Kitchenaid FL Washing Machine

[coldspot66]

Hey Steve,

I do agree with you about stainless steel drums in dryers. I would much rather pay good $$$ for stainless on the inside rather than the outside......especially dryer drums and dishwasher tubs. Being in the repair business, I've seen my share of "blue" white powder coated drums!!! lol

 

[toggleswitch]

Rule #1:
I am not always right; but I am never wrong.

Rule #2:
Any doubt? Refer to rule #1.

Just serious.. (er kidding). TKS!

 

[frontloadfan]

Lack of Stainless Steel in Dryer

My dryer is only 3 years old and it has a stainless steel drum, so I have elected not to buy the matching KA dryer. You bring up a good point in why they wouldn't go with a stainless steel drum in the dryer.

The dryer I have was a Kenmore mate to my Frigidaire front loader. Down side is that it is overwhelmed by the mega loads coming from the washer. Back when it was handling loads generated by my Frigidaire fl, it was taking 50 to 60 minutes to dry. With the biggest loads coming from the KA, we are talking about 1-1/2 hours!

 

[toggleswitch]

*WOW*

You guys are not kidding that these F/L-ers are super-sized.

Must go see...

 

[sudsmaster]

I have seen the KA FL machines at the Western Appliance in San Leandro.

The first time I saw one was a couple of years ago. If I'm not mistaken, that one had a darker gray cabinet, and it was stunning. The most recent versions appear to be a bit lighter, and not as dramatic, but still very nice.

Wet washing fabric depends upon three energy inputs: thermal, mechanical, and chemical. All three are intensified by time. So, for the very whitest whites, the Sanitary option could be used. Me, I get very white whites with my 130F Neptune 7500. I use every trick to extend the time of the wash cycle, so that the total cycle time is 109 minutes. I also use a phosphated detergent, and the results speak for themselves. If I had a machine that went to a higher temp, I would wash the whites up to 160F. Above that, I'd probably only wash stuff without elastic.

I sometimes use the 109 minute 130F cycle for work clothes that are especially dirty. I work in a metal shop and when I have to service one of the big machines, my shop/lab coat can get pretty grimy. I can also muck up jeans and shirts pretty good when working at home on one of my vintage cars or in the garden.

 

[newwave1]

hey guys!
your all really lucky to have these huge machines. they sound very fun! there starting to filter through here in the uk. but the main problem being space as we have standard counter top height & width. alot of people having seperate laundry rooms now helps the situation though.

i work for an electrical retailer here in the uk. & we've started to see some "BIG" washers coming into the market. theres the bosch nexxt which is called "logixx9" over here. the ariston "extendia" which is sold under the hotpoint brand here. which has a 8.5Kg load & 1400rpm!...the whirlpool "dreamspace" as its known here. better known as the "duet" to you guys. i did consider one of these monsterous machines...which would be fine while i'm living at home but i plan on getting my own place next year & space would be a problem again.

i wanted to say something about the "soaking" option. my AEG oko_Lavamat 74640 has that with the option to make it last 1-23 hours!! it fills up to the lip of the seal & tumbles every few minutes...also it heats to 30degrees. jon has the same option on his aeg too. i find it more effective than prewashing!

can anyone explain how the bulky cycle works on these Kitchenaid FL's? we've similar options on some machines giving the option to utalise the full load.

Also,do the waterlevels ever become visable? my samsung fills right up to the curve of the glass but once it starts tumbling its not visable again.

thanks

Darren

 

[frontloadfan]

Hello in the UK!

Hi!

I make it over to London every few years. One of my things to do is always to go to one of the big department stores and check out the washers. Whenever I have looked, they never had any mega machines, but I hear from a friend that they are now starting to see them.

I was curious, are any of them bigger than the Whirlpool (our Duet)? Here in the U.S. there are several machines (Duet, Hettie, Kitchenaid) at the 3.8 cu. ft. size. Then there is a Maytag Neptune that is actually made by Samsung that is 3.81 cu.ft. in size. Sorry about using the the "ft." scale (metric never caught on here). Now there is talk that LG will be coming out with a machine that will be 4.0 cu. ft. in size.

But back to your question, Kitchenaid is made my Whirlpool and they consider it an upscale machine. They give it extra sound proofing and a faster spin speed (1300 vs. 1200 for the Duet). They also give it extra styling and nice knobs, door fittings, etc. On the other hand, they don't give it all the cycles you get with the top of the line duet. The top of the line Duet has two extra cycles - one which is the "bulky" cycle.

As I understand it, however, the "bulky" give extra water during the wash cycle. With my KA, I use the auto soak option before the regular cycle. That gives 30 minutes with the water up to the edge of the door and the machine tumbling and then pausing before the next tumble.

You were asking about the water level being visible. With my Kitchenaid, you really have to strain to see a water level on most of the cycles. The trend here is make the machines more and more water efficient. A lot of people are wandering if they are overdoing it. That is what I like about having the autosoak option as it gives you the option of really giving your clothes a good soaking.

My KA does not have the option of giving a really "wet" rinse, but I understand that the brand (Kenmore) that Whirlpool makes for Sears has an option to give the wet rinse.

You mentioned your Samsung washer. Samsung is just now getting its applicances carried our here. They sound like they really make some great washers for the UK.

 

[newwave1]

Hey Frontloadfan,
thanks for replyin! to answer your question.there isnt a machine bigger than the duet here yet! i doubt that there will be that things huuuuuge! lol. actually maybe there is the LG Tromm which is 10Kg which im not sure wot it is in cu.ft i lost my converter lol. i think its bigger than the duet.

i have to admit the kitchenaid does look much nicer than the duet. u must use the soak option alot? i think its very effective! even on just a typical full load of clothes. helps to get everything saturated!

i didn't think there'd be much visable water on a machine so big & modern but i bet its fun to watch although i think this water efficiency thing is getting ridiculous. its great if to conserve but not at the expense of rinsing results. especially when alot of people are getting skin allergys now. theres an article on www.asko.se/ about the whole not many machines are rinsing properly. thats why i'm very happy to have a machine which will let me do 5 rinses! which are fairly deep for a modern machine. but i've been spoilt with machines that take a heck of an amount of water! and that don't have any option for extra rinsing because they didnt need it!! lol.

how does the kitchenaid "wet rinse" work? does it jst keep refilling once the movement begins to keep the clothes really saturated?

& to answer your final question i've had my samsung a couple of weeks and i think its a really great machine! the brand is gettin alot of strength behind it & given time like any manufacturer they will be a big name!

Darren

 

[newwave1]

Hey again Frontloadfan!

just lookin through the thread again & noticed you had a samsung made neptune! & you said about it had trouble balancing a load & didnt like small loads. thats very remenisant of my samsung sometimes it gets really fussy & wont spin for ages. constantly trying to balance the load. hmmm. its really annoying especially when 2 of my older machines have no out of balance sensor at all & jst dance a little or alot lol.

though i can see how out of balance sensors are good because i ran a towel load through my 18year old hoover logic frontloader & too many wet towels got on oneside of the drum & it fired up to 800rpm thankfully i didnt let it get to 1300 lol & it jumped one side of the room to the other & would'v continued to had i not jumped on it & killed the power lol. it scared the life outta me! lol.

Darren

 

[frontloadfan]

My KA Does Not Have

Hi Darren,

Unfortunately, my KA frontloader does not have the wet rinse function. Whirlpool makes three different versions of its mega large washer. It makes one for its own brand, another for its "upscale" brand, Kitchenaid and it makes the third version for Kenmore. The only one of the three machines that has the wet rinse function is the Kenmore.

Yes, I really do love the autosoak option. One of the reasons is what you stated, it really gets the load 100% wet! I have gotten where I run the autosoak option with any wash I do. It is probably not necessary for all loads, but I feel good about making certain the clothes are getting a nice long soak (30 minutes) prior to the main wash. Another factor is when you are doing a really large load, the autosoak really serves to shrink down the load. I mean you start out the drum is 100% full (but not packed tight, and the door will readily shut). You get the autosoak going and by the end of it, the load has shrunk down to 50 or 60% of the drum.