Sneaking Into the Neptune TL

[Designgeek]

Ahh yes!, as I expected: lift out the clothes-ball, drop it into the tumble dryer, and it automatically "untangles" and "unwrinkles." That's taking "automatic" to a whole new level!

Very interesting explanation on Maytag's part, about the tangle or "wrap" factor. Makes perfect sense. With a center agitator, you lift out one piece at a time and don't tend to notice the fact that shirt sleeves are wrapped around pants legs and so on. Or you notice but it's "not remarkable" since it's always happened that way. But w/o a center agitator, you see a ball of clothes and immediately assume it's tangled, which it's not. But lifting out the whole load in one neat ball, ready to drop into the dryer, is way way cool. Question is, does the matching dryer have a reversing-drum feature where it reverses direction of rotation every so often throughout the cycle?

I figured Maytag had to have put a decent amount of engineering smarts into that design, and it would work properly for anyone who had one and understood how it was supposed to work.

What they really need for this is an animated cartoon ad showing how you use it, and that you can just "dump in" the load w/o arranging items around an agitator, and then lift out the clothes-ball in one swoop, drop it in the dryer, and the dryer separates it all back out again. This could be illustrated very easily nowadays.

I hope they keep it in the product line. Seems to me the best of both worlds in a way, i.e. most of what people like about TLs and the efficiency of a FL, plus vertical axis spin to reduce vibration. And no door seal. Only thing it lacks is a window in the lid, but obviously that's not essential seeing as Gansky was able to bypass the switch easily enough.

What I'd like to see next is one of these with a rotary knob for setting the cycles. For some reason I just can't get used to seeing washers with a bunch of flat touchscreen buttons on them instead of a knob. Hmm!

 

[gansky1]

This is exactly what I've been saying about new washer instructional videos for several years now. For the most part, they are not instructional at all. LG has about the worst one I've ever seen, Whirlpool Duet is closer to what's needed for most people to understand the functions and capabilities of the washer. For the average user that has no clue (or care) what goes on inside the tried and true top loading washer, to open the door or peer through the glass and see a strange sight or two is a bit offputting. Opening the lid of the Maytag Neptune TL and seeing a "ball" of clothes is quite shocking, perhaps if they had left the clothes stuck to the sides of the basket, it would have been more familiar and reassuring that their worlds had not been turned upside down.

Bypassing the lid switches was easy enough, but since the water sprays from nozzles in the top panel into channels in the lid, with it open, the water hits the lid and the front of the observer in a quite embarassing way. I need to experiment with a small piece of rubber or plastic to slip in behind the lid to direct the water flow directly into the tub.

 

[Bearpeter]

someone mentioned hoovermatic?

I was just reading through this thread and saw someone mentionthe thought of a hoovermatic with two impellors. What a great idea, especially if they worked against each other. IE. instead of them rotating in the same direction, how about opposite. If anyone saw the movies about the washing action of the Dyson, I get a (non scientist perspective)thought that this would generate and more powerful action with maybe less wear than a normal hoovermatic. Anyone got any ideas on this one?

 

[Designgeek]

Gansky1, you know why they set up the water inlets like that, with the channels through the lid and so on: to drench appliance hobbyists and geeks who insist on peeking! Maybe even to discourage competitors' engineers from taking a look and working around the patents too! ("Yow! I'm soaked! Bob, we don't have to worry about competing with this one, it squirts water all over the place!")

Bearpeter, I suggested a dual-impeller Hoovermatic a ways back in I don't remember which thread. The idea was, the two impellers would be opposite each other, and would work in various phases, in sync and opposed, thereby eliminating the horizontal vortex action that tends to cause tangles. But the reason they wouldn't have built it that way is because the mechanism for the second impeller would have meant reduced capacity or made the machine too large for the usual hiding-places where people store their compacts between washdays.

Maytag's design is much more clever than my proposed dual impeller Hoovermatic, because the impellers converge at the bottom, the better to handle small loads with less water; and they act more like lift-and-drop blades than like impellers in the conventional sense.

Maytag had a portable a couple of decades ago, similar to the Hoovermatic but with dual impellers on one side of the tub. Would be interesting to see videos of that.

 

[gansky1]

Small Loads

Actually, small loads in the Neptune TL are quite disappointing. The impeller/discs rotate in the opposite direction you might think in wash/agitate cycles (the 'vane' is not lifting the load at all) and the action is pretty tame with only a few items in the tub. The few items I did in the very first load did move and turn over, OK for lightly soiled or delicate items, but not for heavily soiled items that needed a good scrubbing or thrashing.

 

[mayken4now]

This is a real exciting posting Greg! I like runematic's comments and bulletin that was posted. Very educational. Keep the fun disc-ing

Steve

 

[westytoploader]

Ahhh, so the discs DO rotate in the opposite direction on small loads! Interesting! It surprises me that there's no "lifting" action by the vane on the disc as well...can you do a small load on the Normal cycle and fool the machine into thinking it's loaded down?

 

[DADoES]

I believe he means that the discs don't rotate in the direction one would assume they should, based on how the large center "vanes" are molded into them ... not that they rotate in the opposite direction during a small load from how they rotate during a large load.

Look at picture #3 above. See how the load is shoved up against the back of the wash basket, which means the disc at the right is turning clockwise and the one on the left is turning counterclockwise. Now look at the disc on the right, at the "vane" that is positioned at the lower right of the picture. With the disc turning clockwise, it slides beneath the clothes and doesn't provide any direct lifting force to roll them over. Also reference this picture.

The little "nubs" molded into the outer edge of the discs, do provide some rollover, as does friction against the surface of the discs with the ridges molded into them. But a very small load, one, two, or three items, may not get much action.

 

[mrb627]

Pillows

I wonder how a couple of king size pillows would fair in this machine. My duet handles them with ease. I wouldn't expect this machine to fair very well...

MRB

 

[mayken4now]

I have changed my mine! I want one now!

Thanks Guys, as they will become famous ya know!

Steve

 

[Washachine]

I'm most facinated by these machines and was wondering if the discs always end up in the same position for tumbling. It appears from your pictures (BTW thank you so much) the discs are at a 12 and 6 O'clock position. Are they always that way for the wash and rinse cycle? I would love to know how the gears re-engage after the spin cycle.

 

[Designgeek]

Pillows hmm.... Pillows really need a good drenching, but I bet the Maytag would be great for blankets and suchlike that are more readily soaked through without having to be held under water.

 

[gansky1]

I usually try to wash pillows in a front-loader, preferably one with a higher water level. When I've done them in a Wascomat at one of my commercial accounts, I drench them with a warm pre-wash, then advance the cycle to final spin (OPL machine, no coin box) then restart the cycle again with detergent, etc. I have read in a number of vintage washer user's manuals to open a seam of the pillow ticking and pin shut again - one on each end of the pillow - presumably to allow air to escape. Once ticking gets wet, it doesn't allow air to escape very easily which is why I used the spin cycle to force the air out.

I'm going to borrow my sister's video camera and will take some shots of the Nep-TL so everyone can see exactly how it runs. Glenn (dadoes) has the right idea though - discs only run in one direction, opposite of what you might think. All will be clear with video...

 

[super32]

Discs

The discs dont really start in same "spot" everytime. The transsmission operates much the same as many other T/L's. One direction locks the gears and allows for spin and the other direction turns the gears for washing. The only key is make sure the discs are re-installed in a certain position if they are removed for servicing. There are 2 arrows, one on each disc, that must line up together upon re-installation. If they are not, they (maytag) warns that it would cause poor washing and extream tangling.

Scott

 

[Brneyedgrl80]

Thanks so much for the review. My husband and I have been contemplating getting this machine, as well as it's dryer counterpart, but the price has deterred us for awhile. I believe the washer alone is $999 and the dryer is $599.

Hopefully the price will go down for a new machine one day, though it's been about a year now and the price hasn't budged.

 

[kenmore1978]

price

"Hopefully the price will go down for a new machine one day, though it's been about a year now and the price hasn't budged"

Try the Scratch & Dent store.