OT: Frontload washers

Beryl wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

I was watching a friend's house while she was on vacation. I used her washer a number of times (front loader). Never had any off balance problems with it.

Suddenly, without warning, Beryl exclaimed (2/11/2008 3:06 PM):

Maybe it's a bit off balance (feet need adjusting)? We have a heavy-duty top loader here, and it never walks around, even when it gets off-balance and makes truly horrific noises...

jmc

LOL, you would think that but they work quite well. When they go into their spin cycle, they can actually balance the load in the drum. They start off slow and keep changing speed (in the slow range) until the cloths distribute themselves around the drum and when it's sensors no longer detect an out of balance condition, the thing takes off like a bat out of hell.

Sell your house and buy one that has a washing machine that doesn't move around.

good question. i'm not sure how it's done, but they sure don't seem to walk around at all. we had a top loader that went for walks all the time. we rebalanced the legs, took painstaking care about how we loaded it, but it still walked all over. just recently we went to a ge front loader and it doesn't walk at all. we don't do anything differently, it just doesn't seem to have the wandering problem that our top loader did.

Front loaders can use gravity at low speed to self balance the load. Top loaders do not have the gravity advantage. Steve

You got it.. same with power tools... Get the feel just a bit out of adjustment, to let it rock, and the harmonics make it dance.. No fun chasing a lathe around the shop while trying to turn a bowl.. BTDT

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

That puzzles me. It starts off from an unbalanced state, and then... what would make it want to balance? Gravity is just as happy if there's one big lump of clothes slinging around.

TBone may have got it with "keep changing speed (in the slow range)." The machine loafs along, waiting for the right moment to eventually come around, then quickly takes off so centrifugal force can take command of the load away from gravity.

Thanks, everyone, for the input. Even theguy's impostor. This was sort of an OT joke after the Log home thread, but I really wanted an answer too.

Think about it! On a front loader when you place the clothes in the drum, all the clothes are on the bottom, right? As the cylinder begins to turn slowly, some of the clothes fall to the bottom and are thus evenly distributed around the circumference of the drum via gravity resulting in a balanced load.

Gravity is just as happy if there's

You are not trying to make gravity "happy", you are using gravity to balance the load.

they also seem to have some sort of shock absorber system that is disabled by bolts through the back when they are new. if you leave the bolts in and put a load of clothes in it'll take off like a pissed off bull, ask me how i know! after removing the bolts and sliding mine back into its slot, we have not had it move an inch no matter what we loaded in it.

my guess is that they're "shipping" bolts, and that taking them out Enables the shock absorbers or whatever..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

that was my guess also, but it was interesting to see the thing take off across the floor! after reading the manual i discovered the mistake....LOL

But I happen to like happy gravity...... Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Denny

yeah... sorta like heated leather seats.... :^)

Mike

Kinda fell into that one huh??

Denny

Apparently it ends up like that. Some stuff sure binds together though, like my pant legs tying themselves to towels.

Great, Denny! You'll still be the same when you come out of the wash inside-out.

a dryer spins... and a traditional horizontal mounted drum washer spins... its usually my traditional washer that does all the walking around... not the dryer...