Huebsch ZFN50R Arrived Today!!!!

[huebschman]

SQ FL with electronic controls

Well qualin... looks like you're one of the lucky bastards to get a rear control porcelain mechanical FL washer.
Just tooked at the Huebsch CDN website (http://home.huebsch.com for your convenience to you all) and only the Imperial and the new model are offered in the FL category.
I know we are a small market and to offer a wide selection may not be wise businesswise. But on the other hand, I think Alliance should target publicity to the CDN market more since we do not have the same HE regulations (though I think it will come soon enough).. Now I'm referring to the 412 that is the only TL available and with the same fill level as US machines.

Then again... consumers are easily told what to buy in a WM (music, lights, colours, so called "intuitive functions"etc) and the industry does a very dog job doin' it!

Arrrgh... Just had to spill my beans... Not to mention the price we pay....

 

[kenmoreguy89]

I'd not call a 2004 machine "vintage"..
Ge OTOH got really bad, for me last acceptable machine they made was the filter-flo, it takes nothing to wash better than a " ta-tack-ta-tack ta-tack" 2004 GE...you barely see load moving in them.
Scratching of the rear tubs is common in pretty much all front loaders I've seen in my life, we talking light micro-scratches , it's rather weird that Speed queen doesn't, however  these scratchings doesn't indicate a poor quality stainless.
I always think a keeper heater may be a good thing in a front loader.
Australia matter: My  own ideas about are that in the US things gone differently than Australia, take good not bad in  what I say..

Average Australian top loaders got "worse" sooner and more commonly than US and more Toys-plastic-like etc cheapy Asian-like etc... that already brought many to go Front loader by themselves  as they cleaned better than the average newish Au top-loader offerings (exceptions  existed of course but that's a general speech),  in the US you had  excellently functional sturdy work-horses till recently and situation  only changed substantially as the government unfortunately wanted so.

Of course as you know I said many times I believe the main concern of the gov was to make/induce folks go He for the obvious economical agenda  and interests/business all these enviroinmental stuff  brought and is about in the US, it was a money driven thing  not actual about the enviroinment but the money, that translates in  "as long as they bought an HE  that's okay, they can even wash one shirt at a time now and we don't care",  so I say a reduced load will likely get them clean, and that's infact what people will do.
Though in Oz  things have been a bit different and  is the actual necessity/will from the folks  that brought many to go to a lower water use machine, machine that as I said often provided better cleaning too than the average top-load offerings over there and front loader was what had been favourite, of course you had no many odd attempts to make weird configurations from the oz manufacturer like in the US, some US imported HE yes, but not from Australia,  not so much boasting of HE, not HE selling strategy and brain-washing at all, then all had also had been facilitated by the fact Australia shared the same voltage and hz as Europe..so it was just a matter of importing  the models and eventually gear up an own production....
I explain better....in AU you didn't have to induce/force to go to a front loader, they just entered the market and nobody said any company  to change anything , as I said many already  found them to clean better than the average australian top loader and of course needs such as droughts made people even  more willing to get a front loader killing all the cons they could possibly still have to someone..hence you have a non-forced market, in the US instead you had to tempt folks and claim all possible wonders  about HE and front loaders as in the US they had no actual necessity to do otherwise, they had machines cleaning wonderful no common drought problems (except some specific areas) and  of course a machine that took more than an hour to do the job was something many people didn't want or were more reluctant to deal with vs their old top loader that worked so well, so what happened, they just made front loaders that completed cycles sooner in order not to make that big difference with the short cycle of a top-loader, this was found being fixable anyway by loading them less...which is not so much enviroinmentalist but again, I fully believe it was  just a money thing over there vs what has been elsewhere.

As long as they bought a HE machine government  was happy..what they had to do after nobody cares...in australia not..they were made and sold to work as a front loader is  supposed to for all load sizes, and a longer cycle is contemplated in the picture.
Maybe also the water hotness or issues about getting enough hot water in australia also played a role in the lenghtening of cycles.
So Qualin was probably sort of right by saying  ozzies  pack more the machines, but that is kind of normal to be so...

A 60 degrees heater is  okay for laundry purposes, this is the minimum folks usually keep theirs over here and  if you want more hotness one can always add a safety mixing valve after the pipe attachement going to the machine/laundry area,  so you have actual proper hot water for laundry and the rest servicing bathrooms and so forth, and priming is of course a due to step for any non-heating machine if you want the hottest wash you can get.

[this post was last edited: 3/31/2015-20:35]

 

[teknikleespekng]

Its been a while since Ive checked in...

Just wanted to update that I have the American back deck version bought 2 years ago this past February.
I have the hum when the machine is off, and the door rattle on certain loads. The noise I had during change of direction in the drum when I first got it did go away.
I am really happy this with machine. The few things I miss from my old Fridgemore are the ATC, the ability to push the knob to pause and set the cycle, and to select the final spin speed in all cycles (slow/fast). Im really not of fan of an electronic panel, but the new models do look SWEET!

 

[rapunzel]

A few years back they installed the SQ front loaders at work and the longest cycle took 25 minutes. No on-board heater and many loads had to be washed twice to get them clean.

 

[rapunzel]

G'day Freddy

On Australia and washers - on average top loaders still outsell front loaders. The trend here also favors large capacity machines and consumers are flexible when changing from one type of washer to another (i.e. consumers will replace front loaders with top loaders and vice versa). Some time back I recall reading somewhere that there are approx. 80 different models of washing machines on the market for consumers to choose from; competition is brisk. The problem with American products is that they are expensive. A SQ top or front loader will set you back close to two thousand dollars over here and many consumers are not prepared to pay that much for a washer. Many US machines still use plastic or enamel tubs and comparatively low speed spins. Why should people fork out good money to buy machines like that, when they can get something less expensive with stainless steel interior and higher extraction speeds? And HE top loaders are not all that popular with Aussie consumers. Until recently Whirlpool used to offer the Cabrio in their product line-up, now they are only selling front loaders.[this post was last edited: 3/31/2015-21:33]

 

[washer111]

While TL machines still have strong penetration here, several very severe droughts have resulted in very severe water restrictions for people living in the affected areas (Which in the last couple of years have been flooded...)
This meant that using more than a certain amount of water would land you at a much higher tariff per kL than the previous 1000kL, lets say.

People either had to start being more economical with their washing habits, or in the case of many (where washing less simply isn't an option - a full machine is a full machine), switch to something more economical.

As Rapunzel said, the HE-TL machines were received badly, or are a mixed bag. Fisher and Paykel, being a more global competitor than other companies we had locally, seems to have been able to produce some of the better examples, along with the singing, dancing (and exploding) LG/Samsung models of late.

Previously, I've referred to a Simpson/Electrolux/Frigidiare machine that we had - it wasn't particularly good at what it did, and had some sort of failure within two years. It arrived to us with a faulty lid-lock, which fixed itself after restarting the maiden wash at least 10 times.
The Miele certainly out-washes* it, and even the time penalty is more than payed off in the water savings. For us, saving water inside the house means the water softener regenerates less often (Which uses around 300L (80Gallons) of water, and about 4kg of salt). This translates to huge savings.

* Although, I've personally had similar troubles with dirt stains in my shirt, that cannot even be removed with extended soaking, in a lot of cases. Recently lost an older dress shirt to a wine stain - a long soak seemed to have oxidized the deodorant residue left behind, and changed a light purple into a strange pinky-white colour.

Hmm. Seems I almost posted about the new SQ TL machine in the other thread. Didn't realise this was a resurrected thread!

 

[rapunzel]

The LG and Samsung models appear to be quite popular with consumers here and reports of dancing and exploding washers are from abroad.

At my current work we've had a couple of Simpson SWT9542 9.5 kg top loaders installed. I think they are actually pretty good machines and no worse than most other machines on the market.
[this post was last edited: 4/1/2015-05:57]

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Rapunzel ....Good day to you.

I speak for what I see, as I surf many  AU shops I see an higher number of front loader models vs. the Top loaders, the top loaders are also often asian pulsator now as autoctone manufacturers got bad, so non-agitator machine, in the recent past you had an higher choice of agitator machines and less asian-like washers, this is a change I've seen happening really recently.
Also, I see an always greater commonnes of newish front loader machines as I surf classifieds, ebay and so forth, they're typically EU kind.

About the plastic tubs of US machines, it actually is only GE/Hotpoint that uses plastic tubs in some models not even all of their line had plastic, all the rest were either stainless or enamel, in the past there was also Westinghouse  that used plastic but now is a vanished brand on US market and had not a good rep.,  whirlpool never used a plastic tub, of course talking about whirlpool we talk of the greater  slice of US traditional top load market, so kenmore, roper, estate, Maytag etc; then there are the new HE which are not traditional.
I like enamel, is great, and find it best than many stainless tubs, australian tubs looks so filmsey and are also often welded/assembled with plastic parts, can confirm the same also of many asian-like pulsator machines that are common here too, those machines are toys and not made to last and not even find them good at washing, so quite honestly if I had to chose from a thick US enameled or plastic tub and an Au stainless but filmsey one I'd personally go US tub any day...
Also US machines cost more for 2 reasons, one is that they're built more durable and use better materials, and also are stronger, a model like a Speed Queen will last very very long, second is importing costs, they cost alot here also.
Australia agitator machines had pretty much all from awhile weak motors and lack of gearboxes much earlier than this trend started in the US, back and forth was reached from the motor and you had long slow strokes in many machines,  tubs would also  index or move along in many models, and again the matrerials were  not that  good, they're filmsey machines and even though they spin higher I'd not want to deal with one of these newer ones as I don't even like the agitation, different matter was for some of the older 90s ones that seemed still be sort of acceptable but filmsey and plasticky the same VS Us models, even though in the past they seemed anyway a little thicker, as you go back in time you also had stronger machines....
US machines simply  are more value, but yes they're expensive and not all can..My opinion...

US He top-loader as I said are not popular there and you only have some models, and that also includes Samsung and LG.
F&P offers an HE model that though goes strong abroad not much there, F&P is probably the TOL autoctone (actually IIRC is NZ) maker, not a case Fisher Pyakel models  are sold abroad when ones like say Simpson or Hoover doesn't and never did.

 

 

 

[this post was last edited: 4/1/2015-12:57]

 

[washer111]

Perhaps I'm biased - Prior to the Simpson we had an old Hoover machine (almost identical to the machine posted by Matt) from the 1990s.

It gave complete no-nonsense operation for around 15 years, with at least 5 of those on a rainwater supply from a (rusting) tank. In the end, it failed presumably because the lid-switch, out-of-balance mechanism or electrical were not operating properly.

The Simpson that followed had a similar agitation (shorter agitation stroke), but it wasn't nice seeing it do very slow, almost "distribution spins" after pumping the water out, for at least 5 minutes following each wash/rinse phase. That, and its behavior was odd, particularly in the latter years.

 

[hairyguard]

MRB627

SO THE ZANUSSI LINDO ISN'T THE ONLY ONE TO BE KNOCKING AGAINST THE DOOR WHEN IT RAMPS UP TO SPIN, THIS BEING A BRAND NEW MACHINE THANKS ALOT FOR THAT INTERESTING INFO

 

[ptcruisergt]

@qualin - Adjusting the water level?

How did you adjust the water level on your washer? Did you follow an existing guide somewhere on these forums?

 

[qualin]

Wow, old thread. I know with the newer machines you can't do it anymore, but this particular model, it was pretty easy. Yeah, there's a guide on this forum as to how to do it, but I'll be darned if I can find the thread. (Google didn't seem to help)

Basically, it just involves turning two screws equally on the water level pressure sensor switch by two turns, clockwise I believe. The water level should cover the baffle and almost reach the lip of the tub without any clothes in the tub.

By doing that, it vastly improved the rinsing ability of this machine, with the only downside is that I needed to add more laundry detergent for the wash. I used to need to use the extra rinse switch all the time, after that adjustment, I rarely use it now.

I've been running it this way for the better part of 5 years now without any sort of ill effects.

 

[foraloysius]

Make sure that the clothes still fall on the side of the drum, not into the water. After all a frontloader is based on the age old beating on a rock of the clothes. The rock was above the water level, not in the water, that would have little cleaning effect.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"that would have little cleaning effect. "

Surely a twintub cleans clothes efficiently, and that generally uses water currents alone?

Disregarding water consumption, I'm now wondering which actually washes cleanest - a twintub with water currents, or the flop & drop of a frontloader?

 

[foraloysius]

A twintub has a whole different washing action, that's comparing apples and pears.

 

[rapunzel]

Sorry, but I have to post this again.

I know I've done this before. However, after watching the dhobi at work I couldn't help myself.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Best washer ad ever IMHO.[this post was last edited: 10/30/2017-19:49]