Is the spin speed adjustable? On ours you can set the spin cycle to like 3 or 4 different speeds, not that we have ever used anything but the highest. I will throw my hat in with the “no problem with towels” crowd.
My washer is an 18 month old GE (don’t have the model number handy). With regular loads it works great.
Generally I would do a load of 6 to 8 bath towels and mix in pillow cases, socks, under shirts, etc. Each time it is set to ‘whites’ on hot. Then I’d leave it and go about my normal business. It was only recently that I was around during the spin cycle and heard the machine thumbing terribly.
Since then I’ve kept an eye on it and still have no luck doing towel only loads. If I do a regular load and mix in a few towels, then it seems fine. However, I like to do towels on hot. Also, I go to the gym daily, so need plenty of towels.
Anyway, it seems it must just be my machine and not typical to front loaders.
Our front loader has no problem with loads of towels.
You might want to call a repair place and see what they have to say. Our front loader also does towels (and anything else we throw at it - sleeping bags, blankets) fine. Sometimes, just talking to a guy with “its this model and when I do this it…” gets “oh, yeah, its probably THIS and will cost you THIS.”
I love our front loader, but its one thing I’m happy we got the extended warranty on, since washing machines DO seem to require more regular service from repair men than other applicances (with the exception of the DAMN CABLE MODEM! Just swapped that out LAST MONTH and its OUT AGAIN!).
[quote=“Magiver, post:13, topic:556311”]
I suspect this too. Bearings were the third problem we had with our previous front loader. The first problem was one of the springs that suspends the tub and keeps it even in the case broke. The second problem was one of the arms on the back of the tub broke. All these problems made the tub throw itself around and shake the whole washer. I don’t remember which time but at one point it sounded like airplanes were landing in the house.
Another happy front-loader chiming in.
Rule #1 for trouble-free washing:
Make sure your washing machine is level and stable on the floor.
We can stuff however many towels into our LG and it happily handles the load. Our machine has a control for spin speed and the only time we ever need to set it to low is if we’re washing things that are notoriously hard to balance like rubber-backed bathroom rugs.
The machine has something called Spin Sense that helps even things out. I don’t know exactly what it does as we don’t have vibration problems - our laundry room floor is concrete.
As mentioned above, don’t wash towels with other stuff - towels tend to ‘pill’ and transfer lint and fuzz to other clothes.
Can you adjust the speed of the spin cycle? You might try a lower speed when you wash towels; your towels might take longer to dry, but that seems a small price to pay.
Are you sure you’re fully level? There should be at least one “foot” on the machine that can be screwed in or out to level the machine. Having all four feet firmly on the floor should keep the thumping to a minimum.
Or, get a “stall mat”. A stall mat is a thick rubber mat designed to be placed in horse stalls for their comfort. They’re made to withstand horses standing on them all day, so they’re quite tough. You should be able to get one for $40 or less from a saddle-and-tack store. Buy one, cut it down to an appropriate size, and put it under your washer. It eliminated the noise from my dad’s washer, and I’ve heard that it even makes having a front-loader on the second story of a house tolerable (normally the fast spin cycles are unbearably loud due to the construction of second-story flooring).
I do ‘towels only’ loads in my 3 year old Maytag front-loader, on hot, in sizes ranging from two on up to ‘stuff as many in there as will fit’. Never have had a problem - except once when we first got it. It turned out the washer was not properly leveled. Fixing that fixed the problem.
No problem with towels, but it does have a habit of wadding up all the clothes into a tight little ball and trying to pull them out to put them in the dryer always ends up with half the load on the dirty floor unless you approach the situation like some kind of archeologist. Drives me nuts.
My front-loading Indesit has no problem with a boil-wash of towels. I think your machine is faulty, either that or your towels are broken.
Is your machine on a pedestal? Mine is, and the installer said that it would make the machine “walk” when doing heavier loads like towels or jeans. It seemed like a minor thing to deal with, since bending over to unload a washer or dryer hurts my back.