My landlord swapped out the ventless all-in-one washer-dryer (front-loader) with a vented stackable (top-loader, 2.3cu.ft. washer capacity). I washed my first load in the stackable yesterday, and there was woefully too little water in the wash cycle. I washed a medium-sized load of laundry on "whites-heavy" and the water stopped so that half of the clothes were still dry even several minutes into the cycle. I ended up adding water to the drum. I added probably three gallons, and this still didn't quite cover the clothes but it was close enough that I was confident everything would get washed.
The washer doesn't give me much in the way of manual options. I can choose from among the wash cycles and I can add a pre-soak and/or a second rinse, but I can't override the machine's sensors or governor or whatever determines the amount of water it allocates to a given wash cycle.
I understand that the point here is to enhance resource efficiency, but it isn't efficient if some of my laundry remains dry during the first half of the wash cycle.
If I choose the bulky items wash cycle, is the machine likely to add more water?
Edit: Or would I be better off just adding water on my own? Even on heavy wash, this machine barely agitates for most of the too-short cycle; I'm afraid it would mostly just soak my laundry if I used the bulky items cycle for everything, and I'd end up with clothes that aren't properly cleaned.