Frigies in the house—not pleased

[panthera]

rebalancing

I find the number of complaints about machines balancing and rebalancing their loads from the folks in the US interesting. Sure, my LG every so often will get upset and rebalance stuff. Once in a blue moon, it will go through an extra rinse cycle and once, in seven years, it stopped after several attempts and played a melody while the display flashed an "out-of-balance, spin not possible, do something!" at me.
My last Miele was just the same.
Are the US machines set to be more sensitive? Are the folks UNDERloading them - the biggest cause of out-of-balance is just one heaving item?
Or is it just that we are so used to the 45+ minute rinse and spin cycles that we don't notice it anymore?

 

[rp2813]

I do think under-loading can be a contributing factor and likely the cause for some of my Duet's balancing issues. But why it wants to re-balance a load that is rotating very smoothly even at low speed makes no sense to me. Without fail, when it does that it only makes the balance worse, since it couldn't have been better balanced before it decided to quit and redistribute. That's my main complaint about my Duet. The "minutes remaining" readout can stay stuck on "6" for a good 15 or 20 as it continues to redistribute over and over. It seems that once it gets down to about 4 minutes remaining it will just spin as best it can and get the cycle overwith, though. A waste of time, energy and wear and tear on the clothes and the machine. I still love my machine but this one quirk is truly annoying.

 

[washabear]

Panthera, I’m not sure about underloading, but I haven’t washed just one item in my machine.

Here are a couple of recent (usual) loads: (1) four large bath towels, three hand towels, two washcloths, six pairs of underwear (yeah, I put the underwear in with the towels because I run the hot cycle on those, and they’re all “body-contact” items); (2) one pair of jeans, one pair of khakis, two pairs of cargo shorts, two polo shirts, two T-shirts, one pair of fleece shorts, one sport shirt, three pairs of socks. I don’t think either example would be considered underloading, and I would also think that there would be an ample variety of items in each to balance the load. I have come to the conclusion from the above posts that the interim tumble–slow rotate between wash and rinses that I am seeing must just be a function of the machine and something I’ll have to grow to live with. I do notice, though, that when I wash a load of, say, six sport shirts and nothing else, the machine spins faster during the interim cycles. Go figure.

Tell me if I’m doing something wrong.

Thanks.

 

[appnut]

Sounds like the loads are pretty full, although it depends upon your garment sizes too. I'm a front load engineering designers dream when it comes to laundry. My loads are pretty much full and pretty much consist of like items. I'll wash 6-8 pairs of kakhis together. 13-20 poly/cotton shirts. 2 sets of quenn size sheets (although that's really pushing it for my 3.1 cu. ft. Fridgemore). 6-8 bath towels and wash clothes and a few hand towels. 24-28 pairs of jockeys & t-shirts, a couple pairs of white sox, and a few kitchen towels and ish clothes. Yup, my loads are pretty much BobLoads and are all uniform in weight. I don't have too much balancing issues. 8-10 golf shirts & t-shirts are somewhat a challenge because of balancing sometimes but it's cuz the load isn't full. As proven by my BobLoad of towels at Glenn's, the F&P holds more towels in a load than my Fridgemore does. In the winter, maybe 4-6 pair (sets) of sweats. 16 PermPress long-sleeve shirts.

 

[washabear]

Sixteen shirts at a time? Geez! I would do no more than six because they get wrinkled after that. I will not iron. I haven't owned an iron since 1987, and I plan on keeping it that way!

 

[appnut]

I may wash them in the same load, but I don't dry them in the same load. That's where the wrinkles come in. My shredmore could hold about 9 or 10 of them on delicate, so that's how many I dry in the dryer.

 

[DADoES]

That BOBLOAD® of shirts I did on Sat evening, didn't count how many but it was likely more than sixteen. Dried as one. A few cotton specimens were a bit wrinkled, being as I usually hang those to dry.

 

[pumper]

I've had issues with my 2140 not spinning, and so I got out the level and spent a good 15 mins releveling it and it's about as perfect as it going to get. It does spin much better now. Even with the tub bouncing around it will spin, before it wouldn't spin even if it was perfect. Go figure...

 

[frigilux]

Like Bob, I'll wash a big load of shirts, but since the Frigidaire dryer has a smallish drum, I usually only dry 5 shirts at a time. They dry quickly, so it doesn't take all that long to get through them all. I hate to iron. I'm drying all my short sleeve work shirts on the clothesline this summer. If there's a good breeze (and there usually is in this part of the country), even the all-cotton models barely need a quick touch-up with the iron.

 

[toploader]

I have noticed the same problems with soap in a friend's 2140. He can run 3 more full wash cycles without adding soap and there is still soap coming out of the clothes. Any "water savings" are wasted dealing with getting the rest of the soap out the clothes by running more wash cycles. I am glad I am a "Toploader".

 

[toggleswitch]

Rinsing, be defintion, requires water. The more the better.

You may want to try the Sears brand powdered detergent. works great, no suds, rinses well.

 

[decodriveboy]

Water "Required"

But remember.... thanks to Energy Star, we now know that all you need is just a cup of water to thoroughly wash and rinse your 21 pairs of jeans! Amazing!