GE UltraFast Combo 1 Year Update

So far, we've been surprisingly happy with our all-in-one laundry machine. After a year of use, there is a lot of good to say about it, but there are a few quirks that have come out in the past year that make it a little more than a throw-in-and-go machine. But the benefit of it being an all-in-one, is that you trade forgetting clothes in the washing machine for a bit of extra maintenance.

There are a few tweaks that I'd make as GE improves its product design, and we'll get to those! Overall, I give this a 93% satisfaction rating on my end.  This update is pretty meaty, as I'll go over some of the general maintenance and basic troubleshooting from what we've seen after our first year.

For more on my initial impressions, how the technology works, and a little bit about the startup app, check out what I wrote last year.

The Biggest Problem

This machine has one glaring issue: the lint chamber before the filter easily collects lint, but is near impossible to access and fully clean. Before I describe the issue though: In my 30+ years of pet ownership, I have never had a machine remove lint from clothes this effectively. My kid right now is wearing a black shirt without a single white dog hair taunting anyone. It's practically miraculous.

Sitting just before the heat exchanger and behind the smart-dispense access, the lint chamber is unable to be fully cleared of debris. Ideally, lint gets caught in the filter before going through the heat exchange, but practically the chamber before the trap can get large amounts stuck in it, and the small particulates and pointed animal hairs can break past the trap. Over time, the small amount of debris should be able to get back into the drum, causing no real damage, only a slight loss in efficiency.

To clean both of these areas completely requires either a service call or the willingness to ignore the warranty and crack open the access panels in the machine.  This requires removing, organizing, and keeping track of dozens of screws, wires, and hoses in order to access. It's a process we've elected not to do until absolutely necessary. I'd like to see in the next version of this machine an easier way to get to these inner chambers for cleaning.

Cleaning

For now, the majority of the cleaning is done with my little scope camera and a brush and vacuum set. With these I can pull much of the debris from the machine, and keep it in good working order.  For anyone who has cracked open a conventional dryer, this is not unlike the housing from the lint trap to the exhaust: filled with lint and debris. Cleaning really is an exercise in bending the vacuum hose and the lint brush until the big pieces come out. This isn't in a place that can cause a fire, but lint can clump up and fall back to the outside of the drum.

When this happens, the moisture moving through the machine can take it to the drain filter. The machine can't adequately pump water out with this blocked. When we had this issue, the machine misdiagnosed a problem with the humidity sensor, the drain pump, and the accelerometer -showing as an out of balance error. Clearing the drain trap was all that was needed to fix it.

In this instance, the machine turns off completely between the wash and dry cycles without giving a warning or error in the app or on the screen -the only place to check for an error is in service mode-, so in an unexpected shut down, use these steps (I highly recommend the pedestal for this machine for this reason):

1. Remove the face plate at the bottom of the machine -I use a slotted screwdriver-, and tilt the white drain trap cover to the open position. Place a container underneath to catch water. Without a pedestal, proceed slowly with towels under the white cover, as the white cover will direct the water.
2. Slowly turn the drain trap counter-clockwise to open. DO NOT PULL while water is flowing. The pressure of the trapped debris and the water will make this stick, and without the drain trap in place, there is no way to control the flow rate through this trap.* When the collection container (or towel if no pedestal is installed) is full, tighten the drain trap so it can be emptied and replaced. Repeat until water stops flowing.
3. Once water has stopped flowing through the loosened trap, remove the trap and clean out the debris. Usually this is lint that has built up in the lint chamber and fallen back into the drum in one large piece. Keep the water collection container in place, as the removal will release some additional trapped moisture.
4. Reinstall the drain trap, rotate its white cover back in place, and reinstall the face plate. The machine should run normally now, but its error codes will be saved. To run the machine in dry mode only, tap the power button followed by the wash button to deactivate the wash cycle.

*Early removal caused a mini-tsunami in my basement. Good thing the floor drain is nearby.

Service Test Mode

One of the most important things about this machine is knowing how to get into service mode. This gives access to a ton of information from fault codes to number if loads run. It also allows each system to be independently tested, which is helpful in troubleshooting. To get into Service Mode, start with the machine completely off, and hold the Play/Pause, Smart Dispense, and Timed Dry buttons simultaneously.

Mostly, I've used this to check our load counts, pull and clear fault codes, and check the overall health of the machine. Keeping the lint compartment and drain filter clear goes a long way, but service mode has been very useful to keeping things running smoothly. Load counts can be found in "3. Model Information." The recommended self-clean should be run every 40 cycles.

My Biggest Complaint

For all the maintenance concerns particularly with managing lint, this is not my biggest complaint with this machine. My number one issue is that the door is not reversible. In our old house, there just weren't as many options for where to put laundry, especially while planning around the electrical panel. Our laundry is essentially at the end of a hallway next to the electrical panel. A door opening into the hallway is annoying every single time we use it.  This makes exchanging one load for another more difficult, as there isn't workspace in front to handle more than one load at a time, this would not be an issue if the door opened the other direction.

Overall, I love this machine. Mostly, we use the SmartDispense normal wash setting -SmartDispense is a really nice feature!- and the more dry feature. I'm not great about getting laundry out right away, so that helps it be truly, fully dry coming out of the machine. The shake-it-out standard dryness level isn't for me, so I'm very glad to have this option.

Would I Buy It Again?

Short Answer: Yes.

​Long Answer: Definitely.
The efficiency alone is a major benefit to this machine. Since I can see the data of our energy usage, I know running this washing machine is barely a blip on our day-to-day use. It only makes a dent on the most temperate of days.  Add in my personal hatred of changing wet clothes between machines, and this is a huge win for me. As for line-dry items, the process is near-identical to running a dry-only load: tap the power button followed by the dry button to deactivate the dryer.

It’s also a very simple machine to use, and my older kids have an easy time managing their laundry, something that’s tough with top loaders or stacked machines.  I’m also a big fan of GE. Their appliances generally last, and when something goes wrong, they back repairs instead of pushing for replacements.

So far, so good! It was a great choice for us: human -and fur children- included.