Washing Machine Advice

[Jay2TheRescue]

I've been extremely pleased with the machines made by Electrolux (Most Frigidaire, some GE & Kenmore).

-Jay

[itjstagame]

Does anyone know if any washers in the US heat the water? When I was in Germany the house we were at had a front loader built by Bosch (who else in Deutschland) and it only had 1 water line in, cold. You had a thermostat for what temp to wash the clothes at, convenient because I could vary based on dirt or colors or what not (I mean adjustable every 10C from 30-80C).

Only downside as that it ran for over 2 hours! But I assume it used very little water, warmed it itself and clothes were barely damp afterward, they could line dry in < 1 hour (good because not one house I saw there actually had a clothes dryer, just lines outside or in the basement).

But seriously, the clothes came out cleaner and I think it's a better system. Plus I really want to switch to tankless hotwater and eliminate the hotwater to my clothes washer.

[theholycow]

I'm not sure how a self-warming washer will help you switch to tankless, unless I read your implication wrong and you were just saying it coincidentally. My tankless works great with my common cheap washer.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I have a Whirlpool Duet at home, and it says it will boost the temperature of the wash water in certain cycles. I'm not sure this is the best way to go though. I'm sure a relatively new hot water heater is far more efficient than the washer would be at heating the water, especially if the hot water heater uses any other fuel than electric. Electricity is always the most expensive fuel. A good tankless hot water heater is very efficient, heating water on demand, only when its needed. Plus, as you mentioned it takes a long time to run a cycle because you have to wait for it to heat the water.

High extraction is one of the energy saving benefits of a front loading machine. Any front loader will do this for you, whether it has a water heater built in or not. Front loaders extract a lot more water from the clothes so they will require less drying time.

-Jay

[itjstagame]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I'm not sure how a self-warming washer will help you switch to tankless, unless I read your implication wrong and you were just saying it coincidentally. My tankless works great with my common cheap washer.

Because I don't want to plumb all the way to the washer. I want to have one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen and have the washer be super German efficient if I can.

Otherwise I guess I can pull a pipe off the bathroom heater, but the less pipe the better.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by itjstagame

Because I don't want to plumb all the way to the washer. I want to have one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen and have the washer be super German efficient if I can.

Do you not currently have a washer?

[Jay2TheRescue]

I'm thinking he's trying to install 2 tankless HWH's. 1 in the kitchen & 1 in the bathroom, and he's not planning on using the hot water pipe already in the house. Personally I don't see the advantage of 2 heaters - the savings probably won't offset the costs of 2 units. If its a quality tankless HWH one will be enough for the whole house.

-Jay

[theholycow]

Oh, that idea is pretty good; you don't waste anything by having to turn the water on and wait for it to reach the faucet. However, the installation would be a lot of work because you have to pipe fuel to each one, or you run wire and use expensive electricity for the job. Having immediate hot water would certainly be a nice luxury...but for the cost, replacing the existing tank with a tankless central unit is probably better -- and the priceless luxury of having long showers is still there.

It's wasteful and hedonistic, but once in awhile I have to unwind like that.

[GasSavers_Erik]

If you are very far from your breaker box, it will likely be much cheaper to run an extra plastic hot water pipe than it will be to buy lots of heavy gauge copper wire to power the second tankless unit.

Peak demand electricity pricing is on its way, and when it gets here I think many ppl will switch back to a tank style heater because they can shut its power off during the high rate time of day and still have hot water to use.

[Snax]

Originally Posted by Snax

Ok, we've had our front loader, Maytag MHWZ400TQ, for two weeks now, and here are a few observations:

UPDATE



We are still mostly pleased with the performance of this machine. Our energy bills continue to be down 20-30% from before. There are however a couple of niggling issues with this model to be aware of:

#1 It's Feral - It likes to move around - allot! I have had to drill a 5/8" hole into the concrete floor of the garage opposite the corner it is wedged into in order to anchor the pedestal in one place. Without that, it could literally walk out a foot or more during one load. And it is dang heavy to push back in!

In fact, upon closer inspection for the reason I will detail as item #2, it is clear that this machine has no dynamic load balancing built into the drum itself. It's supposed to electronically do it, but it leaves a bit to be desired there. I also now know that the reason the machine is so dang heavy is due to the concrete balast attached to the outer drum assembly.

#2 It's a Piggy Bank - In other words, it will collect any change left in your pockets, along with whatever else that is metal or plastic or similar size, and put it into the pump filter basket. At some point, this basket will fill up with change and crap to the point that the machine will refuse to drain until you empty out your piggy bank because one of the coins or other other items has jammed up the pump! Lucky you if you don't have the now obscenely heavy water filled machine mounted on a pedestal or at least in a floodable space - because you WILL have to drain the water to access this little trap at the lowest point of the water system - and there is no way to keep the water from coming out when you do!

I really love that the manual mentions nothing about this trap and that you must remove lower panel screws to get to it. Seems they were working to assure job security of their technicians on that one. Even better is that the technicians service manual suggests that the pump should just be replaced!!!

Anyway, I've learned time after time with things like this that it is usually better to at least take a look at things yourself before calling for service. While we have the extended warranty on this machine and repairs should have been a no-cost proposition, getting somebody out to fix our washer would have taken at least a day or more. It took me a couple of hours on my own to diagnose and remedy the situation, but I could probably handle it again in about 15 minutes the next time it happens, as I am sure it will.