I Fear NO Unadjustable Pressure Switch!! (Frigilux's Finest Hour)

[frigilux]

I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT!!!

Take THAT Frigidaire. I fought fire with....well, with a red rubber band and a picture hook. AND I WON!!

The new washer fills to what I consider a full tub of water, now. It ain't pretty, but it works. The tension holds it just enough past the SUPER setting to get the tub to fill to the.....

 

[frigilux]

...very top of the tub!

Victory is MINE, kids!!

 

[wiskybill]

Question???

Is that a "ACME Precision Series" rubber band or just the one they put around your newspaper? LOL

Seriously, Congrats!! (still LOL)

Bill

 

[tolivac]

Clever-and simple!!No adjustments required.Amazing what can be done with a rubber band and picture hanger!

 

[sudsman]

here here

Good ol american engineering

 

[jasonl]

In the south, we'd call it... umm.... a job well done patner!

 

[frigilux]

Jason-- I'm wearing my Junior MacGuyver patch with pride, LOL.

 

[wiskybill]

Frig..

Mom's Frigidaire is model FWS445RFS2 if this helps find a pressure switch that is adjustable. I've never looked under the hood so I can't verify that it would fit your machine or in fact is adjustable, but may be a starting point.

I can sympathize with you because little things like this would bug me too until I found a workable solution.

I do like the Frigidaire machines. I think they're a pretty good value for the money.

Bill

 

[frigilux]

The thing that bugs me is this: The machine's capacity is noticeably less with the decreased maximum water fill. At the unadjusted maximum fill, a full load was 4 large bath towels, 8 hand towels and a few wash cloths.

When I increased the water level, it would wash (and by that I mean rollover) 6 bath towels plus the other items. That's quite a bit more capacity for a few more gallons of water.

 

[golittlesport]

Whirlpool/Kenmore too

I had a DD top load Kenmore years ago for a short while that drove me insane with the low fill...about a third of the agitator was above the water line when set on the highest water level. I recall the salesman opening the lid to show how "HUGE" the tub was...little do people know only 2/3's of it is usable. A modern Whirlpool top loader I recently used did the same thing....half of the auger is above water doing nothing but making a breeze.

 

[frigilux]

Rich-- I thought manufacturers would do things like increase spin speeds to make their machines more efficient. I should have known they'd opt for just decreasing the water level. Doesn't take much engineering savvy to do that. But that also decreases usable capacity, which doesn't really make the machine more efficient per pound of clothing washed.

My new Frigidaire spins pathetically slowly. It doesn't appear to spin any faster than the 1960 Kenmore I grew up with. I'm not sure what the maximum allowable rpm is for a plastic tub, but I'd hope it would more than what my machine is doing.

I love the TL'er for the fun factor, but it is a water hog compared to my FL, plus there's noticeably more water left in the clothing at the end of the cycle. I've started to use my FL'er as an extractor when I wash towels, jeans, etc., in the TL'er. I'm amazed at how much more water gets wrung out of them at FL'er speeds.

 

[peterh770]

Hmmmm... How about opening up your control panel and taking a pic of the pressure switch. Maybe one of us here could walk you thru adjusting it so that the rubber band gizmo won't put you at a higher risk of an overflow...

 

[nasadowsk]

The thing is, the EPA sets water use limits and electric use limits

Less fill, lower spin. And lower spin means a cheaper washer anyway.

The stupid thing is it's just lost in the end because you dry longer and can't wash as much. But hey, that's the EPA for you. Same guys who brought you the low flush toilet that needs 3 flushes to get everything down...

 

[toggleswitch]

I'm from Missouri, the

 

[frigilux]

Peter---I'm told the pressure switch on my machine is not adjustable. There is no screw-type adjustment as there is on older machines. I adjusted the water level on two Kenmores, a Whirlpool and a KitchenAid, but this one doesn't seem to have anything to adjust.

I'm not too worried about an overflow; the water level knob naturally wants to go back toward SUPER, not forward to reset. There isn't enough tension on the rubber band for it to move toward RESET on its own power.

Boy, those read like famous last words, don't they, LOL?

I only use the SUPERPLUS setting occasionally, with a very full load. When I don't need it, I remove the jerryrigging. That rubber band has the perfect amount of tension, so I don't want to stretch it out.