Martha's new portable washer

[partscounterman]

My friend Martha and her husband Mark recently moved from a one bedroom apt. upstairs to the three bedroom main house. Even before she moved, she was talking about getting a small washer of her own to keep upstairs, so she wouldn't always have to run down to the garage to wash clothes. Once they moved, the downstairs unit was rented out to a pregnant couple. Well, even before the baby arrived, these downstairs tenants acted like the laundry in the garage was theirs alone and Martha was getting ticked off that she could never use the machine. She went out and got a new Kenmore portable washer (no need for the matching dryer, as most Martha hangs most her laundry on the lanai)

Martha asked Dennis and I to pick the new little washer up (we have a truck) and I was only too happy to get it and bring it over. The first surprise was how lightweight the machine is- I was able to pick it up outta the truck by myself. Only needed Dennis to help going up stairs.

Of course once we unwrap da kine, I'm in a big hurry to do some washing! We hook it up to the bathroom sink and I throw in a load of Marthas bras and set it for Handwash. There is no way to watch the machine as it has one of those new hateful lid switches that is hidden inside-no hole to poke a pen into to make it work. Drat! Come back to the machine to find the bras all soaking, dripping wet. The instructions assure me that the handwash cycle ends with a fast spin dry, so I try running it through again. Same thing-Soggy bras! So I wring the bras out by hand (handwash indeed!)

The next day Martha does some of her regular laundry using one of the other cycles and the machine spins just fine. She set up a service call to find out why it doesn't spin on handwash. Come to find out that the handwash cycle does NOT spin, that there was a "misprint" in the instructions. Good grief! They should have included a wringer with this thing!

Martha is overall happy with this machine, as she no longer has to wait for the little mother to get done using the main laundry, but I don't think I would be too pleased. So glad I have my own big washer and not the bullshit laundry situation Martha and Mark have.

 

[retromom]

DAVID!!!

So good to hear from you again!!!! It's been forever!!!

I'm with you on that Kenmore portable! Geez, I'd rather have a twinnie...at least you get a spin!! I suppose Sears thought that spinning would be too rough (think "Shredmore") on those delicates. I wonder if other purchasers have been surprised to find their hand washables "wringing" wet in the machine? ;-)

Glad you are back!!

VEnus :-D

 

[partscounterman]

Yup, I'm back

I was just mildly depressed there for a while and getting on a computer just seemed like too much trouble- I'm starting to feel better now.

I was over at Martha's on saturday night. We talked about popping the gray plastic insert out of the lid (which should have been made with clear plastic. Hello-Whirlpool???) as Martha admitted to me that she wants to see what is going on in there too. We decided that I will take the thing apart and defeat the lid switch just after the one year warranty runs out. I can't hardly wait!

 

[gansky1]

Glad you're back with us again, David. Missed your updates from paradise!

 

[petek]

It probably doesn't have a handwash program spincycle so the ladies won't get their knickers in a knot.

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: ALOHA:

David and Dennis, glad to hear from you again, as with everyone else have missed your Postings and info from Paradise. If I were Martha, I would let that Woman know that the Downstairs Washer and Dryer are shared by everyone and she certainly doesn't have only her own posession on them. If she wouldn't agree and share them, then I would go to the Owner or Manager and complain about her attitude about not allowing anyone else to use the Machines.

Peace, ALOHA, Fun Laundry Times and Hugs, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: P.S.

I would also let that Woman know that if she didn't like it that she isn't the only one to be able to use the Laundry Downstairs, I would let her know that she could "Stick her Laundry, where the Sun don't Shine"...

Peace and Happy Portable Kenmore Laundry Washing, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[Designgeek]

Yo David, welcome back...

Re. those pesky modern lid switches: could that be a magnetic switch?, in which case a magnet placed nearby might bypass it.

Re. no spin in handwash: can you advance the timer or otherwise tweak the cycle to get it to spin independently of other functions? Also seems to me that a misprint of that kind in the manual could be grounds for returning the machine if they are dissatisfied. Though OTOH, if you can tweak the cycles, making spin "optional" is an interesting variation.

Re. the pesky neighbors: tell them this: "Since we've started using our own washer, we notice that the odd smell our clothes had before isn't there any more. I think the machines in the garage might have a mould problem..." Now *that* will get the pesky neighbors all nervous and twittery about "their" washer. It almost serves them right. OTOH people do get weirdly territorial when they're expecting (or have just had) a baby, so don't expect that the washer will be the last case of this.

 

[partscounterman]

It does strike me as odd that Martha did not "lay down the law" regarding the downstairs tenants constant use of the laundry, since I've never known Martha to be at all bashful. I figure she doesn't want friction at home. Besides that, she was talking about getting her own machine even before the laundry hogs moved in, just for the convienence. Martha says she is just so pleased to do laundry in her own house and is not dependant on the "poopy-diaper washer"

The annoying thing about this new portable is that it does not have a traditional timer like older machine-just an electronic control. You cannot advance, skip or repeat any part of the cycle. These big washer companies would do well to have some of us washer heads try the machines out before releasing them!

 

[Cybrvanr]

I've got the similiar machine under the Whirlpool nameplate. It's a great little machine, and I've used it for about 6 years now. The transmissionless design seems to be very reliable!

There are some differences between the similar Handwash and delicate cycles. Both of these cycles run the machine at low speed agitation. Hand wash however agitates for 5 seconds, and then pauses for 5 seconds. The machine also does only a slow spin, just enough to get the water out the drum. The delicate cycle sounds like what you need. It agitates in slow speed contiuously, then does a slow spin between the rinse cycle, and then a high-speed rinse at the very end. The only gripe I've got about these machines is that they are a neutral-drain machine.

 

[Cybrvanr]

Electornic timer

Unfortunatley designgeek, these machines have electronic timers on them, so there's no real way to play with your own "custom design" cycles on them by manually advancing them The electronic timer has been very reliable though!

 

[Designgeek]

Oh those electronic timers! Sigh... I wonder about hacking the control board; at one time these things would have used discrete logic and it would have been possible to intercept the sequencer signals on the circuit board and make the machine behave differently. I suppose now everything is "stored program control" so even that isn't possible.

Partscounterman, I think the phrase "poopy-diaper washer" sums it up. Martha probably does not want to wash her clothes and blankets and towels in the very same machine that on any given day could have done a load of poopy diapers. For that matter neither would I. One can never tell if the parents of the diaper-pooper bothered to ....how to say this nicely.... scrape out enough surplus poop from the diapers first, so that it didn't get stuck in the holes in the washtub to come back and haunt (or more to the point, infect) whatever went in the next load.