[Elecraft] OT: RFI from Front Loading Washing Machines

[Leigh L. Klotz, Jr. WA5ZNU]

> On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 19:23:45 -0700 (PDT), Don Rasmussen wrote:
>
>>I've been stuck for a couple years now with a Whirlpool Duet front
>>loading washing machine. The internal MCU and switcher power supply
>>trashes entire HF at S9 +10,
>
> Your post is timely. As it happens, there are two recent threads
> (begun on Friday or Saturday) on the RFI reflector on this topic. I
> suggest that you head over to contesting.com and read them. It IS
> off topic here, so I won't say more. :)
>
> 73,
>
> Jim K9YC

I posted an eHam article about this a couple of years ago.  (In fact, if
you do "duet rfi" on Google you'll find me pretty quickly.)  I get about
two messages a month from hams who have the Whirlpool Duet series and have
terrible RFI problems.  Universally, when I advise they call Whirlpool and
complain, they report back that they were told that they were the first
person ever to report the problem.

On eHam, someone responded with his own article and I took the suggested
steps: AC line filter, better ground, some ferrites and wire re-routing
inside the washer.  Plus I partially remodeled my house, put in a new
ground system, and put in a tower and yagi. The noise went from S9+60 to
S3.  An improvement only by comparison.

Along the way I spoke with engineers at Whirlpool, received a whole
complete set of new innards from them, and did a lot of other research. 
Despite their willingness to talk to me on the phone and send me parts
(which didn't help) I think th best solution is to buy something else.

It will be be interesting to see if the RFI list has a new, full solution.

Leigh/WA5ZNU