Another cold snowy day. The weather man says it’s the last of the cold weather in this, the coldest April in 137 years in Iowa. A good day to do laundry. I have had many RV’ers who own the Spendide Ventless Washer/Dryer Combo tell me they don’t use them much because the dryers are so ineffective. They all seem to have the same response, they liked it when it was new but now the dryer doesn’t work so they just go to the laundry mat. After spending $1,400.00 for mine I wasn’t about to give up on it after six months because the dryer doesn’t dry well. I dug in my heels did some research and have learned the tricks to loving my Spendide machine. I decided to do a post today and share what I’ve learned.
The dryer was shutting itself down after about 10 minutes of dry cycle. Lights would flash across the panel indicating an error. The first thing I did is call the Service Line number to report the problem. They told me that there is a lint filter in the dryer blower that if plugged will send a signal to shut it down, so it doesn’t overheat and burn out. He sent me directions to run the machine through a rinse regimen to flush it out. If that didn’t work, he said we’d have to have a tech come and clean it. We did that, and the problem persisted.
My husband is very mechanically inclined, so we went to the Spendide website and downloaded the Service Manual for my model. The owner’s manual is useless unless you want to know what the buttons do or want the phone number for the help line. The service manual has part numbers, maintenance instructions, diagrams, and everything you need to work on it.
He removed the machine housing and sheet metal back. Sure enough right before the dryer blower was a small filter. A dime sized clump of lint was causing the trouble. We removed it and the dryer worked like new again. The tech did say that this needs to be done once a year or so. That would have been good to know at the purchase time. We may have opted for the vented model and spent the extra effort to cut a duct exit in the camper.
[caption id="attachment_717" align="alignnone" width="225"]
Spendide 7100XC[/caption]Through my research I have learned some very important things about these machines.
- When they say only a Tablespoon of soap, they mean it! I put mine in small picnic condiment bottles for better control adding soap. One small squirt is plenty. Too much soap causes buildup and leads to clogging the filter.
- Wipe out the inside rubber seal after each load and catch the hair and lint before it goes down the little hole.
- Do not use dryer sheets! Another culprit to build up.
- About every 10 loads follow these steps to run a flush cycle. This came straight from Splendide.Initially I did the three times as instructed. But as a regular maintenance step one time is sufficient.
- Start the unit without clothes and with the dry time off on cycle # 11. When the water stops entering the unit push and hold the start button until all the lights come on then release the button. *NOTE: If the water is not at least half way up the glass repeat this step.
- Move the cycle knob to cycle # 2 push the extra rinse button then press the start button once (do not hold) then let it run through that complete cycle. Do this 3 times then try the dryer.
- Manage your expectations! Wise words, from a professional mentor, years ago. Remember these are designed for small loads. Yes, it will take all day to wash three small loads of clothes but once you get in the habit of running a small load of something everyday it won’t seem so overwhelming.
- Save the bedding, rugs and pet bedding for the laundry mat. These items are big lint producers in this case I think it is best to go use the big machines.
I hope this helps you love your Splendide machine. I certainly like mine a lot better now that I’ve learned how to keep it happy!
Hopefully the weather will turn as predicted and my posts will have more fun stuff and happy pictures.
Until tomorrow…
No comments:
Post a Comment