the less common way of washing

[Designgeek]

If you can get your hands inside the cabinet, you can probably get that dent out by pressing carefully from the inside with your thumbs. The sheet steel housings on these machines are apparently fairly thin gauge since they aren't structural, so they can get dented easily but are also easy to un-dent.

 

[bpetersxx]

I got the xqg50-11 working at least partially

 

[jsesanders]

Recommendation for compact washer/dryer

Hi,

You all seem to know quite a bit about these compact washers. Would you please offer advice as to which brand of a washer/dryer combo is best for a sink adapter - I will not have a water connection other than the kitchen sink in our apartment... unless, could you possibly place it where the dishwasher is and use those water lines?

Thank you in advance...

 

[Designgeek]

Danby is excellent (three models), Haier reportedly had troubles but seems to be improving, and some of the folks here can advise on US brands.

A combined washer/dryer in one unit, in a compact size with sink hook-ups, is a difficult item to find.

The closest you're going to get to a compact combined washer/dryer might be the Danby Twin Tub, DTT-420, which is an excellent machine but is not fully automatic. You have to transfer the load manually from the wash tub to the highspeed spin-dryer and back again (once after wash, once after rinse). I have one, it does an excellent job and it's fast, and clothes come out almost completly dry (get a drying rack, they'll hang dry quickly, overnight in winter or in hours during summer). The mechanicals are quite simple so it should be reliable. Viable load capacity is about 7 lbs., not 10 (all compact washers seem to over-estimate capacity, I don't think it's a conspiracy. Cost ranges from $250 to $350 depending on where you get it.

Another option is the Danby front loader, DWM-5500, stacked with the matching dryer. This is a fully automatic front loader of the type that has started to become conventional in the US now. I have the manual around here somewhere but you can find it on www.danby.com if you want to check about whether it can be used with a sink connection. It gets rave reviews, everyone who has this machine loves it, and it has a 200-degree wash option (useful in cold & flu season). If you mount the dryer on top of the washer, chances are you'll want to install it permanently near the sink so you don't have to move it around. Also note that front loaders cause a bit more vibration than top loaders (the other two models here), so if you need to worry about the neighbors hearing it, this might be an issue.

Last but not least, Danby DWM-99-W, is a compact top loader with normal automatic cycles. Does not have a separate spin-dryer or other built in drying funciton aside from the normal spin function at the end of the cycle, which is not a highspeed spin like the twin tub has. (Again, get a drying rack, and assume it'll take a bit longer for clothes to dry compared to the twin tub above). Price range is similar to the twin tub. Size is a little smaller, load capacity a little smaller also. The few reviews I've seen on this are very positive also.

All of these generally have to be ordered via internet unless you're lucky enough to have a dealer nearby (see also Absolute Appliances in Southern CA, which is where I got mine from, and had it shipped up north to me).

Note, all the Danby units have a conventional pump to discharge used water into the sink. Some other brands offer less expensive machines that use "gravity drain," which means there's no pump and you place the hose on the floor next to a floor-drain. This is fine in basement laundry rooms with floor drains, but in an apartment, you'd have to discharge the water into a bucket and empty it into the sink, which is a lot of effort. So if you're buying something other than Danby, check to be sure it has a drain pump and can drain into a sink.

If you need more info on any of these, feel free to ask.

 

[jsesanders]

{{{You have to transfer the load manually from the wash tub to the highspeed spin-dryer and back again (once after wash, once after rinse). }}}

So does this mean that you take the clothes out and put a different 'something' in the washer and then put the clothes back in? I guess I thought it would be completely automatic... no removing after washing, just right onto drying.

I thought when I stumbled accross this combo unit my laundry troubles were solved. I am such an every day laundry person and thats what makes being in an apartment w/o a washer & dryer so difficult.

Do you have any other ideas on how to incorporate a washer & dryer into a unit that doesn't have a w/d hook-up?

Thanks for your assistance... Stacy Sanders

 

[Designgeek]

Stacy, here's the procedure for the Danby twin-tub:

There are two compartments, one looks like a conventional top-loader with an agitator but is rectangular rather than cylindrical (to get more stuff in). The other compartment is the spinner, which is a smaller cylinder that spins at 1400 to 1600 rpm.

Put clothes in wash tub. Turn on sink to fill with water. Add detergent. Set the timer from 0 to 15 minutes (I use the 9-minute setting). Let it run. When done, turn the drain switch to drain the water into the sink.

Now move the load into the spin tub and switch the drain control back to the wash position. For loads larger than 4.5 lbs. you need to divide the load into two equal smaller loads and spin one at a time. For example a 6# wash load is two 3# spin loads. Set the spin timer (0 to 5 minutes, I use 1 to 2 minutes at this point). The detergent gets spun out and discharged into the sink.

While the last spin-load is spinning, you can re-fill the wash tub with rinse water. Now move the clothes into the wash tub, keep the water running at a low level, and set the wash tub timer again (0 to 15 minutes, I use 9 minutes here also). The fresh incoming water floats away the detergent and so on, which drains out and gets pumped into the sink.

When done rinsing, do another spin, but this time set the spin timer to a full 5 minutes per spin load. Clothes come out clean & lightly damp. Hang 'em on the rack to dry. (After the spin is over, you can drain the wash tub so it's empty of water, or see the following paragraph.)

Note in times of water shortage, you can save the rinse water in the wash tub rather than draining it out, and re-use it for wash water in the next load. This is OK because rinse water is clean; and if your next load is a few days away, just add a teaspoon or two of bleach to keep the water sanitary.

Total time for the above, 20 to 40 minutes (it gets faster when you've learned the routine and can do it without thinking). In the meantime, while the timers are ticking and the machine is doing its thing, you can talk on the phone, write email, do other household tasks, etc.

Another thing you can do to enhance the rinse process: when a spin load has stopped spinning, open the spin tub lid and take the water inlet hose and use it to pour water on the load in the spinner to saturate it again. When it's good and wet, close the lid, and spin for another minute or two. Do this a couple of times, and then do the regular washtub rinse procedure above, you'll notice far less detergent remains to come out. Result: clothes so clean they smell like fresh water, not like detergent perfumes. Extra time required: less than 10 minutes for a divided load (two spinner loads from a larger wash load).

This machine uses half the power per pound of laundry compared to a conventional top loader, and about half the water if you re-use the final rinse water. If you have a tumble dryer, the drying time is about half as well, which is a major energy savings. It also lets you customize cycles as needed, i.e. take more time to wash out ground-in dirt or rinse out excess detergent, or use a quicker wash for lightly soiled stuff (e.g. 3 minute wash). You can do a pre-soak by just letting a load sit in the washtub for as long as you like (typically 10-15 minutes) before turning on the agitator. The tradeoff is you have to keep an eye on it and do the above steps manually. Machines like this were common in the UK and Europe in the 50s through the 70s, and are currently popular in Asia; it's oldschool technology with a long track record. Those of us who use these machines today prefer them to other types and find that the manual interventions aren't inconvenient compared to the efficiency and fast cycle times.

 

[jsesanders]

To: Designgeek

Wow!!! Thanks for all the info. I guess it's not that complicated.

Do you know anything about the LG All-in-one WM3431?

Thanks again, Stacy