Over the past couple months, there has been in ongoing debate in FHB about the stability of front loaders vs. top loaders. Unfortunately, I only recently discovered this online forum, so I missed any discussions that went on here in regard to the topic.
I’ve tried both types (Kenmore front loader and Maytag Atlantis top-loader), and both of them have produced excessive vibration. Granted, I’m on the third floor of an old post-and-beam house, but there’s got to be SOME machine out there that will work for me. My laundry room floor is made up of 2×10 joists, covered by 1×10 planks and two layers of 3/4″ plywood. Anyone have any ideas? My wife and I are at the end of our ropes….
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Have you seen that commercial where they have seven or eight frontload washers sitting on posts? Well they all fell off except for one and dang if I can't remember what the brand was. Have you thought about the laundromat? Alot of college girls hang out in laundromats and you can usually replace those missing socks from the lost and found box if you're not particular about color.
Turtleneck
I enjoyed the foot-rest business but was soon overrun with stool samples
Alot of college girls hang out in laundromats
I'm in college, I must be going to the wrong laundromat, Damn itView ImageGo Jayhawks
Ok...here's my Sad Story. Third floor of townhouse in Santa Monica. Bathroom remodel with mortar float, 12X12 marble tile, hot mop, mortar bed, marble floor and shower dam. On the other side of the shower wall my customer had a Bosch front-loader and dryer installed. A couple months later I get a call back that the tile is coming off of the dam.
Sure enough, on the inside wall of the dam the tile is separating from the hot-mop. My marble man removes it, re-thinsets and straightens it out. A couple months later I get a call that it is happening again.
Thinking that maybe the hot-mop has been punctured and the wood is swelling, we strip out the floor and dam and re-hot-mop, and retile the floor and dam. The marble contractor indicates that while the washer was spinning, his guy felt the floor vibrating. A couple months later I get a call that we're back to square one. My marble man bails on me and says he's done with the job.
I call a different marble constractor who installs slab marble on the top and inside face of the dam, thinking that it may be more stable than 6X6 tile. We're waiting with bait-like breath.
At one point I tried dampening the machine by putting some of the dense, interlocking rubber matting (like they use in gymnasiums) under the machine and the floor didn't vibrate as much, but the machine was dancing so badly I though it was going to wrack its own case, so the customer had me remove the padding.....
...basement is an ugly option as this is where the main sewer for four units passes by....don't want to have a trap in that area....
...that' my story (so far)....
M,
There are vibration mounts available for heavy equipment that might help. Try MSC supply for staters. I dont know where you are located, but if there is an industrial supply house near you, they might have something.
Hope this helps,
Bill
Let me begin by saying it's great to be back. I have not been on line for some time and well - I missed you all....well maybe not all. Har, Har, Har!
I live on the fifth floor of similar construction and have a front loader that danced more than a $20 table dance stripper, during it's spin cycles. My first remedy was to build a 1 1/2" thick subfloor which I shimed to level. Then I glued and screwed. Much of the wobbling dimminished but the neighbors still knew when I was doing laundry.
The second and final solution was to build a form and pour in Mapei's Planichem 53 (2 lifts = 3") and then, because I had some left over from a job, I topped it off with Ultraplan M-20 self leveling concrete. This last step was probably overkill but I had the stuff. It was either put it in storage or use it. Regardless, I got a perfectly level base which by design distributed the load of the machine over every square inch. Worked like a charm.
I had previously done it for a client with regular sand mix with equal results - it was just more work. I prefer the M-20 because I can mix a full bag in a 5 gal bucket using a mixing paddle and then POUR it into the form. No more mixing pan, spade trowels and cumbersome clean-up. The stuff sets up in less than a 1/2hr and you can set the machine in place by the time you put your tools away. Ya gotta love it!
I hope this helps,
F
PS. I think you will have the same results with vibration mounts as you did with the pads. They are intended to absorb vibrations rather than movement.
Oh yeah, one last thing. Some machines allow you to dial down the spin speed. This means less water is pulled out of the clothes so they may take a bit longer to dry. Small price.
Edited 3/29/2003 8:09:39 PM ET by Frankie
I susupect the dam is not fastened well enough to the walls and floor.