LG Steam washer, Anyone tried it yet?

[bajaespuma]

I have a WM-2432, at the time (two years ago) it was the TOL: 1200 RPM spin (what mattered most to me). I wanted an old-style configuration with a backsplash and the dispenser tray on top. As I've said many times on this site, I love the machine, but the water-heating issue has been the only big disappointment. And it's so unnecessary: I would have been happy to install a 220V circuit to run it properly.

I am usually more amused than anything by the machines fumbling with the load to get the balance just right--I suppose it is a good design feature that protects the machine from excessive wear. I haven't had that much of a problem with it. Only once has the machine failed to continue a cycle because it couldn't balance the act.

In the future, however, I'd like to be able to choose at what point in the cycle bleach gets injected. One of the only things I liked about the Whirlpool FL's is that the bleach is injected during the first cold rinse: ideal point. On the LG it is always injected for the last 5 minutes of the wash cycle, even when it's running a Sanitary (heated) cycle where the water is too hot for chlorine bleach to work properly. If the engineers at LG had been thinking about it, they would have made it so the bleach would go in during the "cool-down" finish of the Sanitary cycle. But they didn't. (Although, I will say, in my experience, the Miele's I saw in France don't even have bleach dispensers, like the Asko's).

 

[launderess]

Eau de Javel

As chlorine bleach is known in France is not popular for laundry. Though one can purchase it in those long sausage like tubes fabric softener once came in at shops in the United States.

The French prefer to use LCB for cleaning, and oxygen bleaches for laundry, hence washing machines that heat water to 140F and above and long cycle times; both of which give oxygen bleaches their best performance. Recently with the advent of bleaching activators, wash temps can be lowered to 100F and cycles shortened (because the bleaching starts at a lower temp), without harming results on all but the most grossly stained laundry. Persil amoung other European detergents now have versions for "short" wash cycles.

This is the reason one does not find LCB dispensers on Miele, Asko, or many other high end European washing machines. Miele strongly advises against using LCB in it's washers, Bosch used to have a statement in their washing machines warranty that using LCB will void said warranty.

L.

 

[toggleswitch]

Said: Miele strongly advises against using LCB in it's washers, Bosch used to have a statement in their washing machines warranty that using LCB will void said warranty.

Question: Is this the Euro cultural thing generally against LCB, or is there another reason to preculde the use of LCB in machines that are SS upon SS?

 

[launderess]

According to Miele, LCB can damage certian plastic and other components inside the washer. Bosch's had a thing with LCB because of potential damage to the SS inner and outer wash tubs. LCB is can cause damage to many materials and substances if used incorreclty and often enough. In truth front loaders that heat water to high temps do not really need LCB as oxygen based bleaches work VERY well, especially at 140F and above temps. Sanitizing laundry also can be done at 180F to 200F.

It should be noted Bosch dropped the LCB warning when it's "Nexxt" line of washers came on the scene. But, IIRC the life time warranty on the SS drums was changed as well. Also IIRC, Bosch Nexxt washers have a bleach dispenser. Like many other makers of front loaders for the American market, Bosch gave up on trying to ween Amercians from their love affair with LCB.

It may be just me, but seems that Clorox began a major push to promote LCB as front loaders became more common on the American scene. Especially more models that claim to offer "Sanitising" cycles which if they worked as claimed, would preclude the need for LCB.

Back when M. Javel invented his "LCB", many French families of means would send their laundry to the country or some place else that still used the old fashioned methods of sun bleaching (oxygen bleaches had not come on the scene). They knew then that chlorine bleach is hard on fabrics and can cause damage, especially to linen, which is what most sheets, bedding, undergarments, nightgowns etc were made of in Europe. Cotton did not become plentiful until the United States began producing it quite "cheaply" via slave labour. Even then it was dear because of tariffs. Flax OTHO grows most everywhere in Western Europe.

Even commercial laundries in France, the UK and elsewhere in Europe use oxygen based bleaches with "boil" washes, though as previously stated, modern detergents with bleaching activators pretty much eliminate the need for wash temps above 140F -160F.

 

[frigilux]

bajaespuma---- You don't like Tim Russert (Meet The Press)?! I love the guy! I like to see him make his more BS-spouting guests squirm.

Back on topic: The most stain-free my kitchen whites get is using 65-degree cold water with powdered Tide Cold Water detergent, with liquid chlorine bleach dispensed into the first rinse (I have a Frigidaire FL'er). I always wear a full cook's apron in the kitchen and they get uber-stained with a wide variety of schmutz. Excellent results!

 

[bajaespuma]

I wasn't talking about Russert; I meant the older guy with the horn-rimmed glasses and the Boston accent. I love those shows but I keep waiting for a donnybrook , initiated most likely from the liberal woman called Eleanor.

I start with a cold prewash sometimes with cold-water Tide also, but, realistically, nothing gets stuff cleaner than a final wash with almost boiling water. Learned this trick from Hattie McDaniel in "Gone with the Wind". Also learned neat trick of making prom queen dresses out of window treatments.

 

[frigilux]

Do you mean the McLaughlin Group with John (is it John?) McLaughlin? They used to do parodies of him on SNL. I like his show, too, mostly because he's so goofy. And I love to watch Eleanor go off on Pat Buchanan. Best of all his is trademark sign-off of "BYE-BYE!"

Although I'm a cold water-washing convert, I'd probably revert if my machine could heat water to 190+. That would be AWESOME.

 

[launderess]

Mammy Was Boiling

That laundry for another reason besides cleaning/whitening; to kill lice.

Remember one of the O'Hara girls comes out to have words with Mammy because she thinks it is "indignat" the way she speaks/treats Mr.Kennedy. Mammy quips back "you'd be allot more indignat if one of those lice get on ya".

Boiling laundry before modern washing machines was truly a godsend in terms it did away with some of the scrubbing/hard work. But boiling also in an era of body lice, bed bugs and god only knows what else, was a sure fire way of getting rid of the buggers.

Speaking of which, ever notice no one (thank god)ever has ring worm? Nits inspections at school once were a regular occurance. With the poor offending child sent home with a note and had to wear those funny caps while the medicine did it's work. After that it was time for fine tooth combing to remove the eggs. Ewwwwww! All pillows and bed linen had to be boiled, hats that could be were as well.

L.

 

[bajaespuma]

I was joking but I also remember my parents had a "cleaning lady", an amazing woman named Sarah who one day decided that my father's T-shirts were getting dingy so she plopped them all in the largest stockpot we had, set them on the stove and boiled them white. The only problem was, my amused father recalled, was that from time to time Sarah would pull one out of the pot with a meat fork to see if they had been boiled long enough. Dad's T-shirts were never whiter, but they were also never more air-cooled.

Me, I stick to high temperatures and bluing.

 

[toggleswitch]

pitchfork in T-shirts

Well, at least that fixed one *problem* while creating antother.

LOL

 

[irishwashguy]

i like the interal water heater

I grew up with a TL Maytag, two of them. I never thought that they were getting clean enough.When I moved out of the house, i had an old Rolo matic,, it cleaned much better than the Maytag that my Mom has to this day. I bought the new Miele, and I can't say enough good things about it. I have just a cold water fill on it .I use the Wrinkle Free'on the senative setting, that cycle w/o a pre wash is only 56 minutes.I also know that all of the soap that I put in there, which is ont a table spoon, is all rinsed out at the end. w/o a water heater, the water cools fast and does not work as well to clean and rinse your load You do get acostomed to what you have.

 

[bajaespuma]

One of the things I love about this subject and this site is the question of the evolution of industrial design.

When automatic washers were first made in this country there were both top and front loading machines. I will never forget looking on the sides of Tide and Dash boxes and seeing the different dosage instructions for Wringer Washers, Top Loaders, Front Loaders and Hand Wash Tubs. Why did Americans "drift" towards Top Loading Machines leaving, I believe, only Westinghouse in the 70's and 80's making Front Loaders? Whereas Europeans seemed to always be solid Front Load customers?

Also, it's interesting to note that when automatic dishwashers first appeared, they were all pretty much top loading machines. Our first GE 1962 dishwasher was a roll-out built-in top loader. I remember my mother complaining about having to lean over the machine to unload it, but she thought nothing of stooping to unload a later front loading model. Why did Americans "drift" over to almost exclusive front loading dishwasher designs to the point where top loaders disappeared completely until Fisher & Paykel introduced its "drawers"?

Appliance design is wonderfully Darwinian it seems. Were these trends producer or consumer driven? You could argue that in and of itself, the history of US appliance manufacture is a complete refutation of "Intelligent Design".

 

[launderess]

Top loaders held more laundry than vintage front loaders, were less complex to design (with a few exceptions such as the Frigidaire and Philco "wave of water"), and in general had longer useful lives without problems than front loaders.

IIRC most vintage front loaders only tumbled one way, though some later added reverse tumbling. This could result in a tangled mass of laundry. None had built in hot water heaters, which leads to the same problems many are having with top loaders today in terms of getting a "hot wash".

Finally most American homes are quite large and or have basements, which suit large top loading washers fine. American housewives did heaps of laundry, with all those post war large families, and no one wanted to wait ages to get it done.

Front loading dishwashers are a far easier to load and install under a counter than top loading ones. Hence that design won out. Again Mrs. Average Amercian Housewive spoke to the market in terms of what she preferred in her kitchen.

 

[bajaespuma]

I liked your point about basements, but top loaders didn't hold much more laundry than front loaders until they started a new step in washer "evolution" in the sixties.

Your dishwasher reasoning is debatable.

I remember our Frigidaires tangling clothing always.

And, here's fightin' words, I don't think Mrs. Average American Housewife had hardly anyting to do with these decisions. As par for the course, I think she was told by different groups of men what she wanted/needed, and, as usual, she said, " Ok, honey". Contrary to the smiling pixies in all the advertising, I don't think she cared that much about what was still an onerous and unglamorous task. She was just glad to have some machine, any machine help with the laundry.

 

[foraloysius]

My wild guess is that the voltage might have to do something with the American choice for the toploader and the European for the frontloader. Heating up a large amount of water in a washer is a difficult thing to do on 110 Volts, but most households in the USA had big tank waterheaters, so it was easy to fill a toploader with a huge amount of water. In Europe most waterheaters were small on demand ones, which made it more logical to let the washer do the heating of the water. No problem with 220 Volts available. And if you do let the washer do the heating it makes more sense to use a frontloader, so you don't have to heat up as much water as in a toploader.

Also I guess the toploader was more convenient to the American housewife and convenience seems a more important reason to do things in the USA than in Europe.

Since there was an obvious choice for the frontloader in Europe I guess there was more energy put in the development of it also. Already early frontloaders tumbled both ways (dryers do also here).

Just my $0.02

Louis

 

[irishwashguy]

My mother bought a TL in the 60's.......................

My mother told me that she bought a TL Kenmore in 1964 becuase she could charge it at Sears (all 320 dollars of it,woo hoo!! )It was very handy,Poof!! Now you have a new washer (with ovals and the roto swirl), and a matching dryer for 12 dollars a month.

 

[launderess]

Oh But She Did,

Either direclty or indirectly, "Her Indoors" influenced every purchase inside her home. Why do you think all those appliance and other adverts were either directed at women and or towards men in that "X", would make the "little lady's life eaiser".

A smart man soon learned it was no good buying his wife an appliance that didn't work for two reasons. One she would be stuck with the darn thing, cursing it and prolly hubby. Two hubby would never hear the end of the matter. Or there was the third reason, hubby would now have to shell out funds to either replace or repair the item.

Ever wonder why so many items like ironers, and other household appliances turn up nearly mint after 50 or so years? In the case of ironers, many women quickly found out they could achieve the same results, with less palaver by hand ironing. Some items like flat work were fine, but a much of milady's ohther ironing was best done by hand. I have two ironers, three presses and even a Jiffy steamer, and still find can get my iroing done faster by hand using my ironing table.

L.

 

[toggleswitch]

A smart man soon learned it was no good buying his wife an appliance that didn't work for two reasons.

Make that three reasons~~ let's not forget s** as a weapon. I swear on all that is holy, I once overheard my grandmother (unbeknowest to her) say that all a woman has to do do is lock the bat-cave tight, denying bat-man access and he will buy you anything you want.

I nearly died-----laughing.