I have a fairly new large washer (less than 1 year old) and once in a while it would become violent on the spin cycle and goes BANG BANG BANG...

Sometimes it does it sometimes it doesn't.

Then I noticed a pattern because it only happens when I do a load of large items like big towels and my son's karate uniforms. Washing the towels by themselves doesn't do it, but whenever the karate uniform is in the mix, it happens 80% of the time.

I thought may be it is because it's overloaded - so I washed two uniforms by themselves with nothing else. I mean just two tops and two bottoms, and it happened.

Then I further reduced it to one single uniform, one top and one bottom and it does it again.

If we removed the karate uniform from the wash, it would never happen.

The karate uniform is an extremely heavy duty all cotton uniform, and it has some really stiff multiple stitched seams, and "gussets" on the back, elbow, knees that made it very stiff. It's not really heavy weight wise, I would say two uniforms (two tops two pants) combined may be about the weight of one heavy over coat. The stiffness perhaps made it very difficult to distribute and I have tried to distribute it different ways and can't figure out how to do it to avoid the imbalance it would cause.

Any tips or tricks? I have tried different combinations, like putting the two uniforms in opposing sides of the drum, or add in two towels at the bottom of the load, but it doesn't make a difference.

I know if I continue to use the washer and it spins and bangs one day it may break the machine so I am going to go to a laundrymat for this. I just wanted to know if there is something else I could do to avoid having to go to a laundrymat twice a week and stay there 2 hours just to wash 2 sets of karate uniform each time. Oh I cannot change to a lighter softer fabric the uniforms are ordered from the school and there is no substitute.

 

It's a pretty common problem with towels too.

What kind of machine..... front load.... top load ?

 

Most new washer tubs hang on 4 rods and tub swings freely. Your heavy items will cause this and I know no fix for this. They unbalance load.

 

It is a top loader ROPER (I think it's the same as Whielpool). I could wash a heavy blanket with no issue at all but these karate uniforms are a real pain in the you know where!

 

Usually the laundry stays where you put it in a top loader. if you put in three of an item, equally spaced, it will stay balanced.