Funny... Front Loaders are Junk

[haxisfan]

Rinse water level and Euro comrades...

I don't wanna spoil the fun here... I'd just like to set some facts straight. When you buy a European washing machine you are faced with a colourful energy label and a handful of specifications which include the water consumption averaging at 7.5l per kilo of laundry (less than 2 gallons per 2.2lb) and that means just that! On a standard heavy duty/cotton cycle (without the use of additional options such as 'extra rinse', 'super wash', 'fast iron' and all other names under the sun) your clothes are not going to swim in water even during the rinse cycle, however some machines might mislead you to think that your water well is running dry (figure of speech) by lessening the number of rinses and allowing a higher water level to compensate.

Now let's talk facts... how many litres per kilogram of laundry does an American FL average? Just a quick example to support what I've said about the deceiving amount of water used during rinse in a European FL: let's say a 6kg (13lb) washer needs 45l (approx 12 gallons) for a complete cycle (the type of cycle I hinted at earlier)... let's consider a 45l (approx) drum full of clothes (the European way of filling up a washer... which is right if one wants to follow the manufacturer's indications)... now let's press the start button and the cycle begins... the washer would require something in the region of 15-18 litres to carry out the main wash phase (that’ll give you a low water level as most of the water available would have been absorbed by the load)... so, the remaining 30l or less is what the machine has got left for the cycle to complete the rinse stage.

At this point it's up to the manufacturer and the way the machine has been programmed to divide that amount of water into few rinses... preferably 2, so that the user can put a smile on their face and see some water reaching up the glass bowl (the water level during this stage is higher than the main wash cos’ the clothes did not absorb so much water as they did when the were dry... the spin cycle after the main wash only gets 50% or less water out of them).

I can show you exactly what I mean by the 2 links I added below of 2 separate wash cycles in the same washer with similar size loads but with different wash programmes... 1 is a 2 rinse cycle and the other is a 3 rinse cycle. In both cases the washer uses an overall similar amount of water but the rinses are carried out in a different way.

All this to say... if you are debating, smell problems and other inefficiencies from FLs I am still not convinced that we are on the right track by putting this issue down to water levels... unless it’s so inadequate in American FL washers that barely wets the clothes (even on the main wash) or the entrails of the machine itself for that matter.

If you care to follow the links below and watch the videos go to 6.30 where the 2 rinse cycle starts… I’ll give you further instructions on the next post for the next link to a 3 rinse cycle programme.

 

[haxisfan]

2 vs 3 rinse cycle...

The 3 rinse cycle starts around 6.00.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Blanky974?feature=mhum#p/u/3/ZDeCN4uDvs0

 

[pierreandreply4]

thank you for posting the videos but as i watch these videos i would say that for the same load 1 rinse is engough and would like to say that using cold water for the same load of whites would save mostly 80% in energy and get the same cleaning power than being wash in hot water(just a fact) for me the only major time i would use the hot water setting is for bed sheets or if i have a load that would need bleach other wise i mostly use cold and warm water setting on my duet washer and my next washer will always be on the cold water setting since it will most likely be a top load washer like the model in this link

http://www.whirlpoolappliances.ca/fr/Products/WTW58ESVW.html

 

[haxisfan]

Are you trying my French out? Well... it's fine by me when it comes to reading it... speaking it... mais oui... that's another story ;-)

Merci beaucoup for the link... TLs are fine with just 1 rinse as they would already use as much water as a FL would for a whole cycle (unless they're HE). As for washing with hot/boiling water... you're right... and TBH I don't very often use it... but in that instance cos' of some very stubborn stains that needed a little extra boost to shift.

If you go earlier in the video I posted above around 4.25 you'll see a silly waste of water which wouldn't have happened if I used a lower temperature... so that proves your point as to saving even more resources by means of using cooler water settings.

 

[MrX]

European regulations only look at a single wash cycle type though i.e. the standard cotton wash.
Almost every machine has "water plus" or "aqua plus". They also usually have shorter deeper wash options e.g. the PowerWash on Bosch or Bed&Bath on Hotpoint's Aqualtis for example.

So, you can always just increase the water level as you need to.

 

[haxisfan]

Hi mrx

That's right... the things I was saying above bear the assumption that these washers are operated without the use of such selectable options... thus I only wanted to shed light over the fact that although European washing machines are not water guzzlers, you don't find many people (if any at all) that complain about foul odours or alien build-ups in them.

I would think that American/Canadian FLs have those options too... or have they?

It's amazing how water level and energy related options have been shuffled around between older and newer machines: the old ones tended to have economy options to allow the user to save water and energy whereas the new ones have settings to increase these instead!