US v UK Laundry Appliances

Factual Questions
1

This question has long puzzled me …

Top-loading washing machines / dryers pretty much disappeared from the scene in the UK decades ago, in favour of front-loaders.

But from films/TV, and looking around the Net, top-loaders still seem to be pretty popular in the US. Why such a difference? The only advantage I can think of, if I’m reading this thread correctly, is that it is easy to stop the wash mid-cycle to add “ingredients” at will. On the other hand, they’re not stackable!

Also, am I right in my perception that combination washer/dryers are unusual in the US?

Is this a question of available space - ie smaller homes in the UK need more compact / stackable appliances?

Enquiring minds (and also mine :wink: ) want to know!! :slight_smile:

2

Okay, Yank here, who bought a new washer & dryer just two weeks ago, and here’s what various salesmen told me.

Front opening washing machines make up a very small part of the (American) home market – less than 15%

(BTW, I’ve never seen anything OTHER than a front opening dryer, in homes, stores, anywhere.)

(BTW#2 It is possible to stack a dryer above a top opening washing machine, you just get these kits that basically provide ‘risers’ to lift the dryer high enough to allow the washer lid to open.)

Why don’t more front opening washers sell here? I think it’s purely economics. While shopping I saw top loaders on sale for everything from $175 to well over a thousand, depending on size of tub, quality of materials (like stainless steel tub w/porcelain finish vs. plastics and painted alumimum), complexity of controls, cycles offered, etc. etc.

OTOH, I didn’t see a single front loader that cost less than $1000.

Now, given that a front loader is much more sparing of water, you save money on each load from not buying the water AND not heating it…but it’s a heck of a long payback time. According to the ‘efficiency’ stick that came on the washer I bought (on sale $399), it would consume something like $157 a year in electricity/heating costs. The thousand dollar front loader would only consume around $95. So that’s a savings of $62 a year to recover $600 = 10 years to break even point.

Okay, you will also be saving some on water – but given that my existing water bill for the entire household usage is like $500, the amount to be saved there is pretty small.

OTOH, for some reason the detergents to use in front loaders cost almost twice as much per load as the top loading kind –

So I don’t really know where the break even point is, but in practical terms, it’s long enough that I would much rather have that extra $600 in my banking account. Who knows? Maybe I’ll move before the break even point, and since I’d never bother paying the price to move a washing machine…
My question: what are the prices like in England (or elsewhere)? Are front and top loader prices nearly equal, or what? Because I don’t see any obvious reason for the price difference, myself. Wherever you put the door, its a drum to hold water, a motor to turn various bits, and a box to hold everything. Okay, the drum/door must be water tight on a front loader, but surely that doesn’t explain a gap of $600, or $800 if you went for the bottom of the price range.
Or are your energy/water costs significantly higher?

3

You can get a front loader in the UK for as low as £168 and as much as £1200.
(I looked on www.comet.co.uk - a UK online and high street retailer of electrical goods). My washer-dryer cost about £320 (IIRC) 4 years ago.

Comet only had 3 top loaders, and they were priced between £389 and £719

4

I think the front loader detergent costs more in the US because fewer people use it and so there is less competition on price. We have a front loading machine and I know that there are only one or two brands of front loading detergent available at our supermarket, vs. dozens of brands of top-loading detergent. Theoretically if and when more front loaders come into use in this country I would expect the price of the detergent to drop.

You can get stackable top loaders in this country, we used to own one. They aren’t really big, though. Ours was perfect for our apartment but most Americans are used to bigger models.

I think it is a function of American houses tending to be bigger and possibly energy costs being lower here (I don’t know if that is true). As water gets more scarce in many parts of the country though more efficient washers including front loaders are becoming more popular.

5

I don’t know how large the typical US kitchen might be, but in the UK we have very large numbers of small terrace housing.

Front loaders have one great advantage over a top loader, you can install your kitchen worktops right over the top, so you have more work surface.

You might not think the amount of space gained would amount to much, but in the average UK house, it is quite a percentage.

If you install a top loader in a UK kitchen, it would have to be the very end unit or else you would have to have some sort of flap in thework surface, or perhaps some kind of break.
The front loader can be pretty much placed anywhere, that gives the kitchen installers much more flexibility, though usually the washing machine will nearly always be found against the same wall as the sink to make water pipes and drains easier to install.

6

Kitchen? Huh? In the US, we have laundry rooms. A special room that has the washer, dryer, a couple of rods to hang stuff from, and perhaps some cabinets (for towels/linens/supplies) and an ironing board. Why here in the good old USA, our houses are so big we have to drive 30 minutes just to get to the bathroom.

7

and that’s WC, to you brits.

8

I think this may be relevant. In the UK the average household installs laundry equipment in the kitchen … “utility rooms” tend to only come in expensive or very old housing. Modern housing is pretty compact.

This amazes me! Washing machines, as Tansu says, typically cost around a third of that in the UK, and looking around a couple of US sites the specs seem similar. And as for Comet having three top-loaders for sale … I don’t think I’ve ever seen an automatic top-loader in my life!

Also … I think the same US/UK distinction applies to launderettes/laundromats - front-loading in the UK, top-loading in the US. Must cut down on the entertainment value in the US, whereas here in the UK it’s a cheap night out. :wink:

9

[QUOTE=Shrinking Violet]
I think this may be relevant. In the UK the average household installs laundry equipment in the kitchen … “utility rooms” tend to only come in expensive or very old housing. Modern housing is pretty compact.[/UNQUOTE]

Let’s be a littel more truthful, shall we? There are lots and lots of big suburban castles, with separate laundry rooms, separate dark rooms, separate kiddies play room, separate…separate…separate.

But that mostly applies to suburban housing built since the 80’s. The suburban house we live in is much more typical of the majority: Top story, 3 or 4 bedrooms, 1 full bath. Street level: living room, ‘dining’ room (really it’s an office), kitchen, 1 full bath. Basement: divided roughly 60/40. The 40 percent room is roughly finished and was used previously as a rumpus room (children’s living and play room, if rumpus doesn’t compute). The 60% is bare cement walls & floors & exposed rafters. It holds the furnace & water heater, laundry tub and machines, a huge workbench and table saw, and lots and lots of storage space.

As I said, this was typical for suburban houses. Apartments tend to have stacked machines in a closet sized area. Lots of the older city apartments DO have the washer/dryer in the kitchen, and in many cases, the bath tub, too!
Lately the trend has been to get the laundry out of the basement, to save step climbing for aging boomers. The most common new setup is a largish closet off the bedroom hall, with the second being in a largish room off the kitchen, a combined laundry/pantry/cleaning supplies type thing.

I’ve only been in a single automat in the past ten years (while shopping for this new washer/dryer) and it had a row of double stacked front loading dryers along one wall. The other wall had a couple of HUGE front loaders in front, then about four BIGGER than than home sized front loaders, then the rest of the wall to the rear had ‘normal’ household sized top loaders.

Don’t know how common that mix is, others will have to chime in.

10

Cellars/basements are almost unheard of in my part of the country…I guess it depends on the geology of the place - if they have to put deep foundations, then they’re creating a cellar, but if small foundations are OK, then there’s no need to go deeper.

Both old and new housing can lack a suitable location for a washing machine other than the kitchen. As has been pointed out in the thread, terrace houses give little option. But ‘cheap’ crap-build houses on new estates are often crammed into the smallest space available, the cynical developers knowing that “3 bedrooms” is worth more than “2 bedrooms plus utility room”.

11

[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Cellars/basements are almost unheard of in my part of the country…I guess it depends on the geology of the place - if they have to put deep foundations, then they’re creating a cellar, but if small foundations are OK, then there’s no need to go deeper.

[QUOTE]

In the US, a big selling point is “Main floor laundry room”. Less stairs to walk down/up with your laundry. My house, built in the '30s, originally had the laundry in the basement, but when an addition was slapped on 15 years ago (including a new kitchen), the old kitchen was converted into a laundry room.

12

Have you taken into account how much you use? Here in Australia perhaps half the available detergents are suitable for either top or front loaders, but the instructions say to use as little as 1/3 the amount when used in a front loader, as compared to a top loader.

For the record, in Australia the market is more like the US than the UK as far as top/front loader usage is concerned.

Drive? The light aircraft broken down again?

13

If you come for a visit avoid the fiber!! Or you’ll regret it.

14

So far I didn’t see anyone mention another reason for having a seperate washer and dryer, efficency. OK, maybe not efficency of energy use, but efficency of time. With a front loader combo unit. you put in the clotes and start the machine. it washes and then drys that load. This takes about 1 1/5 hours! At least the unit a fried had took that long. With seperate units, one is washing while the other is drying. So after the first load is washed and in the dryer there are two things happening at once.

BTW, in the US there is a big market for combo units in Motor Homes and other large RVs. Due to the space saved by a combo. And I guess the use of less water is another advantage there too.

15

Which also explains why the typical American diet is cheeseburger & fries.

My house has 4 bathrooms/WC (so you can drive east/west/north/south :slight_smile:

16

The very old combo washer/dryer in my sister’s condo has a top loading washer. The dryer also, sadly, will only work for me. Everyone else is presented with a lump of damp wrinkled clothes.
-Lil

17

Hey thanks - that was gonna be my next question! :slight_smile:

StarvingButStrong - Ah, the Ubiquitous American Basement. We Brits can but dream …

As regards efficiency, it isn’t only time a combo loses … neither the washing nor the drying matches up to separate units. But since the eighties it’s all I’ve had space for. :rolleyes:

18

interestingly for people like me the efficiency of time works the other way - I’m a single twenty-something bloke i never have more than one wash going at a time. A combined unit means that my single load can go straight from its wash to its dry without me having to get up and swop machines.

Which leaves me more time to sit on my arse playing computer games, scratching myself, watching tv etc. etc. etc. :smiley:

19

I chose a washer-dryer with an efficient wash performance. I usually dry the clothes outside on the line, only using the dryer in bad weather. I think I was brought up to believe that line drying is a virtue, and machine drying a terrible vice. Or sommat.

20

So pretty much all the time then.