How Do You Solve A Problem Like Bed Sheets?

[arbilab]

Can't remember a problem spinning sheets in FL or TL. The snazzy little Chinese twintub knots them something fierce but I untie them on the way to the spinner. The 73 Panasonic TT with offset plate didn't knot them as I recall.

OTOH I can't remember a dryer that did NOT roll them into a ball. I'd shake them out once or twice during the cycle so they'd dry allover.

 

[frigidaireguy]

No Problem with King sheets

I wash my King Sheets and 4 pillowcases in my Maytag 806. Occasionally they will get an air pocket but I just work them until the air is gone and they are fine.
I seem to have more problem with this during the rinse than the wash cycle. The reason I use this machine because I have 2 cats that sleep on my bed and the Maytag filters the cat hair better than my frontload Kenmore.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

We buy only cotton sheets. The only time I had a problem with air pockets in my 1972 Maytag A606 was when we had sheets with a very high 500 thread count. Sheets with a 300 thread count never cause a problem. I wash them in warm and rinse in cold no matter what the label says.

Ken D.

 

[abcomatic]

No Problem

No problem with sheets in the Easy Spindrier or the wringer machines.

 

[super32]

I never have a problem with washing them, it's the dryer that can be a pain. We have 2 Bosch full size dryers and 1 Maytag. The older of the 2 Bosch will ball sheets in a hot minute. The newer one usually does a pretty decent job. The Maytag dryer is usually right on point.

 

[ea56]

I've never had any problems with sheets in my LG 3170 FL. I use the normal/cotton cycle, hot water, ex high spin speed, normal soil level and water plus option. They don't tangle or ball up and come out spotlessly clean. I'm washing cal king sheets and pillowcases, usually just one set at a time, but it could easily hold another set. Actually, I can't recall that I've ever had a problem washing sheets in any washer I've owned over the last 45 yrs., and I've owned a Maytag wringer, Whrilpool portable, Maytag A50 twin tub, Westinghouse FL, Maytag TL, Magic Chef TL, Kenmore TL, 3 Frigidaire FL's, Whirlpool Cabrio, Fisher Paykel TL, GE Hydrowave GTWN 2800, no problems with any of them.

 

[revvinkevin]

I'm in California and we're having a pretty serious water shortage (or so they tell us) so I've been sticking to HE machines for laundry. I have 3 FL's and 1 TL washer connected I use regularly.

The Players: 2009 KM Elite, 2005 LG, 2001 MT Neptune and a 2004 WP Calypso. (I also have a 1997 small door Frigidaire Gallery FL in the house, but only run a load in it every 2 months or so)

The Sheets: 2 King size cotton sheets, 500 thread count with 5 king size pillow cases.

The Results: In the KM Elite FL (blue), it does OK maybe 40% of the time. The rest of the time I'll have to stop it, untie/untangle the sopping wet mess and re-start. If I don't, it will dink around for 20 minutes trying to distribute and spin.

In the LG, this one has never, NEVER tangled/balled up/made a rope of anything, sheets included! There are other things I really don't like about how this machine works, but tangling sheets is not one of them!

In the Maytag Neptune: Never a problem with tangling or balling up anything.

In the Calypso: I no longer wash sheets in the Calypso. Every time I have, each sheet has been twisted into a rope by the end of the cycle.

The dryers (2 Maytags and a WP Cabrio): If I'm drying a mixed load of sheets (thick/heavy & lite/thin: i.e. dog bedding) they will ball up and the heavy one in the center won't be dry. When drying the bed sheets and pillow cases, I've learned if I throw in the 5 pillow cases first, then "fluff" each sheet before tossing it in, the pillow cases won't be balled up in a sheet (and not dry) when the cycle finishes.

Kevin

[this post was last edited: 11/21/2015-16:02]

 

[tomturbomatic]

My Lady Kenmore combo was great for washing king sheets and pillow cases. I don't remember a problem with the 806 pair either. When I loaded sheets in a top loader, I always picked it up in the middle, as the instructions for our Westinghouse front loaders said to do. Then I would place the mid point of the sheet down into the tub first, then let the rest of the sheet sort of cascade in after it. That seemed to prevent air bubbles. I found that with the KitchenAid, I could not use the lower water level for sheets because it would twist them into ropes. For the front loaders, I put the center of one sheet in first followed by the rest of the sheet folded over it then for the second sheet, I put the 4 corners in first then the rest of the sheet. They seem to wash with the rest of the load without serious balling up. I dry the sheets separately to avoid rolling up and balling up. The GE dryer is better for drying king sheets than the KA with that side to side air flow pattern. When I lived in my parents' house with the GE dryer, my twin sheets dried in exactly 21 minutes. It had an automatic cycle and then a timed cycle with the last 10 minutes of air fluff, like cycles on the GE dryer I am restoring now. The sheets then were all cotton and the last 10 minutes with the gradually dropping temperature left them soft and wrinkle free.

The bath sheets have to be loaded into the SQ FL similarly, with the first one loaded with the center gather loaded toward the back, then the next one loaded oppositely with the gather at the front alternately until all 5 are loaded.

 

[lordkenmore]

One option I don't see discussed above is simply not washing sheets. When the smell gets too horrible, well, just wear a swimmer's nose clip to bed.

LOL

 

[mamapinky]

LOL

 

[askolover]

Even the little Asko

here handles flannel king sheets without balling them up, never had a problem balancing either and it only has 2 shocks.  The gas GE dryer does a good job as well, except when drying the king sized cotton quilt, now that is a real ball!

 

[foraloysius]

I have California King Size duvet covers and fitted sheets. Washing is not much of a problem although sometimes a pillow case ends up in the duvet cover.

Drying however is more of a hassle. The duvet cover wrinkles terribly when dried in the Miele condensor dryer. So I just put it in there for 20 minutes together with the matched pillow cases. Then I hang those items up to air dry further. The fitted sheet and the other pillow cases are dried in the dryer without a problem.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I have seen pictures of huge pocket washers that are used in hotels, ships and the like. The tub was divided into three sections, each of which was loaded and unloaded separately. The reason for the pockets was that they prevented sheets from balling up as they would if they had the whole 360 degrees of the drum in which to tumble.

 

[lordkenmore]

I haven't kept exact records, but I honestly recall very little trouble with sheets, regardless of size, or material. (I've had everything from "normal" sheets to thick flannel sheets, and sizes I've washed have varied from Twin to Queen, with a couple of single King type sheets.)

The only time I had trouble was with a WCI Frigidaire. Not that a WCI Frigidaire would cause trouble. Oh, no, of course not. But there would be air bubbles, and it was hard to get the sheet to go fully under. I'd often have to pause the machine, and fiddle with the sheets to get them to go under.

Sheet: "But I don't want to go under! I'm scared of deep water!"
Me: "Tough luck, sheet. You're going deep washer tub diving today!"

Current Whirlpool DD appears to have zero trouble, although I do wonder how much faster my sheets are wearing when washed in the Shredmore.

 

[tomturbomatic]

More on drying sheets

In 1962, my parents finished off a studio in our basement for my brother and me so that our baby sister could have our bedroom. Some adjustments had to be made to the ceiling of the staircase to the basement so that involved some work to deep shelves in our den closet, an area that I had not known existed. When stuff was pulled out of these deep shelves, there were a couple of OLD Better Homes and Gardens, both December issues, one from 1947 and one from 1951. On page 173 of the 1951 issue there was an ad for a General Electric Laundry with the washer that John had and traded to Robert and a beautiful dryer with a square glass window with dramatic horizontal ribs molded into the glass. When the dryer is operating there is a light bulb and germicidal bulb under the perforated drum and the ribs in the glass catch that light and the orange glow of the heating element in the upper left quadrant of the cabinet. I know this because back in 1962, I looked at that dryer and really wanted it and several years ago one in like new condition came to me. It is indeed a 1952 model.

This afternoon, I used the 1952 to dry the top sheet while the bottom sheet and pillow cases dried in the 1968 GE electronic control dryer with the 7 chrome buttons in a horizontal row. The big king top sheet dried in 20 minutes without balling up which surprised me because the dryer has a slow tumble speed. While there is the heater in the upper left quadrant, this dryer seeks to keep the items tumbling in the middle of the drum where a strong air stream blows upward through the tumbling load. The heater does provide strong radiant heat, but the air flow in the dryer causes the air to flow over the heater where it is warmed before being blown into the tumbling load. I started it with the heat on HI and after the heat cycled the first time at 10 minutes, I checked the sheet and it was almost dry so I turned the heat down to LO. When the dryer shut off, the sheet was a comfortable temperature to hold. The reason I turned the heat down is that this dryer does not have any cooldown period at the end of the cycle. Like old Hamiltons of the period, it has the air discharge at the bottom right of the dryer. Next week, I will see how it dries the two sheets together.

The bottom sheet and pillow cases dried in 15 minutes in the 16 year younger GE without balling or rolling up.

The 1947 BH&G had a fabulous article about pressure cookers and was the first time I saw the Revere Pressure Cooker which I have in the collection now.

 

[washerlover]

Dustin92, I had the exact same thing happen to me in an 80s GE dryer -- melted the mattress cover! That dryer was waaay too hot, it had to go...it's probably a Toyota by now.

Not being a fan of frontloaders, I can't comment on bed linen wash day, but my Norge/Wards machines always managed to deal with the billowing bubble effect and pulled those sheets right under!

 

[jetcone]

The Neptune was never a problem

with sheets, and the new Speed Queen is super with them. Its the dryer where I get massive black hole balling. Once I lost a pair of socks for two weeks, until the sheets came off the bed to wash and lo and behold in the pockets were my socks for two weeks. Somehow the SQ tucks thing away in there. 
But I'm gonna try that balling technique of loading thats interesting.

Oh and the Easy top loader look out sheets you don't have a chance with that Spiralator !

 

What gets my goat is when I go to friends and stay over and they open the linen closet to reveal PERFECTLY SQUARE FOLDED FITTED SHEETS ! HOW THE HELL DO THEY DO THAT!

I have been shown the" fold into pocket" method and still end up with a giant wad !!

 

 

 

[tolivac]

Don't have a problem with sheets--to keep bedclothes cleaner---TAKE A BATH OR SHOWER BEFORE GOING TO BED!!!!!!!I HATE going to bed dirty!!!Not only bedclothes-your matteress will benefit too!!!And when the sheets are off the matteress for washing--I go over the matteress with my Kirby.

 

[brib68]

King and queen sheets do just fine in my LG front loader. I don't think I've ever had sheets ball up in the washer. Once in a while pillow cases will get rolled up in the fitted sheet in the dryer. I think the flat sheet got balled up maybe once in the dryer. Certain sheets seem more prone to it than others.

 

[ronhic]

Beko/Blomberg

The good old Zanussi Westinghouse we had never failed to spin at whatever speed you asked it to....and never gave rope issues.

 

The Beko/Blomberg is a different beast with spinning though.

 

With sheets, if you wash two Queen sheets and a couple of pillow slips, then about 20% of the time they spin at 600rpm. About 40% at around 1000rpm (which I can live with) and the rest at 1200/1400rpm. So one in five loads of sheets gets respun....though this is improving now that I have readjusted the feet.

 

This machine does prefer to have at least 2/3 of its capacity used rather than smaller loads.