Disinformation Tactics

[whirlcool]

My neighbor across the street called me tonight saying he knew that I kept up on the washer & dryer technology and he was going to buy a new washer & dryer set.
He currently has a 12 year old Kenmore top loader. I told him to fix what he has because he won't find anything better on the market today. So then he asked me to come over.
In his house the laundry is located in the non climate controlled garage. He took me out to look at the old washer and I was totally amazed at what I found. Most of the cabinet of the washer was eaten away by rust! I mean there was just enough left to hold the lid up, but most of it was gone. He said that there isn't enough of the old washer left to repair!

So he said he wanted a "Steam Washer & Dryer". I asked him why, and he replied that the salesman at Sears told him that steam washers will prevent mold from forming in the drum and he didn't want any mold. His wife has a ton of cats and they hang out in the garage so I told him that his cats may poop/pee in a front loader with the door left open.

I recommended Speed Queen or Electrolux or the good old "FriGEMore" if they are still being made. These people are not sophisticated at all and I have no idea how they would treat a new washer/dryer set. They certainly are not of the Miele means. But the garage environment does bother me if the new washer has electronic boards in it. What do you think?

 

[appnut]

As simple as possible.  A bsic speed queen. 

 

[DADoES]

 
Something must be happening over there contributing to the machine's deterioration.  Maybe the cats are peeing on it?

My parents' washer & dryer are in a non-climate controlled storage room.  Their 1994 KitchenAid (which has been retired due to a broken timer, unless/until I decide to fix it) has some rusting around edges of the porcelain top but the non-porcelain cabinet isn't anywhere near what you describe and it's 18+ years.

 

[rp2813]

Allen, of course you have an idea of how they (and the cats) would treat a new set of machines.   I wouldn't recommend anything expensive or nice.  Just basic machines that only need to keep functioning until their cheap modern cabinets rust away.  That would exclude GE though, since the machinery on those would fall apart long before their cabinets.

 

[whirlcool]

How do you think a FrigGEMore would do there? I'm not sure these are the kind of people who would read a users manual. Are the Speed Queen washers made with porcelain cabinets?

BTW, this is the second Kenmore machine I have seen like that. And both have been located in garages. The other people who had a rusted out machine didn't have any animals to boot. But the people across the street do have the cats litter boxes right next to their dryer. [this post was last edited: 2/22/2013-00:27]

 

[mark_wpduet]

Are FriGEMores still made?

 

[tomturbomatic]

I wonder if it is the salt in the air causing the rust.

 

[whirlcool]

We are about 80 miles from the coast, I wouldn't think salt air would be a problem.
The guy called me this morning, they are going to go with a TOL Samsung set. Why?
Because it has steam in both the washer & dryer and if you have steam in both, you won't have mold. At least according to t he Sears salesman.

I tried selling them on SQ , but they thought that was a lot of money for what you get. We'll see how this goes. So I told him to be sure to get the xtended warranty as he'll probably need it.

 

[DADoES]

 
Won't it be ironic if they don't catch mold, and probably never use the steam functions?

 

[frontloaderfan]

Salesmen..

Hats off to the salesman for selling these people an expensive feature that they most likely won't use. A damp cloth with some diluted bleach water would achieve the same thing for much less money.
I have yet to have any unpleasant odors or weird manifestations of any kind in my Frigidaire FL set. All one has to do is wipe the excess water out of the boot after each load, but you can't tell most people that....

 

[dj-gabriele]

wipe the excess water out of the boot after each load

What amazes me is that you need to do such a thing! :O
I've never done that in any of the washers I've owned as the boots are made in such a way you don't need to wipe them as water drains away, sure the engineers should get back to the drawing board!
You shouldn't need anything more than the occasional cleaning only if something gets stuck in the folds!

 

[mrb627]

Wipe Down

I have never wiped down the boot after washing. Just leave the door open slightly and it should be fine.

Malcolm

 

[whirlcool]

I think they are intrigued by all the fancy lights on FL machines. These people are pretty nice, but they kind of remind me of the Beverly Hillbillies in some ways.
The husband & wife started a business a few years ago and it took off. Now all of a sudden they all have to have Iphones, Ipads, new cars, etc. Last spring they remodeled their entire house top to bottom.

A few years ago Karen & I attended a dinner party they were throwing. We thought it would be nice to bring a nice cheese plate & a few bottles of wine to be served before or after dinner. We had quite the selection, Brie, Guyere, Danish Blue and some Stilton, all arranged on a nice platter. Nobody tried any, they all stared at the platter and just looked at each other. Karen then told me in another room that the reason nobody tried any of it was because nobody there had ever had this kind of food before! So we explained what it was and how to eat it and a few tried it but nobody really said they liked it.

So I think a simple BOL machine would do fine by them. I did point out that steam can add $300-$400 more to the price of the washer but they said they had to have steam so they don't get mold. I just told them to read the instruction manual very carefully as washing is done differently in FL machines vs TL machines.

We'll see how it goes. But for some reason I think mold is coming their way.

 

[frontloaderfan]

Wiping, hillbillies, etc...

I realize wiping out the boot might be overkill. It does serve to find any leftovers from an unchecked pocket, however, which does happen once every blue moon or so..Perhaps I'm a little OCD anyway...
The Frigidaire FL is equipped with the "fresh air latch" which keeps the door open about two inches, so odors/mold have no chance anyway.

Whirlcool's neighbors can't be too dumb if they've started their own business and they're able to afford the finer things in life, even if they don't quite know how to use them yet, lol.

Happy washing!

 

[rp2813]

If I don't wipe out the boot on my Affinity, after a period of time the combination of calcium build-up from the hard water and detergent residue (because the engineers at Electrolux didn't think spray rinses were necessary) will cause an unsightly white film to form.

 

A fresh air latch is a great idea.  My machine doesn't have one, so I just leave the door ajar. 

 

[frontloaderfan]

rp2813

What year/model is yours? Mine is the base model of the newest incarnation of the Affinity FL, so maybe the fresh air latch is a new innovation because people were complaining about mold, etc.

 

[cornutt]

I suspect that in Houston, almost any appliance is going to rust in a garage. The best thing they could do would be to paint the garage floor with epoxy paint. It would make a huge difference in humidity control.

 

[rp2813]

Ryan,

 

My pair was purchased at Lowe's in late summer 2008.  I don't know if it's at the very top of the line, but the washer does have an on-board heater that's used for the sanitary cycle.

 

Ralph

 

[ronhic]

because the engineers at Electrolux didn't think spray r

Calcium build up and residual detergent have nothing at all to do with the availability of spray rinses or not and everything to do with your water hardness and detergent.