Front loading or top loading washing machine?

Make sure he tests the earthing.
For the 16A point, he did say that earthing is present. Nevertheless, I will get him to check for all the sockets.

That's the whole purpose of the fuse. You may want to replace your DP and Fuse with mini MCB like this. Either this mini MCB or you can also use regular MCB. Usually 32A breakers are used at mains but 16A-20A would be better for the old wiring.
I would have done this. But then the entire expenses would be on my pocket. While expenses are not that much a concern, it may freak out the landlord. I haven't yet informed him about my plans to get a washing machine.
I would get it in future if I continue to stay at the existing rental house and if I add more appliances.

Speaking of appliances, will a 190L fridge work on a 6A socket? What would be the max litres it would support before I need to switch to 16A.
 
For the 16A point, he did say that earthing is present. Nevertheless, I will get him to check for all the sockets.
When moving around it helps to have a socket tester like this or a more fancy one if you prefer

You even get powerstrips by Anchor which can do the same checks.

@lockhrt999 prefers to DIY powerstrips as the ready-made ones particularly those that take world plugs don't have the tightest connections and are prone to sparking over time enough to randomly trip an MCB. These 'world plug compatible' powerstrips are a soft violation of the electrical standards of several countries in exchange for convenience.
 
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For the 16A point, he did say that earthing is present. Nevertheless, I will get him to check for all the sockets.


I would have done this. But then the entire expenses would be on my pocket. While expenses are not that much a concern, it may freak out the landlord. I haven't yet informed him about my plans to get a washing machine.
I would get it in future if I continue to stay at the existing rental house and if I add more appliances.

Speaking of appliances, will a 190L fridge work on a 6A socket? What would be the max litres it would support before I need to switch to 16A.
Talking only for the fridge, a 190L will max draw ~150-220W of power. or even less. You may expect compression to be working for 30% of the total time only which will draw max current. overall, refrigerators consume very less power.. 6 Amp socket shall be fine, and should hold good till 220L. 320L onwards might need 10A socket or better..
 
Talking only for the fridge, a 190L will max draw ~150-220W of power. or even less. You may expect compression to be working for 30% of the total time only which will draw max current. overall, refrigerators consume very less power.. 6 Amp socket shall be fine, and should hold good till 220L. 320L onwards might need 10A socket or better..
My 475L LG comes with a 6A plug and its max power consumption occurs during the defrost cycle. Power consumption ramps up gently when the compressor starts thanks to the inverter motor. A 600VA inverter is good enough to power it. The older Kelvinator had no such tech and it generated larger spikes when its compressor started.
 
Can anyone help with the models here? They have me confused.
They have quite a selection in there. What complicates things further is there are older models available that will be suitable but they are not listed on IFB's website. And they update their models fairly regularly.

Let's start with the ones you don't want to get.

IFB diva aqua vs other IFBs.jpg

1) Avoid models with minimal Detergent drawers
The Diva Aqua has a smaller drawer. They did that by eliminating the prewash & the conditioner tray. I was shocked to discover what it looks like. While the lady insisted she could not fit anything wider in her Bombay apartment I thought she could have done better looking at smaller LG models that were maybe a cm wider but did not do away with the detergent compartments.

2) Avoid models with touch panel or membrane panel controls
a) The Neo Diva VX (without the 'S' is the white model) instead of the Neo Diva VXS(The S means silver). Pretty barebones but has what you need. One potential problem is it has a membrane control panel which you can see in this video

And what do we already know about membrane control panels?
That thing had a membrane panel and we can't fix it. It's like thick sheet of plastic and buttons are sealed inside that sheet. Opening the membrane panel destroys it. First time, I soldered tactile buttons for regular functions like start/stop, time+ etc. But after a year the motherboard also went bad. Finally I shorted the relay which turns on microwave mode which made my oven to always start in microwave mode if you power it on. Used it for 5-6 years. The magnetron failed. Then I shorted the relay responsible for grill mode and sold it on OLX as grill only oven. :p
Depending on how humid the place you live this control panel is going to fail at some point. Sooner rather than later.

This is counter-intuitive as you'd think a sealed membrane panel would keep out humidity better than any other. Anyway, the point is if a membrane panel dies for whatever reason you cannot repair it and if the service centre does not have one then your machine is SCRAP.

What we want instead is discrete buttons for the control panel with no steam. That would be a model from some years back and unavailable which incidentally is also the case with the Neo Diva VX. The VXS is available but skip it. These can be repaired as you can see here and here.

b) The Serena ZSS because it too has a membrane control panel. Many videos on YT for this one because it was must have been discounted and people fell for it. When browsing the catalogue I notice it misses a number of useful features like extra rinse, rinse hold, time saver (which is a way to speed up the program) & Time delay. This is a double strike.

My kitchen is where the washing machine will reside.
That's going to be a humid place more often than not. How good is the ventilation in your kitchen?

3) No water jets due to your hard water. If you get the Kent softener then ok otherwise no.

I don't know what the hole sizes are in the jets used for 3D wash. As your water is hard I see blockages happening in the future by scale. It's called 3D Wash and it's there in a lot of models.

3D_WASH.jpg


Digging through the only couple of manuals they have I discovered how this 3D system works.
2D Shower Sytem.jpg

4D Shower Sytem.jpg
So it's not what I was thinking. These jets are not attached to any pump but they are just scoops on the drum that drops water on the clothes. I guess this will be fine then even in hard water as a descale will unblock any holes on the drum :)


4) what is left then
Look for another model without the S that does not have a membrane control panel

serena-wx.jpeg

serena-wx-detergent.jpeg

Looking good so far


Original IFB web listing from Archive


That is one potential candidate. It's an old model, the FK reviews are from 2018. I'll post more later. Don't pull the trigger just yet.

The water pressure is the same as mine at 0.3 bar which confirms those 3d jets are not fed by tubes and don't require 1 bar pressure like present day LG's

It displays the max weight for each program which is a handy reminder.

Spin speed selection is similar to mine, 400 in low humidity weather, 600, which I don't have, 800 in high humidity weather and 1000 which I never use as it just puts wear & tear on the bearings.

Tub clean works at 95 degrees, Awesome :D

There is no favourite program option so you have will have to set things for each wash but I don't have that on mine and manage just fine. It makes me think about each wash and how options can change based on soil level or the humidity that day.

I like that it has the RInse hold feature that is all but gone on current LG models. It has an extra rinse option so you CAN have a third rinse if you want.
It has the option for a hot rinse which could come in handy in some situations. This is similar to the Medic Rinse on the LG which is really a third warm rinse. Why use it? faster drying in high humidity. Cotton extracts the most water from the fabric when the rinse water temperature is around the 40 degree mark.


Since you have access to the shops, take a measuring tape with you and measure the diameter and depth of the drum for 6kg, 7kg and 8kg models. Make a note of the model names.

I'd like to know if there is any difference in drum size. Can't tell anything from the specs. They are all belt-driven models so the drum will be bigger than LG's DD models.
 
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If you see it in the shops, ask to tip it on the side and take a photo of the tub. Rat guard should not be installed so you should have a clear up the skirt view.

That will confirm whether the tubs are sealed or not.
 
@lockhrt999 @blr_p
So I got the wiring done from the DP to the 16A socket point. The electrician told me to be cautious about the wiring from the main meter to the house. While he said that since my 1500W electric rod is working fine so it shouldn't cause issues, but just to be on a safe side get the wiring replaced from the meter to the house.
Do I need to change my wiring too?
 
@lockhrt999 @blr_p
So I got the wiring done from the DP to the 16A socket point. The electrician told me to be cautious about the wiring from the main meter to the house. While he said that since my 1500W electric rod is working fine so it shouldn't cause issues, but just to be on a safe side get the wiring replaced from the meter to the house.
Do I need to change my wiring too?
How far away is the meter from the house?
 
I reside on 2nd floor. Plus some additional distance. I mean it would be quite some task to get the wires changed since it will be internal wiring from the meter to the house.
 
Actually he told me for wattage above 1500, it would be better to lay the wire from the DP. They mostly do it for AC's as a dedicated line to avoid issues.
So how do people with AC's manage? They too would need to do the same then isn't it.

How many apartments have a split AC or even a window AC in your building
 
I don't think anyone has any AC installed here. There's barely any space to do so.
Majority people are lower middle class. Mostly people manage on cooler as that is more affordable.
 
Have to be alert to avoid touch panels in some IFB models. It's not always apparent from the website. Have to visit a store and check yourself.

IFB changes fascia on a yearly basis and there seems no pattern to the letter codes they use. They update their website just as regularly so earlier models do not show up any longer. I'm having to rely on archive scraping their pages from months and years back to find listings.

Consider the IFB Elite Plus variants

The Elite Plus VX ID variant has a touch panel which can be seen in this video. There is no clicking sound when he presses the buttons.

Then there is the probably older Elite Plus WXS variant which does have discrete buttons which you can make out in this video. I can hear the clicking sound when he presses the buttons
I agree that the ion-exchange method was the best of the alternative provided.
How does the borewell water taste? is there any salty taste to it. Table salt taste is what i mean.

The technical term in English for such namak tasting water is brackish
 
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How does the borewell water taste? is there any salty taste to it. Table salt taste is what i mean.
The taste is not frequently brackish. It tastes a bit different but not something that you cannot drink. Today morning it was tasting slightly brackish, now it was tasting a bit normal. Both the times water was from same source i.e. water in container stored from the tap.
I measured the TDS today and for both the waters it was 382 ppm.

I might get the ion exchange but not soon. IFB threw water on my plans stating that I cannot purchase on EMI. Have to wait for a few days now
 
The taste is not frequently brackish. It tastes a bit different but not something that you cannot drink. Today morning it was tasting slightly brackish, now it was tasting a bit normal. Both the times water was from same source i.e. water in container stored from the tap.
How does the corporation water taste? in comparison to the borewell
I measured the TDS today and for both the waters it was 382 ppm.
Interesting, TDS reads lower than the actual hardness. I was expecting a higher TDS than the hardness

Do a hardness and TDS test when you notice a brackish taste in the borewell water and let's see both figures
I might get the ion exchange but not soon. IFB threw water on my plans stating that I cannot purchase on EMI. Have to wait for a few days now
How is it like to bathe in hard water ? would you prefer it was softened some.
 
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How does the corporation water taste? in comparison to the borewell
I was talking about the corporation water. I haven't tasted borewell water till now.

How is it like to bathe in hard water ? would you prefer it was softened some.
It takes some effort to lather. But not that I have to keep on scrubbing to form lather. Good thing is soap easily leaves my body unlike in soft water where my skin would feel slippery even after rubbing tirelessly with water.
I could feel the fat in soap coming on the floor. I hope I am trying to make sense.
Would I have preferred softened water? Yes!! I am Looking at some alternatives like apple cider or alum. Need to get the pH to near neutral level.
 
I was talking about the corporation water. I haven't tasted borewell water till now.
Since borewell is what you will be using with the washer it is imperative to find out how brackish the borewell water is
It takes some effort to lather. But not that I have to keep on scrubbing to form lather. Good thing is soap easily leaves my body unlike in soft water where my skin would feel slippery even after rubbing tirelessly with water.
I could feel the fat in soap coming on the floor. I hope I am trying to make sense.
Would I have preferred softened water? Yes!!
Well, the same ion exchange softener could be used for that purpose too. If you looked at the bigger 12k Kent model. Otherwise, the smaller one might not be enough
I am Looking at some alternatives like apple cider or alum.
I'd recommend citric acid to drop pH. You are going to use 100gms of that per month anyway.

Alum or fitkari if you can find it raw as in unfinished rocks may be cheaper than citric acid. it's pH is 5-8 so it will drop the pH of alkaline water

Does not look like it needs much alum

Theory says " A dose of 1 mg/l of aluminium sulphate as Al reacts with 5.55 mg/l of alkalinity expressed as CaCO3 and increases the CO2 content by 4.9 mg/l. Thus if no alkali is added the alkalinity would be reduced by this amount with a consequent reduction in pH. "

100mg of alum per litre for 500 ppm water

2gm of alum per 20 litres wil drop pH by how much ? 0.6 pH
4gm of alum per 20 litres wil drop pH by how much ? 1.2 pH
8gm of alum per 20 litres wil drop pH by how much ? 2.4 pH

Try it. That's about two teaspoons alum in a 20L bucket

I wonder how long it takes to drop the ph. Whether it happens immediately or is there a waiting period and if so how long?

Alum is generally used to sediment silty water though as demonstrated in this video with river water. Takes a half hour to do the job.
Need to get the pH to near neutral level.
How are you measuring pH? I don't find pH strips to be very useful

ph drops like this are slightly better. Put 10ml of water in the test tube from aquasol and just one drop of ph indicator works.

When I tried with a glass earlier I had to use more drops and that is just a waste from a 5ml bottle.

Nothing beats a digital pH meter but it needs maintenance and regular calibration to be reliable. More work than a TDS meter.

An interesting idea of dropping the pH of the water assuming it is high to make bathing water less harsh
 
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So I got the wiring done from the DP to the 16A socket point. The electrician told me to be cautious about the wiring from the main meter to the house. While he said that since my 1500W electric rod is working fine so it shouldn't cause issues, but just to be on a safe side get the wiring replaced from the meter to the house.
Do I need to change my wiring too?
He probably meant the wiring coming to the apartment is thinner. Maybe it's not 4 mm as it usually is the case. Still don't change this wiring as it's not going to be easy. Forget you have any more wiring problems. Take it out of your mind. Forget. It's not your apartment. It's not your problem. :p. Maybe don't run 3 heavy applications at the same time.

Mostly people manage on cooler as that is more affordable.
It's the best place to run water cooler thanks to its dry weather.
 
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