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Posted on 12/16/2013 5:38:50 PM PST by mykroar
Brother and I will be moving into our house at the end of the month and have a washer question. We've heard that front loaders have issues with smell and continual cleaning, so we're looking at top loaders. Anyone have opinions on the new HE washers versus the older agitator models? Thanks up front.
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And I don’t buy the HE detergents - just the Tide pods.
We now have HE but only because we had no choice when our old washer went up. It seems like it gets the clothes clean, but it also seems to beat them up, i.e., wear them out faster.
And that is why I bought a Maytag wringer washer this summer.
When the Kenmore dies, that gets moved in from the shed. Any combo of Hot-Warm-Cold we want; as many rinses as it takes; wash & rinse cycles as short or as long as we want; easy to work on.
It also has secondary uses an automatic doesn't, such as cleaning pelts for & during tanning.
The new low water usage, HE top loaders take some getting used to but they DO get the clothes clean with a lot less water and detergents.
If you get an HE washer be prepared to just burn your clothes every week or two because the washer is worthless crap. So is the detergent labeled HE. HE is the abbreviation for Hardly Effective.
OK!
My local power company has a program to get old appliances off the grid. So if your washer is older than ten years, they will give you a NEW one!
Great deal, I thought.
Last Wednesday, they took out my old washer and left a new Whirlpool HE machine in my kitchen. (I asked them to leave it there so I could hook it up and insure there were no leaks)
About two hours later, I had everything cleaned up and arranged and connected.
It’s the weirdest damn thing I ever saw.
Has a “SENSE” phase where it somehow tries to determine what the load is. Then starts filling, and I have zero control over how full it gets.
Then it does the wash - seems pretty efficient, but the wash cycle is a fair amount longer than my old washer.
Then the rinse and final spin.
But all this time, it is emitting the oddest bunch of whirs, pops, clicks, you name it, this thing has got more sound effects than a bad stage play!
And sometimes it seems to just in the middle of a cycle go to sleep for an undetermined amount of time - only to wake up and scare the crap out of you if you’re near it!
I have done about 4 loads since I got it and am unimpressed so far - but I am still trying the various settings.
One thing - it does use A LOT LESS power. My old machine would use about .7 KWH per load.
This one comes in at about .17 KWH per load.
And theoretically, it uses a lot less water as well.
front loaders are fine ...
i have a HE washer. 6 years now. i make my laundry soap. .03 cents a load.
fels naptha, arm n hammer washing soda and borax.
Thank you very much!
Do not buy an HE machine. The clothes do not get clean. I have one and rue the day it came into my house.
My sister spent 30 years working for Sears at first as a repair technician and then manager of a regional repair center.
She told me in no uncertain terms to never purchase one of the HE machines, front load or top load. They have more plastic parts than the regular units even by today’s standards and they have terrible track records for almost every kind of repair.
We just won a front load washer and dryer set from Sears and I have already sold them and purchased a very nice set of normal units. I even have enough money left over to pay the stinking taxes.
The reason why front loaders begin to stink is because most people keep the the door shut which does not give it any time to air out and dry. Some people who have front loaders put a small towel on the door so that it is cracked open after they use it giving it a chance to dry out. The dryer doesn’t have a stink problem because the inside always gets dried out.
That photo brings back memories. My mother and grandmother had wringer washers. Grandma had the setup shown in your picture. Mom had stationary tubs. My mother used a wringer washer for years after she bought her first automatic washer and dryer. She claimed that for certain clothes, such as Dad’s overalls, a wringer washer worked better.
She was very unhappy when she could no longer buy a wringer washer new. Had to get them used from newspaper ads. She finally gave up her last wringer washer about 2 years before she passed.
You are the first to comment abut the effect of the washer on the fabric.
The clothes get very beat up by low water, front loaders.
If you only wear your clothes a year or so it’s not a problem. If you don’t mind your clothes fraying, tearing, or losing buttons then a low water machine is fine.
A few months of the year I have to use an energy efficient Al Gore machine. I use the delicate setting. It puts in twice the amount of water and doesn’t grind the dirt into the cloth.
The rest of the time I use an old fashioned top loader with plenty of water. It doesn’t damage the clothes and it rinses well.
[snip]
The company [Whirlpool] markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Gladiator GarageWorks, Inglis, Estate, Brastemp, Bauknecht and Consul. After acquiring the Maytag Corporation on March 31, 2006, the Whirlpool Corporation surpassed Electrolux to become "the largest home appliance maker in the world."
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