Celebrating my Frigemore

[passatdoc]

@combo52

I do just as you say: I always leave door ajar, and actually pull out the dispenser and dump out the residual water (and set it on end to dry) at the end of each wash day, along with wiping the gasket seal. I descale with citric acid on a quarterly basis.

I used chlorine bleach a few times, because I had purchased the machine a few months or a year before I discovered automaticwasher.org. At that time, there were stories of spiders breaking on the older round-door models. The square door 2140 and 2940 models had only been introduced in I think 2003-4, so the ones in use weren't old enough at the time to have had spider failures. Some people felt that use of chlorine bleach could harm the spider, so I suspended use of both liquid bleach and also stopped using OxyClean. Now I just use hot water, detergent, and Borax and everything comes clean (except for hopeless stains like ink).

I use a cold water Soak sometimes; the machine does not have PreWash, but does have a Soak cycle; however, after Soak concludes, you have to reload machine with soap and start the desired final cycle, the machine treats Soak as a separate, independent cycle. Not a big deal unless you need to run errands and can't be home to advance the machine to the next cycle. I don't mind, because the Soak cycle is about 40 minutes long and soaks the clothes longer than a PreWash would do. Generally add 1/2 dose of detergent to Soak cycle.

Looking back on things, I haven't read of many 2140/2940 spider failures over the years on this board, so perhaps the problem was confined to early models of the round door model. Board member Golittlesport had a 2940 bought shortly after market introduction, which he eventually handed down to his son, and it was still working fine the last I heard. Must be approaching ten years old, since his 2940 was several years older than my 2140. My 2140 is 7 1/2 years old and has never been serviced. The only thing ever that went wrong was that the magnet (reed switch) fell out of the dispenser and the machine wouldn't start until I found the magnet on the floor and reinserted it. Most likely I dropped the dispenser on the floor when I emptied it of water, so it was my own fault. The 2140/2940 probably haven't been around long enough to know how long their spiders will last on average.

 

[washabear]

Hi everyone:

Thanks for your replies. Sorry for my delayed reply; I hadn't been able to get back on until now.

Eugene, it is the old-school model with the round door. Mine looks very much like the one pictured by retropia above.

Allen, my machine does not have a specific Quick Wash setting. It does have a Short setting on the Regular cycle, but that just shortens the wash time; the rest of the cycle (spins and rinses) stays the same. I think the wash time settings on Regular are 16 minutes for Heavy, 13 minutes for Normal, and 9 minutes for Short. Given the dark tint on the window of your sister's machine, I think she has a Kenmore version of the 2140, which is a later model. I had that one before I got this and couldn't stand it. That one might have a Quick Wash setting.

Another thing I like about this machine is that it does a water spray after the wash cycle and does three rinses without the extra rinse, four with, but I rarely feel the need to use the extra rinse.

Thanks again!

 

[passatdoc]

2140 and Quick Wash

I have a Frigidaire-badged 2140, 2006 vintage, and yes there is a Quick Wash cycle. I rarely use it and have not sat there timing it. The manual describes it as:

"Quick Cycle provides 5 minutes of reversing tumble wash action
for lightly soiled items that must be laundered quickly, followed by
2 rinses and a final spin. To save time, Heavy Soil/Stain, Extra
Rinse and Extra Spin options are not available in this cycle."

 

The comparative cycle chart lists Quick Wash as requiring about 30 minutes, but...

 

"**Estimated cycle duration is based on factory settings and does not include water fill
times, out-of-balance or oversudsing corrections."

 

I've used it a few times when a shirt or something had to be laundered quickly, but I have a large wardrobe (i.e. 4-5 white dress shirts rather than one), so that it's rarely necessary to wash something in a hurry for immediate use. If a piece of clothing were stained in an accident (say, a bowl of pasta sauce accidentally spilled on it, etc.) I would probably rinse it out in the sink the best I could, then run a Soak cycle with 1/2 dose detergent, then run it through a regular cycle with other pieces of clothing, rather than use Quick Cycle.

 

 

[whirlcool]

Thanks for that explanation. My sister's husband works in an office, so his clothes don't get too dirty. But he is an avid athlete at age 58 & comes home very dirty after playing with "the boys". But the washer cleans satisfactorily enough for my sister.

I still wonder why the salesman told her to never use the Quick Wash cycle? How could it break the machine? You'd think he would be promoting it as a must have feature.

 

[mrsalvo]

Does anyone have a video of this machine? I would like to see it. Maybe a link?

 

[passatdoc]

@Allen/whirlcool

I would never use Quick Cycle for a full load of clothing. It works ok on just a few pieces (say, one pair trousers, two shirts) that need to be laundered right away. But per the manual, it's not designed to wash a full load in 30 minutes. For one thing, there is no extra rinse, I'm not sure whether the cycle offers one or two rinses (hopefully two). So there might be a lot of soap left in a pile of not-that-clean clothes. For a few pieces, it works....for me that means a small pile of clothes that was accidentally overlooked/omitted when loading the washer, but an energy conscious person would just save that pile for the next full load. As stated, my wardrobe is large enough that I always have something to wear even if I can't do laundry on a same-day basis.

I do recall using Quick Wash in July, twice in short period. I have a red white and blue plaid gingham shirt from LL Bean (100% cotton with wrinkle-free finish) that gets very little use outside of July 4th. Because July 4th fell on a Thursday this year, I wore the shirt on Thursday, then needed it again for a July 4th-themed party on Saturday, plus to wear to church on Sunday---our Episcopal parish always throws a hot dog/hamburger bbq after 10:15 mass on the Sunday closest to the 4th, complete with side dishes, desserts, soft drinks, and (gasp!!) Coors Light. Because we had hot muggy weather that week, I wore the shirt only once between washings, and I used Quick Wash to get it and a few pairs underwear and socks clean for the next day. When I use the cycle, I use a half of my normal dose of detergent (= 1 tablespoon/30 mg/half of a coffee scoop) of HE powder, either Gain or Tide or Ariel (UK) or Persil (Germany). For full loads I use 0.75-1 coffee scoop (=25-30 ml or 1.5-2 tablespoons) of powder, the lower end of the range for European powder and the higher range for US powder. The largest loads seem to come clean with only 1.5 tbsp (22.5 ml or 0.75 of a coffee scoop) Persil megaperls---usually color unless it's a rare white load.

I bought my 2140 in March 2006. I believe it had been on the market for over a year, so I am guessing it was introduced in 2003-4, along with its sister machine the 2940. 2940 had a fancier control dial, a digit display of minutes remaining, Auto Temp Control, and Variable Delay Wash. In hindsight I should have paid $100 extra for the latter two features, but at the time I thought delay wash was a gimmick. Now I see it as very useful and wish I had more than the 2140's limited, fixed (eight hour delay only) delay wash. Auto Temp Control would probably help in winter to ensure that Warm is "warm", when cold water line temps are rather icy. WIthout ATC, Warm = the mean average of the hot and cold water line temps, without a guaranteed minimum temperature.

Yesterday I had the repair man over to check the matching 1442 dryer. Was making a thumping noise. Diagnosis: two buttons were stuck between the drum and body of the machine. Have no idea how they got there, but post-removal the thumping noise is gone. He remarked that the 2140/2940 line has held up well, he sees virtually none of the spider issues that evidently plagued the smaller round-door model to some extent. My 2140 has never had a service call. Once the reed-switch magnet fell out of the dispenser, and the washer wouldn't start, but I found the magnet on the floor and readers here were able to post an exploded diagram of the dispenser, showing where to insert it. I did so and it worked great. [this post was last edited: 9/21/2013-09:23]