Dry Agitate With Basket Full of Clothes

[Chetlaham]

Whirlpool washers had a dry agitate test increment. I've never tried it while the washer was full of clothes. But it has gotten me thinking- what happens if you were to set a top load washer to agitate without water, while full of dry clothes? What would happen to the machine? I'm thinking of something like a Whirlpool direct drive with a dual action or straight vane, Maytag Dependable Care, ect. Has anyone tried it?

 

[appnut]

I could do it with our Norge15, the Kenmore 800, as well as the lady shredmore. It was in the segment of the timer where suds return would have been if we had a suds saver. But I wasn't stupid enough to ever consider agitating with a load of dry garments.

 

[Chetlaham]

What happened to the clothes and to the machine?

 

[phillymatt53]

My portable Kenmore DD by Whirlpool which has the dual action agitator can do that.
If I don't have water lines hooked up, and start the machine, the water valves buzz, but if it turn the timer almost to the end of wash, the agitator will start in a dry tub.

 

[combo52]

With a load of dry clothing, it wouldn’t really hurt anything if it was a quarter full of water it puts a little bit of strain on the clothing, it’s kind of a silly thing to worry about

John L

 

[Chetlaham]

That is good to know. I drew up a concept for a timed fill washer and wondered what would happen if the user set it right to agitate.

 

[Unimatic1140]

In the late 50s Consumer Reports mention this as a possible issue with clothing damage if user isn't careful to set the timer properly...

 

[Chetlaham]

Thats what I was looking for, thank you!

In that in the least it won't destroy the machine!

Robert, I think if I am not mistaken 90% of your washers will start agitating automatically if the timer is set to far out. Am I correct?

 

[Unimatic1140]

Robert, I think if I am not mistaken 90% of your washers will start agitating automatically if the timer is set to far out. Am I correct?

Yes that is absolutely true, although with the 1950-1958 Frigidaires they all have a variable wash time setting timer so they will fill for 4 minutes first no matter where you set the dial in that wash period portion of the dial. With the Philco, ABC, Kelvinator, Apex and early 1947-1949 Frigidaire models the action is gentle enough that I highly doubt any clothing damage would occur. The Philco has a metered fill detecting with water just starts to overflow into the outer tub.

The Apex, ABC-o-Matic and Kelvinator machines have a natural stop at full fill setting on the dial and the ABC goes one step further in that the first increment of the timer is a pause before the wash fill begins. This prevents a shortened fill increment just in case the user stops the machine early in the previous load before the dial has fully incremented to the next click stop.

 

[Chetlaham]

Yes that is absolutely true, although with the 1950-1958 Frigidaires they all have a variable wash time setting timer so they will fill for 4 minutes first no matter where you set the dial in that wash period portion of the dial. With the Philco, ABC, Kelvinator, Apex and early 1947-1949 Frigidaire models the action is gentle enough that I highly doubt any clothing damage would occur. The Philco has a metered fill detecting with water just starts to overflow into the outer tub.

The Apex, ABC-o-Matic and Kelvinator machines have a natural stop at full fill setting on the dial and the ABC goes one step further in that the first increment of the timer is a pause before the wash fill begins. This prevents a shortened fill increment just in case the user stops the machine early in the previous load before the dial has fully incremented to the next click stop.

That is neat. My 2013 Speed Queen will not agitate unless the pressure switch is satisfied in every position on the timer.

I wish timed fills could've been extended to perforated baskets. Let the machine fill for 4 or 5 minutes then switch to agitate. Let the pressure switch open when satisfied turning off the fill valves.

 

[Marky_Mark]

British-made Hotpoint top-loaders were designed to perform dry agitation during the fill cycle from the early 1980s onwards. During the wash fill, the machine would agitate for roughly 7 seconds per minute.

These models were equipped with Automatic Temperature Control. The idea behind the dry agitation was to help mix the incoming water in the tub while the ATC adjusted the temperature. The fill would begin with 100% hot water; once the desired wash temperature was reached, the cold valve would open to switch the fill to warm.

In practice, however, this dry agitation wasn’t a good idea and was eventually phased out. In fact, I’ve heard that service technicians were advised to disable the feature whenever they were called out to service one of these machines.

I bought one of these Hotpoints around 10 years ago (a 1984 model) and it still had dry agitation enabled. Needless to say, I disabled it shortly after purchasing. I didn't want my clothes thrashed around without water. Even with a full load, all the clothes quickly got bunched up at the base of the agitator and it looked pretty harsh to me. Goodness knows what they were thinking.

 

[combo52]

Timed fill automatic top load washers.

I think the only company that ever did Time fill on a perforated tub top loader was Maytag in the US.

They did this on their cheap AMP style machines which actually worked pretty well because it got rid of the troublesome mercury switches in the lid, and there was a large outer tub in case it overfilled a bit to catch the water.

They did it on the first helical Drive machines models like the 123, A100 etc these time Phil machines were problematic because you had to set it very carefully at the beginning of wash and you didn’t have much leeway it would overflow also if something went over the tub and block the drain or anything went wrong with the machine then it flooded come the rinse cycle.

With modern technology, there’s absolutely no reason for timed fill on any automatic washer, fill levels are too critical to be left to a time function and there’s too many variables and water pressure, etc.

John L

 

[Chetlaham]

Does anyone have the wiring diagrams / service manuals to the timed fill AMPs and/or first helical drives? Fascinating history right there.

I agree entirely, 100% timed fill alone is not a good idea. I feel it must be done in conjunction with a pressure switch to account for variables and to prevent flooding.