Does anyone have any experience with these washers and dryers?
How would you rate them? Do you think they are better or worse than the Frigidaire front loaders?

My mom has a Fisher Paykel washer and she loves it, It has the high spin speed (1,000 RPM) and it uses little water and energy. The only thing is that it says it can handle a King size comforter with ease... it can't. My mom tried to wash a King size comforter without me there, and she came downstairs when it was done, it was melted on the outer tub shield and it would not respond when she tried to put another load in and it had torn up the comforter. But, it was fixed and has worked great ever since. So just don't wash huge comforters or blankets it in it and it is a great machine.

Hi,

Chris (Gizmo) has/had one, and he loves it, as does Daddoes (I think), but between people I've worked with, and family, its a pretty even love/hate split. People are rarely ambivolent about their F&P.

The people who hate them usually do, because they shred clothes, either from rough edges on the agitator (F&P wont replace because its not a defect) or stuff gets caught under the agitator, cracks the base, and then it chews things up. Usually by about 3 or 4 years the electronic board seems fail and a new one is necessary.

On the other hand, these faults dont occur in all cases and people who love them, usually would never have anything else, unless its a frontloader. It all seems to depend on the luck of the draw.

At curbside collection in Brisbane, most of the new machines out are Simpson and Hoover, Followed by F&P and newish frontloaders. The other commonly out for collection machine is the BD Whirlpools. But its mainly simpson and hoover.

Just my 2 cents

Nathan

My Fisher & Paykel SmartDrive GWL08 was five years old on 8/2/2004. I've not had any shredded clothes. The agitator fins have a touch of wear -- they're made of pretty soft/flexible material compared to most other agitators (Kenmore, Maytag, etc.) but don't seem to have rough edges, the base is not cracked, and nothing has ever been caught under it as far as I am aware. No trouble, no repairs of any kind. I did a load of 8 pairs of denim jeans this evening.

Pulsator, sounds like your mom washed that comforter on the regular or heavy duty cycle. I agree that a king-size comforter is probably too much for the machine to handle if it's a thick/heavy quilted comforter . . . but she really should have done it on the delicate cycle with the soak option. If I am not mistaken, the latest Intuitive IWL12 has a special duvet/comforter cycle and I believe it pauses occasionally and prompts the user to push the comforter back down into the water (since they tend to trap air and float).

I had one for two years; the only reason I got rid of it was because of limited space and my "vintage" machines were taking over. They are great high speed spin and are durable machines. My only complaint was the limited capacity; but I would buy one again if I was in the market for a new machine.

Sounds interesting if the agitator vane edges are rough when the machine is new.Guess must be from when it was molded.You can sand off the mold "flash" with sandpaper.-Then polish with a "Scotchbrite" pad.Could the conforter in above got "spin welded" to the tub guard when the machine went to spin because-large items like conforters trap lots of air.You do have to push it down into the washer basket.-Or better still take it to the laundramat who has the large FL machine to handle such things.Its worth it.Then your comforter or your machine don't get damaged.Wow-sounds like more folks in Australia put their discard washers on the curb than in my area.Many of the stores here will take away the old machine when someone buys a new one. IN the 4 years here so far-have found only one "curbside" machine.It was a "plastic" GE.It waited about 8 months before it was taken away.

Doesn't someone have a video of this machine in action? Could someone direct me there?

I heard that f&P was coming out with a top-load dryer. Has anyone seen or heard of this?

Yes I saw them on the web site but not in the stores yet

F&P's top-load dryer is on the market now, but availability is somewhat limited. Larger cities are getting them first. A mom-and-pop type of appliance dealer kind of in my area told me a couple months ago that F&P required 24 units minimum order at that point in time.

Hccrschr, here are links to a some material you may find interesting.

Washing video clip

SmartDrive disassembly

Miscellaneous SmartDrive Pics

Yes-I saw one at the Greenville Appliance store here-kinda interesting.Very shiny SS drum.-but alas-no window.

Saw this on Ebay today.

Has anyone ever thought of converting an F&P washer to a portable machine? These machines seem light enough and narrow enough that they would make a decent portable. A simple couple of hose changes and it should work, right?

MRB

I downloaded and watched the F & P wash video. Interesting machine....I've never seen a near 360 arc before, and it seems really quiet. However, please tell me that the machine was set on a handwash or delicate cycle when the video was taken! That action seems too mild for any heavy-duty cleaning.

If you are referring to the first video clip linked in my post above, that is the 'normal' agitation action on the Perm Press cycle. Normal and Perm Press use 'normal' speed. Delicate & Woolens uses 'delicate' action. Heavy Duty uses 'heavy duty' speed. That's the arrangement on my machine, anyway.

The SmartDrive motor responds to the load it senses from the clothing and adjusts the wash action accordingly, varying the force, speed, and arc of the stroke to a degree. By running a video (tape) at fast-scan, it's more obvious that the action will sometimes move the load progressively around clockwise, then counter-clockwise . . kind of like the indexing on the Catalina, but in both directions . . . while rolling it over at the same time.

A load of jeans on the Regular cycle would get somewhat more aggressive agitation than a load of casuals. I usually use Regular for jeans, but sometimes Heavy Duty. Trust me . . . jeans on Heavy Duty get plenty of action!

Water level and load size is also considered. Running the lowest water level without any clothes, Regular and Heavy Duty have virtually the same agitation. But add some clothes and the difference becomes apparent.

My machine has what F&P calls "Maximum Wash Profile," which comes into play on the Regular cycle with very heavy, large loads. I read about it on a tech sheet, but had never seen my machine do that. Then I finally did about a month ago. I was running a load of towels/socks/cottons on Regular. A very large load, moreso than I usually run. I was watching, in case anything unusual happened. It auto-selected the high water level and was a few mins into the wash, when the agitator suddenly made an extra complete revolution at the end of a stroke, went into an odd mix of short and long strokes for a bit, then settled into a more aggressive action than Regular normally uses. Very interesting.

I have seen the arc average about 540 degrees in the Heavy program. There is a brief pause before changing direction. This seems to cause the load to follow the direction of the agitator more than roll over.

MRB

DADoeES:

Thanks for the in-depth descriptions! This sounds like a very interesting, unique machine. When I moved two years ago, I was considering a Fisher & Paykel, a Bosch front-loader, and a Kenmore Calypso. I settled on the Bosch and couldn't be happier with it (from what I've read, I'm glad I didn't go with the Calypso). However, it's great to learn more about the F & P through these posts. I didn't realize it had such a different washing mechanism. It sounds like the motor adjusts itself based on the resistance sensed by the agitator. With higher resistance in movement comes a faster stroke. Again, thanks for the additional info and videos!

Pete

Yes, thanks Dadoes. Your videos are what pushed me over the edge into buying an F&P set.

MRB