FL'ers - tilted tubs vs. true horizontal tubs

[gizmo]

Personally I reckon that the tangling issue is more to do with tumbling in one direction compared to modern washers which reverse tumble. I used to have a Hoover Keymatic which tended to tangle a lot, it had a very tilted drum which I reckon impeded wash action but made balancing before spin easier. It tumbled only one way. I made some pretty major modifications to it (low voltage motors to use on a basic solar power system) and I slowed down the tumble speed which helped a lot. If it twists clothes up one way when the tub reverses it should untwist before twisting up the other way.

I prefer horizontal tubs but I don't think tangling is really the issue.

Chris

 

[tomturbomatic]

The danger of the comparisons between the spin performance of tilted tubs and horizontal axis tubs is the size. Usually the tilted tubs are larger and it is more difficult to spread out a load over the larger surface for spin balancing.

 

[sudsmaster]

My Neptune 7500 has a 15 degree tilt and tangling is not an issue.

If anything, a tilted design will be less strain on the bearings, since it would distribute some of the load in more than just the vertical plane, and potentially lessen the vertical unbalance component vector. But I think the bearing issue is a non-issue. If it was, top loader bearings wouldn't last more than a month.

The new GE front loader has a perfectly horizontal and huge triple capacity drum. The jury is out, so far, on performance and reliability, but there is now an alternative for "purists" who also want a very large capacity washer om their home.