Washing Machine Advice
 

my washer bit the dust last night. never bought one, not new at least. with a growing family, a new and larger one is in order.

any help w/ what brand, where to buy, energy star(or not), etc would be greatly appreciated. btw, price IS a concern, but i could charge it on my sears card @ no interest for 12 months. then, pay it off when the gov't charity(i mean eco stimulus) rebate arrives.

thanks.

I bought a Frigidaire washing machine 10 years ago and its still running fine- which surprises me because it was the cheapest model I could find. I only wash with cold water and still it always gets everything clean.

I doubt that it conserves much water though.

The front loaders are the ones to look at if you want to save water- but expect to spend a lot of money...

IMO, from what I've heard about available US market front loaders on various forums, i) only get one if you really, really, really want a front loader. ii) buy one from a store that has extended warranties, and get the longest you can afford.

I always check with ConsumerReports.org when I make an appliance purchase. (I think it was $30 to subscribe online.) Here's some of what they had to say:

"Quick Picks

For fine performance and efficiency:

? LG WM0642H[W] , $900
? Frigidaire Gallery GLTF2940F[S] , $650, CR Best Buy


Both washing machines cleaned clothes very well. The LG holds more clothes and was gentler on them, but the Frigidaire is faster, taking 30 minutes less than the LG to wash a load on similar cycles. The Frigidaire can be stacked with the tested dryer models LEQ2152E[S] and Affinity AEQ6000E[S].

Best if your budget is tight:

? GE WJRE5500G[WW] , $480, CR Best Buy
? Estate ETW4400T[Q] , $400


For hundreds less than the best high-efficiency top-loaders, these two top loaders were very good at washing and were reasonably efficient. The GE has a stainless-steel tub and a fabric-softener dispenser. The Estate was a bit gentler on clothes. We lack repair-history data for Estate, though it is made by Whirlpool, a reliable brand. Both the GE and Estate were relatively noisy. "

As an aside, for my money, I never buy an extended warranty.

Regards,
Bill

yeah, you wouldn't need an extended warranty with a top loader and on a great majority of products it's a waste of money.

Get a front loader. It gets your clothes cleaner (way it spins), uses less water, and your clothes last longer. If you can get one with a second rinse cycle, by all means get it.

I had a top-loader with stainless steel basket (they DO get clothes cleaner) with a second rinse cycle. My clothes wore longer, and felt SO much cleaner. It got sold when we moved. I WILL buy a new one when the one we were given bites the dust - with 2nd rinse cycle.

I go to the laundromat, for about $5 I can wash everything I wore in 3 weeks time, in some nice front loading washing machines, and dry it all, fold it, read the news paper, use their wireless internet, and when the machine brakes someone else fixes it while I use the one next to it.
Anyone know how much they spend on water and electricity to wash and dry a load of cloths? or time spent doing small loads, one load at a time? I can get that 3 week load washed, dried and folded in less then an hour and a half, and an hour of that I spent reading.

a big thanks to all of you!

I hear what you're saying, I've tried figuring out how much we actually pay per load at home, and it comes damn close to laundromat prices in winter. In summer it's half price 'coz I can hang everything out to dry (and uses less energy to warm wash in summer). If I was faced with paying about $25 a month for a washer and drier financed over 5 years and only lasting 5 years on top of that*, I'd probably go to the laundromat instead. However, when a family needs 3 or 4 loads a week, it starts to look better, since the extra trips out and time out of the house would be adding up to too much. One hint though in a family sitch, buy everyone their "own" towels, make them responsible for them, and hide all the rest until you get guests... otherwise you get the bathroom knee deep in sodden towels that nobody knows who put there, and you end up doing two or three loads of towels a week. This way everyone hangs their towel up to dry after using it, and it can just go in the wash with their clothes every week.

(* I don't by the way, I've had good luck with $10 used ones and the odd minor fix)

In a dream world . . <sigh>

The problem here is that nobody in this house seems to want to bother with doing laundry until everything is dirty!

Child: "I don't have any clean clothes!"

Parent: "Seems like taking that huge pile of dirty clothes out to the laundry would be a good start."

So anyway, we have been around and around the question of front loaders, and every time we have to conclude that we could save more money by keeping the top-loader or replacing it with another inexpensive one when it breaks. It's just one of those terrific new technologies that really doesn't save anybody any money if they are just frugal about it to begin with.