Uninformed Washer Users

[daveamkrayoguy]

And I thought my wife loading up our Hotpoint at our apartment made me yell "Hey!"... And she'd never operated another inter-active appliance like a washer, dryer, dishwasher--and later, our range--ever again!

Somehow the skit on THE ELECTRIC COMPANY of these men loading--OVERloading, actually--"Six Washers, in all their '70's Avocado splendor", seems less funny...

-- Dave

 

[washer111]

@twinniefan

Only trouble is, its been washing for two for about 10 of those, then one again for another couple, then two again for several more years to this point. So it probably only runs once, maybe twice each week. Dare I say it, there's a chance it runs even less than that...
Where is located (farm laundry), there are mice around and about. Its had wiring and other stuff replaced before as a result of this. Something of a miracle there hasn't been a fire just yet. LOL

Tonight I witnessed a laundry sin as was mentioned above:
- Load of towels.
- User added about 1/2 cap worth of stain remover
- Then added a scoop of detergent
- And a reasonably liberal splash of fabric softener. All at once
Only redeeming factor was the warm wash...

I was told the fabric softener dispenser doesn't work correctly. It i*is* one of those weird LG things... It felt like my insides were on fire(!) {Isn't this OCD or something?}
Reasoning with said user didn't work, either, "I think I know how to do the laundry. Its all clean!" Apparently, the user doesn't realize I also do laundry *AND* participate on AutomaticWasher, "The World's Coolest Washing Machines, dishwashers and dryers," and am therefore rather knowledgeable about washing after countless "experiments," as well as detergent threads and performance-testing threads...

 

[supersurgilator]

At the laundromat I've seen a lady add detergent and softener together in the wash, and another fill a front load dexter with colored clothes then added regular bleach. Is what gets me is the overdrying in the dryers. A commercial dryer takes roughly 30 minutes to dry a load and people load one up and put 60 to 90 minutes worth of time on it.

 

[logixx]

If you pay for a washer at our local laundromat, you will immediately be given a premeasured dose of detergent. I don't think (hope) anyone turns down using pro detergent that's already been paid for, thus oversudsing isn't much of an issue a this laundromat. Dryers can only be run for 30 minutes at a time.

 

Still... that doesn't stop people from overloading, kicking doors shut or drying shoes alongs with other laundry.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Some of these stories

have made me lose faith in a lot of humanity. This is why I'm the only one that does laundry. I haven't really experienced anything crazy because I rarely have ever had to go to a laundromat, but my cousin would always overload the wash and when you were visiting and took a shower, you could smell the towels were not clean. I HATED drying off on one of those towels so I brought my own.

1/2 gallon of bleach for a load of clothes? I'd die if I saw that.....and the poop. UGH, that's just nasty nasty nasty.

 

[whirlcool]

Personally, I think a lot of this strange behavior is the result of people being either too cheap or too lazy to do things the proper way. They figure why should I spend the money for 6 loads when I can squeeze everything into two!

And then they think, well it's been washed in the washer so it must be clean!

 

[tolivac]

I sort of remember a video shown on here a few years ago where someone at a laundromat was trying to wash hard side suitcases in a SQ washer!Other folks in the laundry were amused by the washers lid bobbing up and down-and the trampy girls thought to have been running that load.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Let me add my 2cents.

I've seen people using the incorrect cycle, stuff the machine, dump a ton of laundry detergent and fabric softener in the tup on top of the clothes, seen people add bleach directly to fabrics, then blame the machine. When I'd correct the settings to where they should be, they'll switch it back to a gentle cycle even when they have a load of durable everyday fabrics and say it doesn't matter and things will be fine as long as they get washed. Excuse me, but why are their multiple fabric selections and temps which you can customize? And yet they wonder why they have problems with their machine.

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Thankfully I haven’t really seen

Any laundromat horror stories, although a very frequent occurrence that happens that my work is people always put the detergent into the fabric softener dispenser so I have to run into the cafe flush it out with hot water and then walk back from the cafe with the clean detergent dispenser draw, It’s honestly kind of annoying but some people don’t learn I guess,If worse comes to worse, I’ll ask them to throw the powder directly into the drum, When it comes to work laundry,I always put it on a quick cycle But I change the temperature, I always put it on the hottest setting for any Terry cloths as they can tolerate it, Any microfibre cloth I put on at about 40° and window cloths are normally put as 30, They frequently change detergents around depending on what’s available, it even maybe the bag of commercial detergent or the El Cheapo powder detergent, At the moment they use fabric softener, but I’ll probably ask them to change to vinegar, By the way, All of the washing and drying equipment Is domestic equipment

 

[gelaundry4ever]

wrong cycle

It really drives me crazy when people use the incorrect cycle when they could just simply change the temperature. For example, I've seen people use delicate when all they could simply do is just change the temp to cold. This is with washers with separate fabric selections or a cycle you could dial in and simply customize the temperature. Or, I've seen people do a speed wash cycle on a big load. And once again, it's always blame the machine. They complain the normal cycle is too aggressive or too long and the only time they'll use it is for very dirty clothes.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

besides

I do what most appliance fans do. Check and recheck just to make sure everything's up to par and watch the machine through the windows. Everything must go according to the fabric type, color and soil contents. That's how it works.

 

[foraloysius]

To each their own I suppose but personally I find washing in cold water a bigger horror than using the delicate cycle.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

only time

I'll use warm or hot water is when the colors are lighter or pure white. For example, light colors go on warm and whites go on hot with bleach. The reds, darks and blues go on cold. I'll use whites/accelawash when using bleach. I always use fabric softener in the proper dispenser. I always make sure accelawash is on so everything is evenly distributed.

 

[DADoES]

 
I never wash anything in cold except a some black, navy, and red t-shirts that have DTG (direct to garment) printed designs.  TeeFury

 

[gelaundry4ever]

to each his own...

I can tell you one thing, I've seen people continually stuff the machines. One time, I've seen a video of a user of an lg washer who complained that water wouldn't come out of it. Then when he got a second unit, he complained that you couldn't change a cycle and the start button was the only one that works. My mom has the same one except hers is a red matching pair and it works without problems. Apparently, what he failed to realize is the machine has to sense the load size. This thread must continue.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Years ago I helped a friend in a janitorial business. One Saturday I put all the mop heads into the HD machine at the local laundromat. I added A ridiculous amount of bleach. The machine didn't like my bills so I went across the street to change them. I came back to find some guy had pulled the mopheads out and put his own clothes in. He have me this expression of "Come on. I dare you to say something. " then I noticed his load of clothes was mixed colors (mostly reds) and whites. The machine was still set to the HD HOT cycle I'd set. What probably drew my attention to this was the pink tinged wash water. I just started giggling, collected my mopheads and left.

I've always wondered what happened when he got home with those clothes and his wife saw them.....

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Which one Is worse?

Washing everything on cold or washing everything in hot?

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Good question.

I'd like to know. Now that I think about it, both are bad. People don't bother to take the time to sort their clothes properly, read the manual, follow fabric car recommendations, complain their machines are broken, etc. All they know is that it's just a machine so as long as everything's in there, they'll get clean. And then they wonder why their clothes have faded, shrunk, or just outright bleached and shredded. Even worse, they'll wonder why either their matching dryer leaves them damp or bakes the soil/detergent/additives into their clothes. That's a pet peeve of mine. I'd like to lecture them on how to use the machines correctly, but then again, they won't listen.

 

[DADoES]

 
Washing everything in cold water is worse than hot.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Which is worse? Washing everything in cold, definitely. A lot of dirt and stains, particularly oil-based ones simply won't dissolve/release in cold water. Pre-Corona I used to wash coloured items in warm. Now? EVERYTHING is washed in hot and dried on the highest setting. I've yet to have a single garment suffer any kind of shrinkage or damage. However, as I stated in another thread, the newer machines I use may be dumbed down so a "hot" setting might not be as hot as most of us would think. YMMV.