Pics Of New Frigidaire TL'er At Work: The First Load

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Neutral Drain

Am I correct that there are two motors with the main one shutting off when the drain portion begins, and a separate, smaller motor kicking in to drain out the water - hence the neutral drain? I am guessing this is to get that coveted Energy Star rating...
 
Eugene, thanks so much for sharing the pictures with us. Your new machine looks right at home there. How does this one compare in noise level to the front loader? Terry
 
Thanks for the comments, guys! I hope to get a video camera and post a vid sometime soon.

Glenn-- I don't think there is a special cooldown in the 'Colors' cycle. The only difference I noticed between the Colors and the Whites cycle is the length of the final spin. (On my front-loader, there is no spin before the first deep rinse in the Colors cycle. That and a shorter final spin are the only things that differentiate it from the Whites cycle).

Togs-- As soon as the spray rinse began during the first spin, I immediately thought "Oh, Steve would love this!"

Chris-- I'm not sure if there is a separate, smaller motor for the pump. There is a 3-second (motorless) pause between agitation and drain, but I didn't notice a different motor sound during the drain. I'll have to pull the front off and check it out. My guess is there is only one motor. It's a pretty basic machine. The front-loader has two motors, though.

Terry-- The front-loader is much quieter than the top-loader. I'd forgotten how noisy TL's are when filling and when the pump is sucking air after the tub has emptied. The FL'er is extemely quiet except during drain/spin.
 
I'm curious about the separate pump motor. Seems *most* agitator toploaders nowadays (with the Whirlpool family perhaps being the exception) that do a neutral drain would have a separate pump/motor. I imagine it makes for a simpler main drive mechanism. But then one has to wonder ... why not just do a spin-drain?
 
adjusting the water level upward

I have a frigidaire super capacity model with the exact tub and agitator and was able to raise the water level to the bottom of the softener dispenser. This puts it just above the bottom of the balancing ring. All you have to do is open the back area to expose the pressure dome and set screw behind the water level control knob. Start the washer filling until it reaches it's highest level and the stop the washer. Turn the set screw one to two rotations at a time so that it is pushing harder on the pressure dome button. I beleive this is a clockwise turn. After doing this, move the water level control to reset and then back to the highest level. The machine should start filling with water again. Keep adjusting until you reach the level you want by turning and checking the level. I do this to all of my machines. Any Kenmore/Whirlpool models that have the new plastic pressure domes that can not be adjusted, I replace them with the old metal ones and raise the levels to about an inch below the tub lip. This works great and I am able to wash huge loads. This also puts less wear and tear on the washer because large items are not crammed into the tub where they cannot agitate. The only thing is that it will also raise the lowest setting upward too. I rarely wash very small loads, so this does not matter to me. Sorry to be so wordy, but I hope this helps. These are quiet and gentle machines and you can't beat the price. They are also starting to show up as very reliable according to consumer reports lately.
 
Hi Guys--Haven't written anything for a while. I was in the process of quitting a job and moving. My new place only has room for a stack W/D. I went to Lowe's and bought the GLET1142CSO unitized (?) model. In many ways it's just like the one you've been talking about here.

It doesn't fill up all the way on Large--leaves 4 holes from the top. The tub is an indexing one (I hadn't personally seen one of those since I was a kid and saw a signature by Norge with the burpilator filter). Anyway, the warm rinse is deceptive on mine too.

The dryer seems to take a very long time to dry towels. The machine is very quiet when spinning. I'm sure that there are two motors in the washer. The second one is for draining, as when the spin starts I can absolutely hear another motor kick in (sounds more powerful and a bit more noisy than the draining motor.)

I figured out that I have to stick a knife in the hole where the spin lock is. It will not agitate or spin with the lid open (I hate that!)

Back to the indexing tub, I notice that the counter clockwise agitation movement is a shorter stroke than the clockwise one. And, the counter cw doesn't do a full stroke as the CW, so if you put a marker on the top of the agitator you will gradually see it counter cw move all the way around in about 10 or 12 strokes. In general, the whole load moves in a circular fashion counter cw. I have yet to see any rollover.

Anyway, I'm pleased with that purchase except it sticks out 4 inches from the end of the wall in it's cubby.

I would like to see vid's of yours. Wish I could show you mine but I don't even have a camera.

C'villewasherboi
 
Hi Eugene
Love your laundry room....it looks so cool with all three machines matching. That's the perfect world - a TL, a FL and matching dryer! It's cool how they combined the extra rinse and cycle signal controls. Where does the water enter the tub? Thanks for the pictures.
 
Rich--Water enters in a 4-inch (or so) wide pressurized waterfall at 12:00. I'll post a pic later. I took a snap of it filling yesterday but didn't post it.

Courtney-- The indexing on my machine works just the opposite; the counter-clockwise stroke is the long one and the clockwise stroke is the shorter one. If there are no clothes in the tub the strokes are nearly equal in length. The larger the load, the shorter the clockwise stroke. In fact, at lower water levels, it's the counter-clockwise stroke that seems to facilitiate the rollover more than the clockwise stroke.
 
Hi Eugene,
I was at my parents house yesterday and mom was doing laundry. Her Frigidaire TL is about 10 yrs old now and still no repairs. Not quite as deluxe as yours but the tub and agitator look the same. Hers does fill to the top row of holes in the tub. She also has a Frigidaire dryer about 6 yrs old,looks as if it could be the same model as yours, with no issues either.
I did notice how quiet hers was, with almost a soothing sound as it agitated, not like the DD WP/KM. The drain pump was almost silent as well.
Hope yours serve you well!
Bill
 
Hi Frig--I looked again today and the water level on the large setting fills up to the 3rd row of holes, leaving two below the tub ring. Mine does not have the corkscrew agitator as yours does. It is, however, a bigger straight vane than the BOL model we saw at Lowes. I actually haven't had any loads that I could use the lower water levels so don't know about them. I believe that all in all I prefer my new machine to the 15 year old WP that I left in my condo. My new F'daire is quieter and has a slower stroke. I still like straight vane slower stroke machines.
Courtney--C'villewasherboi
 
Courtney-- I agree; It's refreshing to see a new machine that doesn't agitate at 160 opm.

Bill-- Someone was asking if there was a separate, smaller pump motor and I didn't know the answer because I haven't opened the machine up at all. I guess that answers the question! I didn't mean to imply the machine was really loud; it isn't. It's just that my FL'er is so quiet by comparison---until the spin cycle, of course.
 
It was De-rigeur to have one motor only for the longest time. In the beginning of automatics, it was beleived that the more motors, the more chances for mechanical failure.

Of course,today motor failures is not a huge quality /reliability issue. Having two motors makes for mechanical simplification /stream-lining. Spin drains are not in vogue in that they serve to add more and unnecessary stress to the spin motor, more than anything else.

Apparently the concept of the benefit it would provide, to wash-action and laundry results, is secondary. Methinks a neutral drain allows for a motor of smaller hors-power (capacity/strength).

When I advanced the timer manually of my new GE T/L washer such that it was still draining as it began to spin, the motor promptly shut down and went on strike (thermal overload protection). I was a bit disappointed.
 
Togs--- I thought the motor in my TL would be smaller, but it's 3/4 horsepower! Don't you love having a mechanical timer on your machine? Working in analog is veddy, veddy old school, but I love the ease with which you can repeat, jump, skip and hop all over the place during a cycle. With two washers, I'm hoping I can make both of them last into Vintagehood. "Gee, Daddy, did all washers look like a bar of soap back at the turn of the century?" "No, son, just mine."
 
I like the mechanical timer on your T/L-er.

I believe the timer on the front-loading frigidiare you have (I have the same one)is a hybrid digital/computerized & mechanical. Didn't someone say it counts the revolutions of the drum before it advances?
 
Wow, I had no idea about the timer on the FL. That's interesting. Apparantly it's on full-mechanical operation during spins, because it will advance as scheduled on the rare occcasion the load won't balance enough to spin.
 
BTW, I pulled the machine away from the wall (no mean feat, as all three machines have to be moved due to the fact all the hoses are stretched to the max), opened the console and found the water pressure dome thingy. There is no screw to adjust, damn it.

There is, however, some plastic doohicky with a blob of red paint on it. It looks like it might be the adjuster (it goes into the pressure dome further as you set the water level knob higher). It appears to take some odd little allen wrench to turn it. And I have no teeny allen wrenches. SO, I put it all back and decided to leave it alone for now.
 
Frigilux

When the spin motor stops, there is a continued, maybe 20 seconds of pump motor noise on mine, Still new and under warranty so i will leave well enough alone. I feel certain the pump has its own motor. When i first used it kinda reminded me of that old SQ solenoid quality about it coasting to a stop but the pump noise continuing. I think I will defer from tampering with the fill level, I do the reset thing too and add a little extra water when necessary. alr2903
 

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