We’re moving into a new apartment with a front loading washer. It’s actually a combo washer/dryer which makes me sad, but I don’t know if that matters for this question.
I put in a load of laundry to get an idea for how well it dried and I found that instead of looking like the front load washers I’m used to at the laundromat or that I’ve used at my mom’s or sister’s, this one never puts in enough water that you can actually see any sloshing around. The clothes get wet, but there isn’t a visible pool of water.
The ones I’m used to, you can see the water through the porthole, 1/4 or 1/3 or even 1/2 of the way up the window. This one? The water does not ever get anywhere near the porthole. You can’t open the door while it’s running because it locks, but if you could, nothing would actually spill out.
I’ve experimented a little with it. If you just put clothes in an set it to “rinse” and “spin” no water seems to come out of the sprays during rinse.
There was a guy there fixing the fridge and he looked at it and said it was fine, but I don’t see how something that isn’t actually sloshing the clothes through any water can get the dirt OR the detergent back out. But I’m no washer expert.
Yes, especially modern ones. There is a little amount of water in the bottom and as the drum rotates, there are “buckets” set within the drum that pick this water up and spray it over the clothes as it rotates.
Put in a really small load, like a few hand towels. You’ll be able to see the water at the bottom of the drum then. And yes, it’s nothing compared to the 60 lb load beasts at the laundromat. But we’ve had a frontloader for 4+ years now and it does get the clothes clean.
We have front-loaders in the apartment building I live in. In our case, you can see the water spray in and water sloshing around, but the water certainly never comes up anywhere close to the level of the window in the front. I’m not going to try to dig up cites, but it is my understanding from what I have read that that is as it should be - modern ones do NOT need a lot of water (and remember to use low-sudsing detergent).
I bought a new front-load washer and matching dryer a few years ago for a new house without really giving it too much thought – mostly I needed a washer and dryer and I needed them NOW, and someone had recommended that front-load was the way to go and these had good reviews. I was really surprised by how little water it used, and the manual stressed that it was normal to hardly see any water in it. As long as your machine does the job of getting things clean, it’s probably normal.
Being used to the Niagara of water that a top-loader uses, I often hit the “water-plus” button in the belief that this might clean better, and even then there isn’t that much water, though now you can definitely see it sloshing around. I think the extra-water cycle is intended for things with a lot of loose dirt – I’ve never actually confirmed that it cleans any better in general.
Just curious - do you find it cleans better than a top loader? I’ve never used a top loader before, but I hear people say it’s quicker than a front loader (mine takes 2 hours!) but doesn’t get clothes as clean as a front loader.
It’s the friction of clothes against each other that causes most of the cleaning action, the water acts as a lubricant and carrier and detergent/soap is the surfactant. You really don’t need a lot of soap or water.
Don’t know if that was addressed to me or the OP, but anyway…
I have no basis for judging one way or the other whether a top-loader or front-loader cleans better, but it’s definitely true that a front-loader typically takes quite a bit longer. Two hours seems long, but on most cycles mine will definitely take more than an hour – an hour and 20 minutes or so if “heavy soil” is selected to the first of two notches past “normal”. Whereas my previous ancient top-loader was done in about 20 minutes.
The counterpoints to that: I’m sure most top-loaders are fine machines, but the one I used to have (a Whirlpool model) specialized in tearing the rat-shit out of whatever you put in it. OK, not literally, but it was hard on clothes and really did tear some things with its fierce agitation, and its one-directional rotation “feature” ended up tying sheets into knots! Whereas the front-loader has gentle rotating fins and has never hurt anything. Plus, while it may take longer, there’s a lot less residual water in the end result because of the high-speed spin dry. And things come out as clean as I would expect, with a lot less hot water use.
We had a whirlpool duet front loader in a previous house, and a new whirlpool top loader in this one (cheapest one they sell at lowes). I personally find the top loader cleans better, but we do have a lot of very dirty clothes being on a farm. I don’t think the front loaders are worth the premium. We never had any real problems with our duets, though.
I have a front loader, and if the clothes weren’t wet when I take them out to put in the dryer, I’d swear the machine didn’t use any water. My husband and I are old and retired, so nothing gets really dirty, and the clothes come out clean, so I guess it’s all good.
Our latest top-loader takes more than an hour to clean, uses hardly any water, is much rougher on the clothes than the old tank-full-of-water model, and doesn’t really handle physical dirt or food material. Even on perm-press it spins very hard, and even on delicates the friction tends to tear things.
It was supposed to use low-sudsing ‘top loader’ powder, but actually, it can’t wash soap powder off the top of a pile of clothes, so we use liquid detergent.
My brother has the same model, and my sister-in-law loves it. She doesn’t value the features I miss, and I don’t value the features (large load and hard spin) she loves.
We had a front loader that worked great, we couldn’t see water up to even a quarter of the window but we could see a little extra water sloshing around with the clothes. We then had to get a new front loader; it had no visible water during the wash cycle. This washer would get clothes clean looking but it wouldn’t deep clean the clothes. There were metal stains on our clothes because we have that kind of water and antiperspirant would not wash out. We ended up getting a top loader with a deep wash cycle. I use the deep wash cycle ( where the clothes slosh around in a tub full of water) for anything that wasn’t getting clean before. It works fine.
I do think the problem with our last machine was that there wasn’t enough water. It all depends on your water quality too.
High efficiency front-loading washing machines are the bane of my existence. Towels always come out from them smelling musty. We’ve tried cleaning the seals, running vinegar through an empty load, doesn’t freaking matter. I hate it! They seem to get clothes “clean enough” but they do *not *clean as well as an old top-loader does.
I grew up with top loaders and have now had a few front loaders. Our first was absolutely amazing, it cleaned out old stains and brightened up clothes that had been through the top loader that I though were just faded. It was a high end HE model and the manual said the laundry cycle was longer but the drying cycle was greatly decreased - much of the energy savings is in wringing more water out of the clothes before they go in the dryer.
Our current is an older non HE stacked set, it still uses hardly any water. It does an acceptable job but nothing like the first top loader we had.
Just remember not to use too much soap. More is not cleaner. Even in top loaders, people use too much. If you ever want a check of this, try washing clothes in a top loader without adding any soap. If you see suds, you’re seeing the residue from the last wash.
Also, don’t overload the washer. Top loaders are much more forgiving about this, since clothes are usually still pretty clean when most people toss in a load.
If you ever want a semi-scientific example of what works best (when used properly), ask at a dry cleaners. They all use industrial sized front loaders, because they work better and with less water/electricity.
ETA: Incidentally, a lot of times, that musty odor is also related to using too much soap. That residue leads to mold.