Whirlpool Duet ht washer

My dad gave us one of these on Saturday. It was used for 2 years but has been sitting unused for the last 8. Is there anything I need to do it before we hook it up and should I keep our current washer just in case.

Thanks

Dump some water in the tub. There's supposed to be water in the bottom of the tub, below what you can see. Somewhere between a quart and half gallon, if I recall. If it's not there at startup, that's not good. Otherwise, I'd plug them in and try them out. How bad is the old one? If it is still working, keep in around for a few weeks until you're sure the new(er) ones are going to be OK.

Fresh hoses.

Thanks. There is nothing wrong with our old one, he just does not need it and does not want to move it again. I tried to talk him into selling it but he wanted to give it to us instead.

Get some friends to help you move it. My duet washer has the mass of a dying star.

I would run it once in self clean mode with a full soap tray full of bleach, then do it again with vinegar. Then give it a rip with clothing in it.

Ongoing tip if it does work; don't close the door to the washer or you'll get a musty smell pretty fast and it'll transfer to your close. It's due to the water left in the bottom of the thing, coupled with the water tight seal on the front. I love my front loading machine but they have their challenges.

Always use HE soap and don't use very much of it. I use like 1/4 or even 1/8 of the amount they recommend and my clothes come out clean.

Yeah, open the door on the washer and spin the tub as fast as you can by hand. If you hear water sloshing, that's good. If you hear whirring like bearings or a rumbling like a landslide, thats bad news bears. Everything else said above is also good advice.

For cleaning, there is a product called afresh, made by whirlpool that is good. Washer magic (looks like dishwasher magic but a different color bottle) is also nice, all other 'cleaners' are just perfumes. They suck.

In addition to keeping the door open like mentioned above, do a load of towels now and then with actual bleach. It keeps the towels from stinking, same for the washer.

Around me, everybody has a water softener. If that's you, then use very little soap, those pods are twice as much as you need. Don't use them, it wrecks the machines. If you have moderately hard water (like 15 grains) then pods are fine. Around here, the only customers we have with old, functional duets have broken softeners, or they use Norwex brand soap. Norwex doesn't clean as well as Tide for example, but it doesn't eat the e36m3 out of the washer, either.

Don't overload them, unless you like replacing bearings. Also, when you select a cycle, turn down the spin speed to medium or lower unless you like replacing bearings.

The dryer is just a whirlpool dryer with a new shell to look like the duet washer, nothing special, and it's a good machine.

Also what is your current washer? How old, what brand, etc... If it's a pre-HE toploader without a locking lid and it's not a GE, hang onto it.

Funny, I just got notice of a class action lawsuit regarding the smell issue. We got the smell, but we always leave the door open.

In reply to Rufledt:

Our washer is a 12 year old or so non HE Kenmore Elite toploader. To be honest we were not thinking of replacing it, it works great.

No water softener, we are lucky in that respect. Is Tide, what we use now, a no go period or just in conjunction with soft water?

Anyway, thanks for all of the advice.

Ok, does your Kenmore start with model number 110.xxxxxxx....(could be hidden under the door, you may need to half close the lid to see the model number above the serial number)? if so, it's an old Whirlpool direct drive washer, one of the best washers ever made. Do NOT under any circumstance get rid of it. We have the same one about the same age. It will outlast multiple Duets if you don't overload the crap out of it. We have seen them 30 years old (they didnt' change the design a ton, though there were changes) and still working just fine. The benefit, too, is many of the parts are interchangeable, for example drive couplings, lid switches (there were 3 variants, all available), agitator dogs, transmissions, clutches, etc... The only issue you might find is the motor on the top models were sometimes on the expensive side due to multiple speeds, but they are still available. About the only things not available are timers on the really old ones. My advice is to use the maximum water level at all times, and don't stuff it. Water is a LOT cheaper than wrecking stuff. Same goes for the Duet, but they can't use as much water. There are still multiple variants of the old whirlpool, some of which are kinda crummy when they were trying to reduce water usage, but 12 years is most likely a really good one. Either way, it blows the newer top loaders out of the water, except for Speed Queen which is about as good as the old Whirlpools. The Speed Queen washer was originally designed about the same time as the old Whirlpool one, but Whirlpool has moved on (gone downhill) while Speed Queen just makes the same old washer.

Tide is fine with the old one regardless of water softness, it doesn't care. I have only seen 1 old Whirlpool damaged by too much soap, and it was chronic over-soaping for 20 years that did it. In the end, it wrecked a hose. That's it.

The duet is probably ok with tide if you have some hardness in your water. The problem with soft water is that soap works REALLY well. That's a problem because Tide doesn't make multiple different strengths of soap and ship them according due to the hardness of your area. As proof, the local Walmart ONLY sells pods. If you have really soft water, you still get full strength. With pods, you get too much of the full strength (same for your dishwasher). If you were unfortunate enough to have a Samsung washer with very soft water and use full strength (too much) Tide, it literally eats the metal off the shaft holding the tub...in under 5 years. No e36m3. It's that strong (and samsung uses metal that E36M3y). For any of this info to have any effect on you, however, you should check the hardness of your water. We use test strips, they aren't pricey. If 15 grains of hardness, use soap as recommended. Any more, you should get a softener (or at least run some dishwasher magic through your dishwasher now and then). Any less, and use proportionately less soap in washer and dishwasher.

Still, use as much water in the old one as possible, set the Duet on the lowest spin speed you feel like. The dryer doesn't care if the clothes are wetter, it will just dry for longer if on the 'auto sense' thingy. Oh, dryer tip, if you have one of those timers with a wrinkle prevent thing, it will start and stop while waiting for you to come get them out of the dryer. do NOT use that. The starting and stopping burns some points in the timer. Just get them out of there when it's done.

Rufledt wrote: Ok, does your Kenmore start with model number 110.xxxxxxx....(could be hidden under the door, you may need to half close the lid to see the model number above the serial number)? if so, it's an old Whirlpool direct drive washer, one of the best washers ever made. Do NOT under any circumstance get rid of it.

Sweet. That's what I have. I bought it new in 1995 and have never had an issue.

I checked our old one and it does start with 110. Thanks for all of the advice, now I just have to make a space in the basement to put our current washer.