Videos of my Kenmore 28102!

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I wanted to do a full load video when I made the one with the jeans and hoodies, but I didn't have the time. :/ As soon as I have another full load of colors or darks I'll try to get a good full length video.
 
Question

Is 90$ a lot for 2 months in the US? Or average?

We got our annual bill last week and with our new high sewer rate (new clarification plant = 5€ more per m³), we paid ~2000€ for our yearly ~250m³.
Thats about 66k gallons for ~2200$.

So: Whats your average water bill?
 
Cool Joe.....can't wait for it to arrive and get your take on its performance.....

most of the reviews I read, people really liked these machines as well......not a bad price you paid as well...you caught the sale at a good time......

we do have to get more videos of these machines uploaded, there are so few of them in action......

there was no special trick to by-passing the lid switch....for mine it was located behind the left lid hinge.....two screws and four tabs, and the back part lifted off, I drilled a hole and installed a switch, from there on, I can operate it with the lid open....

keep us posted.....
 
Henrick - I haven't had a water bill in ages, but when I lived in Tucson, I did. It averaged about $20-30 per month, which I thought was very reasonable (especially in the desert!). My water here is included in my condo fee. My friend who has a house nearby though said his is about $100 a month. But there are about 5 people in the house using water so I imagine that's why it's a bit high. Of course nothing compared to what you guys pay. Wow.

Martin - I will definitely take some videos. From what I could tell, the RCA machines were sold mostly in Canada. I just discovered that the Danby machines have an agitator! Seriously cool…though they are significantly more expensive. I'm still happy that I decided on this one though. :)
 
I don't know if it is average or not, but I try to conserve as much as possible.  Dw  cycles using between 3-4 gallons,  I wash dishes 3 times a week, front loader washer.  I control showers, and walk to the gym to take them when possible.

 

Our city water department says that the average usage is about  4,488 gallons  per household per month. So they have a breakdown of charges for this amount:

 

Water usage $23.43

Wastewater charge $16.84

Stormwater charge $14.15

Service Charge(based on size of pipe running into your house) $13.01

 

So the total for one month is $67.43, use more water than this and you pay more.

 

I use less than this so my bill is averaging between  $54.01 to $60.73  per month.

 

As much as I understand why people like top loaders I just don't want to pay too much more than this for water service .  We get water from two rivers flowing through the city so there is no drought going on where I live. 

 
 
Pillows!

I just cleaned my pillows using a combination of the Soak cycle and a couple Rinse cycles and they cleaned AWESOME. The Soak cycle sprays water more than other cycles. I set it to about an hour soak and flipped them half way. I layed the pillows flat across the basket, as opposed to around the impeller so the spray would cover more area. I still want to try washing them on the Normal cycle to see how they do with lower water. The Soak cycle basically fills that way but it agitates less.
 
so far I am liking 'Sheets cycle'........uses a really decent amount of water.....

just have to pay attention with the lid open, this cycle for instance does not do the concentrated saturation spray, in the middle of regular filling, it dispenses detergent, once filled it goes into agitation, no waterfall until later into the wash part......keeping in mind for this cycle to add detergent directly to the load....

the dispensers flush a lot through out the cycle as well.......noting that the softener uses hot water, bleach uses cold, detergent is based on wash temp selected...

dispensers dispense even if the buttons are not pressed......

by default, one rinse is a saturated spray......unless softener is selected....
if extra rinse is selected, first is a saturated spray followed by a deep fill rinse....

even if you don't select softener, it will still dispense and saturate the load before spinning....

just some interesting things you have to catch this machine in operation.....

stopped by Lowes, and checked out the Whirlpool version, they have a darker blue impellor, but noted also the tub is concave, along with the impellor, compared to what used to be a flat bottom....over time, their getting better with their designs and functions....
 
Flushing of dispensers

I guess they did so if somebody "forgets" to press the button. Or just dosen't know. A customer is more disappointed to find softner in the dispenser at the end of the cycle rather than if its just dumped down the drain.

Kind of placebo, you know. You don't know it isn't there, though you think it is. And as most people dry their clothes in the dryer anyway, you get away way more easy in the US.
 
I like the sheets cycle too actually. I guess how they program it, is so the sheets don't balloon up. It works really well!

I noticed the weird flushings too. lol. I was reading one of the Maytag manuals and it specifically states that the dispenser will flush even if FS is not selected, if an extra rinse is selected. I went to try that on mine and it flushed even without the extra rinse. Odd.

BTW I got my RCA today and washed a couple loads. I did my lights and it was perfect. Also I washed my squishy microfiber bath math and it was absolutely perfect for washing it. I had so many issues with it in my Hydrowave…because the tub was almost too big and the mat didn't wash well. In this I folded it in half horizontally and then again, and it fit perfectly in the tub. It agitated quite well. I used the gentle cycle which had shorter pulses. 2 rinses and it was clean. Used my new bottle of Persil 2in1. I'm VERY happy I got this great machine!
 
yeah, I am surprised of the capacity of these small machines, and how well it actually handles a load.....compared to the impellor machines of yesteryear...you can't adjust the water level on HE machines, yet on these little ones, they have selections that use plenty....I could actually use mine as a HE with the lowest level, and gentle agitation, and the waterfalls...I might try that out...

I wasn't quite sure with the Cabrios of how much water it was saving versus a regular TLer....on Normal, it used 10 gallons, all I measured was the first drain......but add in the spin sprays and the dispenser flushes, probably staying around 18 to 20....still not bad.....my curiosity was of the floating basket, and how much water was needed to make it rise, and thinking of that unused water for that purpose......it just appeared that a lot more was being wasted, but not as much as I thought it was using....

all in all, definitely like this version better than the belt drive one....you would think it wouldn't be too much to ask for a bit more water and a waterfall for the BD unit....I can understand X and XL as far as capacity, but why not make them operate the same.....some things we'll never know....
 
Watch out for coins and things...

I'm new here but was over at the vac forum and noticed they had this one as well, poked around and found this thread.
I bought a 28102 last year at Tax time when our refunds came in at the Sears Outlet store somewhat close to our new to us house.
Got a deal as it was a refurb or demo, first one was dead when it got here, aparently a bad control board even though it had been suppsedly tested before they put it on the floor.
Went back after a couple of weeks when no new ones had showed up with a list of other machines I was considering and they had just got another one in that wasn't officially in inventory yet but had just got out to the floor, took it instead.
Worked great, delivery and setup went well, machine is VERY quiet and washes as good as our old Whirpool 90's direct drive old school top loader did without all the crashing and banging.
I did my research and had narrowed it down to this machine due to great reviews and me wanting to stick with a toploader I can fix and easily get parts for myself, and was a good bang per buck model.

Shortly after setting it up, a few weeks in it stared making a god awful clunk...clunk...clunk...grinding scraping noise but still worked OK.
Didn't want to deal with a service call under warranty if it was something I could deal with myself without making it worse or killing my warranty.
Did a search and found a video on removing the impeller to check for foriegn objects underneath which is a common complaint.
You need a deep 3/8 socket and extensions, pull the small blue center cap, and the bolt is there underneath. Hang onto the basket and hopefully the bolt will break free with your ratchet and you can easily pick the impeller off the shaft. The bolt has a black rubber round gasket similar to what a hose nozzle uses so make sure not to loose it or damage it.
There are raised fins on the impeller and they have slots underneath, a penny we missed was wedged into one of the slots and was slowly wearing the edge off and had barely scraped the tub underneath but that was causing the awful noises.
Removed it, set the impeeler back down, it has kinda gear nothes but isn't keyed so as long as it goes back down like it was before and everything moves just put the gasket and bolt back in and tighten up, replace the center cap, and your done.
We havent had it happen again since then so either we've been better about checking pockets or lucky. Machine is now just over a year old, still quiet, though sometimes really heavy clothes will make it make a little thump, thump, thump as they bounce over the impeller, and everything gets clean.

We also have very expensive water/sewer rates here on a combined bill and it is saving us almost 20 bucks a month, we get billed every three months and our first full bill was 306, now it is around 250 and we also dropped our averadge usage 200 cf from 1400 to 1200.
If you can get a NEW machine for 400 it's a steal and you'll be happy. I paid about 550 as a nice condition demo/refurb and that was a smokin deal last year as they still were current and new then.
The Outlet stores might have even better prices if any still show up but they do charge 81 bucks for delivery so if you go that route barrow a truck and do it yourself.
I just bought the bigger newer 8.8 CF dryer from the next model up to go with it, it's bigger but still white and close enough they still go together OK. Paid 508 and used my work van and dolly to pick it up. They give a deal if you use a Sears card, and also offered a good discount if you donate 10 bucks to their favorite childrens charity, this was also at one of the outlet stores close by so check their pprices as well, they get new tuff all the time and it's all online.
 
Thanks for the great info Terry! I hardly ever have cash on hand so I won't have to worry too much about coins!! lol I am SOOOOO happy with this machine. I can't wait to wash my clothes every week. haha. How sad is that?

I paid $549 for mine, still a good deal I think. I kept my GE dryer that is not even a year old. It works fine. I was thinking about getting a hybrid dryer perhaps, not sure yet.

I've broken down an Olds 307 V8 so hopefully i can manage a washing machine. But lets hope I won't have to worry about that for a while :)
 
Your welcome, figured it'd be good info seeing how they are so new. My sister is my housemate here so she does the washing, I'm in charge of car and house repairs, and fixing the appliances.
She loves it, it holds a ton of clothes, and is so quiet, especially compared to the old direct drive whirlpool that used 25 or more gallons per load.
The newer version is even bigger, over 5 cf, but pretty sure Whirlpool still makes it. If anyone finds this version at 400 bucks its a steal.
It seems to be built like all the Whirlpools I've dealt with, made to be easy to service and parts should be cheap.
I had recently replaced the pump, the coupler, and the dogs in the old washer, then the lid switch went bad so I bypassed it and started looking for a good top loader to replace it with and save money on the water bill.
Put the old one on Craig's list after a while and a repair guy came out within two hours and paid 50 to rebuild and resell it, plus I got a 50 energy star rebate later as well so if you haven't applied for it check on it.
 
Hi joeypete, love your videos...thinking about getting a HE TL too but, pretty concerned about the impeller not being able to handling the big and bulky loads good enough... I'm checking out HE's youtube videos to see which impeller has the best---most aggressive, yet gentle wash action---not too hard on the clothes...you guys spoke about the holes in the triple action impeller being a manufacture's gimmick when the Maytag Bravos X 'Fountain Impeller' advertised the usage of 18 jet sprays that supposed to enhanced the wash action...found that very interesting...also would love the BLUE (older-1st) triple action impeller...could you post the model number of the impeller...also what is the complete model number for your Kenmore 28102, it is so hard to search for Kenmore washers because you can't find the whole number.
 
@scrubflex

Hi Scrubflex! The full model number is 110.28102310. I don't know the part number for the impeller however, but I'm sure you can look it up easily with the model number.

I continue to be completely satisfied with this machine. I still haven't clean my queen size comforter because it's folded away for the summer. BUT I do wash 2 queen size blankets together weekly and it does a great job with those. The turn over is a bit slow but it cleans very well, despite. I use the Deep Wash cycle for those, as well as my towels and sometimes large loads of clothes. It behaves more like a traditional washer on that setting.

This model can be quite aggressive depending on cycle but it seems to be very gentle on the garments regardless. I haven't noticed any wear and tear beyond normal.

I think Sears still has them available. You will have to check though. They were discontinued so I'm sure supply is probably limited.
 
Yes I've seen that impeller! It's a bit shorter than the one in mine. Mine is more like the F&P agitator. I wasn't too impressed with the new Kenmores…I mean they look like they do a decent job, but i think I'd trust mine to to even better. haha :)
 
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