Q's About washing machines.

Firstly Larry how many PSI is your water pressure, if too low could be a bucket to fill or go a twin tub, not much different to washing by hand.

Here we have 35/40 PSI and runs the 12Kg Samsung fine,,,, problem for us was I was working in Oz and Ben purchased the machine and turns out it's a gravity drain (first time for me)  with no waste pump so Ben waited 2 weeks until I returned and I knocked a hole through the wall at floor level to drain to the garden instead of plumbing into the laundry trough.

Also the water supply connections are from another planet and that was another problem. Look hard and long at the specs Larry before you commit.

Yes here you are lucky if you score a 1 year warranty, our machine is over 4 years old and still going ok.

Good luck.

Cheers, Steve.

I will have to find out what our water PSI is. I have a feeling it's really going to require buying a water tank and a pressure pump for the entire house.

Our water pressure is low enough that my shower water heater doesn't get enough pressure to light up and heat with the shower head higher than 4 feet. So we hang the nozzle in a bucket and use a small bucket to bathe.

The machine pictured is in the my mother in law's dirty kitchen. It is a popular style in the Philippines and may or may not have any automatic functions, depends on the model. I believe this one has a manually set timer for the wash cycle. You fill it with a hose, let it wash as long as you wish, drop the hose to the ground to drain and then fill it with rinse water. When the clothes are rinsed to your liking transfer to the spin drum on the right for the spin cycle. You don't need much water pressure for these machines and they do a decent job of cleaning.

Below is a photo of my wife's laundry room. It was supposed to be the maid's quarters but we don't have a maid. The machine on the left is a Haier top loader. This was originally bought for my mother in law. She wouldn't use it because it had too many buttons so we ended up with it and it is now my wife's favorite. The one in the middle is a fancy Samsung front loader that has a lot of features but she is not able to soak the clothes. She uses the top loader mainly for that reason. The Samsung pumps the water out like a US washer but the Haier is a gravity drain. Luckily the floor drain is right where it needs to be and the drain hose fits snuggly into the drain.

The dryer is on the right. I ordered that one from Shopee. It is a heat pump dryer and does not require a hole in the wall for the 4" vent hose, only a tiny water hose going to the washer drain pipe. It also has a container that collects the water and needs to be emptied once in a while if you don't have a drain. It works very well and is cheaper to operate than a conventional dryer, but it is more expensive to buy. There is a foam filter (not the lint filter) that needs to be washed periodically and Beko included an extra one so you don't have to wait for the washed one to dry.

We have a deep well but the water has a lot of iron that reacts with chlorine in the bleach and darkens the white clothes so we use municipal water. The pressure is low at times so she mostly washes clothes in the morning and evening when the pressure is higher. Both washers have an alarm when filling to slowly and that is often caused by a plugged strainer in the water inlet. Neither machine requires a lot of pressure to work properly. Since these are Philippine machines they don't have a hot water connection or a method of adding bleach automatically. It isn't a problem since my wife only used cold water in the US.

Not good Larry but only a suggestion, Filipinos are well used to washing by hand, part of the life here.

When we left Manila we used a transport company to move all our condo belongings to Bens parents and gifted to them, including an American Maid front load washer and dryer, @ 3 years the washer died (dead) and we were asked to pay for the repairs, no was my answer, go back to hand washing. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Turns out that all the relatives were also using it and it wore out,,,,,, the dryer they gave back to us as it was never used, why I asked Ben? "Because they can't afford the electricity to run it".

11 years ago we paid for a deep well, pressure pump and receiver, all the pipework and taps to the dirty kitchen, the kitchen and the bathroom as Bens family only had a hand pump plumbed into his uncles house, some months later Ben said to me that his Mum was asking him for money to help pay for the extra electricity the pump cacked up. I laughed and called his mother and suggested to turn off the electric pump and go back to the hand pump, buckets and dippers..... case closed.

That cost little, like AU 500 and the best 500bucks I ever spent as I learnt from that to "give em nothing and take em nowhere"

Mentioned this in another post, Bens sister asked for a loan to help pay for his nieces last year of schooling, Nurse, I said to Ben that's fine and only a loan as his sister and her husband are both working, she agreed yes a loan, 9 years later? Nada.

Larry just be careful what you give and the further expectation that always follow.

Good luck mate.

Cheers, Steve.

@Larry Fisher If your water meter is like ours there is a strainer in the inlet of the meter. I clean our strainer about twice a month. You should have a shut off valve so you can block in the meter, undo the coupling on the inlet side of the meter and the strainer is in the inlet of the meter. I can pull it out with my fingers but you may need needle nose pliers if it has never been cleaned. The plumber that was working for us showed me how to clean it. Our water pressure was very low but cleaning the strainer made a big improvement in the pressure.

@bigpearl Right just let them wash from hand as most of the woman have there to do, dont increase her social status to much, she will fall completely out of the social structure, wich already happened to her being with a foreigner. Think about that as a man and dont be stupid. If she did not had a foreigner before you have ruined her life, never leave here, she gave it all up for you. Think about what you are doing. Understand the consequenses. No Filipino will ever touch her again if you leave her. Realise that. No Filipinian family will accept her again. Go only with a Filipina if you serious, mean it! otherwise take only ***. Dont break the live of decent woman, just to follow your ****. Washing from hand is part of their culture, dont take away her culture with your  washmachine. Open your eyes to were you are, you are no longer in the west. Have some respect. If you respect a peoples culture and feelings you will get offered that same respect, if you dont you are a legitimate target. *** Forget about your western ways, all of it, and accept the moral mindset they have, that will bring you far and happiness. ***

What planet are you on Ivo?

My male workers here all wash their clothes by hand and have no problem, are you insinuating that I am sexist?

Have another drink, you won't last long here with posts like that.

Cheers. Steve.

Larry Fisher said. . .I will have to find out what our water PSI is. I have a feeling it's really going to require buying a water tank and a pressure pump for the entire house.
Our water pressure is low enough that my shower water heater doesn't get enough pressure to light up and heat with the shower head higher than 4 feet. So we hang the nozzle in a bucket and use a small bucket to bathe.

******************************************

(Bathing with hot water) Where we are the water pressure varies during the day and night. When I wake up in the wee hours, I take my shower then, the water pressure is at the highest.

We have a 7kg Fujidenzo automatic.  Works great.

[link moderated]

Yes, sounds like you need to deal with the water supply issue first -- that's a basic necessity here, including enough pressure for the shower heater :-)

No dryer, though.  We use a portable, foldable drying rack.  Easily handles the two of us.  Fujidenzo is a common brand here in Central Luzon.

Stef

I bought my woman an automated LG 10kg direct drive washer about 5 years ago. All kinds of cycles and settings as to water level, spin speed, etc. It has been excellent, but she still does the whites and certain things by hand, because she feels she gets them cleaner, haha. Or she "pre-washes" it by hand, then puts it in. She is a clean fanatic, lol. She is also small boned and I know in her later years she will probably suffer from arthritis in her hands so it was a small thing for me to buy her a washing machine that will hopefully lessen the wear and tear. Of course it also saves time (sometimes.. haha).

As to the water - you do need good pressure and it is important to clean the filter regularly. In Dumaguete there is a lot of sediment and it once clogged up the water inlet valve which I had to take apart and clean. This model pumps the water out also. And plays a song when it is done, haha.

We have a 7kg Fujidenzo automatic. Works great.

[link moderated]

Yes, sounds like you need to deal with the water supply issue first -- that's a basic necessity here, including enough pressure for the shower heater :-)



No dryer, though. We use a portable, foldable drying rack. Easily handles the two of us. Fujidenzo is a common brand here in Central Luzon.



Stef

-@NN3M/DU3

We purchased a new hills hoist in Australia 5 years ago and shipped it with our stuff in the container, works and the workers here love it as do we. The dryer is rarely used, only damp days.

As mentioned before be careful what you buy, make sure the machine has a drainage pump and not a simple solenoid and gravity drainage. Buy a reputable brand.

Cheers, Steve.

A front loading washing machine saves water but I believe that is the limit of the benefits. If you watch the action the clothes are basically lifted and dropped. The front loader in my photo above is a 11 kg combination washer/dryer Samsung that even has Wi-Fi which serves no purpose that I know of. The dryer function is also unless, the clothes would dry faster on a clothes line. It takes up to 5 hours for the machine to dry clothes on the dry cycle.

My wife would wash the whites by hand until we inherited the top loading Haier on the left in the photo. Now she washes practically all the clothes in the top loader. She can hit pause and allow the load to soak and the wash action of the agitator is a bit more similar to hand washing. Plus it sells for 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the Samsung front loader. It uses a lot more water which would be a concern in some parts of the world but we have water aplenty here. As far as water pressure goes, 5 or 10 psi is plenty, just takes a little longer to fill when the pressure is low. I mentioned that the strainer in the inlet of the water meter should be cleaned once in a while but there is also a screen in the water inlet of the washing machine that we clean at least twice a week. A floor drain is required for this model and it has a 12 kg rating.

The dryer you see on the right in the photo was a major addition to the laundry room. It is a heat pump dryer which doesn't seem to noticeably affect our electric bill. It is used every day, rain or shine, on everything but towels. We have a lot of upkeep on the property so hanging clothes out to dry is not practical. She uses the gentle cycle which will dry a medium load in as little as 40 minutes. The big plus is lint free clothing with zero bug or bird poop.

I like lint free. The Samsung machine we have is great aside from gravity drain. The dryer that we purchased 12 or 13 years ago is still going strong but rarely used, maybe 3 or 4 times a year, call me old fashioned but I do the washing 90% of the time, hang it out 90% of the time, bring it in 90% of the time but I let ben fold the washing and put away as he does military folding like you wouldn't believe, maybe because he does that with the AC on in the bedroom?

Prefer lightly scratchy towels also as the dryer makes them soft.

Cheers, Steve.

Sun dried towels are the best. We don't have a clothes line so she dries the towels on the pool hand rail.

@NN3M/DU3 Sorry, just looked at the machine.  It's an 8.5 kg size, model JWA8500 VT.

The link was to specs online.

--s--

I changed the valve on one of our water meters this morning, note the nice new stainless steel valve. The old valve was stuck half open. We only use this meter for watering the plants but I still would like it to work properly. I already changed the valve on the meter that supplies the house. I took a photo of the strainer that I mentioned in an above message. The first time I checked the strainer on the house supply it was over full and debris was backed up in the pipe nipple.

Changing the valves is one of the few times I'm hoping for low pressure because I'm doing it on a live water supply but I'm an old hand at stabbing valves on live lines.

Note, do not use Teflon tape on the water meter nuts. Do use a rubber hose washer if the old one is damaged.

Can't remember Moon Dog but are you on town water hence the 2 water meters you mentioned? If so why 2 meters? Normally one.

Back to W/M's after 3 years our washing machine became slow to fill up and eventually only a dribble, I checked the filter in the supply hose and fine so I assumed the water supply solenoid was failing, ordered a new one online for like P700 delivered, swapped them over and perfect, later I was about to throw out the old solenoid but had a good look,,,,,, the inlet was blocked with calcium/lime build up. Soaked it in Vinegar for a couple of days and now have a spare.

Our deep well is crystal clear but has a high mineral content. We don't have any problems with debris blocking strainers but every 4 to 6 weeks I soak the showed heads and aerators in white vinegar and fixed. 

Cheers, Steve.

We have two water meters because there are two houses on the property.

Our deep well has high iron content so we use municipal water most of the time. Municipal water is so cheap it doesn't pay to run the pump so the deep well is basically our backup water supply. Originally it was the other way around, the municipal water was backup for the deep well.

When we filled the pool the first time we used well water but when I added shock the water turned brown. That is how we found out the well water had a lot of iron. I pumped out the pool and filled it with 10,000 gallons of municipal water and it is all good now.

My wife uses municipal water for washing clothes after seeing how chlorine affected the well water in the pool. Our municipal water source is somewhere up on Mt. Biliran which is the big old volcano across the road. Arial views show numerous streams of water originating near the top and forming several cool waterfalls on the way down.

Nice tip on the white vinegar, I'll remember that.

Adding chlorine to high iron water will make it rust hence the colour, chlorine is to kill pathogens, correct flocking agents remove heavy minerals/algae's/colloids etc. and caused them to sink to the bottom of the pool or dam. In the case of a pool after flocking you vacuum out the settled matter from the bottom, backwash or clean your filters.

Yes the vinegar works a treat, even the S/S sinks and basins and harmless, for the toilet bowls which seem to gather the most mineral build ups I use hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid here) and a quick clean from a spritzer and doesn't bother the porcelain, don't use acid on your S/S products, they will go black. My better half found that out some years ago in the laundry trough, it eventually cleaned up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarifying_agent

Cheers, Steve.

I did use a clarifier one time so far and the water was crystal the next morning. All the particulates coalesced into big globs in the bottom of the pool just like the instruction said. When I vacuumed the pool I set the filter to drain and pumped all that junk into the 6" roof drain pipe my backflush pipe is connected to. The instructions said it would gum up the filter and I'm using the more expensive glass media. My US pools all had DE filters so I never needed a clarifier.

D/E systems and sand filters are great, we installed a 100,000 litre wet edge pool in Australia, lol filled it up with dam water and looked like dark black tea, took 2 weeks to get it crystal clear and dozens of times cleaning filters, Perfect for 20 years as we only topped up with rain water after that.

Cheers, Steve.

Just went through something like that. I ordered soda ash on Lazada to bring up the pH and the guy sent me white powder that did not dissolve and did not affect the pH. I put a kg of that in the pool and next day you couldn't see the bottom drain. I tried to save a few pesos and got scammed!

I ordered genuine soda ash from the place I usually order from which brought the pH up where it belongs, but I had a cloudy pool from the fake soda ash. I ran the filter 24/7 for 2 weeks, back flushing twice a day, and finally cleared it up.

I had a big pool in Delaware, 43.5' long and 33,000 gallons. Same size in gallons as a 20x40 but the Grecian corners gave me the extra length for the same price. I patterned this pool after my Delaware pool except square corners smaller.

Nice pool and property Moon Dog looks great, after over 20 years of a wet edge pool we settled for the ocean as a front yard pool.

For flocking you need Alum or other variants.

https://tinyurl.com/mz9vha2a

Back on topic that's a great sized washing  machine.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Wow the washers I have seen at S & R have 5 and 10 year warranties.....and the best appear to be Samsung and Whirlpool...

th eprices are great also......25KPesos.....................................these are top loading high capacity washers....

@NN3M/DU3

Who wants a hot Shower in the Philippines??

We have a heated Shower unit in the Guest Bathroom, but always use cold water ourselves.

Although, the water supply pipe travels about 30m overground. So the water is never that cold and sometimes during the Day, fairly hot.

@bigpearl Can you send Ben over to fold my cloths please.  lol.  I have been debating dryer or not... you just made up my mind.  I like soft towels.

Thanks Steve.

Cheers,

Don

@Moon Dog Beautiful pool. My pool in the phills will be my first. I apologize in advance for the many questions that are sure to come your way. I am hoping taking care of a pool is not much different that a hot tub.

Thanks in advance

Don

@Rammers Perhaps in time I will adjust but I LOVE my hot shower.  I guess growing up in the frozen north (Canada) had made that a habit for me.

Don I hear what you say coming from a cold climate and sure while we have a few water heaters on the showers they are rarely used, perhaps a little in the middle of the dry season when it's cooler, still 20 to 30C but as others have said the water here is not that cold and on hot days very refreshing and honestly necessary.

Cheers, Steve.

In Ilocos Sur our water comes by pipe from the mountains, so it can be quite chilly. A Greek Cypriot who came to marry my wife's niece stayed in our house.  The second day he went to Vigan and bought a water heater and attached it to our shower, it is there since 2015, I use it most days.  He never returned to use it again, he died in 2021 on Cyprus.

Sad news mugteck.

We have water heaters only in the showers but our well water is not cold, like 22 winter and 26 in the wet. The water heater in winter knocks the edge off the cooler water for me but Ben, a local turns it off.

Cheers, Steve.

@AlbertaDonuts Glad to help any way I can. Here are some of my drawings. I installed both skimmer wells on the same side of the pool because the wind is pretty much always blowing in that direction. If I had it to do again I would consider switching the skimmer and return jet on the deep end. For some reason the leaves end up on that side, but there are very few leaves so no real issue. Right click the image and open in new tab for a larger drawing.

Basic plumbing layout. I used two 1 1/2" PVC ball valves on the 2 suction lines instead of a fancy 3-way Jandy valve. Works the same way. No valve on the return.

Placement of the skimmer wells is important. The crew had built pools in the past but never installed a skimmer well so I had to hold their hand on this one. I made the form for the pool wall myself.

I copied the images of the skimmer wells from the vendor's website and used MS Paint for the rest.

Looks good Moon dog, you did your homework.

Our pool on oz was 13M x 5M and 1.2M to 2.1 deep, was a wet edge pool for 13M. We had 2 x 1.5 HP pumps, the pool pump ran 7 hours a day and the weir pump cycled for half an hour 3 times a day through sunlight hours (house was Solar) My biggest bug bear was the weir that held 10K litres and required cleaning every 6 to 8 weeks, never do that again. The pool self cleaned with one of these, well 3 over 20 years and the pool always sparkled.

https://tinyurl.com/4xmzzmmz

These plug into the skimmer box and spend their days cleaning the pool and surfaces, you need to have rounded corners .3 to .45M radius for them to climb the walls and they do it very well.

For me? No need for a pool now as the ocean is 50/60M away.

Off topic, soz.

Cheers, Steve.

Thanks Steve, I had a Questa pool vac in the US. It was powered by the pump suction so operated same as the filter timer.

Here we have a better solution, Jimmy. He is a young Filipino who sleeps in Tatay's house and takes care of the pool among other things. The drawing of the pool needs an update. I had them lower the bottom drain 5 cm so the deep end bottom is slightly dish shaped. I have the filter lined up with the skimmer well at the shallow end and the bottom drain on the deep end. Jimmy skims and sweeps the pool each morning sweeping any dirt into the bottom drain. I take care of testing, adding a 3" chorine tablet every other day, adjusting PH with soda ash and back flushing the filter. During cooler weather a chorine tablet may last 3 days.

@bigpearl Most my hotels have water heaters but a few have had problems and one did not have a heater.  In some cases it was fine, in some it was damn cold and I hated it.  I do love a warm shower in the morning and a cool shower mid day when it is hot.  I am guessing the water is warmer in some areas.  I have swam in cool rivers and warm ones in the Phills.

Warm showers and ice cold gin and tonic.

Cheers,

Don

@bigpearl Most my hotels have water heaters but a few have had problems and one did not have a heater.  In some cases it was fine, in some it was damn cold and I hated it.  I do love a warm shower in the morning and a cool shower mid day when it is hot.  I am guessing the water is warmer in some areas.  I have swam in cool rivers and warm ones in the Phills.

Warm showers and ice cold gin and tonic.

Cheers,

Don

@Moon Dog Like everything in life, the more you know the more your realize you don't know.  Thanks for these drawings and sharing your knowledge.  I am going to spend a few hours on Youtube this weekend trying to up my knowledge on pool design and maintenance.

Make it a great day,

Don

Thanks Steve, I had a Questa pool vac in the US. It was powered by the pump suction so operated same as the filter timer.
Here we have a better solution, Jimmy. He is a young Filipino who sleeps in Tatay's house and takes care of the pool among other things. The drawing of the pool needs an update. I had them lower the bottom drain 5 cm so the deep end bottom is slightly dish shaped. I have the filter lined up with the skimmer well at the shallow end and the bottom drain on the deep end. Jimmy skims and sweeps the pool each morning sweeping any dirt into the bottom drain. I take care of testing, adding a 3" chorine tablet every other day, adjusting PH with soda ash and back flushing the filter. During cooler weather a chorine tablet may last 3 days.
-@Moon Dog

Get rid of Jimmy from the pool, C/O to a salt water pool system and a robot cleaner, get Jimmy to do more important stuff.

Cheers, Steve.