Yesterday was the worst laundry day I have ever had.

[autowasherfreak]

I think I should have just stay in bed yesterday, but I decided to do laundry instead. First the hose came off the back of the Frigidaire FL'er. But I was able to pause it in time before it completely drained. It doesn't have a clamp I must have loosened it when I was connecting the Maytag. I saved all the rinse water from two loads into the Maytag and it filled it full, so I washed a load of sheets in the Maytag. During the final spin the hose came off the pump and really flooded the basement, glad I had a shop vac. I had one sheet and four pillow cases that wouldn't fit in the Maytag so I washed them in the Frigidaire and for some reason they wouldn't distribute for the final spin, so I canceled the cycle and ran them through a spin cycle in the Maytag.

Any of you ever have a day like that?

 

[spookiness]

Ugh

Not long after I moved into my house (1997), I had my Norgetag pulled out for some reason, and when I put it back I forgot to put the drain hose back in.

I ran a load of wash, and you can guess what happened. I had also just finished painting the basement bathroom next to the laundry room, and the drywall on one wall ended up getting soaked.

 

[rp2813]

Brings a new and entirely literal meaning to the term "hosed up" huh?

At least it was in your basement. Had the same thing happened in my laundry room, the adjacent family room would become a salvaging nightmare.

And I can relate to the distribution issues with Frigidaires. My Duet HT never had so much trouble. This Affinity has frustrated me in that regard more than once in the short time I've owned it. I mean, I can see in the stepped up rotation speed that the drum is fairly balanced, yet the damned machine will stop itself and attempt to redistribute rather than launch into full-on spin out of some sort of misguided quest for perfection. Soooooo annoying.

Ralph

 

[scott55405]

Ralph, what prompted your switch from a Duet to a Frigidaire?

The spinning issue from what I have seen is something that definitely needs a good bit more work.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Many a yar ago we lived in a house where the washer and dryer were in what amounted to a screened in porch. In the winter we put heavy plastic over the screens and this be our laundry room. We had a small heater out there that kept he washer from freezing. However, I didn't think of the drian pipe itself. One night I came home from work about midnight and had to do my uniforms for the next day. I started the load and went about my business.

I stepped out about the time the GE FF went into spin/drain and saw a guiser of water coming back up the frozen drain pipe and spraying completely across the room. Took me two days to thaw out that drain trap and get my uniforms finsished.

 

[rp2813]

My Switch to Frigidaire

. . . was part of our move last year. Out of concern for moving the Duet washer without causing damage, we decided to leave that pair behind when we sold our house so we included it in the deal.

The laundry area here in my parents' old place was designed to accommodate your standard top loader pair--indeed, it contained a P.O.S. 2000 GE washer and a plain but reliable 80's Norge dryer. A full sized Duet pair would protrude into the doorway and the limited space within the laundry area. So I was limited to FL options that would fit the same footprint as standard machines. My research kept leading back to Frigidaire and the price point on them was certainly right. Asking around here on AW, Affinities seemed to have a lot of support from members who owned them. So I went for them thinking, how much difference can there really be between various makes of FL washers? I thought wrong. The Duets are far more capable and versatile machines. Heck, they even clean themselves!

The Affinities will have to do for now. Until we can reconfigure the laundry room for more modern equipment, Duets aren't going to fit. Meanwhile, I dump more water in when it's clear the Affinity isn't using enough, and I set it for "extra rinse" on every cycle because it can't match the rinsing action of a Duet. I try to find the positive aspects of this need for human intervention.

Should anyone I know be shopping for a FL washer, I will recommend the Duet as an excellent value. Mieles are probably even more superior, but I can't justify the expense. On the other hand, you get what you pay for with Frigidaire.

This is my experience. To coin a phrase from other members, your mileage may vary.

Ralph

 

[scott55405]

Thanks for your opinion Ralph! I always wonder in situations like that since most f/ls just aren't that old.

BTW, in spirit of the thread, I did have one of those closet type laundry areas once and had the (plastic) drain hose pushed up out of the standpipe drain by force of the water. Thankfully we caught it relatively quickly, but it was still kind of a mess (and would have been bad news for tenants below) and that sucker was well taped down ever after!

Always makes you think about old ads where the homemaker is sitting on the beach or on the way out the door shopping while her Bendix or whatever is doing the laundry. Nice perhaps not to have to stand over and assist the machine, but I wonder if they thought of things like this then?

 

[kenmoreforever]

Well washerfreak, I work on a lot of machines out on my patio. Not too long ago I put a Kenmore washer to start washing in the longest cycle in order to test it out for a customer. I left home with it washing just fine. I got tied up while I was away from the house. Nine hours later I returned home to find the damn thing still washing my jeans. The timer had a bad motor come to find out. But Wrangler jeans sure are tough to handle all that. alot of amps were pulled thru the meter that day.

 

[retro-man]

Oh have I had floods before. lol. Back in college was living on the second floor of a 2 story house. 1 apt upstairs 1 downstairs. We were sitting in their kitchen partying downstair while my washer is running upstairs in the bathroom. I guess the drain hose dislodged itself from the sink and was just running on the floor. One of the people opened a cabinet door and all the boxes of cereal came flooding out of the cabinet. Just like in a cartoon. We couldn't stop laughing. Another time in another house I had years ago, it had a pump up system in the basement to go to the septic system. I guess the pump had seized and popped the breaker. Washing machine started and upstairs I go. Come back down 45 minutes later to a minor flood. When I say minor it means I had a major flood in that house. Shortly before I was going to put it on the market and move to a larger house the city came by and said I had to hook to city water and disconnect my well because of underground dumping site of contanimants and my well might get polluted. Ok no problem do it then. So they installed the water main into the house. Oh not to mentioned that they collapsed the cover on the septic system and had to replace that. Well the yahoo's that do water line installations are not the same yahoo's that install the meter and shut off in the basement. So the 1st set of yahoo's install the water line turn it on at the street and leave. Second set of yahoo's never showed up to put meter and valves on. I came home 5 or 6 hours later. Went into the bathroom and I could hear water running. I think oh no one of the pressure plugs on the water pump went out. Go to the basement stairs opened the door turned on the light and 5 or 6 steps from the top is the water level. Boxes floating by, pieces of wood. I look across and the water is coming out about 4 feet from the pipe full force gushing into the basement. Had to have fire department out to pump out my indoor pool. Electric co. had to come shut off the power and of course the water co to shut off the water main. New furnace that was 2 years old, washer, dryer, hot water heater, numerous tools. Nothing like a flood to clean out your basement. Thank God these are just memories now..
Jon

 

[j2400]

The biggest disaster I remember in the laundry room happened years ago to my mother. The intake valve on her 60s vintage Kenmore broke...and it broke "open" so the washer kept filling. Thankfully, there was no flood--a simple matter of setting the washer so it would drain and turn off the water.

Except...the handle on the tap broke.

So, it was quite a race...draining the machine every couple of minutes, doing a spin, and racing around finding a tool that would turn the tap off.

Thankfully, it worked OK, with no flooding. Although, I shudder to think of what could have happened. Some other failure so the washer wouldn't have been able to drain....

 

[rapunzel]

Many years ago the cold water supply hose to my SQ top loader burst. Luckily I was home at the time and wondering about the gushing noise in my basement. Fortunately the walls are double brick down there and the entire basement floor is tiled, plus I had a shop vac to help with the clean-up. Had to take the control panel off the machine and dry out the electronics - no major damage was done.

rapunzel

 

[volvoguy87]

My worst...

Aside from every washday with the Amanatag I had in Savannah, was one time when I was using my grandmother's GE Filter Flo and the outer tub boot let go. WHAT A MESS! It soaked through to the basement. No major damage, however, because I had a shop vac and sucked it up quickly. Also, it broke on first fill, and there was no detergent in the machine yet (That's what the filter pan is for).

It's good when things just work,
Dave

 

[christfr]

oh my. well when one wants to be bad the rest of them seem to follow along. had a rollermatic flood the garage but that wasnt to bad i mean the garage is just the garage. but my pet wo65 (the one that live in the living room) i rolled it out into the kitchen to run a load and both the bellows split and filled the trans with water and the water pushed all the oil out of the trans onto the kichen floor. so that was nasty. and then there are always the cut fingers and the whirlpool that broke 2 of my toes. damn kids

 

[autowasherfreak]

It was a conspiracy, they decided enough is enough we are going to get back at him today.

I don't know why the hose came of the pump on the Maytag, I replaced the clamp, and I know that I had it pretty tight.

The floor is nice and clean down there now. I used the Bissell carpet shampooer to get the water out of the area rug. It looks nice and bright again