I used a new washer for a month...

[turbokinetic]

...and it was awful.

I've been on a remote jobsite for about a month now. The accommodation has a new washing machine. My intention is not to get into a brand discussion, so I won't mention that aspect of it. The washer is new, as in a few months old. It is a top loader with a very small agitator. Looks like just the bottom of an agitator with the vertical portion missing.

So; after using it for a month, I notice problems with my clothes. My teeshirts are all black cotton fabric. They seemed to have a bleaching effect; however when I looked closer it was deodorant in the underarm area. The deodorant has not been washed out of the fabric, and has migrated through to stain the outside of the shirts.

This washer never fills with enough water. Often after 10 or 15 minutes into the cycle, the clothes on top of the pile are still dry and have never touched the agitator.

Trying the deep water mode didn't seem to help much at all.

I miss my 70's Kenmore at home. It always cleans the clothes. This unit is a large, beautiful, chrome plated, high tech.... piece of junk that fails to perform its primary function.

Disappointedly;
David

 

[lorainfurniture]

Welcome to the 21st century

 

[frigilux]

Come on, David; reveal the brand! Fans of impeller-based agitation are few and far between here, so the brand/manufacturer won't stir up much of a fuss.

 

[georgect]

I HATE Impeller type washers!

Ther is hardly any turn over if at all in impeller style washers.
On the other hand a front loader using the same amount of water will give substantialy better cleaning results.

 

[lowefficiency]

>> Come on, David; reveal the brand! Fans of impeller-based agitation are few and far between here, so
>> the brand/manufacturer won't stir up much of a fuss.

Are we taking bets? Sounds like a Whirlpool VMW machine to me...

 

[gusherb]

I think it’s fairly universally agreed upon here that the only good top loader is one that uses a full tub of water and has a real agitator. The real debate is about who had the best one....or FL vs TL.

 

[combo52]

I am betting its a new GE thing, but David is just too nice and diplomatic to hurt anyone's feelings.

 

As we have seen here over and over that there are people that like about any washer ever built, and like people all machines have at least some good points to them.

 

John

 

[ea56]

I don’t like the impeller only TL’s.

But I have a Maytag Centennial TL with an agipeller and I love it. Mine saturates, washes, spins and rinses each and every load with out a hitch. And it cleans much better than the FL it replaced.

It replaced a 2015 bol LG/FL, that didn’t wash as well as the Maytag and was very temperamental about spinning with heavy towels and throw rugs, required water hammer arrestors to prevent hammering in the pipes and only used enough water on the Bulky cycle, that limited the spin speed to 800 rpm, thereby defeating the purpose of energy efficiency by requiring longer to dry.

I used to be a proponent of FL’s, until about 2010 when the electronic controls began to cause problems with reliable spins at high speed, and crazy burst filling and low water levels as I experienced with the LG.

So far in the last almost 30 months my Maytag hasn’t had one single problem. No unusual noises, no tilting tub, worn out belts, nothing at all, it just does what it’s supposed to do, every time I press start. Do I expect that it will last like a vintage Maytag? Probably not, the quality of everything today is not what it used to be. But so far, so good.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 5/5/2019-18:33]

 

[eurekastar]

My current house came with a Kenmore (Whirlpool) impeller style washer.  I hated it.  I finally got rid of it when I accidentally left a pen in a shirt pocket (or maybe a pants pocket).  The impeller wash action allowed the pen to punch holes in several garments.  Luckily, no ink bled out of the pen. 

 

I suppose the principle is to allow clothing to rub against other garments and the impeller itself to act almost like an old fashioned rubbing board.  But it took forever to go through a cycle and never rinsed well.  Because it didn't have a fabric softener dispenser, I tried to use those Downey Balls.  My clothes usually had stains on them, so I stopped trying to use it. 

 

[turbokinetic]

Hey I have been busy at work and just noticed all the replies. I really appreciate it guys!

The washer name might mean something like "could possibly apply graffiti" if you translated it literally.

This is definitely a piece of 21st century politics-overriding-engineering environmental crap. I'm sure that with different software it could do a much better job. I am also very impressed with the fit and finish and have no reason to believe the machine is poorly made. It just doesn't fill with enough water nor agitate vigorously enough to get the clothes clean.

 

[appnut]

I have to throw a wrench in it and ask.  What cycle and settings did you use?  

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Based on the performance description, I'm going with GE. The GE Hydrowave Super Duper Ultra Blah Blah I inherited behaved exactly like this. Setting changes did almost nothing.

The one good thing about that washer was that it kicked off the chain of events that led me here

Jim

P.S. It DID spin well. I'd wash the clothes in a near vintage TL, then stick them into the GE for a rinse & spin cycle.

 

[rp2813]

Appliance Translations for $50, Alex

Jim, David provided an easy clue to the manufacturer a couple of posts up.

 

No disrespect to those who aren't so hot at "Jeopardy"

 

[DADoES]

 
There's at least one make of HE/impeller machine that apparently found the trick to reasonable performance ...

 

[warmsecondrinse]

People tell me I do well at jeopardy, but I'm stumped by this one.... :-(

Jim

 

[rp2813]

Jim, in my neck of the woods most graffiti is perpetrated by taggers.

 

Audience, SHHHHHHH!

 

 

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Got it! No, I don't feel silly.... not at all.....

 

[warmsecondrinse]

@turbokinetic: Quick fixes

I should mention a few things I found I could do to help the clothes come out a bit cleaner. These worked on the GE I was stuck with:

- Wait until the machine has finished its supposed load sensing and is a few minutes into the wash and/or rinse cycle. Then manually add water by bucket or hose.

- If I set the fabric softener switch to "on" it used a bit more water. There was also something I did to get it to spray rinse longer or a second time, but I forget, sorry.

- When the cycle was done I'd flip the clothes over by hand to put the still dry clothes to the bottom and run the cycle again without detergent as what was in the clothes that were exposed to water had not been rinsed out.

If you have the time, money, energy, and inclination, buy one of those Avanti portables Yogitunes has mentioned. They're also sold under several other names. There's a thread or two here on them. I can tell you from first hand experience that these have a freakishly large capacity compared to their exterior size. They're small, well built, and camparatively light. Most importantly, they do an excellent job cleaning and let you customize the cycle. Here's a link to the Avanti model:

http://www.avantiproducts.com/products/cat/33

Hope this helps,

Jim

http://www.avantiproducts.com/products/cat/33

 

[speedqueen]

"- Wait until the machine has finished its supposed load sensing and is a few minutes into the wash and/or rinse cycle. Then manually add water by bucket or hose. "

Might as well buy a wringer washer to wheel in, if we're going to make this automatic a manual machine. One would clean better, too.

All kidding aside, still a shame that it is so hard to find a quality product these days.