Yes, a top-loader. I dealt with my sister’s front loader for 2 years and vowed to never buy one if I could get around it.
Our house didn’t have a proper washer/dryer hookup when we moved in. The previous owner just rigged something (possibly illegal) so we brought in a plumber to set it up properly. I’d like to think there’s no chance he did it incorrectly but I’m not that naive. The hose definitely isn’t kinked but I don’t know enough about plumbing to know if it’s all set up correctly. I’ll see if my boyfriend or his dad have any clue.
OP here. Someone posted that they switched and saved $40 on their water bill. So as I suspected, water must be very expensive in other parts of the country, because my total bill is usually $50 a month (washer/dishwasher/showers/etc). In a word, I don’t have to be so water-conscious. Electricity here is 2nd highest rate in the nation. To answer one question, I did in fact go out and watch the meter spin during a cycle of the new machine. I’d be hard pressed to notice the difference from before.
But this is either here nor there. I can’t afford to dedicate a weekend to washing. I have an energetic youngster who gets his clothes dirty. Really dirty. Regular settings with the new machine do not do an adequate job. So multiple cycles have to be run. So it takes more than an hour to get 1 load done. In that time with my old machine I could have 3 loads done (and all would be clean). And heaven forbid you need to just wash one quick thing. I could set the old machine to do a 5 minutes wash if need be. This is impossible with the modern POS.
The dryer was never a bottleneck as the clothes rarely need more than 30 min to dry. Plus we (gasp) use our clothesline in hot weather (for towels mostly).
So the upshot (for me) is if you want fast washes/throrough washes, do not bother buying a top loading HE washer. You’ll use more water but the job will get done. And if you live in a prohibitively expensive electricity area, you’ll benefit from less run time.
My HE unit has a “quick” setting that handles quick loads perfectly. My neighbor’s also got one (with small kids and tons of laundry to boot) and has no problems with quick loads, either.
Electricity usage is better on the front loading HE units. I’m not sure why you think electricity usage should be higher because it runs longer. Most of the juice that goes into a washer is for heating water. Less water = less electricity. Something like 80-90% of the power used in a washing machine is used to heat the water, so if you’re seeing increased power consumption in the front loader, you probably bought a lemon.
Front loaders (not just HE washers) are also more common in Europe and Asia than in the US, mainly because they use both less water and less electricity.
For what it’s worth, you see front loaders almost exclusively in most dry cleaners and modern commercial laundromats, because they are mechanically simpler and cost less to run (in both water and electricity).
Also, this is a bad way to measure electricity usage, in general. That is, unless you’re comparing usage with or without something big - like a central A/C.
Huh? Until I bought a front loader last year, I never owned a washing machine that heated the water. It just used the Hot water at whatever temp it came out of the hookup. Even the front loader I have now will only heat the water if I select “Extra Hot”, which I never have. Are you sure you aren’t referring to electric dryers?
Exactly, I have a hot water and a cold water line going into the back of my machine. There is zero electricity used to heat wash water. Sounds like front loaders (not the model I purchased) only have a cold water input? Holy crap - how stupid glad we didn’t try that model - we’d really be burning the kiloWatt-hours!
And despite al lthe rah-rah messages from some of the happy owners of HE machines, I’ve gone googling and I can match post for post countercomplaints on how clothing doesn’t get washed thoroughly.
For older washers (pre '95), the heating element is > 2000W. For newer (post 2000) washers, it’s probably in the 1500-1800W range. By contrast, spinning the drum is well under 300W. So, even for top loaders, a newer washer will save some electricity, as should be expected with increased focus on energy efficiency.
Commercial dry cleaners use front loaders, for good reason. They really do get clothes cleaned better. But it requires people to use them properly. The biggest mistake tends to be over-use of soap.
Try it out for yourself. If you’ve already got the top-loader back in the house, try washing some clothes without adding any detergent. You may be better than average, but odds are you’ll see some soap suds and foaming from residual detergent. If you don’t, then congratulations, you are in the minority of Americans who use an appropriate amount of detergent.
Our family owns a chain of dry cleaners, and there were times we almost didn’t need to use detergent in the washes because people used too much at home. That stuff would leech out and start foaming immediately.
You wouldn’t think too much detergent is an issue, but all the extra suds and foam hinder cleaning. It’s less of an issue in top loaders because the suds generally rise to the top. But front loaders require more care in detergent levels.
Many of the complaints about “poor rinsing” are the result. So, yes, front loaders require a little more work, like actually reading the instructions and using an appropriate (usually small) amount of detergent.
But he didn’t have a front loader, which I think was a source of confusion and perhaps a partial explanation for the disparity between his results and those of us delusionally happy with our HE machines. I wasn’t aware of HE top-loaders and having read about them, it isn’t surprising that they suck at cleaning. The sticking point about the long cycle time seems unavoidable regardless of your “orientation”.
There are some actual facts on washer/dryer energy usage here.
Anecdotally, we have a front-loading machine that gets our clothing much cleaner than our previous top-loader, but the top-loader was a 20-year-old piece of junk, so that may not be the best comparison. But seriously, I’ve never had any problem getting my clothes perfectly clean.
Edit: Oh wow, I managed to read the entire thread and not notice that the OP is talking about a top-loading HE washing machine. I had no idea such a thing even existed.
No, our front-loading HE machine has a hot & cold water hookup. It will only heat the water if I select the “Extra Hot” cycle, which is meant for diapers & the like.
All I can say is my 2 previous top loaders didn’t have a heating element. Or at least if they did, they never turned on when I washed in cold - and if the water in MA in January isn’t “too cold”, I don’t know what is.
ETA: All US washers that I know of have always been on a 15 Amp circuit. They couldn’t run a 2000W heating element on that - you’d need a 20-30 Amp circuit.
Sorry I wasn’t clearer about that.
I feel the salesclerk sold me a bill of goods. I usually do a week of research on this stuff before I go to the store, but we were beset by a few other problems that prevented me from being dilligent. The sales person implied that the top loading HE machine used less water that a standard toploader (too true) but that there was enough water used to allow some jet action to swirl the clothes around (there’s no agitator.) However the so called jet action unit is in fact an “impeller” which is a fancy word for a nearly flat screw that tossed clothes around in such a manner that they get rotated in a figure eight pattern (if you watch long enough). But it all boils down to issue of the amount of water used which to me is insufficient to get out heavy sweat /chlorine from pools, and other assorted horrors. Plus the long cycles. Plus the silly number of available cycles that require you to spend 25 minutes sorting your clothes into micro piles. Let’s be honest, all one really needs to separate are whites, and the rest which can be split into warm water and cold water colored clothes. New colored clothes that are of suspicious origin (and may bleed) are handwashed to clear the dyes. All the rest is really needless. I’ve washed clothes for 30 years (and my results have always been great).
BwanaBob, yeah, I thought you were complaining about a front loader. When I moved to a front loader, I was shocked at how much cleaner our clothes come out. I was also shocked at how much residual soap was in the clothes that had previously been washed in a top loader. The front load washing machines really do pull more grease stains out of clothing compared to a top loader. Really.
As a bonus, my front loader uses less water, less electricity, and the high speed final spin pulls so much water out of the clothing that dryer times are significantly lessened. Less dryer time means less electricity and natural gas useage, yet another savings. Less soap is needed providing even more of a savings. Because my machine cleans so damn well, I would use a front loader even if there was no greater efficeincy. They are more effective in cleaning while also being more efficient.
Add a tablespoon of trisodium phosphate to an especially oily or greasy load and be amazed at how well a front loader can clean.
You should look into returning that POS top loader and get a front loader. You will not regret the upgrade.
On the other hand, when I researched this to death a few months ago, I found that front-loaders have some serious deficiencies as well.
For one, if your laundry room is on the second floor (like in our house), front-loaders can produce serious vibration issues.
For another, because front loaders require elaborate rubber seals and gaskets to keep them from leaking, they have been found to have problems drying out thoroughly, resulting in serious mold and odor issues.
Finally, if you have a problem with your front loader, and it decides to break down in the middle of a cycle, you can end up with gallons of water on the floor when the repairman has to override the door interlock and open it with the drum full of water. This is again an issue if you have a second-floor laundry room.
Many of our neighbors (all with second floor laundry rooms) jumped on the bandwagon and bought HE front-loaders six years ago when we all moved into our development. Most have come to regret them, and are now replacing them with either traditional top loaders or HE top loaders.
We waited until our old traditional top-loader broke, and recently bought a new HE top-loader. I doubt it cleans as well as a front-loader, but the drawbacks of a front-loader were too much for us.
FWIW, the front loader we bought last year (and all the ones we looked at) had a method to drain the drum without opening the door, specifically because of this issue.
And while it does vibrate a bit on the second floor, it isn’t anywhere near as bad as an unbalanced load in the old top loader was.
The smell is apparently still an issue though. We leave the door open on ours all the time, which is annoying as hell when you want to go into the laundry room for something else.
I misunderstood this as well. As someone who’s currently in the market for a new washer, I’ve been following this thread with great interest.
All the research I’ve done only leaves me more confused. I’ve heard so many horror stories about front-loaders in second-floor laundry rooms (like mine), that I’ve pretty much ruled out a front-loader: mold issues, vibration problems, etc. I know a couple of people who have had their front-loaders freeze up due to error codes and they have to wait two weeks for repairs — with a load of laundry and soapy water inside the locked-up washer.
So I had great hopes for the HE top loaders, but after reading the OP’s comments and those of some of the others here, I’m really confused about what to buy.
To make it worse, I notice that Consumer Reports (Canada) rates a few HE top- and front-loading machines pretty well, but those ratings are followed by long complaint threads from people who have had horrible experiences with those machines. Epinions hasn’t been much help, either.
Geez, it used to be so easy. There was a time when you could simply head to Sears and pick up whatever was on sale and odds were, you’d do okay. Obviously, those days are over.
Without the center post like a top loader has, all of the tumbling in a front loader makes for a very effective cleaning.
I leave the washer door open on ours. No smell or mildew.
The vibration is only during the very high speed spin cycle which is only for a few minutes. As mentioned by muldoonthief, an unbalanced top loader is much worse. I remember my unbalanced top loader walking across the floor.
Because they clean so effectively and operate more efficiently, they are worth the compromises. My washer and dryer was purchased new at the scratch and dent Sears outlet in Santa Ana, CA. They were brand new with small dents in the back and on one side, sold for less than half over ten years ago. They are excellent.
I have a second-floor laundry room, and while the vibration on high spin is noticeable throughout the house, it only lasts a couple of minutes and is not what I would consider a big deal. For what that’s worth.
