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Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by luca_ing on Monday March 20, 2017 @08:44AM (#13913598)
> and weigh around 100kg

Yep.

I once carried a Miele washing machine up 3 flights of stairs with a friend. We thought we were about to die.

Later I looked up the specs in the manual: its counterweight weighs 120kg :ยด-(

The machine is (I think) around 30 years old, still going strong.

Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by jansan on Monday March 20, 2017 @05:34PM (#13917876)
IMHO the most frustrating part about moving is having to carry stuff like dumbbells, counterweights etc, because they have only purpose: Being as heavy as possible.
Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by Arizhel on Monday March 20, 2017 @06:42PM (#13918283)
With the counterweights, it'd be nice if it was easy to open up the machine and take the counterweight out. This would make it much easier to move a heavy machine up stairs.
Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by luca_ing on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @05:50AM (#13920865)
Turns out it was, as I found out later.

I just have muscle than brains (and not particularly much muscle).

Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by Arizhel on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @05:00PM (#13926166)
What machine was that?

I've had two front-loading washing machines now with counterweights, and neither one of them was remotely easy to remove the weights in.

Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by luca_ing on Thursday March 23, 2017 @07:57AM (#13938974)
Can't be bothered to got to the cellar to look at the type tag. But it was from the '80s I think. Some Miele domestic machine.

And I didn't pay attention to how hard it would be to remove it -- it was already moot by that time. But it is removable.

Re:They Used To Last 50 Years by Arizhel on Thursday March 23, 2017 @10:16AM (#13939907)
Good enough, I was just wondering about the brand. It being a Miele makes sense that it would be built that way. The machines I had were a late 90s Maytag (their first front-loader, the Neptune) and a mid-00s Whirlpool Duet. Both were definitely not designed for the counterweights to be removed for transport. You can take them out but it involves a significant amount of disassembly.