That pesky SQ FL softener dispenser issue?

ken c

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

We've not had any issue with FS, except for today when we experimented with vinegar as a fabric softener.

BTW, I looked through old posts and found a long one on this issue:

Water in my Speed Queen FL dispenser drawer (houzz.com)

Back to it:

The vinegar disappeared with the wash water. I took out the dispenser and discovered something that was interesting to me. If I fill the FS section to just under the max, it will happily sit in there. If I fill it to just over the max, the water siphons out between the large plastic cylinder and the internal small plastic pipe. I took a couple of pictures of both parts, you can see the large sealed "pipe" sits over the small "pipe".

I imagine it's inevitable that SOME water will spill over from the wash section to the FS section, and if the FS is near max, then the whole kaboodle will siphon out. I am thinking - need to experiment - that only filling the FS to half full would probably be the solution. We know it's not an issue with a normal amount of FS, but the recommended 1/2 cup of white vinegar fills the FS section of the dispenser to the max so any overflow from the wash will siphon it all out.

Of course, the "solution" results in less vinegar than recommended.

To be fair to SQ, the "max" level in the FS compartment is way below a 1/2 cup of liquid, so any normal amount of regular FS will not - or should not- be an issue.

Please ignore the water sitting in the bottom section of the dispenser, I was trying to understand a few things.

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Comments (2)

dadoes
4 years ago
The indicated Max level is as such for a reason. Don't fill the dispenser above the Max level. All of the liquid should drain out when it overflows the siphon tube ... that's what siphoning does. It may also siphon if filled to or near the Max level and the drawer is jostled or closed too quickly, causing the liquid to slosh and overflow the siphon tube. The dispenser flushes with water when it activates to purposely overflow and trigger the siphon effect. The bleach dispenser compartment, if it has one (which apparently it does since there are two compartments with siphon tubes), works the same way.

The water flow diverter mechanism, depending on how it's designed, can accumulate mineral residue from hard water and cause some of the flow to go into the wrong compartment and cause dispensing at the wrong time.
ken c
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Yes, I had no idea how these dispensers worked before actually having an issue and looking it over. Of course, as I said, filling to the max level is no issue, but if you want a 1/2 cup of vinegar that will fill to the top of the dispenser and hence the siphoning problem (in this case).

I guess the only answer is to add the 1/2 cup of vinegar after the wash cycle. The other thread on the usefulness of vinegar will decide if it matters at all to us since we fill regular FS to below the max level - which is about 1/2 or less to the top..

I suspect most of the folks in the thread I referenced above overfilled their FS, or topped it off with water (typically rinsing out the cap resulting in the same problem.
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