Hi Joel
Jon Le Fevre (combo) emailed me last night, saying that heavy loads can't really wreck a bellows. He said I'd be shocked at the size of his loads, but he also told me on the phone a while back that he rarely does laundry. I laughed and thought he was kidding, but he was serious--weeks and weeks between washdays, he said.
Back in the day, we had only one bellows break, and that was a tear caused by a nail from my Dad's overall pocket.
My bellows ripped while I was washing a king size quilt. Although it one of those old silky ones, it was still too heavy for the Unimatic. You've seen my Uni in the kitchen, I hope. Well, I pulled one of the stools over to the machine and stood on in. Then I used alternating feet and legs to work the quilt down.
Unbelievably the pulsator took it down finally with the help of my feet, but suddenly the water level in the tub started to fall dramatically, water gushing out of the hose, and I knew immediately what I had done. After spinning and removing the agitator, the bellows revealed an angry slit along the outer edge of the middle ridge. By the way, at no point was I standing in the washer, just one foot at a time, pressing firmly on the air pockets in the silky quilt.
Before that incident, I had been washing really gigantic loads, 4 or 5 a week for months, includiing the winter with heavy sweats and hoodies, etc., just because it was so much fun to see how much stuff that little tub could pack. Have a pic of a load somewhere, but it's not coming up.
I will defer to Jon until I talk to him, but to me it's basic physics. The heavier the load and the more frequently you wash heavy loads, the greater the stress on the bellows which bears the weight of the wash. I could be totally wrong, of course. Will find out over the weekend and let you know on Monday.
