Finally took some clear video of the Bravos

[murando531]

It's short, and I'm hoping to find the time to record most of or all of a cycle sometime soon, especially if I can find a tripod or something. Anyway, this is about a half-full load of mixed towels on the PowerWash cycle. The colors on the towels make it easy to see the blooming rollover action. The suds are from the Tide Pod, which I'm ready to be done with, because they foam far too much and really don't clean that well compared to powdered Gain or Tide, and with those I only use about half the recommended dose and get great results, and little sudsing.

 

*excuse the sniffle halfway in. The cold dry winter air always does my sinuses in.

 

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[murando531]

And here's a quick clip of the start of the rinse. This is after the spray rinses. You can hear the dryer kick on and off so I pulled the camera up instinctively, I guess to show that the sound didn't come from the washer, haha.

 

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[murando531]

After all the time I've spent learning the machine, I have grown to like it alot. Despite the stigma around HE toploaders, I'm very impressed with this washer overall. The biggest quirk I've found is that the key to good rollover is to load similar fabric weights together, for example, fabrics like t-shirts, underwear, socks, and light pj pants and such turn over great even when loaded to the top of the tub, so long as there are no heavy-weight items mixed in, such as jeans or hoodies or sweaters. Those items should be washed together with other heavy items. Towels are a breeze with this washer, and from the videos you can see that it has no problem turning them over. 

 

I removed the restrictor valves for a short time, and while it didn't add much water, it did add just enough that the agitation was terrible. On Normal cycle with a full load of darks, it filled about halfway, but the clothes basically sat there because they weren't against the propelling vanes of the agitator. Since putting the restrictors back in, it adds enough water for everything to be saturated, and it blooms everything beautifully. As hard as it is to wrap my head around, the machine does honestly work better with less water. The manual even warns against adding water for this reason, but I had to see it for myself I suppose.

 

My biggest complaint about the machine would be simply its build quality. I love how the machine works after learning it, but there are things that worry me regarding its longevity. I do plan to take very good care of it, as I do all my appliances, so maybe it will prove me wrong and last for a good while.

 

[frigilux]

Andrew-- Thanks for taking the time to make these videos. Glad the Bravos is working out well for you after all. How long is the wash agitation on the Normal cycle at the medium/default soil setting? I had a Frigidaire Immersion Care for awhile--also an impeller-based top-loader--and found the same things you did: It likes fabrics of similar weights in a load; more water isn't always better.

I have the same issue with Tide Pods: Too much suds unless you're washing a large, well-soiled load. I don't know why the wizards at P&G want Tide products to behave that way. It isn't 1950 anymore; we all know a blanket of suds isn't needed for proper cleaning, and it wreaks havoc in HE washers.

 

[henene4]

That PowerWash agitation lools incredibly intensive. I mean, looking at othe YouTube videos of several different HE TLs, none of them had such a powerfull wash action.
The rinse, though, looks more like usual HE behavior.

 

[yogitunes]

nice videos....

this is the XL version, direct drive.....a whole different creature compared to the Bravos beltdrive unit, keep close watch, they operate like night and day...

these are not a time fill machines, granted there is a time frame window for it to complete its task of filling or draining before displaying an error code....I took my restrictors out, it only allowed for a faster fill, not more water....

and this operates backwards compared to mine, I adds more water in the rinse than the wash....

it is hard to get past the mental block of wanting to see more water...for the most part it does its task...the main thing is the dubbed down temps, I run most everything on the HOT setting to get a really warm wash.....

you may want to consider selecting two rinses.....take a few test loads once washed, and dunk them into a basin of clear water, just to see how much suds and dirt are still left in the clothes...if I select extra rinse, I get two saturated spin sprays....if I select extra rinse and fabric softener I get one saturated spin spray and a deep rinse.....

a few minor changes will give you the best results you can expect...

does yours have the recirculating sprinkler to saturate the load?

 

[murando531]

Frig - I know that the total time on Normal with heavy soil and all rinses selected will top out at 1:36. I want to say the agitation itself is around 30 minutes, because the initial presoaking sequence is around 25-30 minutes, but I'll have to pay extra attention next time.

 

Yogi - It does have the recirculating pump, and I'm impressed with how much it uses it throughout the cycle. The first part of all cycles is about 20-30 minutes of saturating the load with concentrated detergent, and quick spins to pull the water through. It will also kick on periodically through the Normal cycle during agitation, and on Heavy Duty and PowerWash, it cycles between the agitation shown above, and then slowly turns while recirculating for about a minute, and then soaks for a couple of minutes. 

 

And I have noticed that the rinse water level is usually and oddly less than the wash, but with Extra Rinse and Fabric Softener options added, it does saturate the load and drain out the excess before filling for the deep rinse. The only detergent that I've had problems rinsing with so far are the Tide Pods, and the OxiClean detergent, both of which require a Rinse&Spin cycle to get out, and even then they probably still need rinsing. Other than that, the rinse water is surprisingly pretty clean for an HE TL compared to what I've seen.

 

I have started using the Normal cycle more than I thought I would. The agitation's behavior is completely different, and seems geared toward mixed fabric types. It will start with aggressive strokes to move everything around, then steps down every couple of minutes until it's barely moving to balance the load back out, then it suddenly starts thrashing around again and really gets the clothes rolling. I've learned that PowerWash and Heavy Duty are best used with big loads of towels. The agitation doesn't alternate, it's always that "medium" speed shown in the videos. With large loads of regular darks and colors, it uses too much water and the clothes "float" too much, so that they can't be pushed up and out. Towels and heavy items like jeans and hoodies move around perfectly. I would dare say that the PowerWash cycle would probably work with normal clothes if it were a bit overloaded.