Just a quick question - How does a VMW washer determine if there is an out of balance situation and what to do? I washed a comforter in mine. When I put it back in to give it an extra spin, I didn't put it in completely even. I was under the assumption that the first "sensing" spin was to determine if the contents were out of balance, but then the machine started to ramp up to the low speed spin and banging the cabinet around.
VMW OOB?
- Thread starter wishwash
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It depends what model you have. Does your machine have a water level selector on it or is it completely automatic fill sensing?
On the WTW4800 I have/had, those two quick spins at the start of any cycle selection are just a formality, because they use the same control board across all versions of the VMW lineup. Basically, it's "sensing", but because the water level selector overrides any readings the machine took, they're just dumped. Same for the Spin Only selection. As far as I know and have learned with testing, the quick spin tests at the beginning are only used to determine water level on the Auto Fill models, but has nothing to do with sensing load balance. Instead, because the motor has two speeds, it may decide to stick to the low speed spin instead of the fast final spin, because it can determine off balance during the actual spin process by readings from the RPS sensor, because the tub is taking too long to reach full speed or because it's slowing down much too quickly when the motor stops.
On the WTW4800 I have/had, those two quick spins at the start of any cycle selection are just a formality, because they use the same control board across all versions of the VMW lineup. Basically, it's "sensing", but because the water level selector overrides any readings the machine took, they're just dumped. Same for the Spin Only selection. As far as I know and have learned with testing, the quick spin tests at the beginning are only used to determine water level on the Auto Fill models, but has nothing to do with sensing load balance. Instead, because the motor has two speeds, it may decide to stick to the low speed spin instead of the fast final spin, because it can determine off balance during the actual spin process by readings from the RPS sensor, because the tub is taking too long to reach full speed or because it's slowing down much too quickly when the motor stops.
Mine is a Kenmore with a water level selector switch. From what I can tell from the serial number, it was made in late 2012. Mine actually doesn't do any "sensing" at the beginning of a cycle, only before a spin.
So basically you're saying if I load it with a comforter and it goes off balance, it will continue banging around all through the low speed spin? The sound of the cabinet made me cringe.
So basically you're saying if I load it with a comforter and it goes off balance, it will continue banging around all through the low speed spin? The sound of the cabinet made me cringe.
vacerator
Well-known member
Mine
is an impeller type, and it has on rare occasion, tried to spin, couldn't, so re-filled with some water, agitated to balance the load, then drain and try to spin again, up to three times once in fact.
is an impeller type, and it has on rare occasion, tried to spin, couldn't, so re-filled with some water, agitated to balance the load, then drain and try to spin again, up to three times once in fact.
It -can- detect off balance loads during the spin, because it will sense that the motor is unable to accelerate in the usual time it takes to reach speed. However, I'm not understanding how the comforter could be so severely off balance if loaded properly. Comforters/quilts are usually so large that by the time it's fully in the machine, there's enough material all around the agitator that the spin may gyrate the tub more but not enough to bang the cabinet or prevent reaching top speed. Was the majority of the comforter balled up to one side when the off-balance occurred?
Not necessarily. There was more material on one side than the other, but not so much that it should bang around like that. I'll have to try it again, but it sure sounds like it's going to shake itself to pieces. I'm curious to see if it would try to fill and redistribute as well.
washerdude
Well-known member
I feel as if these VMW get off balance pretty darn easy, but to me it still doesn't make sense to why it wouldn't stop if the tub is banging against the cabinet. Which makes me lead to think if it continued to spin banging the cabinet, in the off chance would it have managed to knock one of the suspension rods off the supports and cause it to spin-splode? I linked a video below to another VMW unit off balance, however this one does seem to stop spinning on its own before it got unplugged.
TURN VOLUME DOWN
TURN VOLUME DOWN
I love how they never made an attempt to show the "action" with the lid open. Something about that video seemed a bit exaggerated and unrealistic. I need to see under the hood of it doing this before I believe it. There's just physically no way. Even if one of the suspension rods were broken, the tub wouldn't be sitting perfectly centered like that.
These machines are actually hard to off-balance. When I had the 4800 in use, I even tried a few times to move towels to one side, and because of the balance rings it of course would gyrate more but was still able to spin at max speed with only slight and reasonable vibration to the cabinet. The Oasis is even more difficult to throw off because of the more intricate sensing capabilities in addition to having two full balance rings on top and bottom.
Something about that video irks me because of how outlandish it is. That's the kind of washer walking only found in cartoons and sitcoms.
Something about that video irks me because of how outlandish it is. That's the kind of washer walking only found in cartoons and sitcoms.
Not to say it can't happen, of course. Machines can be unpredictable by all means. The rotor-position sensor should detect a severely off balance load, but it can start banging the cabinet before it makes the decision to stop and proceed with filling and agitating to redistribute. But that video in particular seems off. Knowing the VMW design inside and out like the back of my hand, there's just no physically possible way that washer could buck like a bull and then look perfectly centered and balanced when the lid is opened. The tub would have been sitting lop sided after an episode like that, because the only logical explanation would be a suspension rod or mount broken. Could the feet of the washer be severely off set to cause it to rock so violently?
That video doesn't seem right.
I find it interesting that the old belt drives bang around too, but nobody rags on those. See from about 15:45.
I find it interesting that the old belt drives bang around too, but nobody rags on those. See from about 15:45.
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