You pay for what you get...

[panasonicvac]

To clarify, I wasn't talking about opening up to door to where the whole laundry room would flood from a front loader. Whenever I'd open up the door, the glass door would have a few drips onto the carpet. Unfortunately I made a mistake one time opening up the door during a cycle with bleach inside to add something in and got some bleach stains onto the carpet. Since then I've been super careful but that is one less worry on my Kenmore. The LG did used to leak water out of the door until that seal got fixed by the technician, I was annoyed by that before. Another thing that annoys me is sometimes whenever I'd put in sanitizer or vinegar into the softener dispenser, it would leak into the prewash dispenser. And I used to put in powder detergent onto the soap dispenser until the technician pulled out the tray when the washer was getting fixed and pointed out that powder detergent can cause some build up, since then I quit using powder detergent and just only stick to liquid. But other than that, we've been happy with the LG.

 

[gizmo]

"Front loaders may have a larger drum, but here’s one thing most people don’t realize, you are supposed to only load them 2/3 to 3/4 full"

 

Nonsense. Front loaders can be loaded right to the top. That's the load they are rated for - loaded up full but not crammed tight. Once the load is wet it will squish down a bit and there will be plenty of tumble space.

 

On older FL machines they used to say to leave room at the top for a fist. That's a small gap. With more accurate water level control these days, even that little gap isn't needed on modern FL washers.

 

[combo52]

Front load washer capacity

You’re absolutely correct Chris you can fill a front load washer all the way up, you can get almost twice as much clothing per cubic foot in a front load washer as a top load machine.

Top load washers cannot begin to wash things like king size comforters uniformly, you can stuff them in there, but it’s not a very effective cleaning Process if the item is actually very dirty only parts of it will get clean.

My three-year-old Speed Queen front load washer I pack full every time I use it almost I routinely wash 12 pairs of men’s jeans in the washer per load.

John

 

[panasonicvac]

That's one of the beauties of front loaders is the size capacity, I still stand behind from my other comment. I can't fully load a king size comforter in my Kenmore top loader but no problem with my parents' front loaders. I'm sure that's one of the reasons why my newest local laundromat doesn't have any SQ top loaders, they're all SQ front loaders (actually they're branded Huebsch).

 

[askolover]

My mother just replaced her Maytag stacked unit with a whirlpool unit. The WP setup is larger in each machine but the whole unit weighs about 100# less than the Maytag it replaced. I now have the MT unit and have repaired it. I was cleaning it up a few nights ago and it wasn't too bad for being 30 years old. The white porcelain tub isn't even etched or scratched like some I've seen. The dryer isn't even blue inside. I will be listing it for sale soon. I'll bet the new WP Setup won't Last 30 years of almost daily use.

 

[launderess]

Generally H-axis washing machines should be loaded to full rated capacity by weight. That is for normal cottons/linens if machine is rated for 15lbs that is what loads should be. Under loading H-axis washers causes all sorts of issues such as vibration during extraction, making it difficult for machines to properly distribute loads for extraction.

If machine cannot balance loads properly things vary by programming but usually it means washer will stop and attempt to rebalance load. Try spinning again and if same result will repeat process again. This may go on for a few more attempts until washer either won't spin or will do so at lower speed. Either way all that pfaffing about with aborted and repeated spinning takes up time.

Constantly under loading or otherwise causing conditions are out of balance during extraction is hard on washer. This can lead to issues with bearings and support suspension system.

Mind you there is a world of difference between say 15 pounds of terry cloth bath towels and wash cloths versus bed sheets and pillow slips.

You have to take into account drum volume in relation to capacity. A properly loaded H-axis washer will tumble goods from 2 O'clock to 8 O'clock

Terry cloth and some other fabrics will greatly compact down once wet. Some weaves of bed linen and other textiles may not.



You can see even with a Milnor divided cylinder washer operator loads each pocket to full weight/tub capacity.



When washman loads machine you can see linen has compacted down quite a bit.



Then of course there are diapers...



Commercial/industrial laundries long weighed wash loads and most still do. IIRC early on in semi-automatic and fully automatic washing machine days it was suggested laundresses, housewives or whoever was doing wash should weigh loads to ensure weren't over loading or under loading certain machines. I *think* this may have been with early Bendix or other front loaders.

SQ washer that appears "stuffed" when loaded, but notice how things compact down when wet.

Much smaller load in SQ washer:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFHsEI7XOI

 

[launderess]

Another thing to consider

Is unlike their commercial/industrial cousins domestic washing machines usually have pumps. There are limits to how much water (and or froth) those devices can cope with at any given time. Once limit is reached or near machine either must slow down or simply stop extraction, clear pump of extra water, then start things again.

Older domestic front loaders such as my Miele W1070 advised to load machine at three-quarters to half full (by volume of tub) when doing loads consisting mainly of absorbent items. This would be things made from terry cloth and such.

Having just a dump valve that opens and shuts means you very well can load commercial/industrial H-axis washers to full rated capacity with bath linen, blankets, or other absorbent items. Machine will extract at full force (when reached) regardless because there isn't same worries about overloading pump with water/froth.

 

[combo52]

Life expectancy of frontload washers, etc.

Unbalanced loads in front load washers will not affect the bearings, they may cause a little more shock absorber wear.

The biggest thing that affects the life of any washing machine is doing too many loads so when you do half size loads, you’re not protecting the machine in anyway you’re wearing out the machine by doing extra loads every week every month, etc.

John

 

[ryner1988]

Reply #147

John, I agree with you about this completely, I've never seen a washer last very long where people are doing teeny-tiny loads all the time.

When this issue is brought up, I like to tell the story of my mom and my aunt and their approach to laundry. My aunt had a Whirlpool belt drive washer that lasted until the early 2000's, so nearly 20 years maybe longer. She has three kids and they lived on a farm, did 4H, etc so lots of dirty clothes. However, my aunt washed very large loads in that washer and usually would do about 5-6 loads back to back on one day, then would wait until there was enough laundry to do the same again. She sorted correctly but 99% of her sorted loads were huge. I bet she took full advantage of that 18-pound capacity tub.

My mom on the other hand had a very strange sorting system that resulted in a bunch of very small loads. For example, she would wash all black dress socks and nylons together and would not include any other delicate laundry. Shirts of literally the exact same construction would go together so there might be seven or eight pieces in a load if that. This resulted in probably 10-11 loads all told and she would do this very frequently. Her washers lasted 10 years at maximum because she probably overdid it running them all the time like that.

I feel like I have to underload a bit in my current VMW. Certainly these washers can fit quite a bit but it seemed like my direct drive could handle more laundry, even though the capacity was 3.2 cu. ft. instead of 3.5.

Ryne

 

[DADoES]

 
My mother frequently does mini loads.  I've advised her several times that it doesn't save as much water as she believes vs. doing fewer larger loads, and wear on the machine is increased being that operational time is the same ... including dryer time not being reduced as much as she may believe.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

running full loads

I'd rather have the machine running full but sorted loads. That's what my family did. That may explain why my plastic GE lasted so long.