The Laundry Alternative Mega just arrived

[panthera]

One of the few European appliances I have genuinely missed here in the 'States is a spin-dryer. The vintage ones, though excellent, are nearly impossible to find over here and the first spin-dryers on offer were outrageously overpriced and poorly made.

This one got good reviews (the first attempt had a 100% failure rate) so I decided to take the plunge.

We're washing ten or so loads today, we'll see how it does.

One thing - this one has two lids plus the safety floppy and no timer. The shipping bar was also much easier to remove - I wonder if it's an updated version of what's on their website? We'll see, I guess!

 

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/our-products/mega-spin-dryer-2/

 

[launderess]

Congrats

Do keep us posted, as am sure many are interested.

Have an older LA spin dryer and it does the job well enough. But the plastic bits inside make a horrible racket if things aren't just the way machine likes. One either must put up with the noise, or shut things down, redistribute and start again.

Have spotted several vintage spin dryers lately, but they were all up north (Canada) and sellers wouldn't budge on doing a deal.

Am still holding out one day on possibly finding one of the smaller Bock or Montex extractors, but am not holding one's proverbial breath. You'd think Martha Stewart would give up hers at Skylands as am sure she (or rather her staff) rarely uses. *LOL*

 

[tomturbomatic]

So Launderess, if one had a Miele W1918, would one of these be needed?

Thank you.

 

[launderess]

Cannot speak about a Miele 1918

But my AEG OKO-Lavamat spins at 1800rmps, and still prefer to use the spin dryer.

For one, and don't know if this is true but have heard slower final spin speeds mean longer washer life.

Two, unless washing an entire load of things that want "max extract" there usually are things in a wash load that one does not want subjected to high spin speeds. T-shirts and other knit undergarments, things made from elastic and or have elasticity properties.

The final high speed portion of the Lavamat cycle is only for the last few minutes anyway. Whereas with a spin dryer one can leave things long as one likes.

Do a fair amount of washing in tubs and it is easier to bung things into a spin dryer rather than mess about with either Miele or Lavamat.

Find oneself babying the Miele as Big Bertha is getting on, and after that last costly repair job (suspension), have been warned if she becomes ill again it will be terminal. So to save wear on suspension (and motor) for small loads and or others that know will cause unbalance issues, will wash and rinse without extraction then spin things out in spinner.

 

[panthera]

First Impressions

Pure cottons coming out of the GE Filter-Flo, normal spin (and it's a fast spin) - full load, just over or under 1 liter each for each of several loads.

That's a lot.

The thing of it is, the last little bit of water which the washer doesn't spin out is the toughest for the dryer to get rid of - simple physics, really - the less water goes into the dryer, the less water has to be removed.

What I like - the clearance between the spin basket and the walls of the spin dryer is enormous. It solves a lot of 'balance knocking' problems I remember from Germany. It also means, should something fly out of the basket, that I can reach in and pull it out easily without disassembly.

Very stable and spins up fast. Brakes fast.

Height is a big help - it's much taller than the spinners I had back home.

Quiet.

 

Dislikes:

All plastic. Not cheap plastic, not flimsy, but there's no question in my mind that this is not going to last indefinitely as the copper/stainless steel/zink spinners did in post-war Germany.

Hysterical American safety systems. Two lids, for goodness sake. Five warning decals. Five! When will American courts finally snap at freshly-minted survivors of a posthumous winner of the Darwin Award: "No award for you, you greedy twit. Someone that D-U-M won their Darwin fair and square."

 

 

 

[launderess]

IIRC A Member From Brazil

Is or was heavily involved with this and other LA appliances. May have worked for the company and or R&D; some such, cannot recall.

Main benefit to one in having a larger spin dryer such as a Bock as opposed to the smaller LA is for doing bigger things like blankets and quilts.

 

[launderess]

When you consider there are scores of wäscheschleuder in Germany alone just begging for new homes. *LOL*

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-wäscheschleuder/k0

You'd think someone would spot a hole in the market, pack up a few and sell them on in USA.

 

[panthera]

Laundress,

So true. The weight is a big problem. There's also the 50/60Hz problem which their motors would confront here - they'd be running quite a bit faster than they were designed for if just hooked up to the 240V line or a transformer.

 

One thing I didn't mention - this basket is (relatively speaking) gigantic. An entire GE Filter-Flo load fits easily. That's one aspect of the German machines which would probably annoy Americans - it kind of aggravated me in Germany, actually. I had to fill the spinner at least twice to get everything spun out.

 

So, we will see. Right now, I'm feeling as if I got my money's worth. Still want to ask the company on Monday why I got this model and not the one with the timer and the 'lock twice' lid. May well be that that one was too complicated or trouble prone. 

 

[launderess]

Oh I don't know

That 50hz vs. 60hz difference has been spoken about at great length here in the group, and indeed one has passed up several spin dryers from Europe that arrived on this side of pond because of; however OTOH.....

A few members have purchased spin dryers that were *never* sold for North American market, and run perfectly fine on 60hz. Indeed since these were all used units they ran for years on same and apparently suffered no harm.

Currently aside from the Asian spin dryers, IIRC the only maker in Europe for years has been Thomas. Cannot say for certain but don't think they put 60hz motors in the versions that made their way over to North America sold under "Spin-X" and or later Laundry Alternative. Am assuming they are same because of design, build and other looks.

The other thing is if you add ten percent to the rated spin speed (usually around 2800 rpms) you get 3100 rpms. That is the difference between 50hz and 60hz, no?

Most of the European spin dryers one has seen thus far seem to be remarkably uncomplicated units. We're not talking a washing machine with a pump and or timer, not to mention electronics.

 

[panthera]

Right, Laundress -

I'm just always paranoid about that much mass moving with that much energy...but, yeah - it's way past time the Americans caught up with the rest of the world.

And, yes - I do believe Thomas was, at the end, the sole maker. Except for some really awful Turkish stuff which either left the market or was improved. I don't honestly know the Herkunft of this unit.

Apropos the American safety insanity:

 

 

[launderess]

Well when you consder Bock was sued into the ground

Over injuries that occurred with their extractors (up to and including a young boy who lost an arm), those safety warnings/devices seem pretty practical. After all the United States has more attorneys than any other nation on earth; someone or something has to keep them in shoe leather. [this post was last edited: 9/16/2017-21:33]

 

[panthera]

Valid points, Laundress

I just have always felt that the US hysteria over safety was absurd. Persecute gays and blacks and not provide health care, that's OK but spill a freshly brewed cup of McDonald's coffee on yourself and that's worth millions.

Does.Not.Compute.

 

[launderess]

Well to be fair

IIRC many early laundry extractors including those made by Bock had totally nil safety devices. The thing spun regardless if lid was opened or closed, if tub was in full speed or not.

Hoover twin tub washers were the same; you opened the lid and it only turned off power to the motor; but the can continued to coast down spinning.

 

[panthera]

Hah! Found out where it was made.

Brazil. Says so on the nameplate. Which is written in Portuguese.

Cool.

 

[launderess]

Yes, *think* member *thomasortega* had something to do with the company and or even this spin dryer. It's all in the archives.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Slower spin speed = longer life

That indeed may well be the case.

I'm sure one of the UK members mentioned an old Servis frontloader in 'good nick', where the original owners never allowed the machine to spin the laundry, and instead decanted the washing to a spin dryer.

My brother and sister respectively, had 1100rpm and 1200rpm Candy machines. Both lasted 15 years.

I know of someone with an Indesit 850W (800-ish rpm). Apparently 20 years old!

And then there's me... AEG 1600rpm - lasted 3 years. Zanussi 1600rpm - 8 years. Panasonic 1600rpm - 7.5 years.

It'll be like stars in the galaxy: burn hot, blaze brightly = short life. But a dim, cool star lasts for billions of years longer.

 

[panthera]

The amount of work done to increase from any given speed

to another, higher speed is not a linear relationship, so, yeah - raising the speed from an innocuous 450 rpm to 1025 is going to either shorten the lifespan greatly or require tremendous improvements in the sensors and bearings and suspension and logic controls.

No surprise there - this is also why the 'high-speed' spins of this century are nearly universally only for a brief time and only after nearly all the water has been expelled and the load is balanced, at much lower speeds.

AEG had quite an interesting sales training on how a well-set up 800rpm spin removed much more water than their competitor's 1000 rpm spin and as much as the (at the time) radically new 1200 which (I think it was Candy) was offering. Not because 800 in and of itself is better at water removal, but because the duration at 1000 or 1200 was so limited and the out of balance triggers to keep the machine from self destructing at those speeds were, of necessity, so sensitive.

 

Anyway, this device is supposed to run at 1600rpm - which is a bit unusual to me, but, heh- stuff is sure drying much, much faster and the 'feel' is about the same as it seemed back home in my ancient 1800 rpm spinner and better than a copper 1200rpm washer/spinner did.

 

So far, I'm happy. My main interest is saving money on the drying, saving time on the drying and the vastly better soil/detergent removal of the higher speed.

 

I'm going to see if I can get some shots of the innards today.

 

[maytagbear]

It looks like

it is a pump/hose one, or does it have a spout, requiring a Bouquet?

Enjoy!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[panthera]

Spout.

Extensible.