so, i suppose everyone here has had some crazy ideas, with some becoming a reality
many have thought of ways to make machines faster, better, even possibly creating their own custom machines from scratch using a production machine as a baseline
but i have no idea if anyone could create something so mental like this
i suppose a fair few people know so far that i conceptualised a custom computer controlled Whirlpool Direct Drive some time ago
well..... that's snowballed into an insane project that now has many ideas on many machines to be built
a fair amount of these theoretical projects are possible, though i would need a LOT of knowlege on things i do not currently have the brain cells to process
so i suppose, without further ado
here's an idea idea on what i'd build if "no limits" were something i could abide by with no strings attached
this theoretical project was mainly concieved by myself and a friend of mine, ApplianceAce, who i have filmed a laundromat series on youtube with over the new year of 2024 going into 2025
to begin, the baseline machine, this will become VASTLY different from the original, and can (and will) boil 60 litres of water in less than 120 seconds, calculations were made based off of figures you will see in this thread
anyways, to start:
the Wascomat Generation 4 commercial washer had a crazy run
i was particularly impressed by a 50lb example in California, so this will be the baseline machine used for this idea
to begin, the machine would be stripped to the bare cabinet and frame, the tub will be removed also
the first designs for water recirculation as a washing aid weren't good enough to make it viable as an option
so the final idea came to 1440L per minute of recirculation, exceeding that of Milnor's RecircONE system they use in industrial continuous batch washers
the pumps themselves are going to be from Whirlpool Corp Direct Drive machines, with their 600 watt motors driving 2 pumps each
the machine will have 24 of these pumps, being driven by 12 motors to achieve this figure
but i said something about heating
it's not going to be gas, nor steam
ohhh no
this one's going electric, because who needs a stable grid anyways
24 2000W flow through dishwasher heating elements will be fitted to the intakes of the pumps from the tub, 2 on each intake pipe at a 32mm diameter roughly
the machine will also have an additional 3 5kW Miele heating elements from their WS5140 model specifically, as it yields crazy heat times while keeping safety in mind
the final output of this machine will be 63,000 watts of thermal heating capacity whilst keeping the original drum volume
this yields a heater rating to capacity ratio of 2.94kW of heating power per 10 litres of drum volume
it's a figure no domestic machine can ever reach unless it's essentially less than a cubic foot in capacity with a 3000 watt heater
and industrially this can easily rival a steam heated machine of any type, they have some of the fastest heating rates in the industry by a long shot, whichever their type of steam heating is
however we have bottlenecked a little bit here
it's not got anything to do with the machine's heating performance or capacity, as both will be VERY easily able to handle quite literally anything that gets thrown at them no matter the case
the bottleneck comes from the machine's original spin speed
just a measly 455rpm, for a rigid mount machine of the time it was good, but let's heighten that a fair bit
above roughly 700rpm the machine's frame will have the chance to become unstable, making it dangerous to achieve a higher speed
so of course, what would one do in this thoretical scenario?
well, i did say no limits, so it's time to talk about something that'll give Miele's washer designers from the 80's a very prone bone
suspension
yes, you can technically do this to any Wascomat washer from the 4th generation, but certain steps need to be undertaken first
you must cut the frame out of the cabinet of the machine, or fabricate a new cabinet base to accept whichever design of suspension desired
then you have to hold the outer tub to this suspension very firmly, using a strong steel frame so that the tub doesn't fall off of the whole lot at a stupidly high speed like some messed up comedy sketch
then of course, you need to think of the actual design of the suspension itself
the basic idea was like the Citroen fluid ride suspension system they had on quite a few of their old cars, it allowed them to drive on 3 wheels and do some very interesting things, including saving quite a few people from undesirable concequences
so the suspension system on this beast will be hydraulic, with dampening provided by individual valve sets (that will be electrically controlled) from 4 cylinders that support the tub, almost like a typical soft mount's 4 spring system that's commonplace, but without the additional shock absorber setup to aid in dampening
as for the machine's drive system, 3 motors will be employed
the machine's original Elmo motor, keeping it's original pulley ratio
a secondary Elmo Motor, sourced from a Speed Queen (or other Raytheon designed monster) SC50 MD2
the third is a mystery in it's entirety
but what could the motor be from you ask?
well the Miele WS5522, it's final spin is one of the most powerful i have personally seen in a long time
it's spin motor is a genuine mystery to me, i have asked the UK head office what it actually is, they gave me the usual annoying reply in the typical useless Miele fashion
"this part has been discontinued, so we aren't going to tell you what it is"
so it's going to be nearly impossible to track one of these motors down, and potentially genuinely impossible to work it on 60hz potentially, though it may be as simple as rewiring it, and not touching the windings
who knows
now, the machine's cabinet may need to be widened, made shorter, taller, deeper, anything along those lines to make sure the tub has enough room to move around suitably, and not smash something to bits that's taken years to perfect
the other dilemmas were:
after many ideas on where to put the recirculation system's pump and motor combo's, we simply decided to have them hanging out of the rear of the machine from the back panel
now, that setup is going to weigh 220lbs, and require some form of system to disconnect all the pumps for servicing around the back of the beast
but so far, we haven't thought of a way to do it, as of course, this is entirely theoretical, so anything could work
the machine also seems to be a bit light in it's original form, so we chose to increase the machine's final net weight goal to 1400kg (3080lbs), because it's theoretical and if it were ever made, there would literally be only one of them ever made, as the purchase price, running costs, electrical requirements, and probably a lot more would make them nearly impossible to own by anyone in any laundry industry
perhaps aside from some mad bastard somewhere who just happens to have like 400 amps of 240V 2 phase power and a lot of skills in washers who also genuinely wants something of the type
now, with this extremely heavy monster on the drawing board, we needed a system to actually make things turn on and do the ridiculous stuff washers just don't do in any capacity at all from any company
Raspberry Pi 5's were our answer, they can be grouped together, and communicate with other models of what is genuinely the most impressive microcomputer brand in world history (sorry Arduino)
and of course, it's not going to be ran from VFD's, because relay ran motors don't like VFD's
so of course, it's going to be ran from gool old clunk and thump relays, like the original beast was made for in the first place
all 3 motors have the distinction of being their own wash speed and spin speed of course
you can also quite literally make this machine do anything you so desire, there are going to be no limits applied as this is limitless design in practice of course
if you seriously wanted a 50lb capacity machine to fill completely with water and run spin washes all day, it will do that for instance
perhaps you're fed up with the single rinse the average machine leaves you with
you can increase the number of rinses infinitely, no I'm not joking
spin times? no limitations, because it's just going to be that one machine that says "fuck normality"
now, here are the diagrams of the machine, and no, I haven't learned how to use a CAD software, or any 3 dimensional modelling tool yet, so you're going to look at pixel art of it made on Microsoft paint
it paints a good enough picture of what this beast will be able to do I'm sure
image 1 is the machine's exterior look, and a look under it's shell
the second is a pump motor mount
and the 3rd shows a rear diagram, complete with all 24 recirculation pumps and 12 motors
these diagrams are still a work in progress, so they each have something missing, that another will have
generally speaking, i may be a little bit unstable in my assumption that this machine can genuinely be produced as a real life concept, though i believe it may genuinely be possible through some miracle or another
any questions or advice is definitely going to be well appreciated, and constructive criticism will definitely be taken into account
though if you're going to be mean, and judge the thoughts of some guys who just liked an idea of making a washer do anything just remember
this thing is some pixels on a screen
if you have any unhinged idea of your own, post them below, i'd like to hear your own take of a design you have in mind for a machine you'd make or adapt for yourself
thank you for reading
Matthew
many have thought of ways to make machines faster, better, even possibly creating their own custom machines from scratch using a production machine as a baseline
but i have no idea if anyone could create something so mental like this
i suppose a fair few people know so far that i conceptualised a custom computer controlled Whirlpool Direct Drive some time ago
well..... that's snowballed into an insane project that now has many ideas on many machines to be built
a fair amount of these theoretical projects are possible, though i would need a LOT of knowlege on things i do not currently have the brain cells to process
so i suppose, without further ado
here's an idea idea on what i'd build if "no limits" were something i could abide by with no strings attached
this theoretical project was mainly concieved by myself and a friend of mine, ApplianceAce, who i have filmed a laundromat series on youtube with over the new year of 2024 going into 2025
to begin, the baseline machine, this will become VASTLY different from the original, and can (and will) boil 60 litres of water in less than 120 seconds, calculations were made based off of figures you will see in this thread
anyways, to start:
the Wascomat Generation 4 commercial washer had a crazy run
i was particularly impressed by a 50lb example in California, so this will be the baseline machine used for this idea
to begin, the machine would be stripped to the bare cabinet and frame, the tub will be removed also
the first designs for water recirculation as a washing aid weren't good enough to make it viable as an option
so the final idea came to 1440L per minute of recirculation, exceeding that of Milnor's RecircONE system they use in industrial continuous batch washers
the pumps themselves are going to be from Whirlpool Corp Direct Drive machines, with their 600 watt motors driving 2 pumps each
the machine will have 24 of these pumps, being driven by 12 motors to achieve this figure
but i said something about heating
it's not going to be gas, nor steam
ohhh no
this one's going electric, because who needs a stable grid anyways
24 2000W flow through dishwasher heating elements will be fitted to the intakes of the pumps from the tub, 2 on each intake pipe at a 32mm diameter roughly
the machine will also have an additional 3 5kW Miele heating elements from their WS5140 model specifically, as it yields crazy heat times while keeping safety in mind
the final output of this machine will be 63,000 watts of thermal heating capacity whilst keeping the original drum volume
this yields a heater rating to capacity ratio of 2.94kW of heating power per 10 litres of drum volume
it's a figure no domestic machine can ever reach unless it's essentially less than a cubic foot in capacity with a 3000 watt heater
and industrially this can easily rival a steam heated machine of any type, they have some of the fastest heating rates in the industry by a long shot, whichever their type of steam heating is
however we have bottlenecked a little bit here
it's not got anything to do with the machine's heating performance or capacity, as both will be VERY easily able to handle quite literally anything that gets thrown at them no matter the case
the bottleneck comes from the machine's original spin speed
just a measly 455rpm, for a rigid mount machine of the time it was good, but let's heighten that a fair bit
above roughly 700rpm the machine's frame will have the chance to become unstable, making it dangerous to achieve a higher speed
so of course, what would one do in this thoretical scenario?
well, i did say no limits, so it's time to talk about something that'll give Miele's washer designers from the 80's a very prone bone
suspension
yes, you can technically do this to any Wascomat washer from the 4th generation, but certain steps need to be undertaken first
you must cut the frame out of the cabinet of the machine, or fabricate a new cabinet base to accept whichever design of suspension desired
then you have to hold the outer tub to this suspension very firmly, using a strong steel frame so that the tub doesn't fall off of the whole lot at a stupidly high speed like some messed up comedy sketch
then of course, you need to think of the actual design of the suspension itself
the basic idea was like the Citroen fluid ride suspension system they had on quite a few of their old cars, it allowed them to drive on 3 wheels and do some very interesting things, including saving quite a few people from undesirable concequences
so the suspension system on this beast will be hydraulic, with dampening provided by individual valve sets (that will be electrically controlled) from 4 cylinders that support the tub, almost like a typical soft mount's 4 spring system that's commonplace, but without the additional shock absorber setup to aid in dampening
as for the machine's drive system, 3 motors will be employed
the machine's original Elmo motor, keeping it's original pulley ratio
a secondary Elmo Motor, sourced from a Speed Queen (or other Raytheon designed monster) SC50 MD2
the third is a mystery in it's entirety
but what could the motor be from you ask?
well the Miele WS5522, it's final spin is one of the most powerful i have personally seen in a long time
it's spin motor is a genuine mystery to me, i have asked the UK head office what it actually is, they gave me the usual annoying reply in the typical useless Miele fashion
"this part has been discontinued, so we aren't going to tell you what it is"
so it's going to be nearly impossible to track one of these motors down, and potentially genuinely impossible to work it on 60hz potentially, though it may be as simple as rewiring it, and not touching the windings
who knows
now, the machine's cabinet may need to be widened, made shorter, taller, deeper, anything along those lines to make sure the tub has enough room to move around suitably, and not smash something to bits that's taken years to perfect
the other dilemmas were:
after many ideas on where to put the recirculation system's pump and motor combo's, we simply decided to have them hanging out of the rear of the machine from the back panel
now, that setup is going to weigh 220lbs, and require some form of system to disconnect all the pumps for servicing around the back of the beast
but so far, we haven't thought of a way to do it, as of course, this is entirely theoretical, so anything could work
the machine also seems to be a bit light in it's original form, so we chose to increase the machine's final net weight goal to 1400kg (3080lbs), because it's theoretical and if it were ever made, there would literally be only one of them ever made, as the purchase price, running costs, electrical requirements, and probably a lot more would make them nearly impossible to own by anyone in any laundry industry
perhaps aside from some mad bastard somewhere who just happens to have like 400 amps of 240V 2 phase power and a lot of skills in washers who also genuinely wants something of the type
now, with this extremely heavy monster on the drawing board, we needed a system to actually make things turn on and do the ridiculous stuff washers just don't do in any capacity at all from any company
Raspberry Pi 5's were our answer, they can be grouped together, and communicate with other models of what is genuinely the most impressive microcomputer brand in world history (sorry Arduino)
and of course, it's not going to be ran from VFD's, because relay ran motors don't like VFD's
so of course, it's going to be ran from gool old clunk and thump relays, like the original beast was made for in the first place
all 3 motors have the distinction of being their own wash speed and spin speed of course
you can also quite literally make this machine do anything you so desire, there are going to be no limits applied as this is limitless design in practice of course
if you seriously wanted a 50lb capacity machine to fill completely with water and run spin washes all day, it will do that for instance
perhaps you're fed up with the single rinse the average machine leaves you with
you can increase the number of rinses infinitely, no I'm not joking
spin times? no limitations, because it's just going to be that one machine that says "fuck normality"
now, here are the diagrams of the machine, and no, I haven't learned how to use a CAD software, or any 3 dimensional modelling tool yet, so you're going to look at pixel art of it made on Microsoft paint
it paints a good enough picture of what this beast will be able to do I'm sure
image 1 is the machine's exterior look, and a look under it's shell
the second is a pump motor mount
and the 3rd shows a rear diagram, complete with all 24 recirculation pumps and 12 motors
these diagrams are still a work in progress, so they each have something missing, that another will have
generally speaking, i may be a little bit unstable in my assumption that this machine can genuinely be produced as a real life concept, though i believe it may genuinely be possible through some miracle or another
any questions or advice is definitely going to be well appreciated, and constructive criticism will definitely be taken into account
though if you're going to be mean, and judge the thoughts of some guys who just liked an idea of making a washer do anything just remember
this thing is some pixels on a screen
if you have any unhinged idea of your own, post them below, i'd like to hear your own take of a design you have in mind for a machine you'd make or adapt for yourself
thank you for reading
Matthew
