We just got a front loading washer and my wife is anxious about the installers advice. He said we should run it full when we wash clothes and that we shouldn’t do small loads in it.
She is convinced it will damage the washer to wash a small load.
I say a full load is recommended only for efficiencies sake since the washer will use the same amount of water and take the same amount of time regardless of how much laundry you put in it so you are “Wasting Money” by doing a small load since there is no small load selector like a top loader.
What’s the answer? Any reason to ONLY wash full loads?
(she’s grabbing rugs and shit and throwing them in with clothes to make sure it’s full :mad:)
Ask her to think this through carefully. Does this mean that all the front load washers you find at the laundromats of America are being damaged irreparably when we bring in small loads and use them? I mean, really…
Did the machine not come with an owner’s manual? IF not, look online and you might find one.
My LG Front loader also does not have a small load selector, but it does have sensors that adjusts the amount of water to the amount of clothes. Efficiency drops slightly with small loads, but the machine isn’t damaged in any way.
I agree with zwede. Follow the instructions in the owner’s manual.
After all, who is likely to know better? The manufacturer of the machine which has an incentive to make sure that you use the machine properly, or some installer, who may be simply a guy with a hand truck and a pair of pliers?
Actually the amount of water used varies with the size of the load after a fashion. There is a water level sensor in the drum that senses level during and after the fill cycle.
If you put in one sock it will fill to the set level and use X gallons. Two socks also use X gallons. As the amount of clothes goes up, the amount of water they soak up increases. Once the drum starts moving the free water level will drop and if it goes below a certain point the washer will start filling again until it reaches the X gallon level.
I’ve washed a full load of towels where it will fill, move, refill, move, and refill again until the towels are not absorbing any more water.
The reason small loads aren’t recommended is because front loaders are more subceptible to being out of balance on the spin cycle than top loaders.
With a few items in a top loader when the spin cycle starts all of the items are at the bottom of the drum and probably fairly well distributed radially. When the drum starts to spin the are held to the outside of the drum as they were and thus are close to balanced.
With a few items in a front loader, when the spin cycle starts they are all at the bottom of the drum. They will tend to be held in that clump when the drum spins, putting it severely out of balance.
The front loader will start to spin more slowly that a top loader to try and let the clump separate before it is held by centrifugal force. The more clothes in the washer the easier it is for there not to be a single clump and for the clothes to distribute more equally during the slow spin-up, balancing the drum.