[reidh]

I am just incredibly curious and prepared to be aghast upon learning the answer to my question. My wife bought a model #11047788800 - kenmore elite washer, many bells and whistles on it, Smartwash, (smart, as in knowing when its out of balance in spin cycle?) SteamCare, and QuietPak9 (except when the counterweight is banging around inside the chassis) Only No Bell, No whistle, No Buzzer, No warning whatsoever that machine is malfunctioning, i.e. load is out of balance.
Did I miss the memo? When they decided to put the onus of loading properly dense when wet articles of clothing into the washer before they are wet, upon the average housefrau? All so that the washer can spin them dry in a perfectly balanced mass, without having to break from being out of balance because they decided to leave the auto shutoff switch, out of the design?
Every other washer I have used, seen operate, or had to fix, had a device that would either warn you, out loud, or shut off, when the load became too unbalanced during the spin-dry cycles.
Having paid more for this "machine" than I ever paid in my life before, I thought it would do everything but empty the load into the dryer. But Nooo. It costed so much because of inflation, the quality of mfg is less than the old cheaper, and even better used machines. I think.
Sooo, my question is, is there an alarm on that model to tell me its out of balance, or a fail safe device that turns it off, if out of balance and I am not around to turn it off? Is there any part of its design that takes out of balance load problems into its concern? Is it really just a stupid spinning tub that I can try to put wet clothes into and hope it doesn't shake itself to pieces before I can turn it off?
(thank god the wife has the Sears Home Service Coverage, so it is going to get a new counterweight, and a new pump? etc. so the fix is in for the fix)

-Thank You, any reply will be appreciated. I don't disdain the repair man, I disdain the marketing/whatever genius that stops good or reasonable design.

[drtom4444]

Look here and see if the manual helps: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8010163/Ken...sher_Elite.pdf
I hope this helps. Sorry, I have little time to study this myself, but you are in the best position to check it out.

[drtom4444]

One note: That washer has a manufacturing defect of using an aluminum "spider pulley" that corrodes to pieces because of galvanic action with the stainless steel drum. Look on YouTube and you can see it. See: Whirlpool Duet Washer disintegrates - 4 years old - YouTube This is a design problem with front loaders which is why I would avoid them like the plague.