Thursday, October 14, 2010

NTDI: episode 10 - don't believe customer service

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I have called the customer service line for my Electrolux front loading washing machine a couple of times, trying to figure out if there was a particular setting that would give more water per weight of clothes in the machine.  I have been on a quest to maximize the amount of water I use when I wash my cloth diapers, in an effort to keep the stink out of the diapers. (Generally doing well on that front - no ammonia burn/stink, but there's an odd, funky smell I would like to get out of the diapers)

Each time I called, I was essentially told that no, the water only fills based on weight, and doesn't vary the water based on the setting selection.  I knew it filled based on weight. But.  If that's the case, why the options in settings?

So I figured the customer service reps are no engineers, and likely aren't trying to wash cloth diapers with whatever brand of machine they own.  Meaning, they really have no clue.

I tested a few cycles with my machine, with no clothes in it, to see how much water it gave for the same non-weight.

Although I couldn't directly measure the amount of water in the machine, I did my next best - if I started it on the setting I suspected of using the least amount of water, would it add more water mid-cycle if I switched it to a different setting?

Indeed, it did.

Thus far I have concluded that on my washing machine, Normal gives me the least amount of water (seems to be the same as whites, and heavy duty) Casual gives me slightly more water, and delicate give me the most water.  This completely backs up what I've read other blogs across the internet.  Delicate settings give more water than other settings.  The disadvantage of the delicate setting is that I can't use hot water.  I can use hot water on the casual setting, which certainly gives me more water than other settings that use hot water.

Customer service clearly doesn't know everything!

I'm tinkering with my wash settings.  I can use a warm wash on the delicate setting, and that might get the job done with the diapers.

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