New: Bosch 4D Vortex wash System, 10 KG, 1600 Spin Washing Machine

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Glad you’re enjoying your new Bosch, Matt. We’ve had the Siemens version since early February and are really liking ours too. The Mixed Fabrics cycle is the most used here - 40 deg wash and 1600 spin in 45 mins, or 60 deg and 1600 spin in an hour. The spinning results are fantastic - best I’ve ever used, and it also rinses very well on the default setting.

The jet action is really great, very thorough and the spin washing is fun to watch.

I’m not keen on the powerSpeed cycle myself - it’s quite poorly programmed and I find the cycle quite redundant as the Mixed Fabrics programme washes the same load in a similar time, but you can spin at max speed and go hotter on the temperature. One downside with powerSpeed is that it also doesn’t spin between the rinses, whereas Mixed will.

I have posted some full cycle videos on my YouTube - there’s plenty uploaded and scheduled for the next while too so keep your eye out :-).

All the best

Jon

 
A question.  Why is a load of towels, using that programme, limited to only 4 kg, why cannot you be able to fill the drum to whereby you place a fist a the top of the load and that is full?  Some of my towels probably weigh 1 kg each.  
 
Towels, 4kg load

Probably because of the absorbency of the heavier material, chances of out-of-balance load, and the suds factor too.

You would be able to wash towels in the 10kg load, provided you had other items in there too, such as cotton t-shirts, sheets, etc.

Other machines of the past recommended similar, including to mix towels with other articles.

Hoover said in their 'New Wave' instructions: "Maximum wash load: 4.5kg (10lb) **". The footnote said: "** Reduce the load to 2.5kg (5.5lb) for highly absorbent materials, such as towels and nappies."
 
Modern load sensing European front loaders

For certain programs no longer recommend loading to full capacity as in drum volume minus that formed fist.

This and you'd be surprised what these machines consider 100% rated load.

Filing drum barely three-quarters with AEG Lavamt of mixed load will read "100%".

Loading drum full as with older Miele W1070 (to top minus that fist) will have machine reading 110% or 120% meaning it is over loaded.

Terry cloth items of course are very absorbent. The more "thick and thirsty" or large in size, the greater amount of water they hold. In terms of a washing machine you have to consider weight of items when fully wet, and of course how to handle extraction of all that water.

When doing very absorbent loads in AEG (towel, a blanket, etc....) machine will often have to stop or greatly slow down spinning to allow pump to catch up. It just sits there with pump pulse cycling on and off until sump is clear. If this water is also full of froth that just adds to machine's work.

Finally of course they just don't built them like they used to. Ten kilograms of dry toweling/absorbent items is easily weighs twice or more when fully wet, that can put strain on certain parts I shouldn't wonder if they aren't built to last.
 
Also keep in mind that toweling isn't terribly dense.

They are often labeled as 500g/m², meaning a 200cm*100cm towel (that's Just shy of 80" by 40") is about 1kg or Just about 2lbs.

My usual towel load consists of 2 such towels and 4 half that length in either Side plus 4 somewhat denser bathmats made of cotton and that Just about fills the drum of my 68l washers, so Just 2l smaller than that 10kg washers.
 
@gelaundry4ever Yes, Logixx posted the link to the manual.
There are plenty of options / programmes, of which all are listed in the manual, and also shown in my video overview above!
The AntiStain allows a selection of 16 stains, all of which change the wash cycle accordingly (more intensive wash, more heat, or heat maintaining and add a soak etc).
There are features to add upto 3 extra rinses, extra water (although on some programmes the difference in extra water is only little!), silent washing, Rinsholding, short wash (speedPerfect), IntensivePlus (extended wash time), pre-wash etc.
The options are so flexible its really great !

As for the Towels wash, as long as towels are dry before loading - I have filled it upto 4KG (according to the loading bar on the display which appears when the door is open): 4 Large Bath Sheets (Quality Egyptian cotton ones), 3 Hand Towels, 5 Tea Towels, 4 Flannels and 2 standard size bath towels. Generally towels get very heavy when wet, so I'd imagine that's the case of not being able to load more to that cycle. The Towels cycle also uses a rather long final spin with fluffing technique so I guess Bosch want to ensure there's enough space in the drum to do this effectively!
I decided to use Rinse Hold when washing Towels, I then select the separate 1600 spin when I'm in a hurry to finish towels, as the separate final spin holds at 1600 for 5 minutes, yet takes half the time of the towels final spin sequence! (always great when you find little tricks hidden within the machine!).

Thanks Jon for your nice comment! Your Siemens is a great machine too - very similar indeed! I'm still experimenting with different cycles! But I'm with you in the Cottons Speed wash, and Mixed load cycles are very good! Also quite liking Mixed Load with IntensivePlus option (Which I think now is more like your PowerSpeed 59' programme but with Intermediate spins). Was also quite impressed with the 30 minute wash (For refreshing)! Plenty of jet action (a much better cycle than my old Hotpoints short 30 minute wash)!
 
Well, I guess I won't be trying to squeeze five bath sheets into the W1918. It has no load sensing, but my common sense tells me that if four bath sheets was about all I could reasonably fit in there, then five bath sheets would be too much sheet.

 
 
Thank you for the explanation.  I have to admit, I do go buy volume of what's filling up the drum with towels.  I have 2 sets of larger than usual towels I bought at Target several years ago.  They were "guest towel" status for a long time and weren't used much.  The bath towels aren't "bath sheet" size, but are the biggest towels I have snd they are quite thick.  There are a total of 8 towels, wash cloths, and some hand towels that comprise this load.  The other 6 towel sets are anywhere from 1982 to 1988 purchase dates.  So they've lost a lot of their bulk/thickness over time, but till dry nicely.  I don't quit using towels until holes appear and they last a lot longer with the front loader than with the Lady Shredmore.  The load has just enough of the fist at the top of the load.  And truth be told, the load balances better this full vs. 3/4 full.  And all my loads try to pretty much consist of like items in style and weight (as per a Sears repairman from early 1960s).  I don't do loads of mixed various weights and types.  i.e. shirts & pans or underwear and sheets.  
 
How much one can fill Miele W1070 with, versus what one should are two different things.

Learned long ago filling Big Bertha to that proverbial "fist width of room" at top can cause a load so heavy tub scrapes bottom underneath. More so during rinses where this washer uses copious amounts of water (compared to modern units anyway).

After spending dear to have shocks replaced, and rather more so for suspension springs am in no mood to push things.

This is probably is reason behind the abuse Americans put front loaders through, and why so many end up as toast after barely a few years of service. Constant over loading probably brought on by wanting to get things over with quicker by shoving much as possible into machine.

Then again have seen people do same at laundromats. Literally having to lead (or use their foot) to get door closed.

 
And yet Laundress's video shows the recommendation to ALWAYS load the Unimac washer FULLY. They go by weight, and she even adds a couple extra towels.

 

The key is that when wet the towels bed down, and the thing to watch for is to make sure the laundry drops from the "2 o'clock to 8 o'clock position". This indicates proper loading.

 
 
Thank you for sharing those great videos! Love the details on them. I have a 2 year old Siemens IQ500 series set. My washing machine doesn't have a few interesting options yours have. I love the spray jet. It certainly helps with washing duvets. Mine always struggles with that, I have tried several programmes. I also like the intensive button, adds some time to some programmes that are a bit on the short side. Also the 70 and 80 degrees settings are great to have. I can wash on 70 degrees though by choosing the eco programme on 90. Keeping an eye on your Youtube channel!
 
There is likely a very good reason why the Europeans go by load weight, not volume. Volume is highly variable depending on the fabric type. It's weight that taxes the machinery most.

 

 

Next time I'm really going to try to stuff five bath sheets into the W1918. I will let you know the result. It will take a little bit longer to accumulate them, though.

 

If the Miele can handle the same load as the Neptune, that would be very cool.
 
Early on in days of semi and fully automatic washing machines American housewives (or anyone else doing the wash) were routinely advised to weigh laundry.

Capacity of average washing machine then was between seven to eight pounds. Scales were common enough in American homes for weighing all sorts from infants to various kitchen uses (canning, cooking, baking, etc...).

This or laundry manuals, owners manuals from washing machines, along with various consumer/ housekeeping manuals had charts giving weights of common domestic textiles. Such as shirts, sheets, pillow slips, dresses, etc.... You counted up what was being washed, then did the sums.

That being said different methods of laundry had obviously various requirements.

Maytag wringer washers were only to be loaded with enough wash so things moved freely, this regardless of total weight. By and by some variation of this advice became standard for American preferred top loaders.

When you get down to it all washing machines should be loaded only so things can move easily. You'll never get 11lbs or whatever rated capacity of bed sheets into most domestic washing machines, top or side loading.
 
I wouldn`t say that weight of dry(!) clothes taxes machinery most.
Just think of a large synthetic filled comforter. Weighs next to nothing when dry but once it`s soaking wet it probably weighs a ton.
In contrast a full load of heavy denim is quite heavy when dry but might not add that much weight when wet because of rather low absorbency.

To make things even more complicated I think those ratings by dry weight in Europe are based on mixed loads of strictly standardized fabric types which in real life situation are a very rare occurrence.
 
Load size ratings

Technically, a manufacturer can put any load size rating on any machine as long as it fits for rating and testing.

There is a norm on what clothing is in a standardized test load, how much of it and how it is loaded is up to the manufacturer.

2 great examples for that:

Some manufacturers actually tell the tester piece by piece what to load.
It's a numbered list with instructions and positions and diagrams.

Another thing: Our consumer reports magazine tested a 10kg Hoover heatpump dryer some time ago.

Now we have regulations that opening a dryer door from the inside may only require a certain amount of force.
Idea is that any child trapped in there can push it open.
Same for fridges.

However, EU dryers are pretty much at their limits drum volume wise.
So that 10kg rated dryer was just as big as all the other dryers.

Result was that that dryers door would just pop open during the cycle on its own just because the clothing expanded and overcame that force.

That model has been revised since.
 

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