It's impossible to answer your question in regards to how much water should be in your washer without knowing what brand/model you have.

Modern frontloaders are designed to operate with only a few gallons of water per fill, enough to saturate the clothes and provide a small pool at the bottom of the drum (below door level). Videos on Youtube include much older machines that were engineered to use more water, so you cannot compare those to your newer washer.

Slapping of the clothes is a good thing. That is what provides the necessary mechanical action to clean them.

dadoes,
I have wrote many posts about my washer, its a whirlpool frontload 9200sq ht. It doesnt put hardly any water and wont rinse well, it also tangles all the clothes up, and they are giving me a replacement.
The videos I watched some were new models, some were a couple yrs old. Mine is not even a year old.
Also when the tech called STACK the guy told him that I needed to try a different cycle for more water, all cycles are putting in the same amount of water, I dont think it is even a gallon.

Newer machines, as in less than a year old, may use even less water than models produced two or three years ago. While it's possible something is wrong with your machine, it may still be taking more water than you think. Place the drain hose into a trash can, such as a "tall kitchen" (13 gal) size. Or a 5 gallon bucket if you have one, but be ready to pause the machine in case it gets near overflowing. Run a load and catch the water from the first drain/spin to see how much it's really using. Or run a rinse/spin. Or if you have a 30-gallon outdoor trash can, catch the water from an entire cycle. If you have opportunity, you might do this with your original machine, before the replacement arrives, so you can compare them.

I look at my water meter while the machine is filling...
about 5 to 6 gallons when it's finally done filling... (add water, soak, tumble, add water, tumble, add water, (no drain) ect...)

Can the appliance manufacturers not make energy star rated appliances but at the same time give the consumer the option of adding more water? Like the Kenmore offers skin care rinse...the LG offers water plus......with those features yet they are still energy star rated. Geez. I have a Duet manufactured oct of 04.....I was reading another post about the water test, the water should come up to all but 1 half inch of the baffle at the six o'clock position and sure enough that is EXACTLY where my water level was! I do think that each year they use less and less water. Wow....I wonder what their stopping point will be?

I've always written the same thing on this topic: The newer FLs, whether they've been engineered to do so or not, use too little water to get clothes clean or sufficiently rinsed in my experience. I am still looking to find out how to adjust my water pressure switch. If this doesn't work, i am fully prepared to sell/toss this machine and get something else. When manufacturers need to provide sensitive washes and so forth, they must have an awareness that the water levels are inadequate.

This is really hacking me off. What is going on here? We have water out the wazoo where I live, and I don't mind paying my current water bills, but I can't seem to find a washer that fills with the amount of water that I determine works best. Our current machine needs a new wash basket, which is no doubt expensive, but I'v about decided to pay whatever it takes to fix it.

Can anyone confirm on the Kenmore HE't's (skincare rinse) if this is simply and "extra rinse" or is it a deeper rinse? Someone on another forum said that on the Duet's its "extra rinse" and on the Kenmore's is simply "skincare rinse" that the Kenmore's don't have and extra rinse button. If that's the case, then the Duet's do have skincare rinse......LOL

I've defiantly asked this before and got this answer.
The Kenmore HEt's with the "Skin Care Rinse" is a deeper rinse. They also have an "Extra Rinse" which adds an additional rinse. You can select each individually or use them together.

Wow! Wish I had that on my Duet! I'd choose it EVERY cycle! I wonder if future front load washers while still being energy star rated, will give us more options like this?

Mark40511...
I hope they do offer a "Water Plus" option (or something like that) for every washer.

They would still be able to get an Energy Star rating for default water usage. And if you're knowingly using a "Water Plus" option...well common sense would tell you, you're using more water and resources to heat that water.

I think today's FS's are just too ultra efficient for there own good.

Georgect

I just wonder how much more water "water plus" is? It does make one wonder if these machines were designed to use less water, yet they do have options that use more water eg. delicate, soak, skincare rinse, water plus. So they can use more water without harming the machine. I think I've adjusted my Duet to use the right amount of water. I can really hear it sloshing more than ever, but it doesn't come up to the door or rubber seal so its not much more.

Our LG WM2688 usually uses about 5 gallons for each portion of a cycle.

Option Buttons:

Pre-Wash cycle

Water Plus adds about 1 gallon

Extra Rinse

With water plus on your LG......can you see water in the tub at all? Does the pool of water touch glass or rubber boot? Just curious.

It depends on the cycle.

Bulky
Perm Press
Delicate

These all touch the door with Water Plus engaged.

On my LG WM2016CW
I get the most water in the Perma Press, Delicates and Hand Wash cycles. The water is up to the bottom of the window.

On the other two cycles, Cotton/Towels and the Normal cycle, even with the *water plus* option the water is just in the bottom of the tub.

I have been washing most things now on the Perma Press cycle and the results have been great.

It seems odd to me that the Cotton/Towels cycle would use the least water, since these items are usually thicker and need more water. But who knows...

Janet

My Duet fills pretty full on delicate and soak cycle. But I NEVER use those cycles......When I fiddled with the water adjustment screw.....I was aiming for it to fill with that amount of water because it was what I knew the machine could handle and it was to me the PERFECT amount of water. Unfortunately I can't "find" that happy medium with the adjustment screw.......Its either factory levels or half way up the window levels and STILL filling ........I will say when I made that adjustment and saw this happening, my heart started racing and I thought, "Oh what have I done"....that's when I turned the screw back down and all seems well...perhaps a tad more water is used but I'd still like there to be a "little" more......Maybe I will get brave again and do some more fiddling since I know it's reversible.....Just wish I could see the screw I'm turning without having to guess when I'm making a turn that I'm actually making a turn.

Mark, if you get the regular cycles to fill at the delicate/soak level...

1) What'll happen if someone runs a delicate or soak cycle?

2) Won't you spoil the wash action on the regular cycles, since they'll effectively be "delicate" on account of the higher water level?

Using the Water Plus option or not, during Wash, I can see the water in the Tub.

Using the Water Plus option, during Rinse, it's about 3/4 of an inch under the edge of the Tub.

During the Tub Clean cycle (no clothes), it uses about 7.5 gallons
and, (when Tub is stopped) covers about 6" wide of the Boot Lip, and just touches the Glass.

I have a question. Is there a weight limit that each machine can handle as a max? It is understandable, delicates need more water for washing but you don't really put as much in weight so the extra heavines in water is O.K. But if you use heavy items like towels etc. in the delicate cycle, that ads whole lot more weight in unless you do smaller loads.
You don't need lots of water to wash the laundry. Why don't you just add couple of extra rinses after the final rinse or one quick wash cycle without detergent? I use extra rinses all the time and many times I used quick wash to make sure I rinse the extra detergent I used for really dirty work clothes.

Suburbanmd

If someone used a delicate or soak cycle.....It will then fill more BUT not to the scary fill that happened to me when I made that one adjustment......As far as the wash action....Well if the tub fills with water on a normal/whitest whites/ heavy duty as if it were on delicate or soak as far as water is concerned, it wouldn't spoil the wash action because the tub is constantly rotating back and forth...This doesn't happen on delicate and soak.....On delicate it rotates very slow and very little......same as on soak..... I can see where you're coming from though because the more water in the tub, the harder it is for the clothes to lift and drop......It's more of sloshing in water....I notice this if I have one item in the washer on a normal cycle....it tends to not get lifted and dropped because of being alone in the water as opposed to a full load....Not sure how more water AND a full load would work though......One thing that is interesting to me is the the baffles on the duet are sooo small compared to other front loaders on the market....I think they could be a touch bigger, regardless of more water or no........With this all said, I love my machine! I think it does a great job...I think the "geek" in me wants to see more water for the fun side of it...I'm not convinced more water would be better. It would be ideal if it gave you a deep rinse option or a water saver rinse option...I wish Whirlpool would consider this for the future Duets because they can still claim the energy star symbol since it would be an optional setting. It would be perfect.....shallow wash with little water and concentrated soap going through clothing, then a shallow rinse, then a deeper rinse....Still much less water used compared to a TL machine.

mark40511: when you were tinkering with the water levels and the water arrived midway the washer window, did any water spill out of the machine? My concern is that if i raise the water too high (even if i prefer it), that the washer, while closed, is not sealed to prevent a possible outpouring. :)

Also, did you try running a wash with the higher water level, higher than the foot of the glass door?

NO! NOT A DROP! No water leaking! I will say this about it...I wouldn't dare attempt to wash a full load of clothes with a water level half way up the door! I think that is overkill! I think water touching the very bottom of the window would be good..I just can't find that point. When it filled that full an "overflow error" got triggered or something....I didn't get any actual error code.....but when water was half way up the window and STILL filling...I paused/canceled, the machine started to drain.....BUT when the water was finished draining, the machine kept running as if it were still trying to drain water...Pausing/canceling didn't help..IT still was runninig....the only thing I could do was unplug the machine and plug back in....I read somewhere that this is normal behavior if the machine detects way too much water and the only thing that can be done is to unplug the machine not sure where that point is...

Yep, i had read about that error message popping up. The trick is to be able t set a water level that allows you to use the various cycles without tripping the overflow.

The front loading washers that I have had experience with all have had an overflow hose on the top of the drum. I had one front loader, a Westinghouse from the 1980s, the overflowed once..I had suds running down the front of the machine. Not sure about the newer machines.

I hope this works.....Here are some pics I took of the water level in my Duet full on a normal cycle.

Here is a link that might be useful: duet water level images

mark40511: is this the amount of water you got after changing the default water level?

Yes......Stupid me didn't really pay close attention to what the water level was before I made any adjustments but I'm pretty sure that is more water than was being used before, because when clothes wash the sloshing sound is much more pronounced than is was before...Plus, I don't think the baffle was completely covered before, now its completely submerged....However, it's not a huge amount of additional water as you can see. I'm not brave enough to make any more adjustments.