ahh dcarch if only i could demonstrate the amount of times my friend mike kept wanting to hook up the tumbler to a modded version of the wheel + gear + chain that came from the bike that he chopped up for parts for the tumbler! At one point i was like "NO GAS POWERED TUMBLER!" and he laughed... and mentioned it again 20 minutes later... haha I'm trying to be "green" with this project and the beauty of the slow speed of a turbine powered tumbler is that it would allow the bacteria to do it's job yet turn it every so often enough that it would occasionally flip bringing air back into the mix so that an aerobic process would continue... I must admit that this project is more out of novelty than out of functionality although i would like to keep it a bit functional =P I could make it so that I could turn it by hand... but that wouldn't be fun! I'll look up "graduated multi-diamater pulley" but as of right now I have not a clue as to what that means! I thought of hacking up a 21 speed but the gear ratio doesn't seem high enough ... in that instructable video that I posted, the guy used a 1250:1 ratio gear motor and hacked out the electric motor and just used the gearbox... as of right now I am also trying to avoid having to build a gear box... My knowledge and building abilities doesn't get me there (yet) :) Anyways, thanks for the idea! I will google some more infos and try to figure out if your idea would get me to where I would like to be with this little constantly changing project =P Mike

Does your water have moderate to high concentrations of iron and manganese? Our town water has this, and you basically have to stay away from clorine based products. It will deposit rust looking ick inside your dishwasher and on your dishes, and your white clothing can look discolored. Given this is what happens with iron in solution, got to guess that unprotected metal around your washing machine will also react. I'd bet that even lower grades of stainless steel will have problems with clorine.

"Miele W1, Miele Little Giants or Miele Professional will all provide proper heating of the water to the temp selected. No need to set house common water heater to an unsafe temperature." Miele has temp options Cold tap, 85, 105, 120, 140, and sanitary 170. Very customizable, and heater wastes no time going to work. Most machines you have no idea what the temps are at all period. If a huge drum which most do not even utilize is not important to you, Miele is the bomb. It will hold as much as a full size top loader.

Thanks! I added more hot water as suggested :) I am using 1 1/2 cups of bleach to soak it. I will wait another hour or so and then let it complete it's cycle to see if it takes care of the problem. So the bleach isn't super strong in that washer but hopefully strong enough to cut through whatever is in there. I figure the hot water soaking will dissolve any detergent build up in the machine. The true test will be when I let it agitate and finish it's cycle. I will report back after it has ran it's cycle. I will fill the washer again after it is done and see if there are any more soap suds, but I think this probably should take care of it. Thanks!