Speed Queen FL w/ Heater

[toploader1984]

so disgusting..... my mother told me a story... a resteaurant she worked for used to wash their own linen napkins, when it was my mom's job to do the laundry for her side job she would use HOT! the owner would always come behind her and switch it to COLD...... my mom finally got fed up and told her off eventually. my mom said that when she put the linen in the dryer there was a pad of butter that was in there still in its regular shape not even melted or washed away...... think about it.... people blow their noses and everything in those napkins and here comes the next person who wipes their mouth on the same napkin that the other guy blew his snot in.

 

[tomturbomatic]

We used to go to a very nice Chinese restaurant that used pink polyester napkins in a very floral dining room. Being polyester, they were not absorbant, but they sure held onto the grease and being washed in cold water, they smelled foul. I am surprised they did not combust in the dryer unless they were dried on very low heat. Finally, one night the chef got into a terrible, loud screaming at the top of his voice type fight with the hostess who may or may not have been his wife. Of course we could not understand any of it, but kept thinking of those sharp knives back there so we counted ourselves lucky to get out and never went back. The napkins were disgusting, though, and made us think about the management's disregard or complete ignorance of principles of cleanliness and sanitation. Many restaurants, even the very fancy, embody the Yiddish aphorism "fancy on top, filthy underneath." Refusal to use anything but cold water for table linens or even for the cleaning cloths as Jeff saw in a McDonalds illustrates this perfectly.

 

[mrb627]

Funny...

We happened to find ourselves in a Chinese restaurant one afternoon during the week.  It was a group of us from the office.  Well, the restaurant would close a 2 pm after the lunch rush.  We didn't get there until 1:45 and were not aware that the restaurant closed so early.  The agreed to serve us without hesitation.  Well, shortly after 2 pm before we had gotten our lunch, a plate smashing argument ensued in the kitchen and eventually spilled out into the dining room.  Of course all the shouting was foriegn to us.  But we felt very embarrassed to be there at the time.  Makes me wonder just how many people have accidentally been in a restaurant when this kind of thing has happened.

 

Malcolm

 

[logixx]

What I don't quite understand is why consumers aren't given a choice. Take Bosch/Siemens for example: they make dryers that use 50% less energy than other A-rated dryers, their new dishwasher uses 1.7 gallons to clean 140 pieces. BUT the consumer still has a choice! On their washing machines, one can either use the regular cycle or add ecoPerfect or speedPerfect as an option. ecoPerfect extends the 60*C cycle to 3:25 hrs but uses very little energy, while speedPerfect takes slightly more than an hour - I think. It's the same with their dishwashers: wait three hours for the Eco cycle or add varioSpeed and it's done in one hour. Still, these are super-efficient appliances but the consumer has the choice of whether to take advantage of it or not.

Too bad US manufacturers don't have this much trust in the intelligence of US consumers: :-(

 

[appnut]

Too bad US manufacturers don't have this much trust in t

It's very apparent with U.s. versions of front loaders. We aren't trusted enough to have3 full understanding of spin speeds or water temperatures. Spin spees are referred to as low, medium, high, ex. high and no spin rather than actual RPM designations. Like on the uber-sized Mieles for the North American Market the water temps are cold, warm, very warm, hot, and santary rather than 80 or 85, 100, 120, 140, and 153 degrees.

 

[mrb627]

Actually

When you think about it, the average American consumer could care less.  Most people I know do not sort their laundry.  They wash in the same cycle all the time, regardless.  This is why they only check the 'NORMAL' cycle for the energystar rating.

 

Malcolm

 

[appnut]

Same with me about most I iknow don't sort at all.  yet, I get comments on how nice my clothes are, they seem to last a long time, and the clothes always smell nice. 

 

[mrb627]

Laundromat

I went to the Laundromat yesterday morning to wash my comforter. The dog sleeps on the bed so the comforter needs more cleaning than usual. Anyway. My usual mat was so busy that I opted to go to another a little further away. I hadn't been to this one before so I knew it would be an adventure.

I put the comforter in a mega-loader 80lb Dexter. $5.75 per wash. I thought that was quite reasonable compared to the charges at my usual haunt. I had already decided that I was gonna double wash it. So, 11.50 for washing. Did a good job. Very splashy as it was underloaded, for sure.

Anyway, in the row of machines I was in, there were four machines. 2 - 80 pounders and 2 - 50 pounders. All were running except mine when I got there. The other three machines were being used by a young Jamaican man. When he unloaded his machines, I could tell there was no rhyme or reason to how they were loaded. And I noticed that all four of them were running the same program. "Hot/Regular"

The odd thing, when he carted his mountain of wet laundry to the dryers, he sorted by color as he was loading them up. He used 9 dryers. NINE! I thought to myself, this guy must be washing for a small army. Anyway, I couldn't help but notice how beige his white clothes looked.

Shortly thereafter, a couple hispanics and their two young children came in with three baskets of clothes. The jammed everything into a 50 pounder and had to lean on the door to get it to latch. She selected "Hot/Regular" for her program of choice. Then, her husband turned up with the largest bag of "Foca" detergent I had ever seen. They put three cups in the dispenser as the machine was filling. The suds kicked up quite a mess. Bubbling out the top of the machine at first. Oddly, the bubbles died down quickly. Must have been some serious filth in that load. My comforter was finishing up its second wash so I was scouting for a big dryer. I happened to look back and they were dumping more foca into the dispenser on the machine. Ugh. I moved my comforter to a dryer, fed it six quarters, and let it rip. By this time, their machine was starting the final rinse. This woman used the same 1 cup measure to dispense a full cup of fabric softener into that machine.

Meanwhile, the machine I was using had a new customer. An older man with three dog beds which looked like they belonged to outside dogs. He loaded up and pulled out a ziplock freezer bag full of some blue liquid. Not sure how much was in there, but he used every drop. The suds were dark brown. Sickening. This was part of the reason I decided to double wash my comforter.

So that was my Sunday morning adventure.

Malcolm

 

[mysteryclock]

Laundromat

Yeah, that's why the last time I took something to use the big mega-machine at the laundromat I ran an empty/hot load of nothing but Charlie's Soap (big dose) and Lysol liquid, to clean out the machine before I put anything in there. Added $5.25 to the cost, obviously, but still ended up cheaper than taking it to a pro and having ~them~ stuff it into some nasty machine.

 

[logixx]

Reminds me of the time when I studied in the UK and had to use the Speed Queens at my dorm... nasty. At least one could remove the detergent drawer and rinse it to get the gunk out. It was worse with the Neptunes: their dispenser was held by screws and filthy beyond imagination.

 

[danmantn]

I've often wondered with the mega load machines - how much detergent does one use?  They are 3x-5x bigger than your standard machine...should I just 3x-5x more detergent?  No instructions on the machines usually, and I don't want to just stand there and pour it in until it "looks right".  Thoughts?

 

[mark_wpduet]

Most people I know do sort

But they over load the washer...I hate that!!

And speaking of manufacturers getting the energy star rating; that's fine, but I still don't understand why they don't include some cycle to use more water. Look at the Electrolux Wave Touch for example.....If you dig deep, there's is an "add more water" option. I was hoping Whirltag would do this with their newest updated front loaders hidden deep in the menu.....About everything you could want is there (except add more water) based on the manual.......

 

[jerrod6]

So with these new Speed Queens there is no way to get a "sanitized"  wash or wash that is in the 140F range?  How would you kill dust mites with 90F water?

 

As for sorting I didn't do that too much until I bought this current house which has a double laundry sink so that the washer drains into one side. You should have seen the wash water.  Color transfer into the water from every wash water pump out...not so much in the rinses. After seeing this  I began sorting more precisely but still there is dye transfer to the water.  Doesn't happen a lot with synthetics which I don't have a lot of, but it happens with cottons.    For me no colors get mixed with whites.  I have a white load.  I wash light blue and green together, dark blues together, blacks together, dark green and dark red together. Tans and yellows together.  I recently bought pairs of black, blue, olive green and tan casual pants.  All of these say that you cannot use fabric softener, so now these have to go into their own loads if I want to use Fs.

 

Not trusting consumers?  Miele included.  When I purchased my W1986 washer the pages containing the programming instructions were deliberately left out of the manual.  I stumbled into them when looking at the same model sold in the AU.  Even if you look at our Miele DW manuals you see that they don't contain the same detail about program cycles as manuals sold in other parts of the world.

 

I hope other manufacturers do not follow speed queen and at least allow consumers the option of using a heater. Maybe I should buy a new washer now and just keep it in storage until I need it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Jerrod, same here with my W1986, but Edward (eddy1210) came to my rescue and sent me the programming he could get from Miele Canada to ensure proper rinsing in the machine. Now, when I choose a cycle, the "sensitive" dot lights up. In the cottons cycle the 3 rinses are all high water level (up on the glass) and the first one lasts a full 10 minutes. I am so glad I got the 1986 and the 1918 in 2004. I had wanted to see the features on the new models, but when I saw how restictive the new controls were, I started beating the bushes for the older machines. I found a deal on the pedestals for them at US Appliance and like the way the doors are at eye level when I am seated. The viewing is like in an old coin laundry, but better.

 

[neptunebob]

Jerrod, what brand pants are they that you cannot use fabric softener?  Are they Dockers?

 

[jerrod6]

landsend

 

Neptunebob: Landsend and also I have some shirts from Eddie Bauer that state on the laundering instructions that you should not use Fabric softener so I don't .  These slacks and shirts come out looking almost perfect even if I use the regular  cottons cycle instead of perm press so perhaps the restriction has something to do with fabric softener removing the reduced iron properties of the garments....Whatever.... they come out looking and feeling great without the Fs so I do separate loads for them.

 

Tomtubomatic: Yeah I was looking at the pre- 1986  Miele washer models and thought I would get the 4 to  5 rinses with the 1986.  Was kind of disappointed that mine did two or three with the sensitive option selected, but did realize that the 2 or three where higher level than the 4 or 5.   I called Miele tech and asked them for the water usage.  Turns out that, as delivered,  if you select sensitive - 3 rinses, it will give you slightly less water in each individual rinse than it would if you use the standard two rinses so no deeper rinse;---just 3 more of them each one with even less water than the standard.

 

Once I found the programming instructions and set it for water+ in wash and rinse I get much more water, up into the door glass  for the rinses just as you have described. I will  confess that lately I have been using two rinses for smaller loads and things work well.  A lot depends on how well the detergent formulation will rinse out in the first place.  

 

Now I love my W1986 especially the fact that it will adjust the cycle time to the load size which is something I don't think the 1926 or 1930 or 1918  would do--not sure about that, but I guess the newer LG, Duets, Maytags and other machines do this too. I also like the fact that the 1986 is  220V so it can heat the water to almost 200F in a very short period of time. I really wish I would never have to get another washer period.