Bought a new toy...

[henene4]

Depends on how high the tub lip is. But generally, the area where the bottom of the rubber seal is just about to be covered should work with usual loads. If you more often wash such "small" loads, I'd rather do a little less.
They'll get clean with this high water level as well. But then, you could have gotten a TL and get probably about the same water usage...
On load sizes: The "smallest" sorting I'd recomend would be Towels, Bedding, Whites, Coloreds, Delicates, Special Items (Pillows, Blankets etc.).

 

[logixx]

Technically, you don't need to have any free water in the drum at all to get clothes clean. As long as clothes are saturated with cleaning solution, it's fine. That being said, the inner drum lip is probably fine to aim for. My Duet fills that high when I use Bukly with regular clothes. The rinses, on Bulky, will get one to two inches more water.

As for the load size: if you're single that's probably the best you can do. Using the appropriate amount of detergent and cycle length, these washers can be loaded all the way up, though.

Alex

 

[jkbff]

How about now? Same load, different level.

 

[jkbff]

Two fitted sheets, two flat sheets and 14 pillow cases. All queen sized. Cotton for the white and Egyptian cotton for the two cream pillow cases and the green colored items.

What do you guys think with this size of load?

 

[henene4]

Both loads

They look perfect, water level and size wise.
Question: How "hard" is the ATC on that washer?

 

[jkbff]

Queen size down alternative comforter.

 

[appnut]

The sheet load, the water level looked about right.  The reply #14, reminded me of a WH Laundromat whereby the water level wasn't adjusted for smaller loads and movement was way too sluggish, far too much water.  Personally I think better results comes from much higher lift and plunge in shallow water rather than simply rolling up into balls of contents of each load.  I also think the excessive water level in my old Frigidaire contributed to early bearing failure.  My OCD is, are darks and whites normally washed in same loads? 

 

[foraloysius]

The water level in the second try is much better, the clothes tumble more. Ideally the clothes hit the side of the drum, just above the water level. You can compare it to beating clothes on a rock, the rock was always above the water level. After they had been beaten on the rock, they were submerged, then again beaten.

The sheets load is OK, but it's still not a full load.

Have a look at this video. This is how a German washer collector fills his machines.

 

[logixx]

Yup, the new water level looks much better - I'd leave it there unless you have cleaning issues.

This is a regular load of whites and colorfast towels in my washer, about half of what it can handle.

 

[jkbff]

Henene4, what do you mean how hard is the atc? From what im noticing on this raised level that wasnt the first time, it adjusts a bit more evenly than the factory water level. The factory level was 2.5" deep at the back of the tub, bringing the water up to the middle of the tub on its tilt.

Now the water level touches the front rim of the drum but doesnt go over the inner lip. I would say the water is at least twice what the factory level was.

Things seem to saturate better now than they did originally.

 

[washer111]

I think Henene is asking how aggressive the automatic temperature control on the water is.

 

[jkbff]

Sorry, i haven't had a clear mind this weekend. Friday we took my mom to the ER and they admitted her for the weekend. She smokes and was having trouble breathing... I've been futzing with this thing to keep my mind occupied, i just didn't read. I apologize.

As far as the atc goes, from what i can tell, warm is warm, not cool. Cool is warmer than tap cold, tap cold is frigid and hot is true hot!

Also, the dispenser fills with wash temp. I did notice when i had the lid off that, during the last rinse, dispenser was hot for a short time. I think it rinses the fabric softener with hot water for a short period then does a cold fill for the rest of the way.

The positive of this weekend is she is finally willing to start patches for the cigarettes. This all lined up at the right time of her sister was 11 years older than her, her sister passed away 11 years ago from a smoking related illness. Her sister was 65 and mom is 65 now.

Mom smokes a pack a day, but we are on day 3 of no cigarette.

While at home with her today, I decided to take the neptune apart and clean the dispensers. Mom is a clean freak but she could never figure out how to get the mold out. I took the machine apart thanks to a few guides here and a video on youtube and washed/scrubbed and sanitized everything. Mom was happy!

I also ran two hot cycles with boilout in to clean the neptune.

 

[henene4]

Thanks for the answer

Hope everything turns out fine for you. I'm that kind of person who believes that as long as you have no doubt about everything getting OK again, everything will get OK again.
Keep in mind we're all here for you
Oh, and, BTW, really surprised the ATC isn't that bad about water temperatures. And I really adore the dryer. Love that drying "rack" and hanger supports. Quite unique!

 

[jkbff]

Henene4, i appreciate it.

I wished this machine had a recirculating pump and a 240v heater. It would be perfect.

My smartdispense base arrived. I just gotta get my good looking appliance guy over to help me install it.

I have used this pair more since i brought it home than i did the LG pair.

Mom is jealous of this pair. She offered me her neptunes for trade. Ive got a rep and two dealers looking for more floor models like this or the ruby red rightheights so i can take those neptunes off her hands.

 

[jkbff]

My grandma has a cruel sense of humor..

She hates down filled pillows... A while ago, I had lived out there and had some bedding that I had left. Several pillows and one of those beds in a bag (comforter, sheets, shams and skirt etc). This past month I had been getting some stuff out of their house and she had my bedding packed up all nice and neat for me. I took everything to storage to deal with later...

Well, last night I decided to wash everything. Did the blankets etc, threw the pillows in and went on with my night. I was watching the machine from my kitchen and noticed the last two pillows were making the machine act odd... I didn't think anything of them when I put them in. The machine struggled its way through the cycle... I go to put them in the dryer and the damn things weighed a ton. They were friggen down filled pillows (she swapped my pillows out because she knew they could be washed easily)... It wouldn't extract all of the water (which I understand why now). One at a time they got thrown into the wash sink, rinsed and squished dry. We are going on 4 hours in the dryer with tennis balls and they still aren't dry. The damn things were so heavy they made the dryer bounce for the first hour...

HOW does one wash down pillows in a front load?

Also, while I'm at it, whats the proper way to load a thick comforter in a front load?

(On a side note, they came and took the LG's today. The guys left a trail of water all through my apartment...)

 

[henene4]

You just got to hope with those pillows!
No, seriously: Let the washer finish its cycle. I usually add a prewash and a medium spin before that prewash, so they saturate completly.
No matter what hppens (except if it is about to spin with pillows not distributed evenly), let the machine do its thing.
Then, at the end of the cycle, check how well they are rinsed and spun. If they are still sudsy, rinse the manually. It will take ages to get them rinsed in the machine. Now, push out as much water as you can manually, just as you did. Get a whole bunch of towels and throw them into the machine with the pillows. These will help to couter balance them. I usually prewet them.
Start of with a slow spin cycle. Then set it a bit higher etc. until you reach the desired spin speed.
Takes a bit of time, but that is my EU tryed'n'tested method.

For drying: I usually run them on the highest sensor setting with the lowest temperature possible first. Alternetivley, a 45-60 min cycle will do. Then, take them out and let them sit for 30-60 minutes. The moisture from the core will move outwards. Do this 2-3 times and then just let them finish drying by laying them out.

I usually just stuff my comforters in.
Or I layer them by first putting in the shorter side and the adding layer by layer on top. Basicly, like Panasonic (see picture) suggests.
Or, I grab the 4 corners and load them in first, pushing in the rest afterwards. Or I reverse that (so, corners go in last).
Actually, I just decide by the mood I'm in.

 

[jkbff]

So my SmartDispense Pedestal arrived a few weeks ago...

I took my lincoln in for some body work so I have been without my crossover for 2 weeks...

Mom started complaining about the huge box I had delivered to her garage so I borrowed her car and brought the pedestal over... I had no willing help so I took the drawer out and disconnected the tanks, carried that part separately and carried the pedestal frame down first.

GE Says to lay the washer down on its side to attach the pedestal... Uh. No thanks. I unbolted the old pedestal, put the new pedestal in front of the old one (both with the drawers removed) and slid the washer onto the new pedestal. I bolted the new pedestal on, removed the old pedestal and rocked the machine back into its place.

Whats nice is this time I had all of the leveling legs all the way up so I only had to adjust two legs two turns and the machine was level. I locked the bolts into place and connected everything.

The left tank has that lavender ecos detergent from sams club that I wanna blow through, the right tank has the members mark tide comparable ......... ...... I goofed on filling that one... You know how the large jugs have that spout on one end and the breather vent on the other? Well, I wasn't thinking I had the bottle as tipped as I did and I pushed the spout button to get air in...... SOB detergent shot across all three jugs... I found out that if one spills detergent in the drawer, there are handy vents in the BACK of the drawer to dump the detergent under the machine....... what a freaking mess....

anywho, got that all cleaned up, everything connected, went into service mode and primed the pumps and am on my 2nd no soap cycle to rinse the detergent out of whatever I could get my hands on to mop up the soap....

I registered my units today, also sent an email to GE's Firstbuild team hoping they can shed some light on accessing programming info on the washer... I'd like to... edit some stuff. The message I sent (mind you it was sent at 2:41 AM):

I am not sure if this is the proper place, but, I have a pfws4600l0ww profile washer and I hate the wash programs. Is there a way to reprogram the machine? This may sound like a random generic question, but like when it fails a spin and rebalances a load, it tumbles one direction. When it fills, it tumbles one direction. When it fills it pauses and fills and pauses until the water level is reached. Ive also raised the water level. There is no time selectable soak, when you pause the machine it drains the water. The rinses are too fast, there is only one rinse that is added. Overnight dry is not selectable on quickwash and overnight dry tumbles one direction.

Given the controller this machine already has, hacking it should be simple. Please let me know if there is a way to modify my machine!!

Anyways, Im hoping they email back... After snooping through the firstbuild site, I'm thinking about ordering the autofill pitcher kit and see if I can retrofit it to my frigidaire... I wished more companies had programs like this.

I would love to work for GE and design appliances...

 

[jkbff]

So I've been using the smart dispense option for a bit now... I'd have to say I really wish the dispenser operated off of flow instead of timed dispensing... For what was such a high-end option, you'd think they'd find a way to measure the detergent output?

I say this because for some reason, I am getting a lot of air. I haven't checked for leaks (I don't think I wanna know if there are any) but the dispenser doesn't stay at its current level. When the machine sits, the detergent level goes back down a bit. The machine doesn't have a way for compensating for that so the air gap is pushed out but that is part of the dispense time... What this comes down to is the first wash of the day has to be on MAX soap, where consecutive washes have to be on MIN because I either don't get enough soap or I get too much soap.

I am really beginning to not like the rinse on this machine as well. I wished it used more water than the wash. I don't get all of the soap out in the first three rinses... I don't think I am over-soaping, but now I'm not aware of the amounts going in the wash with the Smart Dispense. The rinses just seem too short, and for some reason clothes just don't seem flushed. Then again, maybe all of this is coming from the fact that I used the bedding cycle on the TL LG's and everything flushed out with 3 30 gallon rinses?

Smart Dispense is a neat concept, the connections and plumbing is well thought out, but I might have to take it apart and tinker with things one day, just to see whats actually going on. Maybe I have a pin hole somewhere letting air in... or I don't have the tanks sealed all the way. I'll check the tanks after sending this...

 

[jkbff]

so... I decided to run a clean cycle the other day... I guess I messed up the fill percentages because it filled passed the second stopping point, kept going but filled past the flood protection point so drained...

Did the same thing on the handwash cycle.

I knew those two cycles used more water than the normal fill, but I wasn't thinking how it would be calculated... I am going to crank up the flood protection level and see what happens... on both cycles, they kept filling for 24 seconds more after the pump kicked in. I'm guessing they calibrated the extra water by time compensation vs actual level...

So gotta take the machine apart, again. ;-)

Oh did a diag on the dryer trying to figure out why dryerlink wasn't working... it says it has a memory error and the main board needs to be replaced...

I've got a work order in for my sexy repair guy. I hope he shows up soon :-D

 

[jkbff]

Messed with the flood protection level.

Here is the basket clean cycle:



Here is the hand wash cycle (does it look like the water will touch the bearings?):



If the water is going to touch the bearings, I need to lower the wash water leve a bit. I don't wanna kill this machine with my wrong doing...