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Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

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Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#61

Post by agumonkey »

icebraining wrote: post #58
agumonkey wrote: post #15

god dammit, yet another stupid idea I thought nobody would ever like. ps: same goes for almost every dead weight transport. Road blocks, you name it. Someone computes the wasted energy ? pps: what about vertical axis spinning models ? I remember people saying they were inneficient. Anyone can explain ? ppps: I remember a guy in africa coupling a dead bike to a vertical spinning container. sigh

Water-filled road blocks are not new: https://www.trafficsafetystore.com/water-filled-barriers

Ah fair enough. It's just that this summer lots of roadwork around used very large concrete mdules.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#62

Post by LoSboccacc »

jaclaz wrote: post #54
LoSboccacc wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

make it metal, fill with sand

...with an added cost of some 10-15 US$ for a steel tank that being just over something generating hot, humid air all the time will rust in no time or 40-60 US$ in the case of stainless steel. Then everyone has 20 Kg of sand at home (if you have to transport the 20 Kg of sand all the theoretical transport savings are gone).

right, didn't think of rust - but sand can be easily obtained, beside most people use installers around here, so they'd be the one with the sand.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#63

Post by chr4004 »

Having a "dead weight" has it's advantages - passive, no bacteria, mold, flex, resistant to shock etc. Pretty sure billion dollar companies like Siemens have thought this through and came to the conclusion that concrete is best. The negative externality of a disappointed customer seems to be larger (medium term) than the damage being done by producing the concrete.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#65

Post by athenot »

Gracana wrote: post #39
agumonkey wrote: post #15

god dammit, yet another stupid idea I thought nobody would ever like. ps: same goes for almost every dead weight transport. Road blocks, you name it. Someone computes the wasted energy ? pps: what about vertical axis spinning models ? I remember people saying they were inneficient. Anyone can explain ? ppps: I remember a guy in africa coupling a dead bike to a vertical spinning container. sigh

Horizontal axis is better because it tumbles the clothes through a small puddle of water at the bottom. Vertical axis requires lots of energy to agitate, and a lot of water.

My vertical axis washer uses probably as much as a horizontal one. The trick is in an improved impeller to properly agitate a full load in what's merely a puddle of water. Also the cycle starts with a pump spraying (recycled) water back into the basket so that all the clothes reach the same wetness therefore can have the same density and get impelled uniformly.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#66

Post by taneq »

ynniv wrote: post #26
diroussel wrote: post #12

I wonder when active damping systems will come to washing machines. You'll need sensors to measure vibrations, a control unit and some small but fast actuator coupled to a small counter weight. The technology shouldn't be much different to the noise cancelling earphones I'm wearing right now. But with a larger actuator.

My current LG washer spins the drum at startup to detect balance and load, so it probably accomplishes some active balancing by modulating the drive motor during the spin cycle. This one still has a regular concrete balance though.

Same, but I figured it was doing something more like:

    int speed = 0, retries = 0;
    for (int time = 0; time  TOO_MUCH_SHAKING) {
        time = speed = 0;
        if (++retries > MAX_RETRIES)
          break;
      }
      set_spin_speed(speed);
      sleep(1);
    }

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#67

Post by GilbertErik »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #62
jaclaz wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...with an added cost of some 10-15 US$ for a steel tank that being just over something generating hot, humid air all the time will rust in no time or 40-60 US$ in the case of stainless steel. Then everyone has 20 Kg of sand at home (if you have to transport the 20 Kg of sand all the theoretical transport savings are gone).

right, didn't think of rust - but sand can be easily obtained, beside most people use installers around here, so they'd be the one with the sand.

...but most people, whether using an installer or not, don't have multiple faucets that can dispense sand. Nearly everyone _does_ have access to water though.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#68

Post by stevekemp »

tim333 wrote: post #49
taoufix wrote: post #28

I never knew washing machines had concrete in them :(

Yeah, check out Secret Life Of Machines 104 The Washing Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baFaEvBywGc&feature=youtu.be... they show what happens if you take the block out. Also how comercial machines do without it by balancing the load.

Damn that takes me back! I used to love watch Secret Life of Machines, back in the 80s.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#69

Post by manarth »

GilbertErik wrote: post #67
LoSboccacc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

right, didn't think of rust - but sand can be easily obtained, beside most people use installers around here, so they'd be the one with the sand.

...but most people, whether using an installer or not, don't have multiple faucets that can dispense sand. Nearly everyone _does_ have access to water though.

   Nearly everyone _does_ have access to water though.
Certainly everyone installing a washing machine.

Re: Concrete-free washing machines are lighter to transport, just as good in a spin

#70

Post by Bjartr »

My top loader has damping springs at the bottom and a plastic "balance ring"[1] around the top of the basket that's filled with fluid to reduce vibrations. Certainly no concrete anywhere in it, that I could see when I took the cover/case off anyway.

Though I've been having problems with it shaking too much during the spin cycle, so I wish it did have concrete.

[1] http://www.appliancepartspros.com/whirlpool-balance-ring-asm...

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