HE Toploader Water Usage

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I owned a Whirlpool Cabrio and I had no problem with how it cleaned at all. It filled with more than 5 gals of water and surprisingly moved the clothes around pretty well too. The problem I had with this machine, and it was a deal breaker for me was that it would unbalance on loads with jeans and towels, but there was no signal that it had become unbalanced. Instead the washer would refill with rinse water and attempt to balance the load, which it would never manage to do. It would go through this exercise of futility, over, and over and over again until I noticed something was wrong and manually rebalanced the load.

My washer is upstairs and before I noticed this problem happening every time I washed a load of towels and jeans it took over 2 hours for the load to finish and I only realized why after I did some investigation and monitored the machine when it went into the spin-drain after the wash portion of the cycle. So from then on I had to race up the stairs every time I washed a load of jeans and towels when the first spin-drain was supposed to begin. If I’d wanted to babysit a washing machine I’d have a wringer washer and get a weeks worth of laundry done in 60-75 mins of hands on work.

That GD Cabrio was one of the worst washers I ever owned, but not because it didn’t clean well, but because is wasted water and my time. I was thrilled to see it leave our home forever.

The washer that I did own that didn’t use an adequate amount of water was an LG FL, and that was the WORST washer I ever owned! The normal cycle would wash for 24 mins with only about 2” of water in the bottom of the tub. A full load of wash never became saturated with water during the wash portion of the cycle. And as if if that wasn’t bad enough, this machine REFUSED to go into a spin with heavy towels, it would literally run for 2+ hours and never spin, just endlessly hunt for that “sweet spot” to begin the spin, but it never found it. I wouldn’t have an LG washer if you gave it to me and paid me to use it! J-U-N-K!!!!

Eddie
[this post was last edited: 3/26/2023-17:36]
 
I’m currently rebuilding a Bravos XL (Oasis), coincidentally the exact MVWB880 model I owned that I sold to my aunt before the current Duet Alpha. I have one part coming Monday and it’ll be completely finished (fingers crossed), with a brand new bearing and seal pack, and even a new set of feet. I’ll be doing a couple of test runs in the garage before even considering it coming into the house, but I’ll be letting it drain into a 5-gal bucket and washing at least one 8-ish pound mixed load, so I’ll try to remember to tally the water usage then.

We used to have a Flume sensor on our meter that measured water use down to the 1/10th gallon, but sadly the county updated our meters to fully electronic models that the Flume is no longer compatible with. I did keep a few cycle charts for both the front loader and the WTW4855 agipeller washer I had for a short time, but I’d have to find where I put them. The top load of course used a little more water, but not by much, definitely not comparing to a traditional machine. I’m expecting the Oasis should fall somewhere in between.
 
1) 2 gallons for pretreatment phase

2) 8 gallons of water in the eco wash after fill is completed (Eco Active + top-off fill).

3) 3 gallons total for the three spin-sprays.

4) 6 gallons for the deep rinse.

About 17 gallons total.
 
 
28.8 gallons for the full cycle.  Jerome eventually referenced a 5-gallon bucket.  So that's a little more than five-and-a-half buckets.

1) Gallons of water for the Eco Active pretreatment phase (fabric saturation and recirculation period).   5.8

2) Total gallons of water in the eco wash after fill is completed (Eco Active + top-off fill).   5.8 eco + 3.7 to basket float = 9.5

3) Gallons total for the three spin-sprays.   1.6 + 1.6 + 1.5 = 4.7

4) Gallons for the deep rinse.   8.8 to basket float + 5.8 top-off = 14.6 (photo 1)

5) Add those figures for the total of the complete cycle.   9.5 wash + 4.7 sprays + 14.6 agitated rinse = 28.8 (photo 2)

I didn't get meter photos for the eco wash and sprays.

dadoes-2023032809160306153_1.jpg

dadoes-2023032809160306153_2.jpg
 
EcoActive

I figured it would use more water ~4-5 gallons because it does not spin and pull the water through the clothes like the Bravos/Cabrio machines do. So there needs to be a decent amount of water in the bottom of the tub as well.
If figured top off would be about 10 gallons as well.
I am shocked that the spray rinses use as much water as that. I do know that in certain machines you can increase the amount of water that is used in spray rinses.

Personally, in the MVWC565 we are using right now, on the Normal cycle, it will use at least 2 gallons of water at the end of the wash to merely 'rinse' the top of the load off before spinning. The spray rinse is probably 5 gallons or so. It really doesn't make sense why they wouldn't do a 7 gallon spray rinse or attempt to do a deep fill rinse. Some of these machines are downright odd.
 
What's the point? To show that some "HE" washers really don't save resources? That at least one "HE" washer washes well, but needs a lot of water to do so? Or just to tweak Jerome because he makes generalizations you don't agree with?
 
Jerome your Consumer Affairs link is out of date. Those are reviews from 2017 the most recent. It’s 3 months into 2023.
There have been improvements, and even back then those TLs weren’t that bad.
Try checking some emotion at the door and let some data in.
Anecdotally, I know of 4 people who have agipeller TLs of various ages. 3 Maytags and 1 LG.
All 4 of them are liked by their owners totally fine. They’re not inclined to get online and complain.
None of them are walking around with dirty clothes!
If they were, I WOULD hear about it.

In fact, if anything, these top loaders are becoming MORE popular.
I’ve noticed that at my two local Home Depot’s, the front load options are dwindling. And the top load section has doubled in size.
I even asked one of the sales ladies this past weekend.
She says the top loaders have surged in popularity the past few years. LG and Maytag are the two most common. The new GEs are gaining ground too, with their good price/features package on their new Profile models.
You may hate them! But the buying public for wherever reason, is swarming to impeller top loaders.
They clean fine. I don’t see anyone around me with stains all over their clothes or reeking of BO.
www.getoveryourself.com.
 
Manufactures Need to Start Building Medium Size FL’s Again

My space that is dedicated for the laundry is in a closet with bi-fold doors. In order to be able to close the doors the washer and dryer can’t require more than about 28”to29” in depth. This puts most of the full size FL’s out of the question for many buyers. I don’t want to remove these bi-fold doors and hang a freakin’ curtain over the opening to conceal the WD when they aren’t in use.

I believe the reason most of the new full size FL’s are so deep is because they are all mostly 4.5 cu ft in capacity or more. Why? They are really too large for most users that like to sort their loads. Why can’t manufactures offer 3 to 3.5 cu ft capacity FL’s like in the past? I think if they did lots of us that have dedicated laundry closets with limited depth would purchase FL’s again.

The smaller 2 to 2.4 cu ft FL’s are just a bit too small for the average user. And the 3.5 cu ft Speed Queen FL is just to expensive for most buyers.

Eddie
 
It would be nice to have a medium size 27 inch wide FLW

However, the 24 inch wide machines have capacities of almost 3 ft.³ today, which is much bigger than the 2 ft.³ three belt Westinghouse that you had back in the 80s that you like so much Eddie.

The 24 inch machines are typically large enough to wash a queen size comforter they easily handle the load of the typical American Toploader.

John
 
John,

Many people these days have King size beds and we don’t want to go to the laundromat to wash our bedding. There is a market for the med size FL. I’ve considered one of the 2.4 cu ft FL’s, but not if I have to go to the laundromat to wash my king size bedspreads and blankets. All of the info I’ve read about these 2.4 cu ft FL’s states that queen size bedding is the largest that they can handle.

When I owned Frigidaire FL’s in the late 90’s and early 2000’s they could handle anything I put into them. They were quick, washed and rinsed well and conservative in the use of water. If the objective is to get folks using washers that conserve on water use then give people what they want and need.

And BTW, the ‘87 Westinghouse FL that I used for 7 trouble free years washed all of our kingsized bedding with no problems whatsoever.

Eddie
 
Reply 33

Those washers are normally built for speed and convenience, laundromats are generally the place where the machines will be like wham bam thank you ma’am, so just because you can get loads done faster doesn’t mean they can’t be done better, I’ve got a machine that takes about an hour to two hours and probably uses more water then your average 12 pound washer, plus what about front loaders? Do those clean as well as an HE machine?
 
King size bedding can vary in thickness , etc.

Hi Eddie, so if your king size bedding fit in a 2 ft.³ three belt Westinghouse, it will fit easily and any other small 24 inch machines today, the only way to know is to take your king size blanket, and go to a store and see if you can fit it in the washer.

John
 

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