Loading a Front Loader?

[spaniel50]

loading a front loader?

You guys bring back some memories! My grandmother and mother both had Frigidaire top load washers for many years. My grandparents had a 1951 set that lasted up until the 80's and my mother had her Frigidaire set up until just a few years ago. I remember that both of them were VERY particular how those Frigidairs were loaded. They never had any problems with tangled clothes but I had heard stories of owners hating the Frigidairs because they tangled clothes. I was told by the Maytag installer to alternate heavy and lighter articles in my Neptune but in 6 months I have never had any unbalanced loads. It seems to redistrubte the load if it seems of balance at the start of the spin.

 

[foraloysius]

It might help to load the machine fully. The manual of some older AEG frontloaders instructed to not let the machine perform a spin cycle when it was loaded only partly. At that time they didn't have a off balance sensor and went straight into spin. If they were only partly loaded they would go off balance very easily.

These machines are designed to use low water levels. Multiple rinsing should rinse out the detergent effectively. It's important not to use a low sudsing detergent (HE or not) and not use too much of it. Some detergents rinse out better than others.

 

[gyrafoam]

My 1997 FriGEMore is not particular about loading as long as it has at least a half-load in it, so Toggle's advice is good IMO.

Tom's comments on the behavior of sheets in top-loading machines is interesting.
My 1964 Highlander washes a set of queen-sized sheets and four pillow-slips without any problem at all.
However, my newer and larger-tub Maytag will bunch-up the same sheet set load every time! Go figya.

I just washed a similar set in my solid-tub SQ this morning without incident.

I didn't even think about putting them in my '53 Unimatic.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Loading

A useful way of determining correct drum load is to look at how many baffles/sections the drum has , most are divided by three, some have four, you can tell me how many the Staber has??

So for a three sectioned drum,determine the load by how it would best spin, 3 large bath towels suplimented with smaller item will probably ensure even distribution around the drum when spinning....

As a simple example, One large towel/bath robe and a load of underwear will struggle to balance...
2 large towels/bathrobes should be fine unless its a large duet then 3 would be better
or one large bathrobe and a matching number / weight of towels/smaller items...

Its mainly cotton loads which would cause more OOB, in which case its why a similar load of equal weighted fabrics is best suited.....

Most machines go OOB when only one or two sections of drum are evenly loaded whilst spinning..gravitational pull determines the rest...of course it does help to have good suspension legs and a non oversensitive OOB sensor!!!

When you think of it imagine what a 9kg load of wet towels weighs???now imagine how much torque your machine/motor/suspension has to deal with NOT to go OOB....

 

[seeitrun2006]

Loading of a FL

What causes the load to become tangled? Yesterday in our 4.0 Whirlpool Duet HT WFW9200S I was washing:
1-pair of jeans, 4-pairs of adult PJ's (tops and bottoms), 4-sweatshirts, 1-bulky sweater, tee shirts and socks. The load got into a tangled up ball. The washer did spin after the initial wash. At the end of the 1st rinse it did not spin at all since it could not balance. It finally went into the 2nd rinse without a spin. After the 2nd rinse it finally shut itself off after about 20 minutes of rebalancing. I untangled the load, set it for drain/spin and it got balanced enough to spin.

Does anyone else have problems with the load turning into a tangled mess? If so any solutions?

 

[dj-gabriele]

Nope, it never happened to me, maybe because I only run the machine when is filled to capacity. Actually I can get my bedding put of the machine without taking other stuff out, not even socks ever get tangeled together with bigger stuff.

 

[rp2813]

My Duet HT can also tangle things but I haven't yet figured out what combo of laundry items causes this to occur. If I'm washing king sized sheets and pillow cases, they almost always come out with some twists and tangles but it wasn't a whole lot better with my old '97 Amana shred-o-matic.

I still can't figure out the self re-balancing thing the machine does. I can be there watching and the drum is turning at a good clip before spin, it's hardly wobbling, the machine increases speed, everything is smooth as silk, and yet it ends up slowing down and going into re-balancing. It really frustrates me that the machine can't seem to tell a balanced load from an unbalanced one and opts itself out of opportunities for a smooth high-speed spin.

These machines were advertised as being able to wash 16 pairs of jeans in a single load. I'd like to know what size jeans they are talking about. I can't imagine even getting 16 pairs of my Levi's to fit in there. The literature that came with the machine says it will hold 23 bath towels. What size? Mine are fairly large and I feel I'm stressing the machine with only 10 of them in there. Can anyone elaborate on these claims Whirlpool is making regarding capacity of the full sized Duets?

 

[seeitrun2006]

I totally agree

I wear a 36/30 jean which by no means is extremely big. But the load I described earlier filled up the drum. Not packed but full! I can't imagine stuffing 16 of them in my Duet HT. And the 20 something towels! Give me a break! They must be talking about hand towels!

As far as the spin goes the final spin does intermit regardless. The first of the two final spins (from what I have read) pulls out a lot of the final rinse water then slows down to allow the pump to drain off the excess water. Then does the balancing act again then ramps back up to full spin speed.

I went to the Whirlpool web site this morning. They suggest as everyone else does wash different tyes of clothing together. We've had ours since 11-12-07. I have tried every combination in the world sometimes with luck, sometimes not.

Saturday I washed my winter coat, a lighter weight winter jacket, 2 pairs of jeans and a sweat shirt. I waited for it to take off. But it never did. The spin on this load was the smoothest since we bought it.

We really like the machine! But it has really taken us a while to get use to it!

 

[rp2813]

These modern FL's do take some getting used to. I didn't like the idea of placing detergent into a compartment in a drawer but now I don't give it a 2nd thought. FL's take longer to do a load but I just walk away and let it do its thing. If I'm in a hurry I can use the "Quick Wash" cycle.

I also wipe the boot after each load and wipe off the inner glass, and I always give the tub a spin around to make sure there are no stray socks stuck to the side. And of course I leave the washer door open a bit when not in operation. These are refined machines and require a bit more in the way of routine maintenance or practices but I liken them to a nice car that you tend to baby. They are prima donnas for sure compared to your average TL, but IMHO they are worth the trouble. Our Duet removed stains on clothing that had been washed and dried in our Amana TL pair many times without success. That was all the results I needed to validate my switch from TL to FL.

 

[seeitrun2006]

I completely agree!

You certainly cannot beat it for cleaning! We leave the door ajar, check the boot regularly...just like you said liken to taking of a nice car.

I need to get use to starting it...closing the laundry room door and walking away until I hear the beep...beep...beep telling me it's done! Maybe peek in from time to time.

 

[chachp]

I never thought about it

I've had a front loader (Bosch) for about five years. I use the Persil soaps and love them. The only time I've had foam is when the husband used a large scoop of soap instead of a small one but the washer seemed to take care of that for me. It added some or many rinses (I didn't pay that much attention I just remember seeing Added Extra Rinse - Foam in the display) until there was no more foam.

I just stick stuff in there and never thought about alternating large and small items. I don't know exactly how it senses or not but at times I hear it start to rev up and then slow down. It seems to do this a few times but always seems to be able to balance the load and get to a full spin that sounds like a jet engine in the laundry room.

I have never had a load that did not spin because it was off balance. I don't recall any terribly tangled messes either. Maybe the washer wants someone who really doesn't give a crap about how it gets loaded. It's getting back at me every load because of my indifference to its needs. LOL.

Mine does have the smaller drum so based on some of these other posts that may be the reason why I haven't seen many of these problems.

 

[aldspinboy]

&Hello ralph & group members in working with products all day whirlpool duet, when it came out in 2000 i showed it at a home show in philly and made that clam of 16 pair of jeans, which in turn cause alot of problems with my customers.So whirlpool changed there statement they said your suppose to vary your jeans in sizes very small to large jeans i don't think that's good either my magic number is 4 pair 6 max for full size jeans a little more with short jeans they have more room to spread around. Duet does not have a high lift as say bosch,& L. G . washers have. So it tends to roll more and then tangling starts i wished they improve there baffles. There's a new wash rhythm i discovered it's called double cotton speed Miele rex electroluxe have that in europe those guys are so advance with there front loading washers over there well it tumbles about i guess 45rpm & then 60 rpm to spread the clothes out. The group well have a better say on it which is very cool wash action i love it. (It's also on U TUBE type it in). That said the duet does ramp up and stop about three times in intermitted spin so wrinkles want set in not a balance issue. So for my loads in a front loader are very european smaller washes and everything separated shirt with shirts towels with towels as long as it's not bigger then the others that causes unbalancing i try to keep the weight of the fabrics even and that could be with anything, reduces balance & twisting problems. It has seem to me when i do mega loads i get twisting and spin problems. Something the manufactures have to work on guys!! i don"t even no how the american people get through washing in the big front loaders today, (All brands) with there huge loads of laundry it's alot of stress on the machine they really cant handle it like true commercial front loaders do, you can here it, my brothers wife machine she has a duet and follow the big load law that they advertise, and her machine is 3'yrs old and is making a nasty ticking sound i think it;s in here left shock system and thats from loading large all the time. And then there the water issue sometimes not high enough in my book in some instances. So my dream machine would be...

1. A Lathe machine motor style hydraulics system like the one CMC machine, (if you go on U TUBE look at the lathe or drill tooling machines) because of the extreme high speed and control & precession of wash basket instant rev up to speed like hard mounts but much higher spin speeds like soft mounts can produce.

2. Beautiful halogen lighting for full view standerd. Or with temperature lighting if one wants it on, from a cool light blue color for cold and gradually turn to yellow for warm and a nice red color when hot.

3.Door drop down with a TWONG! type sound when u open it( somebody here post that a window that would not fog up good idea) maybe a little forward thinking how about a door that opens like an iris like double 0 seven .

4. Detergent dispensers that are rock solid!! no drawer, constant recycle cleaning.

5 Simple but very sophisticated washing, rinsing, spinning , programs all adjustable.

6. A great awesome showering waterworks system with with new double-cotton wash action and new rhythms ??

7. A true Quick wash 10:00 min 5 min wash & two waterworks spin rinses & spin add two min for softner rinsing .

8. Very advanced wash basket?

9. Spin speeds 0 to 2500 realistically 2000 at this time.?

10. AUTOMATICWASHER ,ORG APPROVED FROM THE GROUP MEMBERS THE MANUFACTURES HAVE US VOTE ON THE FEATURES & MATERIALS WE WANT AND THE ONES THAT NOT ACCEPTABLE TO US. THAT WHOULD BE THE BEST MACHINE AROUND IN DECADES ..

 

[tomturbomatic]

My Duet, one of the first, would distribute and ramp up to speed in the spins between the wash and rinses, but the surge of water spun out of the load tripped the pressure switch and the thing would slow to a stop while the pump got rid of the water because the pump was not strong enough to suck out the water as fast as it was spun out. Unlike the Creda, the tub does not keep revolving during the pump out to hold the distributed load in place. Then it would try to distribute for another try at spinning, but would have an awful time, often trying three times with long pauses in between each try, before it would spin. I have 4 front loaders with smaller tubs and they all have a much easier time distributing the loads for spin. To prevent the load from balling up or rolling up, the Mieles vary the tumble speed, at least in the cottons program. After each pause for reversing direction, the tumble starts fast to throw the items in a wider arc and then gradually slows.