Direct drive washing machine, power consumption

zoneblue

As promised here is a 1 second Whizbang plot for a clothes wash cycle using a F&P smartdrive washer.

Here i turned off all loads except a stable 2A background baseload, and the also turned off PV (as the charge controller sometimes introduces some noise on the WBJr data stream) for the duration.

Attachment not found.

Points to note:

- cold wash on 3/4 full setting

- this is DC power usage, hence the data incorporates inverter losses.

- the data also incorperates the water pump that runs continously whenever the washer draws water. Its a flojet 24v model, and you can see it running alone just at the start of the curve. I wont attempt to calculate what proportion of the total draw was from it.

- cycle time was 54 mins.

- total cycle use was 139.8Wh.

- average draw was 154W.

- peak draw (early in final spin) was 419W.

- idle tare is 5W.

petertearai

Re: Direct drive washing machine, power consumption

Hi . Interesting . What model was that . they have an "eco model ". Not sure what the eco model incorporates .

jcheil

Re: Direct drive washing machine, power consumption

I will try to log the same data with my new direct drive washer in 1 second intervals. Remember, mine is a standard "energy efficient" top-load Maytag Centennial model but has no clutch or transmission and just reverses the motor every second to agitate.

But since I have a bunch of other stuff running at the same time, I would have to figure out a way to eliminate all of it (other than turning those things off - which I might just have to do for the washer cycle).

zoneblue

Re: Direct drive washing machine, power consumption

petertearai wrote: »

Hi . Interesting . What model was that . they have an "eco model ". Not sure what the eco model incorporates .

Its an older model, GW601. The F&P smart drive line were first manufactured in 1991. Not much has changed internally since that original design. Theres a service manual for much of the range here: http://www.angelsnz.net/ZL3SV/misc/F&P%20Service%20manual%20517735.pdf

Yes, suprisingly difficult to depower ones house. Still, its only the eratic loads you need off, stable ones you can just leave as a baseline.

nobody928

Re: Direct drive washing machine, power consumption

I bought my samsung 4.2 model last week wich is also a direct drive. I am not sure the exact measurements on mine but I imagine they are far superior beings that the annual usage energystar estimation is at 7 dollars when using gas water heater or only using cold water. I am super happy with my unit.

Thanks a bunch zone blue for taking your time to do this test. I wanted to be well informed before jumping in to an expensive purchase. I kinda went with my gut on this one. Obviously its a bit hard to test an item when its still on the shelf. Sometimes its a crap shoot but I think I got lucky as mine works well with little battery consumption.