I am Persil-Unanimous in this...

[alanlendaro]

Rich, We had to replace the boot on our 1918A

But my partner did it. He is a big dude, strong and handy. He did it while I was at work so I don't know the effort involved.

He said it wasn't too bad. I don't remember the cost, but I want to say less thant $75.00.

 

[oxydolfan1]

"I remember seeing an ad for Calgon in a magazine from Israel. Recognizing that word was easy. It showed a front loader and a typically shaped heating element that was totally encrusted with minerals. The text was something about using Calgon kept rocks from forming in the washer. A friend who was reading it with me said that the better translation was minerals though the same word could mean either, which is understandable. I didn't know from minerals. Liturgy does not mention minerals, only rocks."

Tom, the water in Israel is unbelievably hard...the hardest water I've ever seen. American shampoos and such do not work properly, and the detergents are not as good as they are here, although they are labeled Tide, Ariel, Persil. It is not recommended to import an American-made dishwasher if you make aliyah, because they cannot cope with the water.

They are big into boil-washing over there, and the internal heating elements in European-style front loaders get clogged with minerals in no time. The price differential between Chinese and Slovenian-made machines, and European-made machines
is unbelievable, so it's not unusual to accept a cheap import or Israeli-made machine and just "recycle" them every two years or so.

Many American olim (emigrants to Israel) don't like the slow front-loaders and scarcity of dryers, so they import American TL washers (almost always Maytags) from 220V American retailers.
Maytag washer-dryer stacked combos are widely available and very popular but extremely expensive.

Powders are much more popular then liquids in Israel, and they are bagged like our Mexican products. There is NO store that does not carry Calgon. Chlorine bleach is popular, much more than in Western Europe.

The one household chemical you will not see in Israel is bottled ammonia, for some reason.

I was surprised to see that most of these products were available in almost the exact same form in the surrounding nations, just labeled in Arabic.

Well, that was more than you ever wanted to know!

 

[tomturbomatic]

No, it was not more than I ever wanted to know, Scott. Thank you for sharing the information. I guess that domestic water softeners are very rare. I wonder if hotels would supply soft water? How typical of Americans to be so impatient with the front loaders and to have so little regard for the dwindling supply of water that they use American top loaders, although they would hold more and complete a cycle faster than small front load machines. My solution would be to keep the small machine running all day and half the evening 6 days a week to keep up with the laundry. I had heard about the dryer situation, although when it is hot and the humidity low, laundry dries very fast when hanging outside. Best wishes, Tom

 

[launderess]

It isn't just that they are "Americans", many of those who move house to Israel belong to various strict branches of the Jewish religon, and tend to have large households with many children. Don't know if I'd want a smallish Euro-front loader if one had to do laundry for 5 or more children, husband, and perhaps some other family members on a daily basis.

Yes, there is very nice business of 220V adapted American appliances for export overseas, and yes again much of it to Israel. Well there and persons being posted abroad who simply will not part with American appliances.

L.