Spin Dryer commercial

[launderess]

Spin Rinsing

Method of rinsing described by DesignGeek is how one spin rinses with a Hoover twin tub. Laundry is taken from the wash tub and the first spin extracts soap/detergent water back into the wash tub for reuse. Next, one simply fills the extractor tub with water, over the laundry and then let the machine do it's thing. Am here to tell you there is a thrilling sound as the water hits the outer tub as the spinner ramps up to speed. In theory one could take the laundry out of the spin tub and do deep rinses in the wash tub, but have found several spin rinses to be VERY effective in removing even heavy detergent residue.

Vis a vis the above, when a wash load has too much detergent residue and I do not feel like waiting ages for the Miele to do several cycles, just bung the load into the Hoover and do spin rinses. Usually three or four fills and the rinse water is clear. How cool is that?

Pouring water or hosing durning a spin rinse in machines not designed for that sort of thing can damage the motor. It also does very little in terms of rinsing as the water is quickly pulled to the top/sides of the tub as it enters, then spun out. In order to be effective the spin speed would have to be slowed down allowing the water to saturate the entire load from the top down. This is why the Hoover method is much more effective in rinsing. In fact most Hoover TT's fans seem to admit the "Deluxe" rinsing feature on later models (a spray rinse), does not do as good a job as previous incarnations.

An interesting spray rinse/extractor feature is found on the Unimac twin tubs, commonly seen in car washes/restaurants. Water enters the spin tub by means of a diffuser which creates a fine mist. This mist is then pulled through the load creating a very effective rinsing action even when the spinner is at speed. One can keep this water going as long as one likes, then shut it off to allow final spin drying.

Launderess

 

[whirlcool]

Spin Rinsing

After experimenting with different spin rinshing techniques today I came up with a version that works nicely. It's along the lines of Designgeeks and Laundress' recommended process.
I took a load of towels out of the washer and put a few in the spinner, I had a big pitcher of water (64oz) and poured some of it on these towels, added more water, then more towels, etc. I found that if I just poured the water on top of a load of towels, the water wouldn't make it to the bottom of the spinner as it was being absorbed by the towels on the top in the spinner basket. The spinner did start off slowly taking about a minute to reach full Concorde velocity. BTW, the rinse water came from our Reverse Osmossis water filter. I was amazed that the water was slightly cloudy as the rinse water in the washer was relatively clear. I did four of these spin rinses and the water was clear at the end.
But wait, there's more....
When I dried the towels, I noticed that they were nice and fluffy but I had one towel that was part of a set of four towels, beige backround with intermittent blue and rust color stripping. Only one of these towels went through this process, the other one was still sitting clean in the linen closet. I compared them and the beige was much more brighter on the towel that was spin rinsed, and the blue and beige stripes were much brighter and apparent than the other towels. I was amazed. These towels are about 8 years old, but still in great shape. Could this be that the spin rinse cleaned out all the old detergent residue that built up over the years? Could this be why front loading machines clean clothes better, because of the higher spin speed?

 

[tlee618]

Hi Whirlcool, am also wondering if you noticed any difference in the smell of the towels after drying. When I have used Roger's little Thomas spinner in Az. I am always amazed at the difference, they just have a different scent. Maybe it is just my imagination, what do you think? Anyone else have thoughts on this. Terry

 

[bpetersxx]

expensive spindryer

I found this while looking for compact dishwashers

http://www.stacksandstacks.com/html/8917_dryer-spindryer.htm

 

[launderess]

High speed extraction is much like a centrifuge (sp?- too knackered to look it up), in that is does a good job of "separating" out materials. In the case of laundry water and soilds are removed from the heaviest of items, the laundry.

A quick examination of water extracted from the Hoover TT spinner, even after a final high spin spin in a Miele shows not only water, but foam (excess detergent/laundry product residue), and if present soils and sand.

Remember those Bugs Bunny cartoons where a wet animal sort of "extracts" water from his fur leaving him bone dry? Well the same sort of thing is going on in the spinner. This is why towels seem so much more fluffier, even when line dried, and laundry seems "brighter". Dulling soap and detergent residues have been spun out, leaving laundry cleaner. Even on the rare occasions I use scented detergent (Wisk Tabs) for our laundry, the fragrance is almost gone after a spin in the Hoover TT. Can only assume that the fragrance is no match for a two or three minute high speed extraction and it goes down the drain along with the water and soap residue.

Great thing about these extractors is one can have a high speed final spin until one is satisfied items are indeed "spun dry". IIRC most washers limit their final high spin to about the final two or three minutes of the final spin cycle. This may or may not be enough depending upon the load size and composition. A load of thick and thirsty bath towels/robes almost always benefits from a good long high speed spin, whereas sheets and shirts not quite.

Sadly one thing in common with extractors/spinners seems to be they do not have along useful life without repairs. Even the old Bock extractors needed regular repairs, so must guess high speed spinning does cause some stress on parts.

Launderess

Launderess

 

[toggleswitch]

ahhh... scent and chemicals are separated out.

Explains why spinner processed items appear to me to be rougher-- any softener is outta there!

and/or perhaps still havent found the right automatic dry cycle setting, so far, and the machine is over-dyring!

 

[lavamat_jon]

Launderess,

I have to agree with you about the "fluffiness" towels gain after a high speed spin. My AEG is quite rare among frontloaders in that it maintains 1600 for about 6 or 7 minutes (versus my Miele which maintains spins at 1600rpm for 3 minutes after a 3 minute 1200rpm spin, and the Bosch which spins at 1400 for 1 minute or so after 2 or 3 minutes at 1000rpm), which whilst unnecessary on most fabrics where a 3 or 4 minute spin at even 800 or 1000rpm will do, the longer faster spin really does get that extra bit of water out of towels and as a result, compared to both the Miele and the Bosch the towels come out more fluffy when spun in the AEG - although the end result is questionable dependant upon what drying method is used/

There are two views to the fact that more chemicals are spun from the laundry - the fact that its a good thing as it gets as much detergent out as possible and hence lowering the chances of skin irritation or any other allergies, and also the fact that as Toggle mentioned softeners etc are spun out more. Solution to this seems to be either lower the speed (if possible on a machine with variable speed control), or shorten the spin time if using a spinner. I often use the Minimum Iron cycle on my Miele when washing clothes for the particular reason to the fact that the shorter and slower spin, whilst getting the majority of the water out with hardly any creasing at all, also leaves more of the softener in (both softness and scent) which is much more pleasant on clothes. Of course, there is nothing worse than scratchy undies LOL.

The reliability of spin dryers is questionable and all depending on the use. If you use it in a proper fashion, load it so that it doesn't go off balance, and (if the spinner is equipped with a rinse function) don't overfill with water, then it should last you for quite a while. Launderess - you have a good point regarding the Bock spin dryers, I would say that as they would have multiple users, especially the ones in launderettes, that they would have handled a lot of abuse, people not loading properly etc and therefore impacting on the life of the spinner.

Right, I've blabbered on here long enough... time to start my washing LOL.

Take care all,

Jon

 

[Designgeek]

I've also noticed a complete absence of scent (which to me means "perfectly clean") when using the spin/rinse procedure. Very interesting, that may in fact be old detergent residue coming out. And yes, my underwear comes out whiter. I found a few pair at the bottom of my underwear drawer that hadn't been worn or washed since before I got the TT, and they are definitely a shade grayer.

Re. durability & repairs: if the machine is subjected to excessive vibration, that will probably shorten the life of the bearings compared to if it's loaded properly so it runs smoothly. Difficult to tell in advance when you've got it loaded just right, but over time one tends to get it right by intuition.

The Unimatic sytem is very clever, but also probably has a 1-HP or larger motor driving it. That would certainly be a good machine to have for a very large household or a communal laundry. I'm going to guess those things cost about $3,000 new because they're probably manufactured in limited production runs.

The unit depicted in bpetersxx's posting looks like a Spin-X. Those are either made in USA or are European units imported & rebranded here, definitely the high-end version, and a full 3,300 RPM. I was thinking, a pump and normal discharge hose would be a great standard feature on those things, but it just occurred to me: many people do not have a sink in their laundry room, only a single vertical pipe in which to stick a discharge hose from the washer. So an additional discharge hose from a spinner could be problematic: where to stick that hose? And if the machine is used as a post-process after a washer with regular spin, the amount of water coming out will not be large, so gravity drain into a bucket is not a serious inconvenience, especially after you see the dryer time cut by half and the electric bill go down.

"That sound" Yeah, it's cool, I think of it as sounding like a jet turbine winding up.

Re. doggies: "Here comes this big noisy thing moving across the floor, definitely time to sound the alarm and woof up a storm!"

 

[whirlcool]

After doing most of laundry yesterday, it seems the dogs have gotten used to the spin dryer, even though they do keep an eye on it when it's spinning up...(Yellow Lab, Black Lab/Great Dane Mix, Dalmatian)
I also had to divide the laundry load from the washer into three parts as one washer load wouldn't fit into the spinner at one time.
The clothes that we used softner on (Downy Vanilla & Honeysuckle) fragrance was reduced, but it was still there even after a few spin/rinses. But the water extracted, especially from the jeans/socks had quite a bit of foam on the surface of the water. It took about four spin rinses to get the water clean. When we add water to spin rinse we set the spinner for five minutes.
I learned a heck of a lot from this thread! I'll keep an eye on making sure the spinner is balanced before spinning. It's kind of amazing that if it is just a little bit out of balance, it throws it off. Also, the better it is balanced, the quieter the unit runs.

 

[whirlcool]

Tlee618:

Yes, the spin dried laundry does have a fresher fragrance. Kind of like a "lighter" smell.

See if you can detect which towel was spun dried below, the right side or the left side. You can easily tell by the color and the "fluff factor" differece. It's more apparent in person! Both these towels are the same age and have had approximately the same number of uses over the years.

 

[tlee618]

Whirlcool, I am guessing the one on the left the colors seem to be more intense. Seems a bit of a blurr so I could be wrong. I sure do agree about the "fresher frangance" Terry

 

[whirlcool]

Hint

Look at the very bottom of each towel and see which "stands up" (fluffier) better....

 

[westytoploader]

That has to be the one on the right, looks much brighter and "fresher".

After seeing this I need one of these!

 

[whirlcool]

Here's a better photo

Here is a clearer photo of the towels. Remember they are about 8 years old and have been in weekly use. See how the color on the non-spin rinsed one is more faded out and the beige looks kind of dingy.

 

[whirlcool]

Here's a better photo

Here is a clearer photo of the towels. Remember they are about 8 years old and have been in weekly use. See how the color on the non-spin rinsed one is more faded out and the beige looks kind of dingy. The fibers seem to stand up better.

 

[tlee618]

Thanks Allen, That picture is much better and can easly see the difference now. Terry

 

[Designgeek]

'Yow! that's a darn good comparison there! The spin/rinsed towel looks newer, fresher, and the colors are brighter.

I really noticed brighter color with a somewhat old medium-green shirt of mine that I had previously thought of as faded and dingy, as in "don't wear this to client sites except when doing a new PBX install or helping the cable crew (both of which are physically intensive)." Over the past few months I've noticed: hey this is brighter, looks newer. So now I figure it must be the highspeed spin taking out all the detergent residue that had never quite come out. Very interesting!