Hello.  The only place where I can put a washer in my apartment is a
small basement (under the front stoop of the building).  There is only
connection to COLD water in the basement.  No hot water pipes go to
the basement.  I need a washer which is capable of heating cold water
to a desired temperature using a built in heater only (as mixing with
hot water is not possible).  I know there are some washers out there
that have built in heaters (for example, LG 2432H) but I am not sure
if they still require presence of hot water to operate properly.  The
question is - are there washers out there which can operate without
hot water connection and are capable of heating the incoming cold
water to a desired temperature by using a built in heater?  An extra
tip would be given for suggestions where to buy those.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 26 Nov 2005 07:08 PST

skigirl-ga,

Looks like this one would do the trick:


http://www.epinions.com/content_179329863300
Siemens WFXD5200UC Front Load Washer

"...Built-in water heater has 1000kW power and works great. Hot wash
is not a problem now, even if you use water from cold intake only..."


It's not cheap, though:


http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0770HDS0010062156&catid=10741&logon=&langid=EN&test%5Fcookie=1


Will that work for you?

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by skigirl-ga on 28 Nov 2005 16:48 PST

thank you for your suggestion, I did see a few washers with built in
heaters (LG makes most of them).  However, it was explained to me (by
manufacturers) that these washers still imply a presence of warm
water, otherwise it will "take half a day to heat the cold water and
it will never get the water hot anyway".  For Europe, they produce
different models with more powerful heaters and slightly different
scheme capable of functioning efficiently without hot water. 
Therefore, I am afraid, for all practical purposes it won't work,
unfortunately.

When I lived in Spain there were plenty of washers with built in
heaters. They gobbled electricity, as you might imagine. You may need
to look for a place that sells washers for export. Look in the phone
book for companies that sell TVs for use overseas.

Another possibility is to install an on-demand hot water heater,
available at Home Despot, anywhere in the cold feed.

Finally, I've been running my washer on cold for ten years now with no
problem using detergent designed for cold water plus some borax. The
rare times I really need to run a hot load I use the laundromat.

Thank you, markvmd, for your tip regarding an on-demand hot water
heater. Do you think, they would know at Home Depot what I am looking
for if I ask for an "on-demand hot water heater?" If you have seen one
of those - how big does the heater look like?  p.s. I have friends in
Europe and they all use WMs with built in heaters.  Not sure why I
have not yet come across those in the US.

They have the on demand, aka tankless, HW heaters at Home "Despot", as
I said. They are ridiculously common and inexpensive in Europe. Sears
also carries an electric one in Puerto Rico, so may have one on their
website (maybe not). The one I saw at HD was a pretty large capacity
one designed for large showering the large acreage of the American
tushie, a bit large for a washing machine but size truly does not
matter here.

It probably runs quite a bit of change plus installation-- I'm gonna
guess it'll be less than a thousand dollars installed, but not less
than 5 C's. The electric one in Puerto Rico was $175 and install ran
about $150 between the plumbing and the electrician (remember,
services are less expensive there).

Depending on where you live-- major cities and East Coast is better,
big military base towns are good-- you can find shops that cater to
people traveling overseas. If they don't have a washer with a built in
heater, they often know where to find them.

Friends here in Taiwan have used washing machines which  heat up the
water inside the machine. As you can imagine, these machines take a
long time to do a load because they first have to heat up the water! 
I believe the brands they use are Bosch and (maybe) Thomson  (a French
company).

One other thing about the Bosch and Thomson washers -- their capacity
is much smaller than the US Maytag type of washers. This smaller
capacity may also be true of most European washers.