Washing Machine - need answer fast-ish

In My Humble Opinion
1

tl/dr portion: So after last year’s mess with the 9+ year old front loader not getting fixed until about the fifth time the service tech came out (we had a service contract on the thing), I told my husband that we are not spending another dime on this washer.

It took me several months to get Sears to quit calling me to try to wheedle me into buying another service contract.

Anyway, after fixing two separate things that weren’t the problem, backording another part, waiting 2 weeks, having them install it and finding it to be NONFUNCTIONING (and then somehow acquiring a replacement that same day, as in WTF with the 2 weeks), it was finally working.

Until yesterday. I got home just as my son was discovering a thin later of water all over the laundry room floor. We cleaned it up, my husband got home and partially dismantled the thing to see where the water came from, could not tell, so he tried running a small load of cleaning rags.

This resulted in the washer stopping halfway through the cycle and flashing lights at us (same behavior as last year). He tried restarting it. It stopped again (and the door is latched shut and won’t open so buh-bye rags unless we take a very therapeutic crowbar to it… which we would, if we owned a crowbar.
/tl/dr portion

Anyway, the tl/dr story is: we need to replace our washer quickly. The old one is a front loader, 10 years old and lots of problems in its life, so we’d be throwing good money after bad in trying to repair it. We’re strongly leaning toward a top-loading HE machine. We’re also strongly leaning against going with Sears given the mess with the incompetent service people last time around (it was not a Sears employee, it was some company I’d never heard of that had the contract).

Samsung makes one with a built-in utility sink in the top. I’ve never had a utility sink in the laundry. How useful is that, really?

Anyone have any other thoughts on the topic? Any brands to get or avoid? Any love or hate for the top-loading high efficiency machines?

2

We’ve been quite satisfied with the Roper top-loader we got from Lowe’s a few years ago.

3

While I can see the convenience in having a sink built into the washer for certain functions, I think a separate utility sink nearby would be much more versatile and useful and only slightly less convenient. Probably a lot more economical, too.

4

If I were doing a laundry room from scratch, I’d definitely consider a separate sink. This is in a small room with no space for anything extra though. If we were designing a house (and laundry room) from scratch I’d probably ask the same question about how useful one would be :).

5

Our last new one was a front-loader. I hate the way it wads all the laundry up into a solid mass. Makes unloading it a pain in the ass.

So, I would for sure check out the new top-loaders.

6

I’ve heard great reviews from many acquaintances on Speed Queen washers. They don’t have all the bells and whistles of the other brands but they are built to last. I plan to look at these when I’m in the market for a new one.

A coworker told me the man who delivered his new SQ told him he’d never need to buy another washer.

I’m not sure if they make HE washers.

7

He was wrong. or rather he was right 30 years ago, but is wrong now.

You were smart to get the service plan. There really is not much difference in quality between a high end and low end washer. The high end one has more bells and whistles…that increase the likelihood of failure.

Get the low end one and spend the extra money you saved on the service plan. You’ve already shown it has saved you lots of money in repairs. The low end one is virtually the same (and same quality) as the highend one but doesn’t have all the extra features that do nothing but break.

8

Simpler the better.
High / Efficiency only if you don’t get things really dirty.
Efficiency is easier to do your self with smart laundry thinking. IMO
If you can stand the wait time, service contracts are OK, me, I do the repairing myself because I won’t wait it out… ( * sometimes bites me in the butt but I win more than I loose * )…

9

In the old days (ten years ago) buying a used washing machine was a good plan. As they seemed to run forever.

Maybe things have changed.

10

I bought this one from Lowe’s last year. I like it–it’s an HE–all I do is dump in detergent, dump in the clothes and hit the start button. It pretty much does everything else. It cleans the clothes well and I’ve not had any problems with it. Because it doesn’t have the center agitator, I’ve washed some stuff (like pillows and my comforter) that I’d never been able to wash with a regular washer.

11

I used to have a front loading HE washer. It was great, but then the bearings went.

I now have a top loading LG HE washer which I loathe. The lack of an agitator means that the clothes never really get clean. Nothing really agitates them. Hate it.

12

My only advice is that if you get something with a touchscreen, get a service contract. Better yet, stick with manual dials. I purchased an entry level Whirlpool (they’re made locally) at Lowe’s last summer and I like it. It does what it’s supposed to do without me having to think too much about it. My dad has had the same model with similar results for ~12 years.

13

I recently had Sears out to look at our old front loader. We don’t have a contract, just called sears service. The phone service screwed up or failed to explain what he was doing because two technicians showed up, different times, with no confirmation from either. They basically dicked around, appeared to have fixed it, took a lot of money and left. When I tested the washer it still had the same issue.

I’d replied with attitude to their ratings email, called the main service line to bitch then called my local Sears (Alexandria VA.) The nice lady there got a few things rolling. A new, competent service man came the next day, declared the machine dead, refunded a little of my money and gave me a discount coupon for a new Sears washer.

While looking for the new washer a Kenmore went on sale and, with the discount, I had to swallow my pride and go with a Sears product. So far it works well.

14

We’ve had a top loading Whirlpool Cabrio HE for well over 10 years now and it’s been great. It did have an electronics issue early on but was covered by a recall on the unit. They just came and swaped out a circuit board.
It has a HUGE capacity and there’s no agitator in the center. The opening is large and makes loading/unloading easy.
We have friends who bought the latest and greatest front loaders at the same time we bought ours. LG, Samsung, etc. They all seemed to have problems with theirs over the years and many of them have already been replaced.
If this one went out I wouldn’t hesitate to get the same thing.

15

Our 25 YO top-loader died last summer and we replaced it with the cheapest top-loader we could find after hearing all the horror stories about front-loaders. I figure at $300, if it lasts a few years, then dies, we’ll get another.

eta: it’s supposedly HE, think all that means is don’t use as much soap as before. Also, I think there are only three manufacturers, marketers just slap different badges on 'em. IOW not much difference.

16

After dealing with my mother’s front loader (broke all the time just sitting there) and my brother’s front loader (breaks every time they move) vs. my 15 year old top loader which was the cheapest thing on the floor and hasn’t given any trouble: I’d say buy the simplest top loader you can find.

17

We wound up getting an LG top-loading HE machine. Not the cheapest on the block but all the others had crummy reviews, including some labels I’d never heard of before, e.g. Equator, Danby (actually I’d heard that name, but my impression is that it’s cheap vs. inexpensive). I was very tempted by the Samsung washers but their behavior with a recent recall wasn’t good (they knew of the problem for months before issuing the recall).

I feel bad about the tradeoff in water / electricity by going top-load vs front-load but am just so fed up with the front-loader I couldn’t make myself go that route again.

18

Heh - you must live near us, as that would be my local Sears as well.

I got emails asking to rate my service experiences.

The links in the emails did not work.

Were your service people contractors or were they Sears employees? The person who came multiple times was employed by an independent contractor. Had the problem recurred, I’d have insisted Sears send one of their own people.

One reason I went with Best Buy (aside from the sour taste left by that whole mess) was that the 5-year contracts are a LOT cheaper - when we bought our new dishwasher last year (after our Kenmore died; it had never worked well) was because the machine was the identical price but the service plan was half the price.