Machine Abuse

[rinso]

Rollover is a term we use often to describe an effective top loader laundry circulation pattern. I can tell you by personal observation in the forties, fifties, and sixties that, with the exception of Frigidaire machines, few American homes with a top load machine ever observed this phenomonon.

If what's left of my memory serves me correctly, back-and-forth agitator washers I saw during that period were usually so idiotically overloaded that all the load did was move back and forth in the well-known dreaded death slosh.

I really believe that people who used TL washers, didn't know any better. I think Kenmore's Dual Action agitator was a result of a meeting at Whirlpool that went something like this: "Well our good, but brain-dead, customers won't stop overloading, so let's design something that will screw the clothes down the agitator. Maybe that'll help." Yet, no matter how many times tub capacities increased, or improvements were made to most TL machines, users would just jam more clothes in them until total laundry gridlock was ensured.

 

[petek]

I wasn't too sure what everyone was talking about regarding the dual action agitator until I spent the last couple of months living at moms house with her fairly late model Whirpool. Naturally I had to stand and watch it wash. Which got me to wondering why it kept going when I lifted the lid..is that normal? Anyways, it does turn the clothes over quite well and quite fast but I'm not sure how well it cleans as I only used it a few times and my stuff isn't that dirty. What I didn't like was the gentle cycle that runs, then stops, then runs, then stops etc..I still like my trusty GE FF better. The other thing about her WP..the agitator seems so big there's not much room to put the stuff in or out.

 

[laundramatt]

I'm limited in my knowledge, but I have to disagree. From my memories of the fifties and sixties, women (for the most part) knew better than to overload. I remember being told many times that the clothing needed room to circulate in the washer.

I think that overloading is a byproduct of the two-income households. Never enough time to do housework properly.

 

[exploder321]

Agree with Laundromatt....
Grams trys not to overload stuff, she thinks the new frigidaire fl is too small, but she won't fill it up like it should be...Hence i do laundry

 

[toggleswitch]

~Never enough time to do housework properly.

Perhaps it can be said that there is never enough DESIRE to do housework properly.

I have never heard of anyone say, on their death-bed, : I should have spend more time at the office.

 

[gansky1]

My mother and grandmother rarely overloaded, if anything, underloaded machines. I did know others who overloaded terribly - but most of them had Kenmores that specialized in the agressive "death slosh" and could still get things clean - rinsed is another story...

 

[maytagbear]

If anything,

I tend to underload.... It's a temptation, however, particularly when I have a lot of bath towels to do, but Sudsman's tests have reminded me.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[oxydolfan1]

To expand on toggle's tangent....

Workaholics.....CAST OFF YOUR SHACKLES!!

You're a slave changing hands from master to master....

A productive, worthwhile workday can be a beautiful thing.

Remember that it must have a BEGINNING, and an END, and mind that one should not get in the way of another.

When you sit there in your leather chair, baby, asking, is this all really worth it?

This is your "Weather Girl", here to tell you: "UNH-UHHH"...

FREE YOUR ASSES...YOUR MIND WILL FOLLOW!!

If you're in your forties and you still feel you "have to work twice as hard to get just as much" and "I should stay late, because, after all, I don't have children..."

You just crapped out in the Game Of Life.

Return to square one.

 

[oxydolfan1]

Better to underload, and run shorter or gentle cycles, and reset to normal spin for extraction...

Face it, we change clothes more often than our ancestors.

 

[pturo]

I think that the washers that let the water fill while loading are culprits to overloading, since the load shifts downward and condenses looking like there is more room, I know our Whirlpool used to do this, so you would be, oh, well, more space, throw in more. Our Maytag would not even fill until the top was down, so you put laundry into the wash tank, added detergent and softener, closed the lid and ran it. A full tank dry was what was washed.

 

[rinso]

I tend to underload as well. Probably not very efficient, but effective.

Where I grew up, everyone was either Mormon or Catholic and everyone had huge families, including my parents. I realize some of you had relatives who used machines properly, but in my observations of that time (40's, 50's and 60's), machines were almost always jam packed, as moms struggled to keep up with household duties and raising children.

Years later, when the kids got older, moms I observed still stuffed machines too full, again trying to get the laundry done quickly. Church and charity groups, bridge clubs, the golf course, and even work may have become the focus.

And then, for many, the worst happened! Dad started helping with the laundry. Did you know that a 1974 Frigidaire 1-18 can hold the entire rear carpet section of a 1971 Mercury?

 

[jetcone]

My Mom underloaded she knew

things had to turn around. Our neighbor across the street underloaded her GE FF as well but with the bad sealing technology of 1954 she had grease on her clothes by 1960 so out that machine went and in came a TOL 1960 filter flo with double decker buttons. Wow was I impressed---- secretly never publicly.
Now the woman next door to her had constant piles of laundry all over the house all the time even in the living room with 5 kids. Piles of whites , piles of bedding, piles of colors. The whole time I was growing up I remember twice she had cleaned up the house but it didn't stay clean.

She had the Kenmore and it was always in "death slosh" mode with lots of bleach, tons of bleach. That machine reeked of bleach when it was empty.

 

[jetcone]

I just had an MIT

graduate come do her laundry here, graduate in engineering.
She loaded up 5 machines washed and went down to dry them. She called up from the basement that the dryer was making funny noises and was not starting!
I went down to see what was the matter.

I WAS FLABBERGASTED! She had taken all the clothes from the 5 machines and put them into the dryer at ONCE. The belt was slipping around the drum and screetching the load was so heavy.

Now I know her mom and she is a meticulous housekeeper so I asked her after I corrected the mistake how could this be?
She said I never went downstairs with mom to do laundry.

You see its only One generation from laundry knowledge to laundry chaos!

 

[appnut]

My mom pretty much underloaded because she'd start the washer filling and after a little while would start to add clothes until she thought it aws enough. Underloading was particularly the case with the 1979 GE FF and the 1995 Dependable Care. My dad even admitted, she just doesn't even know what she has. Me, I was of the ilk the correct water level had to always be set (variable since the 1964 Norge). So, I'd load clothes, set water level, and add detergent amount according to load size selected and turn on the machine.

 

[bpetersxx]

I never overload

I make sure that the laundry circulates rapidly for good results

Otherwise it may cost 600 to fix the transmission the motor or the pumps

for the record this was a different problem

 

[exploder321]

I watched grams do laundry today, she actually underloaded the machiene, as she thought it was like loading the dryer, fluff the cloths than load... I showed he how to load it and she wash flabbergasted at what i put in (all her colors and dark blue sheets) the front loader..All came out clean and she was amazed..She still wants me to do laundry.>She feels she'll kill it doing this

 

[rinso]

The opposite sin belongs to the people who have never touched a top loader water level control in their lives. It's usually set at max, regardless of the load. This crucial flaw belongs to my S.O. and that's why I'm glad front-loaders set their own water levels. It's okay, though. He's simply the best!!! ;o)

 

[gadgetgary]

My ex now has a new place and likes to wash a full tub of clothing on the medium water level, then complains of a "linting problem". I slapped his wrists, put a huge scratch on the "maximum" water level and told him he will have to answer to me if he moves it(he moved is last nite, let's see if he readjusts it properly later).

 

[gyrafoam]

Rinso has it right----

I agree that the Whirly/'Kenmo folks got together and said we have to figure out a way to deal with over-stuffed machines once and for all and came up with the "Cruel-Action" agitator.

My family tended to be under-loaders but most of the folks I remember from back when I was a kid waaaaay overloaded those machines!

My best friend's mother thought nothing of stuffing her (long-suffering) Highlander with ten pair of jeans (or however many she could get in there and still get the lid to close). Strangely she never wondered why the detergent she had dumped on top was still pretty much there when she took the clothes out! I guess she mostly just scraped off the residue and hung 'em up on the line! (Although she had an old "Rustinghouse" "How dry I am" dryer she used if it was "rainy" but her husband frowned on it's use because he thought it a power-pig!)

She was also the one that used to dump tons of "Lemon freshened Fab"(very high-sudsing detergent back in the day) in there untill the poor thing belched suds. It was ALWAYS suds-locked!

Funny thing, I still know someone who does those sorts of things!