Owner of new GE set

[supersurgilator]

Well I gave in after the initial thread was created and was impressed with these new machines so I purchased one last week. The set was delivered today and I have already ran one load thru it. I am quite impressed with the cleaning ability of this machine. The lid will only lock during the spin portion of the cycle, the machine will fill with the lid open, but agitation stops when you lift the lid. The fill is also like a showerhead spray rather than the typical waterfall fill of previous models. The tub is HUGE, largest I've ever seen with an agitator. A side note about the water level, on the super setting the machine fills about 6 inches from the top of the tub, however once you select the deep fill it will fill up to about 2 inches from the top of the tub, so you can still technically get a full tub of water. I do hope these will be reliable and a good seller for GE. It's as close to an old school washer as we can get, aside from SQ.

The dryer seems alright as well, the load is still in there. It has a nice size capacity and I think it will work out just fine, although it is a bit small in caparison to the capacity of the washer. I am quite pleased that I purchased these and the staff at lowe's were extremely helpful both in store and the guys that delivered and installed them. I got them on sale for $499 each.

 

[ken]

Congratulations and good luck with them. If you select hot on the washer do you get hot or is it dumbed down and you really get warm?

 

[supersurgilator]

I can't tell for certain yet as the water heater setting isn't super hot, but it appears to be straight hot water. The dryer did a good job. Like one of the reviews stated, set the automatic cycle to less dry and it will completely dry your clothes, and it did. I was just amazed at how clean everything was. Its been awhile since I've had an agitator washer.

 

[ken]

I don't know if all "dumbed down" washers operate the same but my sisters Maytag will alternate turning the hot and cold valve on/off when hot is selected.

I don't understand about the dryer setting. Use "less dry" to completely dry the load as opposed to "more dry"?

 

[DADoES]

 
Less Dry doesn't necessarily mean damp ... just "less" dry than the "more" dry end of the scale.  My GE-sourced F&P dryer was a bit aggressive that way on (moisture-sensing) autodry.  Majority of loads I could set at lower than the mid-point, toward the Less Dry end of the scale and they came out fine.

 

[ken]

So if Im understanding correctly you're saying just set it closer to "off" (less dry) to run a shorter length of time because its hot enough to dry the load in a shorter period of time. As opposed to selecting longer running time (more dry) which would be overkill.

I thought with the auto dry cycle once the dryer sensed the load was dry it would turn the heat down or off for the remainder of the running time till it reached off?

I use the auto dry cycle on our 90s GE. Ive noticed that even with a very small load of socks, underwear and maybe a couple t-shirts the items would still be damp if I set on "preferred setting". This is with it set on regular/cotton heat. I now set towards "more dry" (probably running longer than necessary) and now items are dry.

 

[supersurgilator]

Plus it all depends on where the sensors are on the machine, some simply measure the exhaust air, others actually "feel" the clothes in the drum. Not sure which this model uses. But yes, if I were to use the preferred setting or more dry it would definitely be frying the clothes. I was very satisfied how the laundry turned out from the machines.

 

[brastemp]

Hi Surgilator, congrats for your new set. I am very curious to see the functioning of your washer, it looks a lot like the Brazilian washers, but with American personality. I would like to see a video of it washing with and without deep fill. tks

 

[DADoES]

 
Different dryers with autodry (whether thermostatic or moisture-sensing) may have different operational characteristics, and even may have varying results at the same setting with different load-types.  My KitchenAid with moisture-sensing had to be set at the extreme Very Dry position to get jeans acceptably dry and even then the seams were sometimes just a tad damp.

Both the KA and aforementioned GE/F&P have mechanical timers but with moisture-sensors.

Don't know what's the control system on the GE of topic.

Mechanical timers with either thermostatic or moisture-sensing autodry must run out all of the "time" to reach the cool down and shut off.  In neither case does the heat stop cycling for the remainder of the cycle at some discrete point when the items are dry.  Thermostatic control has the timer motor run whenever the heat cycles off, which of course it does any number of times through the drying period.  Moisture sensing has the timer motor stall when the sensors bars are "shorted" by the touch of a damp item and running when said moisture "clears" from the bars ... so the timer motor in that case runs for many *very* short periods at first, then for longer periods as fewer "touches" of damp items occur, until the time runs out to the cool down.

Fully-electronic controls with moisture-sensing have algorithms that detect and count the moisture "hits" then calculate a remaining time to run when the hits ease off to none.

 

[washer111]

The friends I am staying with here in Texas have just bought a new and reasonably well-equipped GE TL set that have been discussed. 

 

I found the idea of filling with the lid open *interesting* when I did a "hot wash" today. 

If the hot tap is open, it will keep on fill with the lid open - perhaps until the set water level is reached.

 

If you immediately close the lid in this situation, water stops and the cold tap now opens for a while before switching back to hot. Interestingly, the fill ceases and the machine will pause if you open during these cold-filling phases. Its almost as though the machine is trying to hide any ATC from the end-user. 

 

That said - selecting "HOT" on the dial seems to produce water of at least 113ºF (45ºC). Water heater here is probably around the 120-130 mark by my judgement. 

 

Cleaning was reasonably good, although I noted that the bottoms of socks, which the Miele would *usually* clean on a 60º Minimum Iron cycle were notably worse than usual. I did use the Deep Fill, Second Rinse with Spin options too - detergent was to about Mark 4 on Tide's powder scoop (HE formula). Load was medium sized, in water about 5-10GPG hardness. 

 

White shirts emerged as well as I'd usually expect - there were a couple of barely noticeable spots where I had an encounter with tomato splatter (which I dabbed with water immediately), which normally wouldn't be cleaned much better. 

 

As for long-term clean-ability, I cannot comment on this. It *seems* okay now, but whether noticeable dulling or yellowing of whites would occur (or lack of stain removal). My stay is too short to make such a conclusion - but I'll see how everything emerges when I return home to a Miele washer. 

 

Aside from that, the washer is pretty quick and reasonably quiet. Although, at nearly $800 apiece, I'm wondering whether Speed-Queen would be the better option(!). This set seems reasonably durable. 

 

Only other complaint is I noticed some flickering of (some of) the lights in the house (incandescent) as the agitation carried out. My only guess is either current draw, or the machine is generating some 'dirty electricity.' 

 

[gelaundry4ever]

cycles

Have you tested any cycles? If so, what were they like? What was the darks cycle like? I'd like to know.

 

[supersurgilator]

So far I've only tried two cycles, the colors and whites. The colors cycle is considered the "normal" cycle on this machine. The whites cycle provides straight water heater hot water, as well as a longer wash time. The only difference between the colors and darks cycle is that on the darks it defaults to a full tub rinse and has a shorter wash cycle.
I used the machine on the normal soil setting and on the colors cycle the wash time is 15 minutes long, on the whites it was increased to 20 minutes. I'm going to try the towels cycle tomorrow and see what thats like.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

extra heavy soil and temperature and video

If possible, can you test the darks cycle on the extra heavy soil? What is the default temp? I was wondering if you could upload a video if possible. Thank you. I do believe there is a way to disable the lid lock. You may just have to find it.

 

[supersurgilator]

The default temp is cold for the darks cycle. I did a small load of bath rugs tonight on the towels cycle. Its basically just a normal cycle again, not sure what the difference is. I also just used the regular spray rinse. That was a little disappointing. I bet the water only ran for 30 seconds with the majority of it just spraying on the bottom fins of the agitator not even touching the load. I did take apart the lid latch so i could run it with the lid open. I will see if I can take a vid tomorrow when I do the big load of towels.

Also I was amazed as to how the water instantly switched from hot to cold as soon as I snapped the lid latch in. Ridiculous LOL. I would have never noticed that as I always watch the machine fill anyway.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

sounds good.

It sounds good to me. I have a feeling that the darks cycle is a regular (sturdy cottons) cycle that uses cold water. I could be wrong, but I believe it has a normal wash and a fast spin. Please correct me.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

GE washer performance

How is your GE washer performing? I was wondering if the darks cycle is a cycle with normal agitation and fast spin. How long is the agitation cycle for the darks cycle when set to extra heavy soil level?

 

[supersurgilator]

My set is performing beautifully. I'm still getting used to some of the features of it. The darks cycle defaults to a cold water wash, the heavy setting provides a 15 minute wash and it automatically provides a deep rinse on this cycle with a high speed spin.

On the whites and colors cycle, the light setting provides a 10 minute wash, medium a 15 minute wash and heavy a 20 minute wash. Towels/sheets does a 15 minute wash, speed wash does a 5 minute wash.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

agitation speed

I suspect the agitation speed for these cycles are high speed. Correct? Also, I was wondering if you could upload composite youtube videos of this machine in action with various loads, like heavily soiled darks, towels, light colors, whites, with the best laundry detergent and fabric softener, even bleach when doing whites.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

washer performance:

How is your washer performing so far? What is the agitation speed on the darks cycle? I'm just curious. I suspect the whites and colors cycles have regular agitation. I'm just curious about the darks cycle since it's part of the sturdy cottons cycle.