Clothes washing machines - any reccos of new machines and manufacturer experiences?


 
We currently have a front load Whirlpool set (stacked) that is European size - a little smaller than what is common here in the USA. The dryer is a ventless heat pump dryer. I think they are about four years old and so far, no trouble. Washer does a good job cleaning clothes. We leave the washer door and soap drawer open when not in use and no mold problem. I do remove the drawer now and then and clean it. We have used these machines heavily - so far so good... I believe the washer was made in Italy and the dryer I think is from Turkey. Got them at Best Buy as "open box" units.

The dryer saves a lot of electricity over a regular dryer however, it has a few quirks. Some things take a little longer to dry. Since it does not use heat as the primary drying media your clothes don't come out all warm and snuggly feeling every time. Sometimes they are warm, sometimes not. Seems to depend on where in the cycle it was when the computer decided things were dry. The secondary filter lets lint through and it will eventually clog the heat exchanger. So far, I've just cleaned this lint off the fins but I can see that eventually I will need to dismantle and clean the whole thing. At that point I will try to make a better filter.

If there is any interest I can get the model numbers - or explain the heat pump dryer in a little more detail. Even though it's got a few quirks, I'm totally sold on the dryer.
 
Chad-Burnt to a T said:
My wife is 4'12" and can reach the bottom. Made sure before we got a top load.
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She tried at the store. Could not do it without her feet leaving the floor. She's 5'2" maybe yours has slightly longer arms? We tried every brand of modern top loader on the floor Was a no go. Yeah on an old fashioned top loader she could on the old style agitator type machines. We were looking at more "modern" ones with the larger tubs (due to having our daughter and Blake living here and lots of loads being done). Now? If I needed to buy again I would likely just get an old fashioned basic top loader. Those tubs are so shallow she was able to reach in. We were at Best Buy when we were looking, and there were tons of women on the floor saying the same thing. Did not want them because too hard to reach in. Also with today's tech on both the top and front loaders there is no difference in mold.. Even when we had the old style 50 gallon per load top loader she always left the lid up.
 
Brett-EDH said:
a lot of top load units listed in this thread. curious; i've read top loaders are more harsh/abusive on clothes when washing them. any validity to that? as compared to front loaders.
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Depends on the type. If you get an impeller type of top loader, it should be no more harsh than a front loader.
 
I've washed a king sized comforter in my LG.

Edit. And mine is only a 4.7 vs the current models that are 5.3 or 5.5
 
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My LG range is such a total POS the thought of buying anything LG scares me. Though I am told they've improved a lot. But I would likely go to an American product i.e. Maytag/Whirlpool again.
 
I have had issues with front loaders.
I went through at least 3 in the last 9-10 years.
They do look cool though on them fancy pedestals.
Those pedestals are far from cheap and they found a way to slightly change them every year so you have to buy a new one rather than reuse your existing one.

One of my biggest gripes is not being able to get reversible doors for our application.
Darn door was always in the way the way I process our laundry.

The wife and I keep two houses.
Our place up in Washington came with a set of vintage washer and dryer.
I think they are possibly from when the house was built in the late 70’s.
Nothing fancy about them.
Like the freaking energy bunny they are.
They just keep ticking away.

I can’t help you out on the new stuff because I haven’t had much luck with them and I’ll probably need a new set in a couple years myself.
 
We have an LG Tromm set (BIG ones) from 2006. I have gone through the dryer, more self-induced than anything. The dryer lint trap does seem to let more through than I'd like, but at the expense of reaching under the vent outside a few times a year, NBD. The washer has been pretty solid once we figured out that not all liquid detergents dissolve complete and led to leaks (Kirkland, I'm looking at YOU.) We do leave the washer door open when not in use, run a tub clean cycle regularly and the detergent dispenser also gets cleaned regularly.
 
Another thing about those LG top loaders...they're capacity is huge. The drum looks like a trash barrel. But...the washer capacity exceeds the dryer's...could be the case with top loaders in general. Gave up on front loaders two houses ago.
 
Had these a little under two years. No complaints. IIRC, it was $1599 for the set, delivered from Costco.

www.lg.com

LG WT7300CV: 5.0 cu.ft. Smart wi-fi Enabled Top Load Washer with TurboWash3D™ Technology | LG USA Business

Get information on the LG 5.0 cu.ft. Smart wi-fi Enabled Top Load Washer with TurboWash3D™ Technology. Find pictures, reviews, and tech specs for the LG WT7300CV
www.lg.com www.lg.com

www.lg.com

LG DLG7301VE: 7.3 cu. ft. Smart wi-fi Enabled Gas Dryer with Sensor Dry Technology | LG USA Business

Get information on the LG 7.3 cu. ft. Smart wi-fi Enabled Gas Dryer with Sensor Dry Technology. Find pictures, reviews, and tech specs for the LG DLG7301VE
www.lg.com www.lg.com
 
JKalchik said:
We have an LG Tromm set (BIG ones) from 2006.
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Oopa... should have mentioned that these are front loaders.

We have discovered that we use practically none of the fancy features. The size certainly is nice. If/when these give up the ghost, I'm giving serious thought to going back to a fully electromechanical Speed Queen set (no digital electronics, that's sort of what I expect to fail.) Even those... SQ may be joining the 20th Century.
 
JKalchik said:
Oopa... should have mentioned that these are front loaders.

We have discovered that we use practically none of the fancy features. The size certainly is nice. If/when these give up the ghost, I'm giving serious thought to going back to a fully electromechanical Speed Queen set (no digital electronics, that's sort of what I expect to fail.) Even those... SQ may be joining the 20th Century.
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My buddy bought those. BEcause he was fearful of the new types failing. He's had nothing but grief with them. Constant failures, leaks, etc.
 
LMichaels said:
My buddy bought those. BEcause he was fearful of the new types failing. He's had nothing but grief with them. Constant failures, leaks, etc.
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Interesting. That's sort of the opposite from what I've been hearing, hopefully he get SQ to address those problems.

I talked to the appliance repair gent who'd likely be fixing our Bosch dishwasher (actually, replaced the power cord under recall already,) & refrigerator how he felt about appliances. The fact that he uses SQ personally and sells them as a result says a bunch.
 
JSaus said:
Depends on the type. If you get an impeller type of top loader, it should be no more harsh than a front loader.
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We had an impeller type before my wife hated it said the clothes did not get as clean. Now we have an agitator HE machine hates that also it has a deep fill button which she uses for just about every wash so not saving any money on water. Says the thing never fills up with enough water unless she uses the deep fill button. This is kind of why the Whirlpool interests me as you could leave the agitator in or pull it out.

She also leaves the lid up so we have never had a mold problem but alot of these newer machines have a cleaning cycle using affresh where you run it once a month or whatever.

Beginning to think these washing machines are like refrigerators pick your poison most of them have warts. :unsure:
 
JKalchik said:
Interesting. That's sort of the opposite from what I've been hearing, hopefully he get SQ to address those problems.

I talked to the appliance repair gent who'd likely be fixing our Bosch dishwasher (actually, replaced the power cord under recall already,) & refrigerator how he felt about appliances. The fact that he uses SQ personally and sells them as a result says a bunch.
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They're repairing them but he's got them out constantly. Maybe he got the ones that fell off the truck? IDK but he asked me what we have and wondered if they were ever any issue. I told him Samsung washer and dryer. He was shocked because "Consumer Reports" says everyone has trouble with those. MEH, is all I can say about them as well.
Thing is for the most part these modern appliances last 10-13 years then die permanently
 
This is a pretty good video has gotten 1m views in the last 10 mos so seems there are alot of people trying to make decisions on washing machines. Especially near the end based on a google search of people searching for error codes let you read it yourselves its very interesting to me to see the results.

 
LMichaels said:
He was shocked because "Consumer Reports" says everyone has trouble with those. MEH, is all I can say about them as well.
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Consumer Reports and this was many years ago had some issues with a few models of Speed Queens and yes their were some issues but I don't believe with the current models that is the case but from my research in the last few days I would not buy the TC model I would go with the Tr5 or Tr7 and I am not done researching yet. The 5 has 5 years parts and labor and the 7 has 7 years parts and labor.
 
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