Whirlpool VMW washer and auto sense

[ryner1988]

I noticed this afternoon something interesting about my Whirlpool washer's auto sense function. Model number is WTW4816FW3 for those who haven't been following along.

I normally use warm water to wash clothes and hot water for towels and sheets. My usual cycle is heavy duty w/auto sense, occasionally I use the bulky cycle if I need to wash a spread or blanket. Today, I used the cool setting instead of warm to wash a load of mixed clothes, because it had a couple newer sweatshirts in and I didn't want them to run on the other clothes. I noticed that the auto sense provided a substantial amount more water using the cool temperature setting that it usually does on warm -- on hot, it also uses a higher water level but I attributed that to the heavier loads, like towels, that I normally wash on hot. I've never had much of a problem with the water level the machine uses on warm but I was pleasantly surprised, because on cool it put in in my opinion just enough extra to guarantee good turnover. It wasn't to the top by any means but it certainly wasn't using what I would call too little water. If I'm to make a guess at a quantifiable amount of water, I'd say it was to the fourth or so row of holes from the top if following the holes down in a diagonal fashion, and this was a pretty large load of clothes.

I'll need to experiment with this more but I wonder if both cool and hot use a higher water level than warm because warm uses the water pressure differently? Perhaps there's something to do with an energy regulation thing, like the manufacturer thinks warm is what people select without thinking so it uses a slightly lower water level? Who knows.

Hey Eddie or anyone else who has a washer like mine, have you experienced water level differences based on temp selection?

Just curious,

Ryne

 

[pierreandreply4]

ryner1988

i have the maytag version of your washer i use auto sense all the time but my daily driver washer must be the inlet that needs to be clean or vice versa send only cold water in if warm or hot his selected did this the first year of purchuse end of 2021 start of 2022 resolves itself but it doing it a again but hard to say what the acutal problem is since my washer on auto sense mix hot cold water if warm hot or cool is selected same with cold unless setting to tap cold

 

[ea56]

Hi Ryne,
I haven’t noticed this anomaly in using my Roper RWT4516FW2, probably because I never use the cool or cold setting on the Heavy/Normal auto sense cycle. The only time I use cool or cold water is when using the Gentle cycle when I wash our sheer panel curtains.

I will say though that these machines seem to always use just the right amount of water on auto sense to assure effective turnover and cleaning while at the same time not wasting water. For inexpensive washing machines they are indeed impressive.

I happy that you continue to be pleased with your sister ship to my Roper.

Eddie

 

[ryner1988]

Reply #2

Huh, strange, perhaps it's just a quirk of my machine in particular. I was just kinda mystified because I thought cool water would put in less water, not more, if indeed it was to make any difference at all...

Perhaps it was the thick sweatshirts I added that made a difference and it has nothing to do with water temp whatsoever.

I have noticed that blankets, especially comforters, don't work well on auto sense. Tried it once and the water level was too low and it was just getting thrashed by the agitator at the bottom of the tub. While comforters are puffy, I don't think they're usually particularly heavy, so the washer doesn't sense much weight in the drum. Therefore with those I usually use bulky.

 

[appnut]

Ryne, what you mentioned above with comforters and blankets, why it's best to wash on Bulky/Sheets.

 

[jamiel]

I have been getting increasingly disenchanted with the autosense in the Amana I've commented on before.

It does well with graphic t-shirts and cotton knit fabrics (underwear), turning them over nicely in a smallish pool (tbh less water than I'd use if I had a water level control.

Synthetics, though, sorted into a similarly sized load seem to end up in a full tub (far more than I'd use, and under-soaped when I expect handling like the T-shirts especially in the hard water out here).

Bulky fills full and doesn't pulse the motor during fill (to avoid tangling or wear, I'd suppose). It does seem OK with bedsheets and towels (though a very heavy load of a cotton thermal blanket and towels struggled mightily---I think I did overload it, TBH).

Not quite sure how jeans/denim shorts/sleeved and button shirts do best---

Other thing I notice is that Normal dumbs down water temps but Heavy Duty seems not to.

Wish I could understand the rinsing logic--it seems like Bulky does a full-fill rinse no matter the setting, but the other settings I cannot quite figure out. I prefer to use softener in non-synthetic loads (to counteract the hard-water harshness) and have trouble catching the rinse reliably.

 

[ea56]

Jamie,
I’ve found the same thing about the water temps being dumbed down on the Normal cycle, also the Normal cycle doesn’t use a fill rinse, but instead a spray rinse. For these reasons I always use the Heavy Duty cycle which gives tap hot water if hot is selected and a fill rinse. I replaced the center agitator cap with a fabric softener dispenser and it dispenses the LFS at the correct time using any cycle that has a fill rinse. If you don’t want to get a fabric softener dispenser a Downey Ball also works very well at dispensing the LFS at the correct time eliminating the need to run back to the washer to add it manually.

For most loads I use the Heavy Duty cycle with auto sense. I only use the Bulky cycle for large, heavy items like blankets, bedspreads and comforters. The Normal cycle is really only useful for smaller, lightly soiled loads because of the spray rinse, shorter wash times and cooler water temps. But the Heavy cycle on auto sense gives plenty of wash time, rinses very thoroughly with the fill rinse and gives warmer warm and full tap hot water, its my go to cycle for almost every load.

Eddie

 

[ryner1988]

Reply #5

Jamie, which cycle are you using for your synthetic loads? Not all cycles are created equal when it comes to the auto sense feature. Delicates, for instance, will fill higher than other cycles because presumably the thought is that delicate items require more water to cushion them from the agitation. I would guess casuals, meant for semi-delicate items like button-ups, slacks and such, acts much the same way -- the default fill level is higher. So if you're running your synthetic loads on either of those cycles, perhaps this is the reason why you're getting more water than you want. As Eddie has stated, heavy duty (labeled as normal/heavy on your machine) gives the most reliable auto sense performance and it's what I use for99 percent of my laundry; neither my wife nor myself have much delicate clothing so delicates and casuals virtually go unused.

 

[jamiel]

Thank you for this---I really have few things that I'd call delicate---will do Heavy Duty on all loads but bedsheets--for those, Bulky.