Well, the decision was made about the new washer

[ryner1988]

Hello all,

Thanks to those who have answered my questions in my last two threads regarding which washing machine I should purchase for my new apartment. Well, my wife ad I have moved in, and I took the advice of a couple of people on here and checked out my local used appliance store. The new washer has been bought, hooked up, and several loads have been run. So far, it works great.

We chose a Maytag after looking at several models in the store. What attracted me most of all to this model was the fact that it has a tactile pointer on the dial to set cycles, and as a blind person, this is quite important to me. Sadly, I cannot take pictures, but perhaps if I give a brief description of the machine, you all can tell me if this is a good machine or not. So far, I've been happy with it, but I'm a rookie. LOL

The dial is pretty simple, so far I've used just the regular setting, but I also know it has a delicate/hand washables setting on it. It's a super capacity model with a variable water level dial, plus an extra rinse option, four water temps, and an agitation speed selector knob. On regular setting, fast agitation, the agitation sped is slightly slower than the direct drive Whirlpools, but not by a whole lot. I think this might be a late 90's machine, but I'm not sure.

Not much to speak on in regards to the dryer though. We ended up getting a very basic Roper model, I think from about the late 90's or so. Its time dry is pitafle, only goes up to 30 minutes, so I usually use the auto dry moisture sensor option and that seems to work fine.

My only complaint about the whole deal is that I believe the gentlemen who set it up did so wrong. I think they must have gotten the cold and hot hoses mixed up, because all of my rinses are hot, and also my cold/cold comes out hot/hot. So far I've been able to circumvent this error by simply shutting off the hot water valve so only cold goes into the machine, as I wash most of our clothes on cold water anyway, hardly ever use anything else. Still though, it's annoying and I'd like it to be fixed eventually.

So what do y'all think? Judging by my description, good washer? I personally think so, seems like it'll last me quite a long time, at the very least.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You did an excellent job of describing the machines. You got good, dependable machines. You really need to have the installers check the hoses, but consider yourself fortunate that you have a machine that actually fills with hot water at tap temperature. Use them in good heath.

 

[jamiel]

And contact Whirlpool for a braille owners book and overlay...they're usually quite accommodating.

 

[ryner1988]

The deal with the hoses is that for instance, when I put the washer on hot/cold, the washer will reverse and do the wash on cold, and the rinse on hot. Warm/cold comes out as warm/hot, so on. Could this be that the hoses are connected to the wrong water valves, or is it that they are connected to the wrong inlets in the washer? I could switch them myself if I knew which situation it is.

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>Could this be that the hoses are connected to the wrong water valves, or is it that they are connected to the wrong inlets in the washer? I could switch them myself if I knew which situation it is.</blockquote>Swap the hoses on either end, whichever is easiest for access ... doesn't matter which end.

 

[ryner1988]

I definitely could try that. You don't think they need to be swapped at both ends, then?

I used it today and noted something else strange. As I mentioned earlier I have the hot water valve shut off so that I can use cold water until I figure out this issue. However, the actual setting on the washer at the moment is set to warm/warm. This is the only temperature setting that will work properly with the valve shut off, as I noticed that when I went to set it on cold/cold, it just hummed when I pulled out the dial to start it up. So basically, before I shut off the valve and set it to cold/cold, it would fill with hot water, but now that I've shut the hot water valve off, it'll just hum and not fill at all when cold/cold is selected. This makes me think it's definitely a hose reversal issue. I'll probably have to have someone with sight check them. Is there any way for someone to tell just by looking if the hoses are wrong?

 

[rp2813]

No way to tell just by looking, even if the hoses may be color coded. 

 

It's clear they're hooked up incorrectly.  You only need to change them around at one end.  Whichever end is easier to access.  If you opt to switch them on the back of the washer, be sure not to over-tighten them, as the threaded fittings on the washer are likely made of plastic.

 

[washdaddy]

ONLY SWITCH ONE END OF EACH HOSE!

Since you have mentioned that you turn off the hot water valve to achieve the cold temp that you want but you have the washer set to warm / warm. It is clear that the hoses are mixed up. It is probably easiest for you to disconnect the hoses from the valves on the wall then from the washer inlets especially since the inlets are probably plastic.

All you need to do is turn the water off to both hoses. Disconnect the hoses at the valves by unscrewing them and switching them to the opposite valve. Once you switch the hoses at the valves your temperature selections will be corrected. Make sure you tighten the hoses so that they don't leak. You are only switching one end of each hose to fix your problem.

 

[ryner1988]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try that today. I agree, disconnecting from the valves, rather than the washer itself, would probably be the easiest. I wouldn't even have to move the washer in order to do that as the valves are located to the side of the washer, rather than the back. If I turn off the valves, no water will gush out when I disconnect the hoses, correct?

 

[extmaxspin]

After you shut the water off at the supply valves, turn the machine on to fill with warm, to relieve the pressure from BOTH hoses. You'll still likely have a small amount of water that will dribble out, but releasing the pressure from the hoses will keep you from getting squirted when you first begin to loosen them.

Good luck--I'm sure you'll do fine!

 

[DADoES]

Think of the hoses as being crossed as an X between the taps and the machine, when they should be parallel. Reversing one end (at the taps) gets them back to parallel, whereas reversing both ends (taps and machine) would still have them crossed.