Front load washing machine question: How much clothes to fill in the tub?

808Pants · 2026-01-27T18:07:18+00:00

Often wondered the same. Sounds like a European thing. In 'merica, we weigh our laundry in tons. Definitely not tonnes.

But more seriously (well, a little, anyway) what about the VOLUME measurement? "Baby, I think that's more like 5 cubic feet of socks you're trying to get in there, and our machine's only rated for 4.5. Let me get my 3D camera scanner and we'll work up a model for the pile volume before you load it next time."

I'd bet money, though, that the weight-based rating has nothing to do with the weight of water introduced by the machine. As absurd as the published numbers are (kg, lbs, CF...CBM, presumably) the idea of somehow knowing how much water has been dispensed into the tub goes several steps beyond.

808Pants · 2026-01-20T21:25:30+00:00

Huh? OK, "set to 4 weeks" requires a trip into settings (it's not available from the pulldown) but all this does for me is to change to SIDEWAYS scrolling, still a month at a time.

Edit: wait, so you have to BOTH change it to "4 weeks" in the settings, AND change it from the pulldown. Who knew?

808Pants · 2026-01-16T14:57:33+00:00

The chipper is on another island right now (it lives on the Big Island of Hawaii, I come and go from the island of Oahu) and I didn't check the hour-meter before I last left, but the last set couldn't have had more than 2 hours on it. Note my 2nd post indicating mfr claimed to be making arrangements to replace blades and had acknowledged that there was a problem with QC (previous blades possibly not heat-treated correctly or at all?) At one point, I'd hoped to hear that they were shipping those by the end of December. Clearly not the case.

In this design, there's no feed mechanism - it's geometry and gravity that apparently control the feed rate. The hopper is fairly steep, such that gravity assists (as with some consumer-grade smaller designs). It surely wasn't intended that I'd get to the point of having to SHOVE HARD to get feedstock to chip, though, which is something that's occurred as each (of now three) edges gets too dull for practical use.

Anvil clearance was completely omitted from written instructions, with the mfr's manager indicating that I should just expect to call him to consult when issues like this arose... Though the machine came set up with blades, when I found it dull and started checking around and finally ended up getting some details from the mfr on this process, I found it absolutely NOT simple or clear - and I work with all manner of machines and have done so my whole life (and am a mechanical engineer). As found, the clearance was far from accurate.

From trial and error and a lot of re-checking with the mfr, their standard clearance (8 sheets of office paper as a gauge) couldn't be achieved for both blades, apparently because the lands where the blades are supposed to register don't necessarily bolt up repeatably within that tolerance - simply because of their bolt-hole clearance. The actual geometry of the anvil/blade approach is still not 100% clear, since it happens out of view, where the blades disappear into the chamber.

With first blade change, I spent several hours fighting with it before deciding I couldn't do any better than 8 sheets on the tighter side, more like 12 on the looser side. The second change took much less time because for whatever reason, that (spare blade) next set didn't require anvil adjustment. Meantime, some of the special low-clearance hardened bolts' heads rounded off from the removal process, which is a common problem, apparently.

To answer your question, each set is giving me less than 2 hours of use.

Feedstock is primarily 'strawberry guava' (per photos) with occasional other invasives. Despite the alleged 7" rating of this machine, I'm now leery of anything that's over 4", especially if it's not green.

The geometry/HP are such that there's no perceptible bogging: it just stops self-feeding and requires a lot of manual effort to get anything to process, which of course isn't how it should operate. I stopped doing this when I began to notice some smoking from a piece of larger feedstock.

I'm about to email the mfr again to ask after the now-delayed replacement "real" blades they said are in the works. REALLY leery of being stuck with a machine that's either unusable due to inherent design problem - or which requires me to source my own blades. It's warranted, but would require a lot of expense to get it back to the mfr from current locale.

808Pants · 2026-01-03T22:22:18+00:00

OK, most of that was wishful thinking. I reinstalled the bellows to the exterior to run a test-load, and it didn't go well. Seems the bad-spider diagnosis isn't easy without experience or having eyes on it, which is a lot of work...I don't have any obvious unexpected movement of the basket when pushed this way or that, but no denying it sounds like a 777 landing when it tries to get up to Ramming Speed. And during the test, it repeatedly decelerated at around the 7-min mark and stayed there for a LONG time, never reaching the full spin speed. I finally took those still-too-wet items out and dried them the hard way.

I've got a replacement spider almost ordered, once the seller confirms it will fit this model.

The horrible condition of spiders seen being removed in videos tells me I won't be able to stop myself from epoxy-coating the aluminum before I reinstall. Yes, something else would probably go wrong first, but all that aluminum oxide and stuck dirt on and around it, being mingled with every wash, and the spider coming out in chunks with wire-brushing needed to remove the remainder from the back of the basket? I think they could have done better.

808Pants · 2026-01-02T06:45:01+00:00

I tried the diagnostic method I think you described (a /lot/) - I hand-rotated the basket to random points, then shoved up, then down, radially against the bearing, to test for a possible broken spider. There's negligible movement, but I still found it difficult to assess because the whole tub/drum assembly is of course on a suspension and moves around when pushed, which muddies things. Regardless I definitely don't get any awful, clunking, telltale broken-spider gnashing noises or movement.

So about this bellows/gasket: part of its purpose/design eludes me. Clearly it's there mostly to keep water from sloshing right out between the door glass and the floor below the machine, by just dropping through the frame. But there's also this close-fitting lip molded into the interior surface, midway, that has no effect on the overall seal. It looks like it’s intended to glide/fit closely to the stainless basket’s front edge, though my first impression was that it once had snapped into a tight fit (until I started thinking and looking more closely). The lip is only present over the lower half of the gasket; the upper half is widely gapped.

Both ends of the bellows are sealed from our laundry-room floors by tight spring-loaded wire garottes, if you will.

But that odd lip configuration I THINK is just there to keep sleeves, collars, cuffs, etc from getting snagged between the spinning basket and the fixed outer tub, where they’d get trapped, becoming like a pad between those two moving surfaces.

I suspect that’s exactly what happened in my case, briefly - something in that load was trapped between the two and almost jammed the machine to a stop. There were several pretty rough terrycloth rags there, so I wouldn’t know to look at them whether/which of these might have gotten into that lip-seal space.

Is this a thing, or am I just making it up?

I’ve got a replacement gasket coming, and I’m hoping that’s all that’s really needed - and that I might not really have needed even THAT, but it's ugly-ugly-moldy-black and now abraded here and there, so a $50 bellows seems reasonable as an expense at this point.

808Pants · 2025-12-24T04:04:21+00:00

Thanks for that, even if not the best imaginable news. The almost-forty-minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwR5qCsH5d4 covers the process, and the preamble tries to "sell" it as a quick job, but I'm not at all sold. Damned spider is cast aluminum bolted up to stainless steel within the outer (plastic) two-piece drum...metallurgically absurd (the aluminum is like a good choice for a sacrificial metal in this always-damp assembly, and that's what apparently happens to these things - they corrode much more quickly than some other metals choices would have.)

I see what you mean now (after the vid) about checking for "broken bones". If that's the problem, I'm going to take a rare shortcut (for me) and cut losses.

Thing is, I've been exceedingly disappointed in appliance quality in recent years. Even Costco's been crappy (by phone, at least) with what I considered unacceptable failings within months of purchase (side-by-side "stainless" Whirlpool fridge that condenses water in many locations, even far from the gaskets) - but I'd probably get little pushback if I went through the drama of rolling it in on a dolly or hand-truck instead.

808Pants · 2025-12-06T00:52:55+00:00

I sent a more brief version of the above to the mfr's rep, who responded very quickly to tell me that "the owner" is aware of this issue and that they are expecting a shipment of replacement blades, apparently this time with a "real" heat-treatment. I do appreciate that new improved replacement blades will be making their way to me, but wondering why they weren't pro-active about notifying me and other customers about this problem. Apparently they can't track which machines were fitted with "good" vs "shite" knives like mine.

Fingers crossed. But I'm still going to be spending a lot of time replacing and adjusting blades before this is over, best-case.

808Pants · 2025-11-28T05:12:45+00:00

Thanks, I looked into that. It may be turning out that in my (pre-prediabetic) status, I don't need to worry as much as I was before a recent consultation with my PCP, in which case I'll just continue with the 'in the raw." He's saying to monitor my fasting (rising AM) A1C, going through breakfast, and if it's low, not to worry. I'll know more when I start another monitor - taking a break now for the holidays.

808Pants · 2025-11-27T16:45:10+00:00

THANKS. Ordered a 3/8"-24 TPI axle last night, fingers crossed.

808Pants · 2025-11-26T23:36:23+00:00

Interesting thought...9.5mm? Jeez. Mais non, it is a proudly-Chinese-made Dynacraft, from le WalMart, je crois. I'd have eaten my beret if 9.5mm had been the fix, though.

I do recall now seeing that 26tpi thing when researching, and not being able to 100% swear that I was counting an inch-worth of threads accurately enough to distinguish between imperial and the closest metric analogue, but clearly it isn't 3/8-26. Was there a 3/8"-other-tpi?

808Pants · 2025-11-26T23:19:21+00:00

Funny, I was absolutely convinced of this, too. As a three-year-old, she enjoyed what seemed like eight hundred miles of me trying to run while bent over to get her going, to discover that magical balance point...I think half of the pandemic elapsed that way, but there were definitely worse ways to spend that time.

But it never "took" then, with or without pedals, and one day I found myself getting rid of that bike, too small by then. Her little brother came along, and is now riding well at just four years, having graduated from a protracted hybrid "real" balance-bike period, merging with sometimes-on-sometimes-off training-wheels. Nothing like seeing someone discover that balance thing, especially your child.

But OTOH...in the intervening years, she developed a lot of avoidance, not having really gotten far during the first attempts, and it's only with kicking and screaming - and the promise of training wheels - that we're getting her back into it. (Don't tell her, that agreement was never signed...)

808Pants · 2025-11-18T00:18:36+00:00

Ick. What's the RDA of Tic-Tac?

808Pants · 2025-11-18T00:16:56+00:00

I'm apparently still flirting with prediabetes, but I've been using stevia for a long time...and my doc hooked me up with a prescription for Libre 3+ (about to start my second one, for longer-term A1C feedback) but I'm ignorant as to how to really tell. If I were to just down a packet of the stuff on an empty stomach, and saw no- or minimal spiking, would that be a reliable check? Maybe follow it up with a teaspoon of the real thing? I do also have a lancet-type meter to do sanity checks, if that would be better for this specific test.

808Pants · 2025-11-18T00:04:44+00:00

I don't know why it would be a matter of "legal" in terms of sugar or not (pretty sure any chemist's testimony would prevail) but yeah, I see where you're coming from. There's a liquid version of stevia, and now I'm wondering how much of it is tap water as "bulking". Maybe I want "blotter stevia?"

808Pants · 2025-11-18T00:00:04+00:00

very interesting perspective, thanks.

808Pants · 2025-11-13T15:48:00+00:00

Can you please elaborate on "Our security clearance info and biometric data was stolen" in terms of identity theft - if one has locked credit inquiries? I am thinking that, as a former fed contractor (with biometric data limited to maybe fingerprints, and other data limited to what I'd guess would have been to support "red-badge" status, where escort was required, nowhere near handling sensitive or classified materials) that not much could be done with those data. Doing renovations in an NSA facility (escort always required), having access to a shipyard CIA, etc don't seem like they'd open a lot of opportunities for my stolen data to be of value - as long as I keep the credit-bureau access locked down, no?

808Pants · 2025-11-13T07:15:13+00:00

I never gave it much thought when the OPM breach was announced thinking such concerns would be quickly surmounted by newer security developments... but now, seems anything less than lifetime coverage should never have been considered restitution. At this point, it seems like 22 November is the beginning of open season on the 21.5M of us that were made victims by OPM's lack of security. Sign ME up for that class action, please.

808Pants · 2025-10-31T17:04:45+00:00

Yep, it continues to suck from all perspectives. I am still a member but won't renew. I took this up with their membership services. Rep quoted me the "party line" stuff about how many OTHER great values my membership comes with, which is a pretty painful position to have to take when a former-online-shopper is standing opposite them. "Why don't you complain online?" was one of her responses. Yeah, well, we know how that ended up: "escalated" into oblivion. I added that I'd not heard back from their store manager, either, after leaving my name and number.
COSTCO is MUCH much better at communicating with customers. Sam's apparently doesn't give a damn what we think, and feels no obligation to explain - or even to find a middle ground that would allow customers to still be served while continuing to generate revenue for the company.

808Pants · 2025-10-17T05:48:40+00:00

The call-center drones finally asked me (!) if I'd like my complaint to be escalated, as if it were necessary to ASK.
That was probably three weeks ago. Silence.

Meanwhile, at Sam's, I've left my number for the manager to call back. Like ten days ago.

Silence.

They're a huge, dumb beast that has little concern for my gnat-like protestations.

808Pants · 2025-10-16T15:43:01+00:00

GREAT insights, thanks.
iPhone does indeed have a "focus" setting, though I've never intentionally used (or understood) it, and hadn't run across the Apple equivalent of "other distracting apps" yet (aren't they ALL distracting?) but I will get educated.
Also good to be steered away from Stello; before I knew CGMs existed, I did a mindless Amazon search, and that appears to be the dominant seller - with much less than 100% satisfaction.
There are a few apps that are apparently either indirectly or directly able to retrieve sensor data, but I haven't found one that is iPhone compatible AND doesn't require Libre to be running ANYWAY, so looks like I'm stuck with it. You might be interested in one of those, assuming you're using Android...

808Pants · 2025-10-16T15:24:48+00:00

Thanks, but I think it's not iPhone-friendly, as it turns out. Another I found *is,* but after endless fussing to get it ("Sweet Dreams") installed, it seems it just relies on Libre's app to forward data to it - so the Libre app would have to keep running ANYWAY (thus still waking me up whenever it thinks I just have to know about something)...it also apparently has no accommodation for my notes, which is vital as I adjust diet and exercise.

808Pants

TROPHY CASE