GE WPGT9350 Washer Water Temperature Problem - 17Jul2008 15:48 Notes: 1) Our Water Heater is set at 155° F (67° C). We found that we had to set the water heater thermostat this high in order to get the washer to even come close to a hot enough temperature to make our whites not come out grey. Even then, whites do not come out as white as with our "ancient" technology GE washer with simple on/off control for the hot and cold water solenoid valves. With that washer, selecting "hot" only opened the hot water solenoid valve during fill, "warm" opened both the hot and cold water solenoid valves, and "cold" only opened the cold water solenoid valve. 2) Our water supply pressure is 80 PSI. 3) Today I removed and checked the hot and cold water inlet filter screens. In close to 5 years of operation, there was less than 3% screen restriction; this is a non-issue, but I cleaned them anyway. 4) Today I reversed the hoses (not the actual hot and cold water) that supplied the hot and cold water to their respective washer inlets in order that the hose with the least pressure drop (the hose with the greatest inside diameter) would be used for the hot water supply. Frankly, I doubt that this will make any measurable change in the hot or cold water filling since most of the water flow restriction during filling is in each water supply solenoid valve, but I thought that I would do everything possible to increase the hot water flow and reduce the cold water flow during fill. The following was observed when doing a load of wash with the highest water temperature selected, such as "Whites." During the fill cycle I measured the temperature of the stream of water coming into the washer with a digital thermometer. I observed that the water was at the temperature of our water heater (155° F), but that about every 30 seconds or so, the cold water solenoid opened to admit some cold water. I observed the temperature of the input stream go from the hot water temperature (155° F), to some lower value, and then return back to the hot water temperature when the cold water solenoid closed again during each of these 30 second cycles. Towards the end of the fill cycle, the washer did another "load sensing" and then started admitting COLD water! When the actual wash cycle started, the water temperature in the washer drum was only 125° F. I do understand that the wash water temperature will be somewhat lower due to heating up the drum and the thermal mass of the clothes, but not this much lower. The fact that the washer is admitting ANY cold water at all, however, when I have selected HOT, is Bullshit! If I select HOT water, the washer should put in 100% hot water, period! Of course the illustrious "Owner's Manual and Installation Instructions" says nothing about this fill behavior. When doing a special hand wash cycle with very cold water selected as the temperature, the fill cycle admitted cold water at the temperature of our cold water (73° F), but towards the end of the fill cycle, the hot water solenoid valve opened and admitted a short "burst" of hot water. WHY? The washer then did a "load sense" prior to starting the actual wash cycle. The measured temperature during the cold wash was 74.5° F. I would like to get a repair manual so that I can see if there is a more detailed description of how the washer's computer decides what to do when filling the washer. I have a gut feeling that part of the cold water being admitted every 30 seconds may be part of the self diagnostics the washer is doing to check to see that cold water is hooked up to the cold inlet and hot water is hooked up to the hot inlet. When our washer was installed, the appliance store's installer had the hot and cold hoses swapped, but he never checked the installation by doing a test wash cycle. I found this out when we did our first load. If I remember correctly (almost 5 years ago), the display actually gave a message saying that the hoses were reversed, or something to that affect which led me to check the water hookup. If this diagnostic check is being done every 30 seconds, GE should fire the programmer or the firm who wrote the code for the washer microprocessor. It should be more than sufficient for the washer to do a hot/cold water supply check at the beginning of each cycle, and when it is verified that everything is OK, get on with life and do what I bought the washer for, which is to wash clothes at the temperature that I selected. Since we purchased the washer soon after this model initially "hit the street," I would be willing to bet that there has probably been at least one firmware upgrade to the microprocessor module. Of course, the consumer is never to know about these things. It would be curious to find out if this fill behavior has been reported by other customers and whether or not the firmware has been corrected to correct the bogus fill logic. I probably should have gotten the facts and numbers that I gathered today and gone back to the dealer and been more insistent about the water temperature issue, which we mentioned to them before. We have noted since day one that the wash temperature has always been low, even when "hottest" was selected as a water temperature and that this washer never washed clothes as white as the previous GE washer.