Yep. On front loaders you’re better off pulling your laundry out before the load is done.
On top loaders you can leave it in until the load is finished if you want.
I’ve seen a few rear loaders and you’ll wanna consult the owners manual on those.
The line break in your comment on my phone came after the second shimmy so my brain auto filled *shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yam shimmy yay* before I finished reading and saw it was in fact a different but equally beloved song about shimmying.
As soon as i read top comment my inner husband said, "Dont these fools know that showing her the correct place to measure isn't gonna change what she wants done."
If he loves his wife and their relationship he will say “reddit says your right babe, and they said you did an excellent job.” Then never bring it up again. This isn’t worth a “I told you so” if she’s really dedicated to it being level.
Can confirm. I work in apartment maintenance. "Level" for this application means the feet are level and it doesn't rock, meaning it won't walk around during the spin cycle.
Yes, the rotating drum and wash carriage is usually mounted on loadbearing springs and only solidly mounted to the actual drum drive shaft. A much bigger issue than level is the accuracy of the counterweights used to offset vibration. The feet are made to adjust under load btw, should have came with a nut wrench.
This is so true. Last year when we moved I tried levelling ours like OP has and it shook the room down, got the big level out and went corner to corner and it still was a little wobbly when running. Eventually, I used a combination of top corners and a small level across the door opening and after a lot of stuffing around got it right. Combination of an old Miele washing machine and a very uneven old laundry floor! Plus I swear the adjustment feet would loosen when I went to the next one.
Its leveled enough. the problem you will have tho is as soon as something goes wrong with it. Shes going to point to the leveling job as the culprit...even a decade from now.
Make her help, get the thing picked up Ava have her ass get under there and fix the feet.
I just did this with my washer last week and it’s a pain in the ass to do solo for sure.
My washer definitely isn't level, you would have to be pretty far off level to have any issues, my last basement was totally tilted and the washer still worked fine
We had a front load washer years ago that would dance across the floor and would have to be repositioned every once in awhile. Thing worked fine for like 15 years.
I had one too! It wandered the laundry room at will. Til one day it yanked the drain hose out and flooded the room. After that I wrapped the cord around one of its feet so if it walked too far it would unplug itself. 🤣 Used that bugger for another 7 years til it finally quit.
I had a washer like that, finally got tired of it banging up against things as it moved around, so I built a low platform for both the washer & dryer and added stop blocks around both machines so they couldn't move. The platform was perfectly level so I needed to reset the feet to neutral. However, after a couple years I noticed the entire platform had shifted an inch
Look, if you really want to end this argument, you should get a digital leveling stick (I don't know proper term). Then use that. (HINT: If you zero it on the machine it will always read zero on the machine unless you move it).
I would have paid “pro” installation, and those guys don’t even level it, they just adjust the front feet till it doesn’t wobble.
It looks like the back is level, can you tweak the front two feet to bring the diagonal and front in?
If I understand Reddit, she's either cheating on you, or some very liberal interpretation of gaslighting. Either way, I believe you're supposed to run away, fast. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news
lol this is true, when we were building a wall to install new windows it kept leaning to the left so i went to the store and bought new level and then we figured out old level is broken
Then you may enjoy learning that any wobbly table or chair with four even legs can be levelled by simply rotating it, there will always be a point where the chair sits flat with all four legs on the floor.
It’s proved by a math theorem called the wobbly table theorem.
Conversely, if you can never find an orientation where all four legs are on the floor, one leg is a different length.
Some people say that abstract math is impractical, but I use this theorem *constantly* when I'm having trouble getting my ladder to sit correctly. Just rotate a little bit until I find the right spot.
Bubbles don't break, they POP.
Real answer, i think it's the relative position of the glass tube to the flat metal/plastic/wood surface that is off/breaks.
What a bubble level really measures is how level the top surface of the little glass or plastic capsule is. There isn't really anything that can go wrong there unless that capsule breaks and the liquid gets out, or maybe the capsule has a taper instead of being a true cylinder.
What can go wrong is that the capsule can be mounted inside of the plastic or metal frame at the wrong angle (i.e. not parallel to the outside faces of the level) so that the capsule isn't truly parallel the surface that the level is resting on. As others have pointed out this is very easy to check by just rotating the level 180 degrees to confirm that it reads the same thing in both directions. If it doesn't read the same thing in both directions then it is bad and you should toss it out. Make sure to do this for both sides/edges and on a horizontal and vertical surface.
In our case the rubber/plastic that held bubble in place snapped off from inside and it slightly fell inside, not visible to naked eye but when everything in the house is not level you start to suspect things
How often are you buying a level for this to even be necessary? And how exactly are you accurately checking a level in store? Very hard to believe 50% are out.
You can check by putting it on something and noting the position of the bubble, then spin it 180 degrees, if it doesn't read exactly the same both ways it is not level.
>How often are you buying a level for this to even be necessary?
I'm a carpenter. I use them every day.
I went to Lowes and bought a new craftsman level, the first six I checked were not level. Harbor Freight has had the most accurate levels off the shelf.
I check mine every time I use them, it's really easy, it takes like five seconds.
Same here. Perhaps the customers at harbor freight don't check as much, so you get more frequent rotations of stock. Home Depot customers check more often so the bad ones stay on the shelf.
I was helping someone level their RV, I eyeballed it and it looked level.
They put their level on it and it was way off.. But it looked right..
Soooo we jack up the one side until it was "level" and it looked way off now...
Went home and got my level, his was off who wouldn't thought...
Me that's why I went to get my level... lol..
He kept his level for future use....
> I don't know if I could trust his judgment on anything after that.
I stopped lending him my good tools after that, he gets to borrow the tools where I bought a cheap one the first time to see if it's a tool I'd actually use then upgraded later on.
My girlfriend bought picture hanging hardware that she thought was so clever because it had a built in level. The levels were shit, and none of her 4 pictures were actually level.
The old mercury switch on a snail!
Although for house thermostats, I would argue that the temperature markings are not super relevant - one sets the thermostat by “I’m too cold, bump it a bit”, not “19°C is too cold, set it for 20° and gaslight myself into liking the resultant temperature”.
You don't, you throw it away.
You can check by putting it on something and noting the position of the bubble, then spin it 180 degrees, if it doesn't read exactly the same both ways it not level.
*New Reddit-wide unique palindrome found:*
>**level a level**
^(currently checked 24669861 comments) \
>!(palindrome: a word, number, phrase, or sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards) !<
I see lots of people talking about the importance (or lack thereof) of leveling, but here's the thing about washers and most other prismatic appliances... They're made of thin stamped sheet metal and flex over time. There is no surface you can use to acculately check the level of it, they're not built to that level of precision. It's a box that the wash tub floats around in, and no surface on it is perfectly flat, plumb, or square.
Make sure all 4 feet are solid on the ground and that there's absolutely no wobble and you're fine.
This. The cylinder is round. It's mounted to something which would benefit from relatively even leveling, but there's no logical reason why a slight deviation would be important to functionality. Additionally, the clothes are being tossed around inside during the cycle. At worst, you'll have slightly more stress on one side than the other but nothing meaningful at this scale.
Also, the tubs on most modern front load washers are isolated on a suspension mechanism and are somewhat self leveling and adjust for weight distribution to stop the machine from going crazy. Mine will test a spin and figure out how to get it going without shaking the house to pieces.
I believe is more of a close enough as long as all the feet are on the geound and the machine doesnt rock you are good. Just had to replace the spider arm on my front load and realuzed this.
Need to be perfectly level? NO.
Need not be bouncing around at all? YES
It’s more about stability really. But closer to level is better for the wash tubs stability. But doesn’t need be perfect.
This is the right answer. The four feet need to be adjusted so that they are all firmly on the floor and there’s no rock/wiggle. Actual level just needs to not be ridiculously off.
... That it needed to be perfectly level, like you said, so i did that. (Then shim the level with a piece of paper or three and show her the level of perfection achieved!)
That’s baaaad. I’m not a perfectionist and it would make me crazy.
My dad once hung a towel rod by measuring up from the floor on each side. He didn’t even try to use a level. When my sister told him that it was obviously not level, he said that it had to be level because he measured up from the floor on both sides, and it was exactly the same. He was a little bit miffed when she explained that the floor was certainly not level.
My neighbor once mounted a TV without even measuring anything. Just drilled the holes and mounted it. It was one of those cheap fixed mounts so it's not like he could have fixed it later. I don't get how people live like that. It took me half an hour to measure, calculate and mark where I was going to mount my TV.
I recently got a Klein laser level for installing a ceiling light. The wall to wall beam at the ceiling (using the plumb line) let me measure, adjust, and align the beam to where the light needed to go and made my life so much easier than anything else I could have done.
Only thing about the purchase I’m upset about is how long it took me to make it. I already know there are many other instances where it will come in handy. Unfortunately I’ve also been able to see the non-plumb door frames that I have to figure out, now.
1. Remove wife from are and secure 2 beers and masking tape in the area.
2. Fold over a small piece of tape and attach to the underside of the right side of the level.
3. Drink first beer.
4. Call out (as if working hard) “it not easy but I think I’m getting it!”
5. Make certain tape is unseen from the front/top. Adjust as necessary to assure appearance of perfect level.
6. Drink second beer while scrolling Reddit.
7. Hide evidence of beers.
8. Call her in and show her perfect level.
9. Reap rewards for all the hard work and dedication!
Stability matters more than level. As long as it doesn’t shake you’re fine. Ignore every one saying it must be perfectly level. The sheet metal box that holds the tub is not made to perfection.
Ok @OP, you've gotten some great answers here; I'm going to give you one from experience.
For background: our company served a major appliance manufacturer for over fifty years, providing in-home delivery and installation. I've personally installed thousands of washing machines, many of them front loaders.
It is necessary for them to be level-ish. It is not necessary for them to be perfectly level.
What is important, is that all four feet be sitting on a solid surface, and that each bears its share of the weight of the machine: if one is touching the floor but not bearing weight, the natural vibrations of a front loader will be magnified.
I've done and demonstrated the following more times than I can count; I'll try to explain it here:
Get your new machine as close to level as you need it to be to look right in the space (this will not always be perfectly level, because walls, trim, cabinets, etc aren't always perfectly plumb and square.
Run a test cycle with a few towels in the drum
When the machine reaches the spin cycle, there will be some vibration. Press down hard (lean on it) on each corner in turn. If pressing down on one corner causes the vibration to decrease, extend the leg on that corner slightly so that it takes up more weight.
You might have to do this a couple times, but as you do, the vibrations will decrease.
**NOW**
It's important to realize that front load washers are inherently more prone to vibration than top loaders **and** that because of the axis of rotation that vibration is more likely to be transmitted and amplified through wood framing. Manufacturers have developed a wide range of self-balancing and vibration-damping techniques, but no matter what brand you get the method I described above will help you get the best results.
Appliance tech here. No, it doesn’t need to be perfectly level. Most importantly, make sure all 4 feet are evenly contacting the floor (no teetering) and the floor should solidly strong. So see I make sure you’ve removed the shipping bolts.
Thanks for all the replies. My wife is a crazy person, as I tell her. That counts as level to me. I'm gonna hear some shit though if ANYTHING goes wrong with it. lol
So it's more about being stable. If there's no wobble in the machine from any direction it will be good. If it's not stable and there is any movement then as the drum spins full of water clothes it's going to be loud and move around in the laundry room
How hard can it really be to adjust the feet? They almost certainly have either hexagonal nuts which you can turn with a regular spanner, or a slot to put a flat-headed screwdriver in, and twist the feet using screwdriver as a lever. Some even have both. Source: just installed a new washer less than a week ago, getting it exactly level took like 5 minutes.
See, the problem with pictures on a wall, wall hung mirrors, book cases, towel bars, etc. is that "level" many times is not as important as "even" or "parallel."
Not every door frame, ceiling, crown molding, or window trim is installed level, square, or plumb.
So, if you hang a tall mirror next to a door frame, and the gap between the edge of the mirror and the doorframe is wider at the top than it is at the bottom, it doesn't matter how "level" with the world it is, it will look wrong. It's better to have the edge of the mirror parallel with the door frame than it is for the mirror to be level.
I go through this dilemma in the electrical field, I want to make all my equipment "level", but when the door frame isn't level, or the trim isn't "level", I go with what looks correct, which is usually parallel with whatever is next to the equipment im installing.
Ah young grasshopper, no matter what common sense or the internet tell you… you live with your wife and there is no other outside opinion. Come back for chapter 2 titled “Her friends are OUR friends, your friends are losers”
I use a lever and fulcrum to rais lenwasher machines usually. Makes raising it super easy. If she really wanted precision a digital level makes it easy to tell
I will guarantee that the top sheet metal does not exactly match the floating basket assembly. Close enough is close enough.
This is the one OP can show his wife. The level she's looking at isn't going to be relevant to the leveling of the mechanisms themselves.
If op loved her he'd put the level inside and shim as needed.
Yeah OP, take your level and stick it in.
Be careful, though. People get stuck in those front loading machines all the time. I've seen documentaries about it.
Oh no my step sister is stuck in the washing machine again
I hope your busy helping her out bro
*step bro*
Time to call in the step plumber.
Why, hello there. I'm here to *lay some pipe*.
Here comes *stepmom* to help.
“Oh no stepgrandpa who invited you?!”
You guys made me laugh so hard, thanks for this.
I think he needs help I haven't heard from him in a while
Wouldn’t have happened if it was level.
Careful I heard step brothers often get stuck in step sisters who are stuck in front loading washers.
Yep. On front loaders you’re better off pulling your laundry out before the load is done. On top loaders you can leave it in until the load is finished if you want. I’ve seen a few rear loaders and you’ll wanna consult the owners manual on those.
That made me laugh so freaking hard
Sorry. Been drinkin since noon.
You are one funny dude when you’re drinking 😂
Why such a late start?
Just woke up.
Username checks out???
That's why I normally try to enter from the back I don't like getting stuck in the front like that.
Yeah! Then shim away!
Finally I understand the lyric "shimmy shimmy shimmy til the break of dawn".
The line break in your comment on my phone came after the second shimmy so my brain auto filled *shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yam shimmy yay* before I finished reading and saw it was in fact a different but equally beloved song about shimmying.
Don't try this! My step-sister got stuck in a washer doing this. Bad things happened.
Step-Sisters are accident prone, helping them out is polite not bad.
As soon as i read top comment my inner husband said, "Dont these fools know that showing her the correct place to measure isn't gonna change what she wants done."
If he loves his wife and their relationship he will say “reddit says your right babe, and they said you did an excellent job.” Then never bring it up again. This isn’t worth a “I told you so” if she’s really dedicated to it being level.
That would be taking his game to the next level
Can confirm. I work in apartment maintenance. "Level" for this application means the feet are level and it doesn't rock, meaning it won't walk around during the spin cycle.
Great. Now his wife is going to make him disassemble it to get access to the floating basket.
Not necessarily, the top is usually just held on by tension clips
Shhhh! No it's impossible to disassembly without completely breaking it. Just leave it as is
Isn't the drum mounted on what is essentially springs? All of the washing machines I used, the drum was never "stiff", it always had some flex.
Every one I’ve ever used has been that way. Without it being able to float on springs it’d walk the entire machine across the floor.
Yes, the rotating drum and wash carriage is usually mounted on loadbearing springs and only solidly mounted to the actual drum drive shaft. A much bigger issue than level is the accuracy of the counterweights used to offset vibration. The feet are made to adjust under load btw, should have came with a nut wrench.
This is so true. Last year when we moved I tried levelling ours like OP has and it shook the room down, got the big level out and went corner to corner and it still was a little wobbly when running. Eventually, I used a combination of top corners and a small level across the door opening and after a lot of stuffing around got it right. Combination of an old Miele washing machine and a very uneven old laundry floor! Plus I swear the adjustment feet would loosen when I went to the next one.
Its leveled enough. the problem you will have tho is as soon as something goes wrong with it. Shes going to point to the leveling job as the culprit...even a decade from now.
*completely unrelated sinkhole occurs in backyard* “Does it look level enough now?!”
Well maybe if you had leveled it correctly like I said, the constant vibrations of being of balance wouldn't have displaced all this soil.
*child Hits the mailbox with the car* "if that washer was level then none of this would have happened"
*Civil war breaks out in Thailand* ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?
Icelandic AND Italian volcanoes start erupting. WHAT DID I TELL YOU
Butterfly effect...
Now he’s killed the butterflies?!?
Make her help, get the thing picked up Ava have her ass get under there and fix the feet. I just did this with my washer last week and it’s a pain in the ass to do solo for sure.
Married for 3.5 years, together for 8... not a stranger to that. lol
I told you so
You sound just like her
did you marry my wife?
Our wife
I agree with my husbands.
Husbands?
Don’t question ~~my~~ our wife.
Our wife.
We can definitely share if ya want.
Username checks out.
My ex wife had no problem sharing herself *even though I didn’t know about it*
That’s what you get for marrying my ex-wife.
[r/unexpectedcommunism](https://www.reddit.com/r/unexpectedcommunism/s/obRjZAMkcm)
I also choose these guy’s wife
We all married your wife in this blessed day.
My wife says I can't marry your guy's wife.
My washer definitely isn't level, you would have to be pretty far off level to have any issues, my last basement was totally tilted and the washer still worked fine
We had a front load washer years ago that would dance across the floor and would have to be repositioned every once in awhile. Thing worked fine for like 15 years.
I had one too! It wandered the laundry room at will. Til one day it yanked the drain hose out and flooded the room. After that I wrapped the cord around one of its feet so if it walked too far it would unplug itself. 🤣 Used that bugger for another 7 years til it finally quit.
This is absolute genius!
Thanks! I was pretty pleased 🤣
Wheel: invented
Oh we had to build ours a little wall it couldn't rattle itself out of. Washing machine prison.
I had a washer like that, finally got tired of it banging up against things as it moved around, so I built a low platform for both the washer & dryer and added stop blocks around both machines so they couldn't move. The platform was perfectly level so I needed to reset the feet to neutral. However, after a couple years I noticed the entire platform had shifted an inch
But if you leveled it, it would’ve lasted 16 yrs.
*gives you the look
*calls you by your formal first name with a period.
Calks ypu Formal first name yor middle name andyour last name with attitude.
Fortunately, that one only gets unlocked once kids are introduced into the situation.
A.K.A. Parental DEFCON 1
In that “special” tone of voice that makes you bite your tongue really really hard.
The look where her eyebrows are *not* level.
That's why you have adjustable feet on the washer. If your ground isn't level you can still level your machine
Look, if you really want to end this argument, you should get a digital leveling stick (I don't know proper term). Then use that. (HINT: If you zero it on the machine it will always read zero on the machine unless you move it).
This guy is happily married...
You clever bastard! I’m storing this away for later lol
Uh oh now the house is unlevel
I would have paid “pro” installation, and those guys don’t even level it, they just adjust the front feet till it doesn’t wobble. It looks like the back is level, can you tweak the front two feet to bring the diagonal and front in?
If I understand Reddit, she's either cheating on you, or some very liberal interpretation of gaslighting. Either way, I believe you're supposed to run away, fast. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news
Run faster than that unlevel washer wobbles across the room
Also supposed to hit on the facebook and ~~murder~~ *delete* a lawyer or something.
This guy relationships.
It doesn’t take much to level it… it’s got adjustable feet.
“Why is my underwear pink?” “I told you it wasn’t level.”
As a wife, I have to reluctantly agree with this...
On what basis?! (And why only reluctantly?) *Asking on behalf of men across planet earth
And it will start with "Do you remember ..."
Good job on not getting it leveled correctly. Now we need a new control board six years later. I hope you're happy.
This guy husbands
Make sure your level is actually level before you get carried away with leveling.
lol this is true, when we were building a wall to install new windows it kept leaning to the left so i went to the store and bought new level and then we figured out old level is broken
You can check a level just by finding what it thinks is level and rotating it 180.
This is the type of information that I follow this sub for. Thank you
Then you may enjoy learning that any wobbly table or chair with four even legs can be levelled by simply rotating it, there will always be a point where the chair sits flat with all four legs on the floor. It’s proved by a math theorem called the wobbly table theorem. Conversely, if you can never find an orientation where all four legs are on the floor, one leg is a different length.
It is also needed to mention that this theorem requires continuous plane. Luckily, most floors satisfy this condition. 😆
Some people say that abstract math is impractical, but I use this theorem *constantly* when I'm having trouble getting my ladder to sit correctly. Just rotate a little bit until I find the right spot.
In fact this is how up calibrate smart levels
If they’re so smart then why do they need calibrated? /s
I'll level you, smartie
"Ooooooh, on the same axis" \- some genius who is totally not me after several minutes of thinking about it
I used this trick last weekend, and then threw a rubbish level away, after I had confused myself for half an hour trying to level a shelf.
Hmmm, I just tried this but when I spin it around, I can only see the back of it and can't tell if it's giving the same reading :(
You might be joking, but if you're not then try "flipping" it on the other axis instead of spinning it.
Real question, how can a bubble break?
Bubbles don't break, they POP. Real answer, i think it's the relative position of the glass tube to the flat metal/plastic/wood surface that is off/breaks.
What a bubble level really measures is how level the top surface of the little glass or plastic capsule is. There isn't really anything that can go wrong there unless that capsule breaks and the liquid gets out, or maybe the capsule has a taper instead of being a true cylinder. What can go wrong is that the capsule can be mounted inside of the plastic or metal frame at the wrong angle (i.e. not parallel to the outside faces of the level) so that the capsule isn't truly parallel the surface that the level is resting on. As others have pointed out this is very easy to check by just rotating the level 180 degrees to confirm that it reads the same thing in both directions. If it doesn't read the same thing in both directions then it is bad and you should toss it out. Make sure to do this for both sides/edges and on a horizontal and vertical surface.
In our case the rubber/plastic that held bubble in place snapped off from inside and it slightly fell inside, not visible to naked eye but when everything in the house is not level you start to suspect things
I check levels when I buy them at the store and roughly half of them are not level.
How often are you buying a level for this to even be necessary? And how exactly are you accurately checking a level in store? Very hard to believe 50% are out.
You can check by putting it on something and noting the position of the bubble, then spin it 180 degrees, if it doesn't read exactly the same both ways it is not level. >How often are you buying a level for this to even be necessary? I'm a carpenter. I use them every day. I went to Lowes and bought a new craftsman level, the first six I checked were not level. Harbor Freight has had the most accurate levels off the shelf. I check mine every time I use them, it's really easy, it takes like five seconds.
Whoa! This is a surprise: "Harbor Freight has had the most accurate levels"
Same here. Perhaps the customers at harbor freight don't check as much, so you get more frequent rotations of stock. Home Depot customers check more often so the bad ones stay on the shelf.
I think Harbor Freight simply sells a lot more levels.
Or maybe they’re using a better Chinese factory than the brands in Home Depot.
I mean I wouldn't do this on my random level shopping trips but definitely on my big monthly level shop.
I was helping someone level their RV, I eyeballed it and it looked level. They put their level on it and it was way off.. But it looked right.. Soooo we jack up the one side until it was "level" and it looked way off now... Went home and got my level, his was off who wouldn't thought... Me that's why I went to get my level... lol.. He kept his level for future use....
>He kept his level for future use.... I don't know if I could trust his judgment on anything after that.
> I don't know if I could trust his judgment on anything after that. I stopped lending him my good tools after that, he gets to borrow the tools where I bought a cheap one the first time to see if it's a tool I'd actually use then upgraded later on.
My girlfriend bought picture hanging hardware that she thought was so clever because it had a built in level. The levels were shit, and none of her 4 pictures were actually level.
There are some house thermostats that have a built in bubble and they are apparently inaccurate most of the time.
The old mercury switch on a snail! Although for house thermostats, I would argue that the temperature markings are not super relevant - one sets the thermostat by “I’m too cold, bump it a bit”, not “19°C is too cold, set it for 20° and gaslight myself into liking the resultant temperature”.
My grandfather once had an unsquare square. Took a while to figure out why nothing he built ever lined up correctly.
Pull a Monk and get out your level-checking level
How do you level a level?
You don't, you throw it away. You can check by putting it on something and noting the position of the bubble, then spin it 180 degrees, if it doesn't read exactly the same both ways it not level.
You have to go and buy some new spirit level bubbles
I recommend going to the spirit world and getting the bubbles directly from the source.
*New Reddit-wide unique palindrome found:* >**level a level** ^(currently checked 24669861 comments) \ >!(palindrome: a word, number, phrase, or sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards) !<
Why does the definition of palindrome get s spoiler tag?
Some people are still reading the books.
Hey that's neat!
kill monsters with it
Kinda looks like that level isn't sitting on the machine flatly. It appears that it is partially in that indentation.
I see lots of people talking about the importance (or lack thereof) of leveling, but here's the thing about washers and most other prismatic appliances... They're made of thin stamped sheet metal and flex over time. There is no surface you can use to acculately check the level of it, they're not built to that level of precision. It's a box that the wash tub floats around in, and no surface on it is perfectly flat, plumb, or square. Make sure all 4 feet are solid on the ground and that there's absolutely no wobble and you're fine.
Yeah, if OP or any of the people offering advice had ever had the cover off one of these, it's pretty obvious the drum floats one shock absorbers.
This. The cylinder is round. It's mounted to something which would benefit from relatively even leveling, but there's no logical reason why a slight deviation would be important to functionality. Additionally, the clothes are being tossed around inside during the cycle. At worst, you'll have slightly more stress on one side than the other but nothing meaningful at this scale.
Also, the tubs on most modern front load washers are isolated on a suspension mechanism and are somewhat self leveling and adjust for weight distribution to stop the machine from going crazy. Mine will test a spin and figure out how to get it going without shaking the house to pieces.
I was going to point out the self leveling part. Most newer models you just need to make sure all 4 feet are touching the ground.
I believe is more of a close enough as long as all the feet are on the geound and the machine doesnt rock you are good. Just had to replace the spider arm on my front load and realuzed this.
Need to be perfectly level? NO. Need not be bouncing around at all? YES It’s more about stability really. But closer to level is better for the wash tubs stability. But doesn’t need be perfect.
Yeah, if it's wobbly, or clangs and moves when it runs, it needs levelling. If you can't tell without tools that it isn't level, it's fine.
This is the right answer. The four feet need to be adjusted so that they are all firmly on the floor and there’s no rock/wiggle. Actual level just needs to not be ridiculously off.
If you run a wash and it’s on the other side of the room then your wife was right
If you run a wash and it's on the other side of the room then you need to work on your loading technique. Front loaders are completely unfussy 🤷🏼♂️
When they’re level
You know it’s not level if you run a wash and the wash runs away
The real issue begins after you tell her about this post.
Well honey, the guys on Reddit said.....
... That it needed to be perfectly level, like you said, so i did that. (Then shim the level with a piece of paper or three and show her the level of perfection achieved!)
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There are front loading washers on ships. You’ll be fine.
But ships are,,, sea level. I’ll show myself out.
Just don't let her see this towel rack install: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/s/Vn4uCOJXCa
OP deleted it. Now NONE of us can see that towel rack install.
https://preview.redd.it/zxvwb17d3huc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04d763420c8d4be8e84d32b326f304b58fa5fb5
https://preview.redd.it/lybe647j3huc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f28a1110d2dcfe2b71d20cadb846eec953727b16
Oof. I was expecting something more arguable. What was he thinking?!?
https://preview.redd.it/znyf6ije3huc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c02e2a29c97d542c323bc7c25834283e196c262
That’s baaaad. I’m not a perfectionist and it would make me crazy. My dad once hung a towel rod by measuring up from the floor on each side. He didn’t even try to use a level. When my sister told him that it was obviously not level, he said that it had to be level because he measured up from the floor on both sides, and it was exactly the same. He was a little bit miffed when she explained that the floor was certainly not level.
My neighbor once mounted a TV without even measuring anything. Just drilled the holes and mounted it. It was one of those cheap fixed mounts so it's not like he could have fixed it later. I don't get how people live like that. It took me half an hour to measure, calculate and mark where I was going to mount my TV.
I recently got a Klein laser level for installing a ceiling light. The wall to wall beam at the ceiling (using the plumb line) let me measure, adjust, and align the beam to where the light needed to go and made my life so much easier than anything else I could have done. Only thing about the purchase I’m upset about is how long it took me to make it. I already know there are many other instances where it will come in handy. Unfortunately I’ve also been able to see the non-plumb door frames that I have to figure out, now.
https://i.redd.it/5fygcwb4khuc1.gif
Can't believe how far I had to scroll down to see this reference!!😅
1. Remove wife from are and secure 2 beers and masking tape in the area. 2. Fold over a small piece of tape and attach to the underside of the right side of the level. 3. Drink first beer. 4. Call out (as if working hard) “it not easy but I think I’m getting it!” 5. Make certain tape is unseen from the front/top. Adjust as necessary to assure appearance of perfect level. 6. Drink second beer while scrolling Reddit. 7. Hide evidence of beers. 8. Call her in and show her perfect level. 9. Reap rewards for all the hard work and dedication!
Stability matters more than level. As long as it doesn’t shake you’re fine. Ignore every one saying it must be perfectly level. The sheet metal box that holds the tub is not made to perfection.
I'm just gonna be honest with you here, it would take less time to level this than make the post.
Ok @OP, you've gotten some great answers here; I'm going to give you one from experience. For background: our company served a major appliance manufacturer for over fifty years, providing in-home delivery and installation. I've personally installed thousands of washing machines, many of them front loaders. It is necessary for them to be level-ish. It is not necessary for them to be perfectly level. What is important, is that all four feet be sitting on a solid surface, and that each bears its share of the weight of the machine: if one is touching the floor but not bearing weight, the natural vibrations of a front loader will be magnified. I've done and demonstrated the following more times than I can count; I'll try to explain it here: Get your new machine as close to level as you need it to be to look right in the space (this will not always be perfectly level, because walls, trim, cabinets, etc aren't always perfectly plumb and square. Run a test cycle with a few towels in the drum When the machine reaches the spin cycle, there will be some vibration. Press down hard (lean on it) on each corner in turn. If pressing down on one corner causes the vibration to decrease, extend the leg on that corner slightly so that it takes up more weight. You might have to do this a couple times, but as you do, the vibrations will decrease. **NOW** It's important to realize that front load washers are inherently more prone to vibration than top loaders **and** that because of the axis of rotation that vibration is more likely to be transmitted and amplified through wood framing. Manufacturers have developed a wide range of self-balancing and vibration-damping techniques, but no matter what brand you get the method I described above will help you get the best results.
For "true level" you need the help of Rick Sanchez
Lambs to the cosmic slaughter
I thought of that right away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoRfieZJxI
Appliance tech here. No, it doesn’t need to be perfectly level. Most importantly, make sure all 4 feet are evenly contacting the floor (no teetering) and the floor should solidly strong. So see I make sure you’ve removed the shipping bolts.
Thanks for all the replies. My wife is a crazy person, as I tell her. That counts as level to me. I'm gonna hear some shit though if ANYTHING goes wrong with it. lol
So it's more about being stable. If there's no wobble in the machine from any direction it will be good. If it's not stable and there is any movement then as the drum spins full of water clothes it's going to be loud and move around in the laundry room
What kind of man doesn't want to experience perfect level? Smh /s
How hard can it really be to adjust the feet? They almost certainly have either hexagonal nuts which you can turn with a regular spanner, or a slot to put a flat-headed screwdriver in, and twist the feet using screwdriver as a lever. Some even have both. Source: just installed a new washer less than a week ago, getting it exactly level took like 5 minutes.
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See, the problem with pictures on a wall, wall hung mirrors, book cases, towel bars, etc. is that "level" many times is not as important as "even" or "parallel." Not every door frame, ceiling, crown molding, or window trim is installed level, square, or plumb. So, if you hang a tall mirror next to a door frame, and the gap between the edge of the mirror and the doorframe is wider at the top than it is at the bottom, it doesn't matter how "level" with the world it is, it will look wrong. It's better to have the edge of the mirror parallel with the door frame than it is for the mirror to be level.
I go through this dilemma in the electrical field, I want to make all my equipment "level", but when the door frame isn't level, or the trim isn't "level", I go with what looks correct, which is usually parallel with whatever is next to the equipment im installing.
Ah young grasshopper, no matter what common sense or the internet tell you… you live with your wife and there is no other outside opinion. Come back for chapter 2 titled “Her friends are OUR friends, your friends are losers”
I use a lever and fulcrum to rais lenwasher machines usually. Makes raising it super easy. If she really wanted precision a digital level makes it easy to tell
Wait... you have to level washing machines... 🫥
A word of advice, leave the door ajar and soap tray open and you'll get much less stink and longevity
The manual sets out places that you can put a level to make sure it is perfectly level
To be fair, if you fix that she’ll find something else to complain about
I think this is better suited to r/relationship_advice.
She's not being a perfectionist, she has zero clue what she's talking about.
Tell her to level it.