Ugh! My washer ate my wife's sweater.

[ryner1988]

Hello all,

Well, tonight, it finally happened. After several months with the WTW4816FW whirlpool washer, and it never shredding anything, it ate one of my wife's favorite sweaters.

I don't know how to describe the sweater except to say that it has this really delicate looking knitted crochet structure around the neck and sleeves. I put it in with just one other sweater, and selected cold water, delicate cycle, light soil setting. No extra rinse. When I went to take it out, to my fury and horror, because I'm going to have to tell her it got wrecked, there was a huge, gaping, several inches large hole slashed right in one of the sleeves. How in the hell did this happen?

To my knowledge, the agitation of this washer isn't particularly rough, and as I said, I used the delicate setting. Is there something about the way the washer is put together on the inside that could have caused this? Just trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again while I put off telling my wife that one of her favorite sweaters that my mom purchased for her got ruined.

Thanks, as always, for all of your insightful info.

Ryne

 

[whirlykenmore78]

This appears to be an isolated incident:

If only one item has been shredded I would not be too concerned. If the machine continues to shred clothes call WP right away.
WK78

 

[joeypete]

At least it didn't eat your wife! hahahaha

In all seriousness...these machines aren't as aggressive as the old DD machines, but still...that dual action agitator gets things moving really good. Might want to put more delicate items in a netted bag.

 

[wishwash]

I've noticed that some items that go in the wash come out with tiny pinholes that only get bigger after I wear and wash again.... Not sure if it's the wash action or just zippers snagging my clothing. The same happened to a pillow case at the seam. My washer is an older kenmore version, still on the current belt drive platform.

 

[hotpointwfwt02]

Hahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhaha
That sounds so funny and hilarious

 

[murando531]

I'm not sure what would have caused that, unless the sweater was REALLY fragile. The Delicate cycle on these machines doesn't even fully agitate. It fills, then pulses the agitator each direction with about a second between each pulse, and the oscillations can't be any more than a 45 degree arc. Could it have gotten caught somehow in the paddle early on and with the movement and then spin it could have been stretched like that?

 

[wishwash]

I've noticed that some of these newer VMW machines pulse every so often while they fill. That's how their automatic water level works. Is there any chance yours does this on the delicate cycle?

It's an okay system. I personally think the sensing is way too frequent which wears out clothes throughout the fill, unless that's the only way for it to work accurately...