There was a thread about the new washing machines/dryers the other day

[shraby]

and the general consensus was, they don't work, clean, or last as good as what we used to have, and on top of those problems the washers will grow mold in them if certain special products aren't run thru them from time to time. I know the dryer I bought will wrap the blankets and sheets into a big roll and they won't dry that way.
I looked and looked at the inside of the dryer to see what was different than the older ones and I'm still stumped. And my sheets and blankets still roll up.
I'd like to suggest to the manufacturers how to sell a lot of washers and dryers and that's the name of the game, to sell a lot of the product.
Make the insides like they used to be made in the 1960-70s. Then put a new looking modern outside to them. People will be so happy to have something work right for a change, they would probably replace the junk they have with the "new" stuff that works.

[hlthe2b]

1. A couple years ago, I was moving and planning to buy new w&d and sell my old upright set

that still worked fine, but used more water/electricity.

For two weeks, I read every consumer review and website, and every individual review on the leading brands of front loading washers/dryers. Shockingly dismal findings, even on the high end.

I kept the old set...

Enough said, I guess.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

7. I despise my front-loading, environmentally friendly washer

And there's no way you can convince me that such little water can clean as much as a tubful of water in a top loader.

Supposedly all that action pulls/pushes the "dirt" through, but where does it go, since there's not enough water to seriously dilute anything.

[madokie]

14. If you'll check out my reply #12

I forgot to add that the second washing of the same clothes that I washed first in the top loader that used all that water when I collected the water to measure it the water in the rinse cycle of the new front loader was as dirty as the rinse water from the old top loader so it got dirt out of the load of clothes that the top loader with all its 27 gallons total of water missed.



I know from taking the time to do a comparison so I know of what I say here.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Yeah. Some friends of mine were talking about getting rid of their "ugly" old ....

..... washers and dryers.

I told them about having to replace the drum on my 3 or 4 year old LG dryer. When I looked on line for the parts I found thread after thread discussing the broken drum problem and how LG refuses to stand behind their product.

I was lucky because I'm handy enough to do my own repair - the machines are pretty simple and all the parts are mostly color coded plug and play (so slave labor can assemble it for $.50 cents a day).
People who had to hire repairmen had to set aside a space for the disassembled dryer AND pay for two repair calls - one to diagnose and one to install new part. $3 or 4 hundred bucks. At that amount you just buy another new piece of junk.

To the OP's question. Yeah the drum in my dryer is about as flimsy as an aluminum beer can but with a weld that cracks.

[notadmblnd]

2. You talking about the agitator in the washers and the speed bump like things in the dryers?

they kinda paddled the clothes around in the tubs.

[yeoman6987]

3. Well I don't think manufactures are interested in

Having appliances last long. Most want them to last 3-5 years. Plus the fad of front loaders will fizzle out and something else will dazzle us. I can't believe all my neighbors have completely redone their kitchens. I am the only hold out. I don't like stainless steel and I don't want the new countertops everyone is getting. One thing I may do is put an island in the middle of the kitchen. I do like those. The rest are going to be changed once the fad is over. No thanks. I will use what I have which are Kenmore appliances which I love.

[notadmblnd]

6. Everyone loves stainless steel. It's so shiney, sparkley, and bright.

But then someone has to clean it then, not so much.

[madokie]

16. Europeans have been using front loaders for years

so I doubt its a fad that will be passing

[Contrary1]

4. I've read that tossing a couple tennis balls in with the load will help...

Don't know first hand if that works or not.

I have an older dryer. My daughter made me some balls out of wool yarn, and they have sure helped keep the larger items from knotting up. I haven't had to use fabric softener, and everything comes out soft and static-free. Every now and then, I spray them with Febreeze to freshen up the scent.

[upaloopa]

9. It works also those rubber balls that have all the bumps on them

I think they are dog toys. My wife and mother in law use them to keep things from rolling into a ball

[olddots]

5. the new dryers just don't have the ride of the old ones

[djean111]

8. You are bad........:-)

[KoKo]

10. It was me who posted about it....

I should have waited for the "Speed Queen" that DU'er "Scuba" alerted me to on that thread. But, when I called the only dealer in my area they couldn't deliver for 10 day...and I needed both washer and dryer so I did some research and ended up getting a Sears' Next Day delivery.

What arrived was so terrible...I now have to send it back and get Sears to swap out for another set that the washer has an Agitator and not an Impeller.

I won't go into the details about the New Washer...because it was so bizarre I still can't talk about it. But, my first wash in it was that the clothes lie in the bottom of a stainless steel tub and these sounds start coming out of the machine that had my cat running upstairs with tail bristling and my partner coming down stairs asking WTF was going on with that awful noise. The clothes sat in the bottom of a stainless steel tub about 6 inches of water were in it. There's no way to describe the sounds that were coming out of the machine and the fact that nothing was going on inside.

At the end the clothes never were covered with water and though a spinning sound took place not one of the items of clothes had moved. I had selected a high water load for the wash. It turns out that's all the water that is allowed and it depends on a spray coming out to clean the clothes. The "Sensors" decide everything and that is part of the horrendous, bizarre noises that come out of the machine. It took 45 minutes for the wash because that's what the "Sensors" told the machine it required.

Nevermind...what I just ordered couldn't be worse....but, then after spending a whole day researching and reading comments on every Top Loading Machine that's available from Amazon to Sears to Consumer Reports....my hopes are not high on the new one. Particularly since I'd already done a good bit of research before I bought this pair and ended up with a nightmare.

Buy "Speed Queen" if you can find it and want a traditional Top Load with agitator and control on water and cycles. Every review was Excellent! But, it's too late for me...since Sears will only do a swap.

[hunter]

11. Our 1998 old-style top loading agitator washing machine destroyed itself.

The off-balance detector failed and then one of the old and brittle plastic clips that held the machine together failed during the spin cycle, breaking the rest of the plastic clips, along with two rusted-out drum spring connectors.

It was an awesome failure! Catastrophic!

Unobserved, the machine walked three feet to the limit of its tied-down drain hose as it was falling apart. A glorious death, worthy of a Klingon warrior.

The guys who hauled our washing machine's corpse away had to apply three straps and a yard or two of packing tape to hold the corpse together so they could load it in one piece onto their truck.

I'm not so sure about the super-efficient washing machine we bought as a replacement, but so far it seems that being super-stingy with the "he" detergent and leaving the door open when the machine is not running has spared us any grief.

My own clothing mostly comes from the thrift stores so I'm not certain if our new low-water-use machine is harsher on my threads or not.

[madokie]

12. We have a front load washer and dryer

have for about 5 or 6 years now and I must say it is 100 times better at washing clothes as the old top load we had prior.
When we first bought it and I first put it in place I took the old one out on the back deck and connected it to the water hose and run a load of levi's, work shirts etc and measured the water it took, measuring it with a 6 gallon bucket. The old washer used 27 gallons of water to wash those clothes. I then took the same load of clothes and put them in the new front loader and washed them and the new front loader used 7, thats seven, gallons of water total to wash the same load of clothes. I dried them between the washing so they both started with the same clothes and both times were dry. I use Vinegar as a fabric softener and don't have the mold problem that was so much talked about in the previous thread or this one either. I'm a stickler for details and I will take the time to do the experiments or whatever you want to call it to find out for myself what the hell the real answer is rather than rely on what other people say and or especially what advertisers say.

I look in the door and never see any water except a drip from the clothes as the washer rolls them first one direction and then the other but other than that there is no water visible. I can't explain how or why the clothes comes out so much cleaner but they do. When I take the clothes out of the washer they're damn near dry before they ever got to the dryer as another energy savings

Also when you dry your clothes the filter on the dryer has to be or should be cleaned after each load and with this new front load washer the amount of lint that collects on the filter in the dryer is at least one fourth less so that tells me that the washer isn't beating my clothes up as much as the old top loader did so therefore my clothes will last longer. I really don't have a way to confirm the length of time I get out of a pair of jeans now compared to before because before I was working every day and now I putter around, nothing compared to what I did when I worked.

Go back to a top loader? No way on your or my life would I.

Our old washer and dryer were a sears Kenmore and our new washer and dryer are sears Kenmore. We bought them on black friday for $652 bucks tax and all when we bought them, thats $326 bucks a piece. Got up and was at the store at 4:30 in the morning waiting for them to open the doors as they were only going to have a couple sets at that price.

I did the math and this is what I came up with, take it or leave it, it matters not to me.

[BlueJazz]

13. Yep, my front loaders are wonderful. Everything is so much cleaner.

[frazzled]

17. My front-loading Maytag stackable washer and dryer is 16 years old

(or at least I assume: it was in our condo unit when we bought it in 2004, and was probably put in when the building was built in 1999).

I've been happy with it all this time. Yes, the rubber around the washer front does get funky. I found that wiping it down with a bleach solution (test before trying: some types of rubber or plastic might not like this) worked very well.

We have to have front loaders, since our laundry is in a closet that requires stacking and front access. I'll be sad when my old Maytags (they were built in the US back then) die. What I like best is that there is nothing digital on them! I like just turning a dial--so much less to break down.