Well, the new ones don’t use enough water, so they basically work by beating your clothes to death. It’s like the old school method of cleaning clothes by smacking them on rocks in the river. Not so great for the clothes.
The front loaders have problems with mold around the seals and smell, and I heard that the machines that have chutes for the detergent develop mold in the chute.
These enviro-nuts are destroying our way of life. Their most recent score was banning phosphates from dishwasher detergent, so they don’t work any more. My daughter e-mailed the makers of Cascade, and they said to use twice as much detergent and wash the dishes twice! How does this save anything???
In a couple of years, new standards go into effect for refrigerators and dishwashers. If you want one that works, you better buy before then.
But that's why people use dryer sheets - any fabric softener dispenser is going to get moldy because fabric softener is basically just mold food.
Fortunately it's no big deal. The dispenser pops right out and I rinse it in the laundry sink (with a little bleach if I'm feeling like a clean freak) and pop it back in. The entire dispenser unit can be taken out and cleaned, and once in awhile I do that just for grins. But obviously there's no mold problem in the bleach dispenser!
I got into an argument with a lib about this once.
I basically said that I’m all for energy efficient appliances and renewable/clean energy - IF IT WORKS AT A COST PEOPLE CAN AFFORD.
They didn’t get the concept that solar power is useless unless you have 50,000 square miles of solar panels, and that a low flow toilet is pointless if you have to flush three times after a large “event”...
On another thread here at FR, was informed about some stuff called Sodium Tripolyphosphate. Well, bought a 5lb bag (Ebay) and it works excellent - in both dishwasher and the washing machine. Highly recommended if you want your clothes and dishes to get clean. Tried TSP, not sure if that worked, but the STTP is the stuff. About a teaspoon works well. Need to order more, before the commies issue another dictat.
You can avoid mold around the seals by wiping the seals after you wash the clothes. Yes, it’s an extra step, but it’s a few seconds of work, and once a week you can throw the towel you use for this into the wash with a load.
I did buy a CR best-buy model washer, since a lot of the front-loaders didn’t get rated very high and I really want my clothes to be cleaned.