White Knight C77AW condensation problem

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Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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  • #80480
    allan73
    Participant

    Morning all
    I’ve got a customer who states the White Knight condenser dryer I sold him a couple if weeks ago is steaming up his utility room.
    The manufactures service agent went out yesterday and found no fault, however my customer insists there is a problem and sent me the following photos

    Has anyone experienced a similar problem ?

    Allan

    #413020
    electrofix
    Moderator

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    not had problem but photo 1
    looks like water leaking from condensor and poss steam

    Dave

    #413021
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    Low ambient temp?

    Insufficient ventilation?

    Load too wet?

    At a couple of weeks old it’s more likely to be an environment or use issue than a fault I would think.

    K.

    #413022
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    The dryer is in a utility room adjacent to the kitchen, reasonably warm this time of year I would guess.
    What kind of ventilation would be required for a condenser dryer ?
    I couldn’t see anything specified in the instructions.

    Allan

    #413023
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    I’ve seen this before in small rooms, especially in London and other cities where they shut the door with the dryer on in a small utility room or suchlike and the condensed moisture has nowhere to go.

    Normally the room will be 2m sq or less with little to no ventilation.

    I’ve also seen it happen on farms or older buildings where the environment is damp anyway. The dryer tries to condense the water in the load as well as the surrounding air that it pulls in, gets overloaded with moisture in effect and you get the puddles and steam because it’s operating beyond its capacity.

    Clothing too wet is also a problem as you end up with more moisture than the dryer can really cope with. You’ll usually see in the handbook a recommendation that washing is spun at 1200 or above before being put in the dryer, often as a “save the polar bears” type statement. But if you couple that with the above and you really do have problems.

    I shouldn’t think it’s old enough to be blocked up internally to give any issue there and the attending engineer should have picked that up if it was so, I doubt that would be a cause in this case.

    Likewise, any component failure would have been pretty obvious I’d have thought.

    The thing is that, like the case here, the machine will aways test as being fully okay yet, in use, you get moisture. Invariably it will be in the use or environment and not the machine that’s at fault.

    Bring back vented dryers I say! 😀

    K.

    #413024
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    It is indeed a smallish utility room. I will endeavour to find out if they are using it with the door closed.
    His washer is a Bosch 1400 so should be ok, however I can’t say which programmes they use it on.

    Thanks
    Allan

    #413025
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    The customer has informed me that he does use it with the door to the room closed as he doesn’t want it to pollute his kitchen ??!
    He also states that he doesn’t see why he should have to open a door or window !

    Allan

    #413026
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    allan73 wrote:He also states that he doesn’t see why he should have to open a door or window !

    Uhm… so that the moisture can ventilate out of the room to stop the condensation forming that he is complaining about. :rolls:

    I swear, some of them are so stoopid!!

    What’s the betting that he blames the machine or it’s a design flaw in his opinion?

    K.

    #413027
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    Yes he does blame the machine…. Crosslee are currently sending out a replacement condenser unit to the house but I’m not convinced it will make any difference.

    Allan

    #413028
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    I’d be willing to wager it won’t Allan and, I don’t bet. 😉

    K.

    #413029
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    Can’t see why the steam from the dryer would pollute his kitchen any more than a boiling kettle.

    Allan

    #413030
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    I know, I used to think the same way.

    What happens is that if you boil a kettle you get a few ml or water turning to vapour so, even in a small room it can dissipate more or less without being noticed as as a part of the volume of the room the amount is tiny.

    When to try to extract the water from wet laundry the volume of water is much greater and all of it is turned to vapour to dry. The job of the condenser unit in the dryer is to cool that and turn it back into liquid in one place allowing as little as possible to escape to the atmosphere.

    It does however create lot more steam over a much more prolonged period whether it captures it or not.

    You also have the effect of the dryer heating the room as it goes if the ventilation is poor which, depending on the conditions, can make matters worse still.

    It’s all physics. The moisture or water has to go somewhere and if the condenser unit can’t cope with it in terms of volume or, doesn’t have enough cold air to “breath” and condense correctly then you will always have an issue with condensation forming in the room when the dryer is running.

    Without solving that underlying issue the problem will not go away and regardless of how well you design a product, you can’t overcome the laws of physics. You can make it better perhaps, performance wise to some degree within the constraints of size etc but that will cost more usually and still doesn’t negate the fundamental physics of what’s going on.

    K.

    #413031
    allan73
    Participant

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    It’s the 3rd photo showing water on the floor that’s got crosslee concerned, they think it could be a leak and the Whirlpool engineer who looked at it may not have checked it properly. The customer has not really described it as a leak however but keeps referring to steaming up the room.

    Allan

    #413032
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: White Knight C77AW condensation problem

    That’s most likely the condenser tray probably full, lifter pump can’t clear it fast enough so as water does, it goes wherever it can.

    It it was a leak there’d be a hole and usually that’s not hard to spot or, where it was at.

    Plus you have to be thinking, how does that amount of water come out just there, right below the condenser? And, even if there were a leak in the base, how would that cause condensation when running?

    K.

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