Es Lebt. Es Lebt! Meiner waschmaschine Lavamat Toplader

[launderess]

No, not Frankenstein, but did have a bit of doing with electricity!

After having that Lavamat sitting there haunting me for months finally got around to sorting things out electrical wise.

Managed to nab a frequency/voltage converter at a very good price and it arrived earlier this week.

The thing is not very powerful (1 KvA) but wanted to see if the toplader would even accept current from such a thing before spending dear on something larger with more power. Had been warned that some European appliances with electronics don't like "dirty" current, and thus was worried about the dreaded "EHO" error still appearing after having spent dearly on a transformer. Then where would one be with both things lying about spare haunting me.

So here I am with this:

 

[launderess]

Beyond testing that unit would even power up, ran drain/pump and spin cycles. All went uneventful and seemed to work as designed.

Am rushed off my feet getting ready for the upcoming holiday so likely won't get time to play further until maybe sometime after Christmas.

Obviously using the heating function is O-W-T; out. But will run at least a rinse cycle (which shouldn't engage the heater), to not only clean things out a bit, but see how machine copes with a full cycle.

Having done some research on these cold fill only machines (various English, French and German websites), how they will respond to wash temps beginning higher than what is set seems to vary.

Know with my AEG Lavamat if water temp is reached too fast and or otherwise thermostat isn't used for a determined range of cycle; the thing aborts cycle early decreasing total wash time by ten or more minutes.

Standard advice seems to be not to do this because it "confuses" the washer and throws off programs. Things like AEG's "40-60" mix use special profiles including heating that are designed to give results. Stain is another feature that seems to depend upon temp being reached at a certain time, though am not quite sure.

To keep from frying the transformer at worst and blowing fuses at best ideally the thermostat won't engage at all. That is if set to "30C" but with incoming tap water around 40C the washer will sense this if not off the bat or soon enough not to pull huge amounts of current.

 

[mrboilwash]

Congrats, but running a major appliance like a washing machine without proper ground is a very dangerous setup.
Make sure not to touch the washer`s chassis anytime when it`s plugged in as seen in picture #5 and 6. Better look for an adequate adapter or at least add a grounding wire.
Would hate to see you electrocuted if anything went wrong.

 

[launderess]

On it!

Thank you for the concerns. Glad you noticed.

Washer has standard German plug seen here: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Germ...-not-be-grounding-issues-with-a-2-pin-concept

Meaning it can be grounded either via third "pin" or from metal tabs on plug.

Have put out a call to find if simply inserting a "ground" pin into plug will suffice.

Or, can go the AEG North America route and simply remove current plug and replace with a new that suits including ground. My AEG Lavamat 88840 has an aftermarket NEMA 20A 250v plug which was obviously done by cutting off original.

Have done this several times before and so often may open up a side business. *LOL*
https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?61328

 

[foraloysius]

Wunderbar!

 

[tomturbomatic]

YAY! I am happy for you.

 

[earthling177]

Excellent! Congratulations!!!

 

[askolover]

Ja, das ist gut!  Glad you have it working even if not at full capacity yet.

 

[launderess]

Pity of it all is

That there is a way to make this washer run on 60hz from factory. Well at least one assumes so going by my Lavamat 88840.

Loading the machine other night for a wash glanced at the rating/information plate. It clearly says 2100 watts at 50hz for 10 amps. Pretty much same as the toplader. Thus *something* is done to make those German machines run on North American 230v at 60hz.

 

[launderess]

Kaput!

Spent much of morning cleaning up the Lavamat toplader including running a few rinses then a hot water wash product to scrub things out.

Washer went through paces lovely, nice bit of kit I thought to myself, then came the first wash load.

After putting in the wash, setting program, pushed "start", and machine began to fill; that is all she would or rather could do. Soon as motor began to turn drum the converter threw a fault code. Reset and tried again but all was same. Converter code says "abnormal current". Which one takes to mean motor is drawing more power than the converter can supply so thing is cutting out to protect itself.

Tried again with a much smaller load (few pairs of flannel pants, and a hoodie; same result. Put things into the other AEG and toplader goes back into its' cubby.

Will contact customer service for converter on Monday but am nearly certain reply is going to be thing is under powered.

Oh well, live and learn, that's what I say. Thankfully only gave very little for this converter as an experiment. At least know the machine will work in this manner, now just have to save my pennies and keep on the look out for a more powerful unit at good price.

 

[vacbear58]

Converters

Laundress

Have you considered having not one converter but two wired in parallel. I had a similar issue with step down converters to allow me to run the half dozen or so American and Canadian vacuums I have here. A single step down transformer of suitable capacity was quite a bit more money than two of lower capacity which in combination had a slightly higher capacity that the single unit.

A picture will explain better than I can, and it works!

 

[launderess]

Thanks luv

My issue is one needs both a converter and voltage transformer.

Voltage converters have in spades. In fact after some disasters settled down with two from a highly recommended brand, and have had no troubles since. Can run whatever I fancy, ironers, other AEG washer, the lot.

This converter is rated for 1KvA at 4.1 amps on 208v-240v. Washer motor only draws 250w washing and 350w for spinning. Neither is > 2 amps which is well within specs.

That machine will run empty, but not loaded tells me it has something to do with power draw when motor is under load.

Soon as took laundry out and reset machine to rinse and spin, it did so without bother.

 

[vacbear58]

I understand what you are saying but the principle should still hold good if you had two converters wired as shown.

I would imagine the problem is a power surge to overcome the inertia of the drum when it is in the resting position and indeed the problem my even be more pronounced when rinsing when there would be even more water in the drum leading to greater inertia

 

[henene4]

Yeah, worst case the motor draws up to short circuit current of the motor windings on startup for a verry brief period.

Dunno the specs of this motor, but guessing this could be 10A or even significantly more.

Without load, the current draw there gets lower quicker then with a load.

 

[passatdoc]

MEINE Waschmaschine

Assuming you meant nominative declension of a feminine noun, "Meiner Waschmaschine" would exist only in dative or genitive declension, i.e. "mit* meiner Waschmaschine..." (with my washing machine...) or "der Preis meiner Waschmaschine..." (the price of my washing machine...).

I'm afraid Mr Boilwash, Henene4, and Panthera would insist. Ach, richtige deutsche Grammatik ist von Amis nicht zu erwarten.

*aus, ausser/außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, und zu brauchen immer DATIV.

 

[henene4]

German grammar

Not to worry, my grammar is anywhere between "superb" and "second week learning the language" for both german and english, depending on mood, state and degree of rush I am in.

And one of that is my native language....

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Please keep us posted on the prognosis of your Lavamat

Die deutsche Grammatik:

German adjective/noun declension poses a unique set of challenges to learners.

German has 3 genders plus a plural and 4 cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative). That makes a 4x4 grid with 16 slots to be filled. The same applies to adjectives.* That gives you a total of 32 slots.

If you're coming from a language with little or no inflection (like English), you look at German endings and wonder what in the world you're supposed to do with them.

OTOH, if you're approaching German adjective/noun declension from a highly inflected language (like Polish), you look at the 32 slots and expect upward of 2 dozen distinct endings to be applied.

IIRC, German has ..... (wait for it) ..... 5: null, -e, -(e)s, -(e)r, & -(e)n.

Yes, 5 endings to fill 32 slots.

From an English speaker's perspective 5 is an overwhelming number. From my Polish speaker's perspective (which is my only concept of declension) I'm mystified as to how 5 endings can be enough to allow declensions to do their job.

* I'm not touching strong vs weak for the sake of clarity.

Mind you, I took 3 years of German in college, got good grades and enjoyed it. About 10 years after graduation I spent a week in Schleswig-Holstein and was pleasantly surprised at how few problems I had. Yes I know. I've been jokingly accused of "cheating" because Platt- is considered by some to be much closer to English than Hoch- is.

German grammar has all sorts of cool things I'd like to (re)introduce into English. Da- (darin, darauf, etc.) comes to mind. I distinctly remember actually LIKING the verb structure. Actually, the adjective/noun declension thing was my single largest problem. Yes, I eventually learned the patterns, but that still left a lot of blank spaces in my mind. Yes, I know a lot of it runs on the logic English does with -'s. I.e. Despite 3 different meanings there's no confusion because only 1 works in any given instance. But I never shook the feeling there was some underlying concept I failed to grasp.

No, really.... If anyone can clarify this I'm all ears

But please have pity on those of us who haven't yet mastered this...

Jim

 

[mrboilwash]

Same here, would never dare to insist on perfect grammar.
As a native Bavarian who is not a bit ashamed of speaking the dialect some might say my German grammar is even worse than my English.

Every attempt of anyone to speak in my language is highly appreciated. If I don`t get what they mean I can still ask further questions.

When I arrived at the central station for the first time in my life in Paris I needed to buy a couple of different tickets for the metro.
I decided to go to a counter instead of a vending machine. My French is really poor but Gosh can you imagine how proud I was when the guy gave me exactly the tickets that I needed.

 

[launderess]

Rating plate says 10amps max

But one assumed much of that was for heaters. Guess am proven wrong. Curses, foiled again......

Well at least the thing is cleaned out for most part now. Don't know what previous owner was laundering in this machine but am finding all sorts of bramble like bits inside machine.

Shame can't get things going, this washer is nearly new, just like my other AEG when it arrived.