would come out in the dryer as well.

My '83 Whirlpool had a cascading waterfall lint filter - the pullout type with a sawtooth comb type of lint snagger. I found it was a real pain. When it caught a certain amount of lint, it would start spewing water in various directions instead of a steady stream. And cleaning the sawteeth of dried lint was a tedious and imperfect process. I think the hidden lint filters are an improvement over that.

Nowadays I just vacuum things like comforters and blankets that might have collected cat hair before laundering. And the dryer collects most of the lint/hair.