"HE" washer using tons of water (literally)

[pezzy84]

Okay thanks. After the cleaning cycle, I take a small towel and run it through the entire ins and outs of the door seal. I noticed on mine, residue begins to build at the bottom of the plastic ring inside the 3 drain holes inside the door seal, so I'm thorough at wiping that area down.

It is a good idea to leave the door ajar between uses too to help the drum and seals get some air flow to dry and prevent mildew/mold growth. My Electrolux FL has a magnetic door plunger that keeps the door cracked open - have not had issues with any buildup in the seal in the ~3 years I have had the machine.

 

[GSCJR]

Thanks. I leave the door and dispenser ajar when not in use. I used to leave the lid open on my TL too and my LG has the magnet on the door as well.

 

[badoiljohn]

About a year and a half ago, our 20-year-old Kenmore toploader called it quits. That thing was a champ, washing probably 15 loads a week. (Who knows how much water it used, though.) We replaced it with a Maytag HE toploader from Lowes. It was the large capacity model, approximately 4.3 cubic feet. Right from the start, my mom didn't like it. She was having trouble getting things clean on the "normal" setting, plus the thing takes forever. She also complained of deposits left behind on darks. So when I was home for Christmas break, I took over laundry trying to find a solution to its problems. I ran loads (using minuscule amounts of HE detergent) and watched the water meter as I did so (no, nothing else in the house used water). "Normal" was hit or miss, but was the fastest setting. One small load came out to 17 gallons, about as expected but another medium-full load came out to almost 50! This cycle usually takes around an hour and a half. And both of those cycles were with the auto-sensing fill; "Deep Water Wash" is disabled with Normal. I tried a load on "Powerwash" and enabled "Deep Water Wash"; it took over 2 hours but used nearly 63 gallons of water! "Bulky/Sheets" used 56 gallons to run a full load on auto-sensing. Does this seem like too much? I could perhaps forgive the over-use of water if clothes came out clean, but they often do not. 50-63 gallons seems extreme and is likely more than our old model. (Just for fun, as for the "tons of water" in the title, it is using 2000 pounds of water per 5 loads!) Except one load, each has used 50+ gallons of water. This doesn't seem quite right for a HE machine, does it?

Make sure you do not have a syphoning problem. Drain hose should be as high as the top of washer. Also where drain hose goes into drain pipe it must not be tight. You need air also to stop syphoning.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Zero problems with a basic low cost non HE top load washer.

OP's complaint reminds me of public restrooms where you get a slow drizzle of water when trying to wash your hands.

This my approach as well. I worked in the laundry appliance controls industry for 16 years, including the time period when domestic appliance makers were switching over to HE front loaders. Still not a fan. Laundry has always been a compromise between resource consumption, wear and tear on fabrics and getting your clothes clean. The newer front loader machines ,IME, do not strike a good balance. I rock a low line Admiral top loader with agitator. By using some common sense in fill level selection, temp selection and and cycle time selection you can still be pretty thrifty with resources and get your clothes clean with a cheap top loader with agitator.

Just wondering, for a non HE top loader what is the best balance? Say if you use a free and clear detergent like All and you always wash full load of normal clothes, no mud no stain, but water is $6 per CCF and natural gas is about $1.5 per therm. What is the best compromise and cycle?

Typically I do normal cycle for max time, cold water, 1 full cup (line 3 in a cap with line 1,2,3) of All or arm and hammer fragrance free detergent. Always fully loaded.