Consumer Reports Tests New TOL Frigidaire Front-Loader

[frigilux]

Well, that was quick!

CR tested the new Frigidaire TOL model 4474 and placed it in their ratings. The total score for it was 81. It had the shortest cycle time of all the tested machines: 50 minutes. That explains the washing performance score. I believe they tested the machine on its "Normal" cycle.

FYI: The top-rated machine, an $800 LG-made Kenmore, scored an 85.

Washing Performance: Good
Water Efficiency: Excellent
Energy Efficiency: Excellent
Capacity: Excellent
Gentleness: Excellent
Noise: Very Good
Vibration: Good

Price: $1,000

That reasonable (well, by comparison, anyway) price gives you: 1300 rpm. spin; 4.4 cu.ft. drum; prewash cycle; steam; internal heater; many specialty cycles, including a stain treat/soak cycle.

Had they used the "Heavy" (20-minute wash) instead of the "Normal" (15-minute wash) cycle, I'll bet that cleaning score would bump up to Very Good. And you can call for a heavy soil option, which adds additional time.

 

[appnut]

Good to know. At least we recognize the discrepancy in th cycles marked the same name amonog varios manufacturers--have different wash times and tumble actions.

 

[dj-gabriele]

It still puzzles me!

How can you get "clean" laundry with a 15 or 20 minutes wash! My machine on "quick" wash (30 minutes from start to end) has a 15 mutes wash phase and on "delicates" has a 30 minutes wash. Synthetics wash starts at 40 to 60 and cottons vary from 70 to 100 minutes!

 

[passatdoc]

Perhaps the 20 and 15 minutes refer to the wash (with soap, prior to any rinses) portion of the entire cycle.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Me too, I was referring to the wash only, total cycle times are 30-60 minutes longer (as an example: cotton 60°C is 140 minutes and synthetics 40°C is 90 minutes start to end)

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Gabriele,

The AU Miele's in the W2XXX series defaulted to short washes of 42Mins on Cottons 40 with 2 rinses or 58mins for Cottons 60. Push Intensive and it pushes it out to 1hr 40 or 2hr 05 respectively.

That gave a 15 min wash time at 40degC or 28mins at 60degC

That gets most average soils out without fuss. Both our mothers us the 42minute cycle (56min with 3 rinses) for everything and dont have any issues.

So you dont need extremely long washes to get things clean. I dont know how those short times would cope though if you had 10kg of washing in there compared to the 5-6kg in the Miele's.

 

[aquarius1984]

Nathan your absolutely right.

Long wash times dont particularly bother me so I just leave the machine to do its job but older UK front loaders only had wash times of between 10-20 minutes once the water was at the correct temperature and half the time it was warm wnough in the machine to get going right away.

Mind we had hot and cold machines just like our friends across the pond have now. Providing these utilised the Hot Water it could potentially fill up on a warm wash and and be at 40 degrees ready to go to cut the heating portion out and the timer would advance into the main wash section.

Whole wash cycles on 40 degree cottons could be done in 40 minutes with long fast spins. Hoover machines seem to be good at this even using low water levels in the wash.

95 degree washes can be done in a vintage machine in 70 minutes if your hot water is around 70/80 degrees like I have mine set at.

 

[jerrod6]

My Miele W1986 defaults to a shorter wash time also. In cottons 105F or 120F with 3 rinses the entire cycle lasts 49 minutes and contains a 20 minute wash that will be shortened to 12 minutes if the load is small. For temperatures over 120F the cycle time increases by 7 minutes.

I use this short default cycle for almost all cotton loads. I use the extended option for heavy soiled or stained white loads which increases the cycle time to between 1 hour 10 minutes and 2 hours 5 minutes depending on the size of load the washer senses.

So I think a 20 minute wash can do it if the soil is average.

 

[whirlcool]

And just how dirty does ones clothes get in the first place?

Our clothes just don't get all that dirty. The worst thing we'll have is mud on our jeans and t-shirts from playing Frisbee with the dogs, or a spot of Salsa on my shirt from a mexican restaurant. (Never fails!)

Now I imagine if you are a mechanic or a farmer you can get some really dirty clothes, but I think the majority of people could categorize their laundry as "lightly soiled".

 

[ronhic]

Whirlcool...

....agreed...

80% of us just don't get as dirty as we did.....

 

[mark_wpduet]

I notice with the first generation Duet front load washers, they cycle times are not as long as the new ones. I always wondered why.....On my Duet, if I choose normal cycle, it's default at 40 min's (warm) 2 rinses, and high spin (you can up the time by changing the soil level). Heavy Duty defaults to 50 min's, 2 rinses, and hot with high spin. Again, you can change the soil level to add time. Whitest whites defaults to an hour with hot water, extra rinse and high spin...The max it allows you to increase is a total time of one hour and ten minutes with the soil level set to "more"...I almost never use the normal cycle. I usually use Heavy Duty or Whitest whites with extra rinse and more soil level and hot water...Everything comes out sparkling clean.

The new Duets add about ten minutes to each of those times, from what I have read.

 

[mattl]

Those numbers always amaze me. In my good old fashioned top loader I have a load done in 20 minutes or less. I can't imagine waiting 3x that long for a load.

 

[passatdoc]

@mattl

I know what you mean re: longer wash times. However, I do feel that my FL gets more of the soap out of the clothes after wash cycle.

My previous GE TL did not have a Second Rinse option (found mostly on TOL models but not BOL-MOL); it was 1997 MOL. When it broke beyond repair and I bought an FL, the first load I did was a load of "clean" towels that had recently been washed with the GE before it died (leak). I used no detergent, but found suds in the wash water. That's how much residual soap was left over. I never scrimped on the water level setting, and a 2/3-3/4 load was always run on "full".

Longer wash times are mostly offset by much shorter drying times. Perm press went from 60 to 30 minutes, heavy cottons like towels went from 90 to 45 minutes. If I had to wash several loads on a given day, I'd always have 1-2 loads of wet clothes waiting for the dryer to finish. Now, with more water extraction due to higher final spin speeds, the washer becomes the rate limiting step and the dryer runs ahead of the washer.

 

[appnut]

Geez MattL, even with my Shredmore, a load took a miniimum of 30 minutes and that didn't include a 2nd rinse and the wassh phase was 8 minutes. I too feel my clothes get a lot cleaner, drying time is reduced. I very rarely bother to look for stains anymore, which I did for every load with the Shredmore and that included adding Biz. Now, I don't waste time going through that process. My current Fridgemore and the dryer are pretty much even when timing. I'm not waiting 15 to 20 mimnutes for each dryer load to finish and the washer just sitting there or I have piles of wet clothes stacking up waiting for the dryer to do each load. I hope I never have to go back to a top loader again.

 

[launderess]

Front Loader Rinsing vs Top

Loads washed (with minimal and often "HE" detergent), in my Whirlpool portable and given two deep rinses often still can have residue pulled out by the Miele. This is with all the spray rinses the Whirlpool has during both spin cycles, and that it spins at a slightly higher rpm than most top loaders.

Also one will often see detergent residue extracted after the same is put into the Hoover TT spin extractor for a bit.

Indeed one often feels the "scent" left behind on laundry washed in a top loader is often the result of detergent residue.

 

[mark_wpduet]

If I use Tide HE, I notice that if I use extra rinse, there is hardly noticeable scent left. If I don't use extra rinse, there is noticeable scent left.

 

[frigilux]

Rinsing: I've mentioned a few times that the cleanest-rinsing detergent I've ever used is Unilever (U.K.) Persil powdered detergent. However, I haven't stocked it in ages due to the eye-popping cost of having it shipped over the pond.

However.....since my new front-loader provides only two rinses, I've decided to wean myself away from tenaciously-sudsy Tide HE. So, at about 2:45 this morning I succumbed to temptation and ordered three large boxes of Persil Bio detergent from the Brit Superstore. I'm going to try to use that and powdered SA8 in the new washer. I'll save the Persil for loads of heavily-stained kitchen whites and use SA8 (which also rinses out better than P&G detergents in soft water) for regular loads.

I really like the cleaning power of Tide's HE line, but there's always suds in the third rinse in my current machine, and that's with an interval spin between each rinse. All my Tide HE products should be used up by the time the new washer arrives.

If the SA8 can do the job with the help of "stain treat" and steam injection options, then I'll probably opt to make that my daily driver, again, which will be much kinder to the checkbook than UK Persil. Too bad they screwed up the formula of SA8 a couple of years ago. It definitely doesn't remove stains as well as it used to, but it's a clean-rinsing detergent, which is more than I can say for any of the P&G detergents I've tried, all of which are still sudsy in the third rinse.

A friend of mine with an LG front-loader accidentally bought a bottle of All Small & Mighty, then realized when she got home that it wasn't HE, so she gave it to me, and I've been using it in the top-loader. The post-wash scent is fairly strong, but I like it. Is the Small & Mighty line from Henckels or is it Unilever?

I've tried Henckels Persil powder, and it cleaned well, but doesn't rinse as cleanly as UK Persil. And even though the Henckels version is more widely available in the US, it's still very expensive.

Come to think of it, I wash a lot of black/dark color loads in the winter. I've been using Cheer For Dark Colors and Woolite For Dark Colors, neither of which are HE. There is an HE version of regular Woolite, but I don't know if there are any optical brighteners in it. I want to avoid them for blacks, which look "dusty" and faded when washed in regular detergents.

I saw something called Perwoll at the Henckels Persil website, but it's $24 a bottle! Has anyone used it, and if so, what did you think of it? I'll probably stick with the two non-OBA, non-HE detergents I now use for black loads; I'll just have to make sure to lower the dosage in the new washer. They never have to clean heavily-soiled clothes, anyway.

 

[appnut]

Eugene, what is preventing you from setting each cycle to use the extra rinse option? I odn't undersetand. I keep the extra rinse on my washer (like yours) set at yes all the time. Once you use a cycle and configure the options as you want, everytime you use that cycle again, the options configured like the last time will be chosen again. also, the added water option.

 

[launderess]

Persil "Perwoll"

Is just what it sounds like, a liquid (or powder)detergent for woolens. According to the bottles one has the stuff can also be used for laundering items made of silk and or fine linens.

The scent is rather strong in the bottle, but find it nice after my woolies have dried.

Have used up all but a tablespoon of Tide "Proline" HE powder, and that will be that. Still have a large bottle of Tide HE "Free and Gentle" liquid to work through, but find it rinses well if one uses no more than one tablespoon. Mainly use it on bed and table linens since it cleans rather well, including removing stains, but does not leave a scent behind.