Whirlpool FL washers accumulate mold, class action lawsuit says

[launderess]

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch

If one goes by Internet complaints mould growing in this new crop of modern front loaders seems to be a major issue. None of the major appliance makers will admitt to it, and all suggest the issue is one of consumer's poor laundry habits (not leaving door ajar after use and so forth), but one can only guess it is tied into the puny amount of water these machines use.

 

[dj-gabriele]

but one can only guess it is tied into the puny amount of wa

NO, it's not!
My washing Candy machine uses the fantastic amount of 39 Litres of water per wash and we don't know the meaning of mould, same goes in the other washer, a Whirlpool, at a whopping 44 litres!

It's all down to bad habits!

A friend of mine and my sister have the same WIA600 Indesita washing machine, my sister's machine is pristine, as she was instructed on how to properly wash and maintain the machine, my friend's one is so mouldy that the door boot needed to be changed (by me!)

 

[nmassman44]

I can say that after my experience with the GE/Frigidaire front loader that we got from a friend that was so proud to wash only in cold water and never leave the door open to air it out..the smell was unreal not to mention the clumps of "biofilm" that came off the drum when I ran hot water and Tide washer cleaner thru it. After all those years of washing in cold his clothes smelled like they were washed in a sewer.
It amazes me how these detergent manufacturers push cold water washing...especially in a front loader. To me cold doesnt clean..its like washing your hands in cold water after you just cut up chicken and they are kinda greasy...it doesnt work well. But thats what people believe that it works. I always tell people you dont take a cold shower or bath when you bathe do you...

 

[foxchapel]

washing most of our laundry in cold water is like . . .

. . . washing a skillet in cold water, that has been used to fry chicken.

 

[sudsmaster]

I second the fact that mold (really, fungus) can grow anywhere.

When I bought this house in '97, it came with a '78 GE Filter-flo. Nice washer, but it had this funky old cigar smell to it. When I lifted the top off it, there was a thick crust of brown mold all around the underside.

I figure the former owner had perhaps bought into the cold water washing myth. The washer is now parked in my collection in another building on the property, replaced by a Maytag Neptune that has never had mold in tub or odor problem, and I don't do anything special like keeping the door open. But then I do only hot or warm washes, with STPP. And the Neptune design provides aeration via ports in the door panel and a big gap in the detergent compartment lid. There is some slight surface mold in the detergent compartment, but that is easily removed with a sponge or brush once or twice a year.

 

[neptunebob]

But the Neptune had another design flaw that grew mold. Above the dispensers was a plastic case that all of the fresh water went into. One day I unscrewed it and black mold everywhere! I had to use a screwdriver and bleach to scrape it all out. As I remember, the Kenmores we had had a smaller case the water went into but it was open on one side and made of polyethylene so water never hung around. Cleaning this case out did help keep the mold away from the rest of the machine until it grew again. And me and my mother always used hot water and often used bleach. Now we have the GE (LG) top loader and the drawer where you place the detergent and the softener has a coating of mold which has to be cleaned off, it will not even come off in the dishwasher. Somehow I think this machine will be a stinker too.

 

[neptunebob]

Oh, another thing...

I cannot believe that Bing Crosby was such a wuss that he could not perform twice a day, althought we probably would not have videotape if he did not fund Ampex. I have performed in college and community theatre musicals where I had to be on stage for maybe 2 hours at a time and had to do it twice a day, the day before and the day after and while I was tired after ALL of that, if I can do it I see no reason Bing couldn't handle it. Maybe all of the smoking and being mean took his energy away? I also had to move furniture on stage and then after all was done help "Strike" the set and prepare the auditorium for the next use too.

 

[arbilab]

One gets the impression Bing was a diva. Got things 'his way' just because he could. But like you said, Uncle Alex's little DOD motor company couldn't have financed the audio machines without Bing nor the video machines without the audio.

E. Stanley Busby was the logic designer for ACR-25/AVR-1 among other projects. The VR-1000 team was Charles Anderson, Ray Dolby, Alex Maxey, Shelby Henderson, Charles Ginsburg and Fred Pfost. The anniversary of videotape broadcasting was Nov 30 1956.

Somebody would have come up with practical videotape if Ampex hadn't, but not in 1956 they wouldn't. As George Harrison said about Ringo's drums in Hard Day's Night, Ampex loomed large in my legend.