Brand new belt-less Whirlpool Duet washer may be headed back to the store...

[pulsator]

My dad and I were SUPER excited to have the brand new TOTALLY redesigned Duet washer sitting atop a very tall 15" pedestal! We leveled the machine and ran it through its Quick Cycle as instructed to clean it out. It made the most BEAUTIFUL sounds and had the most beautiful lighting one could ever wish for!

Then we put clothes in. Shit. A 59 minute normal cycle took 1 hour and 48 minutes!!! The damn thing would NOT spin! It skipped every interim spin cycle and took 30 minutes to balance the final spin. 12 more loads turned up similar result but the machine completely gave up on spinning 9 of those 12 loads leaving them sopping wet but no error code. My dad and I were both furious! We made sure the machine was flawlessly level and even drill through the floor to put 4X4 supports from the floor direction to the cement foundation below it. The machine was solid as a rock and still wouldn't go. I also noticed that no matter what the load size was, the water levels fluctuated quite a bit, and not in any pattern with load size. We called Whirlpool and they sent out a repair guy. The repair guy watched it try to balance and empty tub, it rejected the balance 6 times and then gave up! While empty! But no fault codes. He called his tech support team and they walked him through some stuff and he finally got the machine to come up with a fault, sudslock. The machine was empty with no soap, no possible way for it to sudslock! He fiddled with the pressure switch for a minute, then blew into the pressure hose. He decided to order a new pressure switch and then left as we have to wait for the part.

After he put the machine back together and left, I needed to do some laundry as I was out of unmentionables. I threw a load in and decided to see what happened. First, I noticed that it saturated the load perfectly and then didn't add any extra water. Just a tiny bit at the bottom of the tub. Next, it drained and balanced on the first try and took off. It took one minute from the initial drain until it decided to ramp up! AMAZING! It completely all of the other spins the exact same way. And again for the load after. The machine works perfectly now, and to think, my dad and I were already looking at Frigidaires!

Here is what I'm pretty sure happened:
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt;" times="" new="" roman="" ;="">There was an obstruction I the pressure tube
making the machine think there was water in he machine when it was empty! The
repair guy blew into the pressure tube forcing the obstruction. Because it
thought there was water, it kept trying to pump out the water. When the pump’s
resistance kept feeding back to the computer that it wasn’t able to move any
water as it seemed there was none there, the computer misread the situation as
a sudslock! When an FL washer sudslocks, the pressure switch reads a water
level even though there isn’t one, the pump is unable to move water as it is
not designed or able to pump foam, AND the motor detects a high level of
resistance! When those three things occur, the machine throws a sudslock fault
code BUT, because only two of those parameters were met, it never threw a fault
code! As a result, the machine skipped the spin cycle and moved on through the
cycle until it gave up on the final spin saying it was done.</span>

I'm SOOOOOOOO glad the machine was so easily fixed! It will however it seems, be getting a new pressure switch regardless...

 

[appnut]

Jamie, hope all of this continues to go well. I didn't realize this new design, made here in the U.S., is beltless/direct drive?

 

[brastemp]

OMG.. I'm so excited with this washer.. Please, made a video, i want to see this precious washing and spining!!

 

[jlbrazil]

Videos...Please

This machine seems to be amazing.
Please , record videos of this machine.
We are all excited about it

 

[joe_in_philly]

Congrats on your new washer! I played with a plugged in Duet last week at Lowes, and do like the washer a lot. If my Whirlpool made Kenmore HE3t kicks the bucket, I think I will get one of the new Whirlpool Duets. I was definitely entertained by the chimes and flashing lights of the demo mode.

One thing I noticed on the display model was that just before the drum would tumble, it would quickly shake back and forth for a moment. Does your machine do that too? I thought maybe it was because the drum was empty, but it was rather interesting.

Joe

 

[mark_wpduet]

Cool. Glad you guys figured out the problem............So you are happy about the amount of water these latest models use? Are the rinses all shallow as well or is there a max rinse option on these new machines? Thanks

 

[laundromat]

What model is your new Duet and which way does it spin? clockwise or counter-clockwise? I saw a new set at Sears and was impressed with the new mirror like stainless steel drum.The price was outrageous though ($1399)because right next to that pair was a Frigidaire Affinity set with the new 7.3 cu ft dryer drum and a great price ($489/each)for a front loading, super capacity pair.

 

[toggleswitch]

WOW who knew?

GLAD THE MACHINE IS A KEEPER! [this post was last edited: 12/30/2010-14:48]

 

[appnut]

I'm kinda sweet on the Maytag Maxima version of this machine. It's got a couple of different cycles than this one. I"m also glad to know they've expanded the stain treat (deep clean with steam) option on additional cycles other than the normal/casual and sanitize temp available more than just the single sanitize cycle. Stain treat means that one can heat the wash water in bedding/bulky, normal, as well as a wrinkle free cycle. I'm assuming without the stain treat the heater isn't used, just like in the old normal/casual cycle. Maytag also has a PowerWash cycle, which I believe is more intense than the old heavy/duty cycle, which defaulted with the stain treat on. The bedding/bulky cycle uses more water and I am sure so does the Allergen cycle. Plus the Maytag also has an extended spin option.

 

[pulsator]

This machine is indeed a direct drive! The repair guy insisted that there is no motor anymore, it's not called a "stator."

The drum does wiggle back and fourth a touch before turning. I think this is just something that direct drive FL washers do. My LG washer does the same thing.

I am happy with the amount of water the machine uses. It uses VERY little on the normal cycles, if you really need it to use more, just use the Bulky Items or Allergen cycles. The machines rinses flawlessly. The final rinse water is always crystal clear and it produces beautifully soft clothes! I always use the extra rinse for towels and such though.

The model is the WFW95HEXW0. the spin cycle goes counter-clockwise. We only paid $1,071.00 for ours at Lowes and that includes the 15" pedestal.

I too like the Maytag version however, I don't like the orange lights. I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer the blue lights of the Whirlpool version! Plus the Maytag version seems to be more expensive.

 

[appnut]

Thank you Jamie for all the information. The color of the display characters are important for me as to what will be easier for me to read. the orange may be easier for me to read than the blue. And I am guessing the direct drive design accounts for the 1.0" to 1.25" shallower depth of this new series compared to what was produced in Germany (like the 9470). I've been trying to come up with an explanaiton for that but never would have guessed direct drive.

 

[joe_in_philly]

Is the drum tilted? One document I read about the machine mentioned its tilted drum, but it sure doesn't look tilted to me. I assumed the shallower depth was because the drum angle was eliminated, as well as why the paddles are symmetrical.

 

[pulsator]

The drum is indeed tilted on this machine. It might be a somewhat smaller angle, but it is still tilted.

On a sad note, the machine might still be headed back to the store as it just took 3 hours to do a load. Completely unacceptable.

 

[appnut]

it just took 3 hours to do a load

What cycle and options were used? What made up the load that was washed?

 

[mark_wpduet]

Three hours?

Wow. My Duet from 2004 sometimes does the "trying to balance" the load thing; but not matter what makes up the load, it always is successful in spinning on the 2nd or 3rd try and it has never taken that long to complete a cycle, no matter what the load is made up of. I wonder why these newer ones are even touchier with balancing a load. I can't imaging it being touchier than mine, but I guess they are.

 

[3beltwesty]

With the 1 month old LG WM2501HV FL washer here, its "time estimate" seems to be assuming no "traffic delays". It normally is close to the estimate or longer when it has do an extra mystery thing. In about 24 washes about 2 or 3 times it was a lot longer; say 50 percent when I washed a large load with odd sized items. I "think" the unit gets confused or has to go extra untangle or rebalances and this bumps up the time.

As a "TOTALLY OFF THE WALL" rare issue, some washers are not tolerant of the "flood safe" hydrolyic fuse type washing machine hoses. These hose have a gizmo that stops the flow when the flow rate is too high. In rare cases, one can have either a hot or cold hose shut off and the washer still runs but gets confused. With a friends washer we removed these fancy hoses to fix the issue where the washer would act weird.

Another dumb issue(s) are a shipping lock is still in place, low voltage, plugged drain hose ( some have a cap on the exit end that has to be removed ) , or not enough clothes. Some machines want to see a minimum amount of clothes. Another odd issue is a hot and cold water hose reversed, and the modern washer with a temperature sensor gets confused.

Some new FL washers might have a vibration sensor too, LG has a new patent that is a combo water level sensor and vibration sensor.

 

[pulsator]

The machine was set to the Normal/Casual cycle with an extra rinse selected. It was a full load of sweatshirts, t-shirts, socks, and underwear. The machine estimated 1 hour and 14 minutes. It has a set of normal hoses, both are on the correct port. The shipping bolts have been removed, the tub moves freely on its shocks. And the machine drains just fine. It doesn't seem to accept any balancing. That's where it has the issues. This machine has no balance sensors, it's all calculated via strain on the "stator." What it kept doing what trying to balance 2 or 3 times, accepting, reaching 400-600 RPM then stopping and trying to rebalance. It even appeared to have run a suds routine for the first rinse as the sensing light flashed throughout the entire first rinse. The sensing light is usually only on when it's having trouble balancing and it's trying to redistribute. When it finally finished the cycle, it displayed no fault codes.

 

[mrb627]

Night Setting

This machine doesn't have a night time setting where it will run longer and quieter does it?  Maybe that is enabled extending the cycle.
​
​Malcolm

 

[appnut]

I'm at loss. But then again, I would have made this two loads. All the sweats in a load and then all the t-shirts, socks, and underwear in another. I simply believe in trying to wash similar weight items together and have very few blance issues. In the early days of the fridgemore, I wasn't as careful and did have balance issues.