The dryer at Casa DeVena died last Saturday with much wailing and gnashing of clothes. Seriously, the damn thing actually ripped a load of underwear into little pieces then released an inner demon sounding like a sleestak. :eek: Seeing as our washer and dryer were bought in 1986, it’s time to send them on to their well-earned, great reward.
So what’s a good brand to buy, or better yet, which brands should we avoid?
Isn’t this exactly what Consumer Reports is for?
And nearly all public libraries have copies of it.
And the third of million or so people who report their experience with which brands are good or should be avoided is a lot more than the posts you will get here.
I don’t have any specific brands to recommend, but I like the general advice a friend once told me :
“Never buy an applicance that looks like the cockpit of the space shuttle”
Life is complicated enough already, without having to study a book-length instruction manual to dry your undies.
Sounds like a great time to upgrade to energy- and water-efficient front-loaders.
We love our LG Tromm machines.
I find that the little “the load’s finished” tune gets stuck in my head, and keeps surfacing while I’m taking a walk. Makes me crazy. 
I have a Staber washer that I intend to will to someone’s grandkids when I die. Built like a tank and meant to be easily repairable. It wasn’t cheap, but neither was the Kenmore piece-of-garbage front loader I bought and had to replace three years later.
I dislike front loading washers, because I can’t toss in that last pair of underwear or that last sock that I just found.
I love a dryer with the door that drops down instead of swinging out to the side, because it’s so much easier to load/unload without dropping clothes on the floor. And mine has a light inside, so in my dark basement, I don’t miss that last little dark sock or whatever.
I have a Maytag washer and a (I forget what kind) dryer, now, and both are sturdy and reliable. (I do about 4-5 loads a day, including filthy work clothes and filthier little boy clothes.) Other than Maytag, I have no brand preference.
Perhaps, but front-loaders use much less water, do a better job of cleaning the clothes, and are less inclined to tie shirt sleeves into tight knots.
CR is woefully inadequate. Their rating system sucks. They review a minuscule number of products. I like asking about products on the Dope because there are so many people here. Real people who use products think of things I would never think of. I get a handful of ideas that help me narrow my search down. Also, posting on the Dope is just one step. I’ll also check out reviews on sites where products can be ordered.
I agree that it’s time for the high efficiency front loading washers and dryers. I just had a Maytag 3000 series set delivered on Saturday. Yes, they look and sound like the cockpit of the space shuttle, but they are SO easy to use. The instruction manual said they were designed for the beginner (read: people who don’t read the directions).
These things are HUGE. The washer is 4.0 cf. And they stack! Or they can go side by side. They are incredibly efficient. They use very little water, and you only use half the amount of soap.
I can’t believe how well this thing cleans. For the first time ever, my socks came out white. And these are socks that are over a year old.
Bottom line: I dropped $800 apiece on them. But…Home Depot was having a 10% Maytag sale and Maytag was having $150 cash back on each! This is a great time to by appliances because of the economy, blah, blah, blah.
I highly recommend the frigidaire affinity front loading washer and dryer. They are about half the price of most other front loaders, and work great and are especially quiet. The only time you hear them is when the washer goes into the final spin, when it sounds like a jet powering up. If you choose them, make sure you get the pedestals, as they are quite low to the ground and the pedestals have room for storing detergent and softener. I’ve had mine for 2 years and am still happy with them.
I bought myself an Inglis set from Best Buy in 2005 (that’s the Best Buy store brand - I was looking for cheap) and it has done surprisingly well. Not a single issue thus far. Then again, I am a single person who does laundry about every 2 weeks so I wouldn’t really recommend it for a family.
However, my new roommate seems to wash clothes every day, and they’re still holding up. We’ll see how they are a year from now.
I do recall when researching this sort of thing in 2005 that I found out Inglis is made by Whirlpool, but is $100 less than the cheapest Whirpool model. Something to consider…
We just bought the LG Steam set. They’re being delivered on Saturday. I’ll let you know if they’re as awesome as the reviews make them out to be.
We’re about to upgrade, I think, to a Fisher & Paykel set that’s highly Energy Star rated, low water usage and while technologically forward, not too complicated to use. What’s interesting about F&P is that they use front-loader design and technology, but make it top loading – washer and dryer. Yes, it’s a top-loading dryer. As someone with bad knees, not having to bend over to pull things from the dryer (or pay extra money for a pedestal to put my appliances on to make them more easy to access) is a major plus. We just have to get around to actually making the purchase.
One thing I found, shop your Sears warehouse store, if you have one. They do “scratch and dent” markdowns, but also simple overstock markdowns too. You can save $50 on each piece just by shopping overstock, and more, if you don’t mind a few cosmetic flaws. (Is having a pristine washer that important?) Also, consider your laundry habits. It’s truly surprising how much money you can save on a washer by choosing a 5.2 cubic foot capacity over a 5.5 cf capacity. If you don’t wash huge loads, you can also save substantially on a washer (dryers have a pretty set size) by buying something that isn’t “too much” machine for your actual needs.
FWIW, I recently called a repairman in to have a look at my old washing machine. It’s got a high pitched whining noise when I use it these days.
He took a look and said that various parts were in the process of dying, that it wasn’t worth fixing and to use as normal until it gives up its ghost, most likely in the next two or three months.
I asked him about new washing machines and dryers (my dryer is even older than my washing machine). He said not to get front loaders. The technology just isn’t there yet. They break down all the time and are expensive and time consuming to fix.
He also said that of all the brands he’s called to repair, he’s called in for GE products the least.
I have a set of Maytags that are over 20 years old. I was getting ready to buy another brand when the Maytag regional rep tackled me in the store and showed me the cutaway view of the dryer. I had just worked on my Mom’s dryer and was bitching over the fact that the guide wheel bearings were woefully too small. The Maytag’s were twice the size of the ones I replaced. In the world of basic mechanical devices, the cost differrence between the 2 bearings couldn’t have been more than $1 for all the bearings.
I don’t know if they’re still built as well. Maybe an appliance repair person can chime in.
I second the advice not to get something that resembles the starship Enterprise. I intentionally bought appliances with simple mechanical timers.
On Consumer Reports, F&P washers get the absolute worst rating for frequency of repair (this is based on actual owners’ experiences).
Neither “fact” matches the owners’ reports of frequency of repair on Consumer Reports. The top loaders and front loaders have figures that are almost identical. The most reliable, among front loaders, are the LG and Whirlpool models (tied), followed closely by Frigidaire and Kenmore (tied). The most reliable, among top loaders, are the Roper models, followed by Frigidaire, then Kenmore, GE, and Whirlpool (tied). Maytag does poorly in both front and top loader categories.