Speed Queen wrinkled chothes?!!!

[sam042955]

Please tell me it's something I'm doing wrong. I just purchased (TODAY) a nice Speed Queen AWN432SP113TW01. It's exactly what I wanted -- or thought I wanted: a traditional, normal, no bells and whistles washing machine. No locking lid. No jingles that sing to me. No expensive electronic boards to have to replace when they break down. Just a basic, turn the knob, wash the clothes, dependable for years and be done with it machine. The problem I've run into is that the spin cycle is SO robust, everything comes out all wrinkled, even when I'm standing there as soon as it goes off to take everything out. ALL the clothes are PLASTERED to the side of the drum, and wrinkled beyond belief. I've never seen anything like it. I've tried the Heavy Duty/Permanent Press cycle and the Eco cycle (I haven't tried the Delicate cycle) and it doesn't seem to make any difference. It's great that the clothes come out REALLY DEVOID OF EXCESS WATER (thanks to the high RPM of the spin cycle), but it's not great that they're all smushed up and wrinkled. I KNOW that with all the positive reviews of this machine I have to be missing something here. But for the life of me I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I had been using a GE machine that died after 6 years, and never had this problem with that machine.

HELP!!!

 

[Marky_Mark]

I will be really interested to see what people say about this.  I recently used a Speed Queen TL in California and experienced exactly the same thing as you describe.  I think the spin speed of these machines is only 710 RPM but my clothes came out plastered to the side of the drum and wrinkled.  However I thought this was typical of all top loaders.  It was a commercial machine and only did a spray rinse and therefore only one spin during the entire cycle.

 

I am presuming that you are used to toploaders.  Could you tell us which GE machine you had and which machines you are comparing your Speed Queen to?  It’s interesting if you are experiencing this with the Speed Queen but haven’t previously noticed with other machines you have used.  I wonder what the difference is and what has changed.  I am sure other forum members will be able to help you get the most out of your new machine, which should last you a very long time.

 

When clothes are spun in my Miele at 1600 RPM, due to the spin profile, they are loose and fluffy in the drum and much, much drier.  The clothes came out of the Speed Queen very wet in comparison and I also noticed that as the cycle ended and the brake stopped the drum, a small accumulation of water around the drum’s rim fell onto the clothes creating wet patches.  However when they came out of the Speed Queen dryer after 45 minutes on medium they were fine and contained fewer creases than when they come out of my Miele heat-pump dryer.  So I was happy with the end result.  I selected "hot" which gave a warm wash.  The cleaning was fairly adequate with Tide 4-in-1 pacs and I didn’t notice the lack of a deep-fill rinse.  I didn’t even notice the absence of fabric softener, which I normally use but couldn’t in this spray-rinse machine.

[this post was last edited: 7/10/2015-07:27]

 

[Marky_Mark]

Another thought:

 

Could it be that the Speed Queen, with its spin drain, causes the clothes to be spread out and plastered all over the drum?  Whereas with your GE, if it had a neutral drain, caused the clothes to first fall to the bottom of the drum in a pile together and then commence the spin.  Therefore perhaps the clothes in the GE were all spun together towards the bottom of the drum and didn't appear quite so plastered all over the walls of the drum?

 

What is the end result like after drying?  Are you using the same dryer?  Do the clothes emerge from the dryer with more wrinkles now or would you say it's pretty much the same as it was with the GE?

 

[yogitunes]

first of all.....in a perm press setting, the tub should be only 2/3 filled with clothes, true warm or hot wash, with a cold rinse.....minimal spinning....

if your standing there waiting for the spin to end to remove the clothes, theres a slight advantage to your wait time, and the machine your using......once the tub is empty of water shut the machine off, and remove your clothes.....don't let it run for the whole spin period...

I often wondered why my sisters clothes puffed right up after the last spin, then I realized she didn't let it run for the whole time, once the water was finished pumping out, she would push in the knob and remove her clothes...

I always find tossing them in the dryer for about 10 minutes removes all the wrinkles from a spin cycle.....whether I hang them outside, or on hangers...

 

[mrb627]

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

Perhaps providing a few pictures of what you are washing and how would help to identify the problem.

Malcolm

 

[frigilux]

The final spin on a Speed Queen top-loader is pretty brief to begin with. In fact, that was one of the minor grumbles I had about the AWN542. I'm not recalling that wrinkling was any worse with the SQ than previous top-loaders I've had. Interesting.

As Mark mentioned, clothes are spun faster than 710 rpm---and several minutes longer---in my Frigidaire front-loader, but the slow fluff-tumble at the end of the cycle helps relax spin-induced wrinkles.

 

[mrb627]

Longer Spins

The spins are a bit longer on the latest series of SQ TL machines. Honestly, no top loader I have ever used wrinkles as much as a front loader. Especially the euro-sized machines.

Perhaps the hoses got reversed during the original poster's install and spin-sprays and rinses are in hot water?

Malcolm

 

[sam042955]

The GE I was using is no longer made, but it's almost identical to this one:

Model # GTWN4250DWS

It didn't make any difference if I was washing a very small load or an average size load -- the clothes were all plastered up against the side. (And as I said...the only setting I didn't try was delicate.)

I don't think the hoses were switched upon installation, but I can double check.

I haven't tried the extra rinse cycle, but I will try that and see if that makes any difference.

I'm not sure how photos of the clothes plastered against the side of the drum will help. They're just plastered against the side of the drum; no clothes in the bottom at all. In fact, on a small load with a few towels, a hand towel had the indentations of the cirlces from the drum indented all over it. It was kind of crazy.

 

[sam042955]

Oh. And I'm certain that the machine had completely finished the cycle before I opened the lid, but I'll try again just to make sure.

As far as what I was washing:

1. A few towels and a pair of sweatpants on the "Eco" cycle.

2. Some pants and shirts on the permenant press cycle.

3. I'm now washing queen size sheets and pillow cases with extra rinse to see how that works.

 

[Marky_Mark]

 

<span lang="EN-US">Hi Sam</span>

 

<span lang="EN-US">Thank you for the update.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I would be really interested if you could let us know the following:</span>

 

<span lang="EN-US">--Are you using the same dryer as before?</span>

<span lang="EN-US">--Is the laundry coming out of the dryer more wrinkled than with the GE machine?</span>

 

<span lang="EN-US">My experience is that the Speed Queen TL leaves the clothes plastered to the drum, as flat as a pancake and wrinkled/squashed even with the Speed Queen’s very slow spin of 710 RPM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Whereas my Miele, after its 1600 RPM spin, leaves clothes loosely piled and usually nothing is stuck to the drum.</span>

 

<span lang="EN-US">However, even though they looked terrible when I opened the lid of the Speed Queen, AFTER DRYING, my clothes washed and dried in the Speed Queens emerged with fewer wrinkles than when washed and dried in my Mieles.  This could be because the American Speed Queen dryer, with its larger drum, does a better job of removing wrinkles than my Euro Miele dryer with the same sized load of laundry.  And/or perhaps even though the laundry appears so squashed from the Speed Queen, the slow spin of 710 RPM doesn't induce any difficult creases.  You've made me curious now, so the next couple of loads I wash, I will set my Miele to spin at 700 RPM to see if it has any effect once the laundry emerges from the dryer.
</span>

 

[this post was last edited: 7/10/2015-11:22]

 

[sam042955]

I did want to add that AFTER DRYING (in a Whirlpool gas dryer) the clothes seemed fine. (And yes...I am using the same dryer as I did with the GE.) It was just the shock of seeing what they looked like after opening the lid that caused me to post here.

Also, after doing a load of sheets, and using the extra rinse option, even though the clothes seemed to be up against the side of the drum, and understandably wrinkled for the type of load I was washing, they seemed a little damper and possibly a bit less wrinkled. I just tossed them in the dryer and will post after they're done.

 

[sam042955]

Update:

Note: I wasn't able to read the instruction manual because the guy from the store who installed the machine didn't remove the packet with the manual before he turned it on to test it (it got drenched), so please excuse my ignorance of what is probably covered in the manual.

The sheets came out the same from the dryer as when I washed them in the GE. (They're Egyptian Cotton and they always need some hand smoothing to remove some wrinkles.)

When it comes to the Eco setting, I know I waited until the end of the full cycle, because there's no option in the middle for an extra rinse. As far as the Heavy Duty/Permanent Press setting, I believe I did cut the process short because after the "Spin" cycle I saw the "Extra Rinse" cycle, knew I hadn't selected Extra Rinse, and since the machine had stopped moving/spinning, I lifted the lid and removed the clothes. I didn't realize that the timer was still going.

Here's what's listed on the Heavy Duty/Permanent Press setting:

Heavy/Normal/Light/Rinse/Spin/Extra Rinse...End.

If I'm not using the Extra Rinse option, do I still have to let the timer run its course (through the Extra Rinse option that I'm not using in this case) all the way to the end? What's going on in the machine if I'm not using the Extra Rinse from the Spin to the End? Are the clothes just sitting there in the machine? If so, does that really make sense, when I can save time and just remove them after the Spin cycle?

 

[mrb627]

Extra Rinse

If Extra Rinse is not selected, the timer should stop between the last spin and before the extra rinse section on the dial.

The manual can be downloaded from the speed queen website.

While 710 RPM is not very fast in the front load marketplace, it is surely faster than the GE machine you have used previously.

Malcolm

 

[sam042955]

Malcom:

It did stop. Or at least I thought it stopped -- between the spin and the extra rinse. But I didn't put my ear up to the timer to double check. I paid more careful attention when I used the extra rinse, and there was what seemed to me to be a LONG pause after the spin and before the extra rinse kicked in. I put my ear up to the timer and heard it ticking, so I just waited until the extra rinse kicked in. That's when I wondered if maybe the timer was still ticking even without the extra rinse selected in the first load I did.

I'm sure once I get more familiar with it I'll really like this machine. It's just that initial WTF when I first opened it up and saw the clothes plastered to the side of the drum, looking very wrinkled.

 

[Marky_Mark]

I wonder what the spin speed was on your old GE.  Malcolm, what would you say its spin speed was likely to be?  The spin speed of the model of GE you mentioned appears to be 700 RPM.  Even if your old machine was only 650 RPM or slower, I still wonder if the difference you are seeing is perhaps not because your new Speed Queen spins faster or longer, but more to do with the spin profile or something else.....see the point I made in reply #2 about the neutral versus spin drain.

 

Still, whatever the reason, it sounds like you are happy with the end result once the laundry comes out of the dryer.  I know what you mean about the indentations in the laundry from the holes in the drum -- I've experienced that from a SQ too!  All fine after it's been through the dryer.  I can certainly understand your WTF reaction at first though!

 

I hope you enjoy your shiny, new Speed Queen!  A very durable machine!

 

All the best

Mark

 

 

 

[sam042955]

Thanks Mark. According to the GE site that model I listed (not the exact model I had, but close) has a spin speed of 700 rpm. But I had a plastic ribbed drum on the GE, not a stainless steel smooth drum like on the SQ, so I don't know if that made a difference or not. I have a feeling for my needs I might be using the delicate cycle for a lot of small loads. But at least since everything looks good after it comes out of the dryer, and I'm definitely a dryer vs outside sun dry kind of person, I shouldn't have any problems. This site was helpful in, among other things, letting me know that it's "normal" for this SQ machine to plaster the clothes up against the side of the drum, in what appears to be, at first, an abnormally wrinkled condition. So thanks to everyone who responded. I'll post back periodically with any relevant updates.

 

[DADoES]

 
The timer goes "dead" immediately after the spin when Extra Rinse is not selected.

When Extra Rinse is selected, the timer probably needs to advance through one or two increments of what would otherwise be dead "off" space until it gets to the point of filling for the extra rinse ... thus the faint sound of the timer motor running will be audible during that interim.

 

[sam042955]

Thanks DaDoES. That makes sense.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Okay: 2 things to clarify here.

1. When Talking about the extraction value on ANY washer the correct measure is NOT RPM of the cylinder but G-force. AKA the amount of centrifigual force acting on the load being spun.
For example, an 80# Speed Queen washer spinning at 524 RPM exerts a G-force of 140 on the load. By comparison a 120# Speed Queen spinning a 490 RPM also reaches 140 G. The diameter of the drum the load is spinning in AND the RPM determine G-force.

2. Clothes will always be plastered farther up the side of the drum in a thinner layer on a spin drain TL washer. Because the tub starts turning while the clothes are still floating in water they have no time to settle as the machine drains.
WK78