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Allen:

I suppose the trick is to, of course, load it in a balanced way, and cut off the power ASAP when it is struggling.

The other guys (at the mini wash-in) had better luck with it than I did.

The smell is dissipating. It may have been jsut the new appliance "break-in period" odor.

Also trick seems to be to push the load in as far a possible, but not too much at once.

:-)
 
Proper load size for these...

Drop the wet clothes into the spinner until it's full, don't press them down, and then put on the spin mat to keep stuff from escaping.

If you overload, what will happen is that the cylinder will take excessive time to come up to speed, which could cause problems.

An unbalanced load will cause excessive vibration. You can tell when you hear it. When properly loaded these things should be whisper-quiet when they're at running speed.

If you use the spin/rinse procedure of running water through the machine during a spin cycle, wait until it's up to speed before turning on the water and then monitor the operation. If the spinner starts to slow down, you're using too much water too fast, so turn down the water a bit.

These things are not "automatic" in the sense we're normally used to; they should be watched while in operation, at least until you're sufficiently accustomed to the sounds they make that you can keep an ear on it from another room.

Re. the various teething troubles & supply-line delays: this is normal for "early adopters" of various technologies or for technologies entering new markets. The burning smell might be a bad sign, I would look into that more closely.
 
I wrote something about the micro-twinnie in England, though someone around here actually has one and has posted extensively including pictures.

The micro-twinnie on that USA site is similar to but not the same as the one sold in England. But, eeyow!, yellow and purple?! Can we have a choice of colors, please?, maybe back to good old blue & white and so on, maybe some pastels to match the vintage apartment kitchen...?

I might get one as a test case; would also be interesting to substitute DC motors and see if it would run off a solar system.

24" tall is a bit tall for convenient use if placed atop a kitchen counter next to the sink. Might be more convenient to place on a table adjacent to a bath tub or something.

What I need more than this is a compact dishwasher, but they seem to be too large for the space I have available. And a micro tumble dryer (also on the UK site) would be nice for spot-drying individual articles when there's not enough time to hang them on the line.
 
Spinner Twinny

Here`s the link again and its very much on the lines of Toggles new spinner...1600rpm and very quiet...

In my experience you get to know how to load you own individual machines...(and having lots of spinners, about, 7 single & 16 on twinnies) the best option is to drape the clothes around the sides, think agi in the middle...place small items in the middle, dont pack down too tight because they need to fly to the sides etc...place the mat on top..

The newer twinnies are quiet ...but the older belt driven ones are most certainly not...I`ll make a mini vid (Hi Glen)of the latest model I`ve picked up, a 70`s Creda Debonair, 2,800rpm, it sounds like a cement mixer with afterburners..lol, very distinctive sound

Happy Spinning

Mike

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chestermikeuk/detail?.dir=8735&.dnm=2d9f.jpg&.src=ph
8-1-2005-11-29-56--chestermikeuk.jpg
 
The Mat Goes On Top?

Ah, I didn't know that the mat goes on top of the clothes! I probably would have put it at the bottom and had stuff flying out of the top of the unit all over the room (now that could lead to woofin!)
I haven't received my maching yet, but thanks again for the loading recommendations. That's some pretty helpful info!
 
Yes, the mat goes on top of the clothes, and below the rim of the spin tub. When it's properly in place, it catches under the rim such that a uniformly applied pressure from below (i.e. clothes trying to escape) will not cause it to pop out, but you can remove it by bending it slightly so it can be pulled back out from under the rim. Very clever, actually.

And if you don't use it, you will have socks escape and get caught between the spinner and the outer tub, which could damage the machine. Not speaking from experience here, but it stands to reason.

Chester: but y'all in the UK have relatively *quiet* portable cement mixers, with enclosed driveline instead of an exposed ring gear like we have in the USA:-) (Word to the wise: wear hearing protectors, especially if you're pouring concrete in an indoor location, and keep your hair tied back or wear a cap.)

Someone back there, re. RPMs.: The UK and Euro spinners tend to be rated at 3200 rpm. The ones in the USA market tend to be rated at 1600 rpm. This may be due to the difference between a 240-volt motor (UK & Euro) and a 120-volt motor (USA). However in my experience, 1600 rpm does a dandy job, and gets a measurable amount more water out of a load.

Chester again: Yes, exactly as you said, load the stuff as if there's an agitator in the middle, and then drop the small items like socks into the "donut hole" where the "imaginary agitator" would be. (Do this a few times and it becomes second nature.)

Another thing you'll notice when you're using a spinner on all your wash, is that your dryer times are reduced by 50% to 75%. And you'll notice a difference on your electric bill as a result. Those Asian-made spinner units should pay for themselves in about a year this way, and everything after that is clear savings.

What we need in the US is a spinner with a pump and discharge hose, that can be more or less permanently installed in the laundry room. I suspect that the minor inconvenience of having to deal with manual drains on most of these units, is holding back sales. But add a drain pump, and the savings on utility bills would be enough to make these things sell themselves.
 
Designgeek:

Thanks for all the info about how to load one of these spinners.
I like the way you discussed "clothes escaping" & "clothes trying to escape". ROFL! But there really is no other way to put it. I can just imagine the "escapees" flying out of the machine, throwing the lid open and being flung out all over the room! I have a load of dog towels just waiting to be washed & spun!

I agree with your statement that if these were able to be permanently hooked up to a drain, they would be hot sellers.
 
...or better yet, add a quick-connect uni-couple as would be seen on a portable washer or dishwasher and really have something.

I'd love to be able to roll my Paksitani plastic toy "The Boss" to the sink and do a spray rinse.
 
lol.

To be a gentleman, I sorta need to let that one go over my head LOL

:-)

The size (width) of the hose connection is 5/8 inch o.d.
The connection stub itslef is 3/4 inches long.
 
Oh poo!, I didn't even catch that implication when I wrote it! Right, savings on dinners-out and movies that don't lead to a life of bliss... and all for only a few pennies' worth of electricity.

Hmm, someone should use that as a marketing concept. Probably sell a lot of those "appliances" that way.
 
Now Arriving....

We came home from grocery shopping and lo and behold, there was our spinner sitting on the doorstep! After wrestling it in the house (rather bulky and no handholds on the box) I opened it up and brought it to the kitchen for a cool down. After being out in the Texas heat the unit sure was hot. I figured I'd let it cool down to room temp before I use it. I was rather impressed by the build quality. It seems pretty well put together with all the parts fitting nice and tight and square to each other.
Except for the lid, which is a touch flimsy, it seems to be built to last for awhile.
It smells exactly like Chrysler Corp cars did 1968-1973 or so!
That's the first thing I noticed when I lifted to lid. I was instantly reminded of the special sound the starter made on those cars. When you heard one start back then, you knew it was from Chrylser just by the sound. Kinda like a tinny whine.
How can a smell remind you of a sound, kinda crazy, but it does!
Well, the dog towels are a washin'.
 
I finished up the load of dog towels. Four bath size and 4 hand towel size dust cloths. I filled up the spinner basket and started her up, set for 3 minutes. It extracted only 1-1/2 cups of water from the towels. As a test, I redistbuted the towels in the spinner and spun them again. No more water, which means that it truly extracts all the water from the clothes.
Dry time took 33 minutes, rather than the normal 50 minutes or so in the WP dryer. These are thick towels!
The first spin was quieter than the second. It does have that "Concorde Taking Off" sound, but it is more like a loud humm, rather than a roar. Personally I don't think that you would want to connect a hose to that water inlet, I think it would overwhelm the machine. I put a funnel in the water inlet and then took a nice big 64 oz container of chlorine free water and poured it through. The water came out clear and clean.
I don't have a burning smell, the laundry area now has that "new car" smell. Not objectionable at all. I think it will go away after several uses.
 
Coolio!, another spinner installed, and another electric bill going down by a measurable amount each month.

Re. the water inlet: I've been experimenting with the spinner on my TT, which is basically similar to these standalone spinners. The point of the water inlet is for the spin/rinse procedure, used where your washer doesn't spin (i.e. TTs and certain compact washers that don't have spin cycles in the washtubs).

If you put water in while a spin cycle is going, the added inertial mass of the water going into the load will bog down the system and put strain on the motor. I tried this once and could tell the motor didn't like it one bit.

However, you can wait until after the motor stops, and then start adding water about halfway through the amount of time it takes for the spinner to coast to a stop. Or you can wait until it stops entirely, and then add water. Soak it into the load slowly enough that it doesn't pool up. Then stop the water and start another spin cycle. It will take longer to get up to speed than if you've taken the clothes out of a washer that's already spun 'em, but it will do the job. Repeat as needed to get *all* the detergent out. I've been experimenting with this procedure to see how much or little water it takes and how many spin/rinse cycles are needed to get to where there's nothing left to rinse out in a regular rinse cycle. It doesn't cause any extra strain on the motor.

Realistically, if you've just washed / rinsed / spun in another machine, you don't need to do the add water & spin/rinse procedure with the spinner; the purpose of the spinner at that point is to extract all the rest of the water so your dryer time (or clothesline time) will be much less. And yeah it'll pay for itself pretty quickly that way.
 
Thanks for the additional info about the Spin/Rinse. We only did the Rinse/Spin one time and even with 64oz of water while the machine was spinning at full speed you could tell the water was slightly throwing the spinner out of balance as soon as the addition of water began. I think this feature would come in handy if you oversuds something, like towels where the rinse water would look as sudsy as the wash water does.
Even though we only got 1-1/2 cups of water out of a load of thick terry cloth towels, we got 2-1/2 cups water out of a load of my uniform shirts (white, permanent press). Amazing. Those shirts dried in 20 minutes compared to the 35 it used to take. I would have thought that the towels would have held more water!
I find this unit pretty easy to load balanced, but if it starts spinning unbalanced it can start to "walk" and the one time it did the dogs started woofing at it and getting all defensive. They are already suspicious of the start up noise it makes. When we turn it on, all ears are pricked up and facing the laundry area!
 
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
 
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?
 
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
 
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
 
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!
 
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
 
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!"
 
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.
 
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.

8-8-2005-11-08-57--whirlcool.jpg
 

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