Most powerful motor

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

I feel the members more versed in the technicalities of motor wattages and amps and such can weigh in here, but I concur with Bob about Maytag. They are marketed as having the largest and most powerful motor on the market in today's machine lineups. KitchenAid also seems to have a fairly large motor that looks to be the same size as the Maytag, and it's variable speed. I have no idea of the actual differences in size and power output though. The Whirlpool I have, despite having a motor rated at 55W, can apparently run at something over 100W when needed according to some research that johnb300m did, and it seems accurate because of the experiment I did a while back with the Kill-A-Watt connected to the machine. The motor would increase power draw when switching to the upper arm, and it definitely packs a punch because I've had numerous instances where a cup has been flipped or bowls have clinked together on either rack. If you're looking for a old fashioned traditional wash system though, the Maytags fit the bill. The one my mother-in-law has seems to do a fantastic job, is super quiet, runs all arms at once and uses "plenty" of water without being a guzzler.
 
"On the market"

There are some semi-professional machines out there with pretty damn powerfull motors. The closest to home-usable would be the Miele Professional. The fully integrated 120V version has a maximum recirculation rate of 190l/min, equal to ~50gal/min.

The "walk in store and buy" option I guess would be Maytag. 3/4hp, ~570W.
 
I think HP is a bad unit for power anyways for stuff like appliances. At least I always found technical literature in SI units, and that is what most people can relate stuff to.

200W is about what a good powerfull PC draws in low-med use cases.
1000W is what I vacuum my carpets at.
1500W is about the max power for a standard american 120V circut.
2000W is a iron, a kettle, a EU washer, a small burner on my induction hoob.
3000W is professional small vented dryer possibly, a strong steam generator iron, a big induction cook zone.
And 5000-6000 W is higher voltage standards in both EU and US, powering industrial washers and dryer, or in the US vented electric dryers.

Given 0.24hp equals about 180W.

That is considerable for a DW. We can compare that to some other pumps (WPs smaller 50-100W recirculation motor, and drain pumps with 25-50W, depending) and see that this will move more water for sure. We can put that into a frame of comparison.
Now, we have to consider one thing though: That is, if I'm right, for both racks at the same time. Let's ignore flow resitance to the top rack being bigger, and differen spry arm designs in top and bottom. That gives us 90W per rack.

I have picked up somewhere that BSH EcoSilenceDrives in DW can deliver up to 100W during certain cycles and with certain conditions. But can't cite a source of that right ow, had to do with the claim made by Neff here in Germany that their intensive cycle runs at 3bar.
That would be more per rack as we have an alternating rack system there.

WPs 55W are less per rack, and comparable to a Miele LittleGiant drain pump. I've seen these empty 20-30l in about 30sec (these are guestimates; was a high water level in a 65l drum machine and draing to about 30sec).
That is a flow rate of 10-15gal per minute, round about.
If the recirculation pump can move that, I'm already impressed.

In the Miele Semi-Professionals I mentioned earlier, we are talking 50gal. That shoudl be on par with the Maytag; don't know if the Miele operates both arms at once when that rate was measured.

Anyway, even though all these spread out widley from incadesent lightbulb-power equivalent over handmixer on slower speeds up to tower PC in idle, all these designs have been proofen to remove even heavy soil.

Rating these in power or size at all (I mean in power/size without comparison) dosen't help anyone. It's a nice fact to know, but dosen't say anything aout cleaning abilities.
I'll just bring up this tamed down quote: It's not only about size. Sure you need a certain minimum to be abled to do anything, but that isn't all that much. It is mostly about how you move it around and how everything else plays together.
Sometimes it dosen't work, sometimes it does. There is no step-by-step guide or flow chart to determine performance for sure.

To lighten up my verry energetic comment a bit, a bit on flowcharts:
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/flow_charts.png
 
I did a few basic watts calculations and it does look like, other than possibly tying with one of the current Samsung motors out there, this Maytag motor is "currently" the most powerful motor on the market.
 
I have to agree with Henrik

about SI units versus 19th century '14 inches to a foot, 2 pounds to a cup' silliness.

More accurately, though - the dishwasher which cleaned the absolute best of any I ever had was a tiny little counter-top dishwasher which had a motor rated at 85watts BUT used lots of water and heated it to 78C. Then splashed that 78C water around for 48 minutes after the detergent was dispensed.

It literally could 'scrub'.

 

Given the minuscule amounts of water in use today and the drip-a-drop action of most systems, motor size is truly irrelevant. They all need forever and a day to do what a BOL GE did better in 1990.

 
 
Did better

Yeah, they take verry long. However, honestly, with a DW I think that is lesser of an issue then with laundry.
I mean, you have 4-8h between meals, usually, and a lot of people start the DW overnight or qhen they leave to work. And most have quicker wash options.

Did better? Can't really see how you conclude that. We had 55W motors being put againts soils that usually never appear in normal households, and they performed stellar.
I'd say both clean the same: To satisfaction.

Yeah, the Maytag does have the biggest pump by wattage.
But, as I said: That bigger motor has to drive 2 washarms at once, thus twice the water volume. Further, it has to run the grinder, which can chew up some power as well.
So, while the "smaller" pump only has 90W, it only has to do one thing at a time.
The motor twice as big has to run 3 times the things.

Really, yeah, the Maytag has the bigger motor, but that alone means as much to cleaning capabilitys as drum volume of a dryer has to do with it's heating power.
The latter in both cases is about the same, even if you varry the first argument...
 
Henrik,

We will never agree on our definition of what constitutes good cleaning.

It's cool, though. I was one of the very few people in Munich to have air-conditioning. All my friends were appalled about it, just appalled. I was destroying the earth, etc. Until we'd hit one of those spells when it would be 40C at 98% humidity and barely cool off to 39C at night.

Then, they'd all come over and crash at my place....

 

 
 
"We will never agree on our definition of what constitutes good cleaning."

Uhhhh........clean is clean. Or it's not.
It's a 0 or a 1.

There's plenty of evidence out there, on this forum included, of plenty of modern machines getting absolutely nasty dishes, fully clean. "1" clean.
Wether it's with a filter or a grinder. 50 watts or 120 watts.

Now if you want to disagree on "how" that occurs and the methods the machine uses, fine.
But anything else is pure, emotional, irrational, and just being oppositionalist.

It's this blatant disregard for imperial evidence that we are where we are as a nation.
I can't believe this just keeps going in circles to no end, no matter how much evidence is provided.
 
I said 'good cleaning'

This was, admittedly not quite as precise as it should have been.

So - here's try number two:

A modern low-energy, low-water dishwasher, with the very softest water and the very best detergent, running on the very most advanced soil-sensing algorithms and permitted to work for as long as necessary will clean as well as a late 1970's or early 1980's GE Potscrubber using 145F soft water, 11.8%phosphate detergent, enzymes, bleach and set to 'potscrubber' and 'heat water'.

 

There. That is a more accurate description of my recent experience with both technologies.

 

Just - The 1984 GE will do it in less than an hour. The Miele took over FOUR HOURS.

 

Do you seriously want to pretend that that Miele (which is the best of the current machines) will still be working in 2050? Seriously? 

 

Oh, and while we're at it - the GE will have washed FOUR loads in the time the Miele needed to do the same, admittedly great job, for ONE.

 

My first graduate work was in IT - I'm a very big advocate and user of the most cutting edge logic I can find. It's wonderful what we can do with little water and energy. Great! BUT - it's a trade off. The less water, the more time and better filtering (including the Whirlpool breakthrough in passive tub design). 

The less heat, the more time and the more need for better detergent design.

 
 
Of course not,

But that Twenty Eight Hundred is sitting right there under the counter whirling away right now - and it's 33 years old and still going strong.

That's the point.

As to the phosphates - actually, the GE does just as well as the Miele with the same top of the line phosphate free detergents.

I just use TSP because it isn't bad for the environment and it gets dishes clean.

 

I'm overjoyed that current dishwashers clean, once again. There was a period of about 15 years in there where new dishwashers and phosphate free detergents together equaled filthy dishes. Doesn't change the fact that they take forever to do the job. At least four times as long. And, they have tiny lifespans, measured in months not decades.

 

That's just plain unacceptable.
 
Longevity

This is one area that have never sat right with me. I figure what ever environmental savings are produced by these machines are offset by the fact you need to buy a new one every 5 years.

In regard to the 2,800; in the 1980s GE was able to get a dishwasher made out of practically nothing to last 30 years.
 
I've never really understood the complaints people seem to have about cycle times. I bought the WP 920 dishwasher I have now to replace and relieve my PowerClean from duty, and I love that machine with all my heart, especially after the work and time I put into restoring it to its now modern-looking condition. My number 1 reason for that decision was because the PC just doesn't run long enough. It is a fantastic machine still, but with a 12 minute main wash, there just isn't enough time for any modern detergent to work at soaking and breaking down dried or cooked on soils. That's not to say that it's modern detergents that are at fault, as many high-end formulas are stronger and more effective than what could be found on a shelf 10-15 years ago, BUT they are designed to work with lower quantities of water and with lower temperatures over a longer period of time. Each cycle in my new machine is minimum 2:32 and maximum 3:33, and yet even to this day, I'll start the machine, go about my day, and notice that it's already finished sooner than I expected it to be, and I wonder if that was long enough! Of course, every load comes out sparkling, but it doesn't bother me at all if it took the maximum amount of time to finish. I could use the 1-Hour Wash cycle and would still see great results, but I'd also be using 7-8 gallons of water and the detergent would only see that 12-15 minute long window to do its work, and that, to me, is a waste just being thrown down the drain, especially considering that I'd rather not buy cheap knock off detergents to etch my glassware and wear out my motor seals.
 

Similar threads

Unimatic1140
An Interesting Lesson About Replacing Motors
Replies
7
Views
472
qsd-dan
qsd-dan
M
Unusual motor failure in an Amana VMW washer
Replies
16
Views
566
johnb300m
johnb300m
M
Anyone use Youngstown Jet Tower as their daily driver?
Replies
5
Views
330
tomturbomatic
T
G
Whirlpool dishwasher motors update
Replies
4
Views
113
gelaundry4ever
G
W
my Bosch dishwasher has 3 different "intensive" programs & they make it sound like they're all better than each other. what is the difference?
Replies
4
Views
452
phillymatt53
phillymatt53

Latest posts

Back
Top