Need Some Help Doing The Laundry

[Jerry Bruette]

Our clothes dryer recently took a turn for the worst. So we're shopping for a new washer and dryer.

Went to Consumer Reports and looked at some ratings of laundry sets, found some that we thought would work. Then we started looking at consumer reviews of the sets.

Seems as though everyone is in love with their dryers, but the wash machines are another story. Appears as though all of America has a beef with High Efficiency wash machines.

Major complaints seem to be soap stains on clothes, clothes not even getting wet during wash, and clothes being knotted and wrinkled at end of cycle.

What are your experiences with a HE top load wash machine?

Thanks
Jerry

[Mike Henderson]

I have a top load HE machine and it works fine. You can control the amount of water that goes into the tub (you do it based on the amount of clothes in the washer). If you want to use a full machine of water every time, you can do that, or you can set the water quantity based on the load.

I think it does a better job of cleaning than my old machine that was not an HE machine. One thing to watch for - only use HE rated detergents. If you use old detergent (not HE), it makes too much suds and the suds don't get rinsed off.

Mike

[Tom Stenzel]

Our Maytag Centennial top load HE uses a lot less water and gets the clothes noticeably less clean. We haven't had problems with clothes being knotted with the Maytag but we did have that problem with the GE non-HE top loader that we had before this one.

The instructions that come with the machine will tell you to put the soap in BEFORE the clothes. My experience is that is true. The soap will never rinse out if you dump the detergent on top of the clothes. And with less water it's easy to overdose the detergent. Pouring liquid in by eyeball doesn't work. DAMHIKT.

Our washer handles many small items like socks, T-shirts and the like with no problems. It's the larger items like blankets or a winter jacket where you might wonder if the agitator did anything at all.

(Added):
Mike Henderson is dead on. A HE washer doesn't submerge the clothes in water, if the soap suds up it'll never rinse out.

-Tom Stenzel

[Jerry Bruette]

I have a top load HE machine and it works fine. You can control the amount of water that goes into the tub (you do it based on the amount of clothes in the washer). If you want to use a full machine of water every time, you can do that, or you can set the water quantity based on the load.

Mike

All the ones I've looked at so far have a "automatic water level" feature. The consumer reviews say you have to choose the "bulky load" feature to get more water.

[Jerry Bruette]

Our Maytag Centennial top load HE uses a lot less water and gets the clothes noticeably less clean. We haven't had problems with clothes being knotted with the Maytag but we did have that problem with the GE non-HE top loader that we had before this one.

The instructions that come with the machine will tell you to put the soap in BEFORE the clothes. My experience is that is true. The soap will never rinse out if you dump the detergent on top of the clothes. And with less water it's easy to overdose the detergent. Pouring liquid in by eyeball doesn't work. DAMHIKT.

Our washer handles many small items like socks, T-shirts and the like with no problems. It's the larger items like blankets or a winter jacket where you might wonder if the agitator did anything at all.

(Added):
Mike Henderson is dead on. A HE washer doesn't submerge the clothes in water, if the soap suds up it'll never rinse out.

-Tom Stenzel

Are you dissatisfied with your washer because of these complaints?

[Jim Koepke]

I have no problem doing laundry in our machine. My trick is to not over load the machine with clothes. It would be great if the makers put a line on the tub to indicate the load size. Of course, the user would likely just tamp it down to get more in.

My wife figures the tub was made big, so it should hold more stuff… and stuff it she does. She used to poor extra water into the machine. The machine has water level detectors that just drain it out. It took a while to convince her of there being a better way.

jtk

[Jim Tobias]

Samsung front loader. Had about 1 1/2 years. Like it a lot. Had to adjust to putting in less soap and also the wash time. Now that you can see the time run down on the digital display, it seems like it takes longer to do a load.

Jim

[Prashun Patel]

Get the one with the biggest capacity and the fewest electronics. Some washers are prone to drain improperly which causes a stale water smell and worse mold.

If they still made them and they came in pretty colors so my wife'd like it, I'd prefer the old topload/turn knob washer that was basically ON and OFF.

[Brian Elfert]

High efficiency washing machines work great, in a front loader. I have had two front loaders that both work(ed) great. I only got rid of the Maytag Neptune because it vibrated a lot more than newer front loaders. I have Samsung now and it works great.

[Shawn Pixley]

We have a 15 year old Frigidare Front Load HE washer. It has worked flawlessly. I would buy it again. It has stood up well to sand, sawdust, and fish glop. The clothes come out clean. I know ouasked specifcally about top load, but ... Water is expensive around here.

We have the matching dryer. It needed a new door catch a couple of years back. But it has also worked well.

[David Weaver]

Fisher and Paykel HE top load, the plain ecosmart one that's about $550-600. We've had ours for more than 6 years, and my wife is a fanatic about splitting loads, so it does about 8 to 10 a week for 3 people (It would be half that at most if it were me doing laundry, but I've already fought the fight).

Works great, can't remember any problem with it at all, either with homemade detergent, dreft of All brands free and natural or whatever they call their low stink version.

When it goes, I'll buy another one. Expensive washers are a total waste of money, and both CR and Clark Howard have both said for a long time that price doesn't get longevity or reliability. There's just enough options on the ecosmart to do whatever you'd want to do (wash and rinse temperatures, water levels automatic or manual), but no bunch of shiny color-coordinated car body style colored metal on it nor some flashy LCD screen display. But it's efficient on water and energy.

MIL didn't like our washer because it has a plastic lid (still trying to figure out why that matters), and she bought a neptune washer for twice as much. It lasted less than 3 years doing about the same number of loads per week as ours for 3 people (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree).

[Mike Henderson]

I'll just add a comment about why I went with a top load instead of a front load. At the time I bought the top load, I had a small laundry room so I used the top of the washer and dryer for folding clothes. Front load washers are most convenient if used with a pedestal - it makes it easier to get clothes out of the washer. But the pedestals cost extra (quite a bit extra) and they raise the height of the washer/dryer so that you can't use them for folding any more.

It was just more efficient for me to get a top load.

Mike

[Ben Hatcher]

You can make your own pedestal of any height you choose.

[ray hampton]

the washer with a wringer are still for sale and I would buy this style if I need a new washer

[Eric DeSilva]

+1 more happy Samsung front loader owner.