Washing Machine advice needed

[StevenYoo]

hello,

our 5-year old run-of-the-mill GE washing machine is broken. The drum housing the chamber where you put in the clothes has rusted and is letting water through.

so we're in the market, but we don't know anything about current models.

Kenmore and Whirpool (among others) have these fancy, expensive machines that use less power and less water. Are those worth the premium? Do they clean the clothes as well as older models?

Should we just go with a cheaper, more standard model that uses the conventional amount of power and water?

thanks, everyone!

 

[rhino56]

get one of the side barrel type. they make more sense.

 

[natto fire]

Yeah, I used a Maytag Atlantis for a while. I have been a big proponent of front-loaders ever since.

Being a big fan of KISS. I was not too fond of the circuit board in it, but the lower water use was apparent almost immedietly. Not to mention the higher spin speeds, which cut down on drier times. (Which actually uses much more energy than the washer)

 

[funboy6942]

Check the warranty on the machine. Some drums are warranted from doing that and may fall in a situation it will be fixed or repaire dfor free or next to nothing.
Unless or course you screwed it up by putting sutt in the washer you were not supposed to cracking the porcilen coating and exposing the metal drum causing it to then rust through and mess up, at which would be your fault and wont be covered.

OH and check you loes and Homedepots and others for open box. Thats where you save a ton of money. I got my wife all maytag stuff and it was 281 for the gas dryer and under $300 for the washer. All top of the line stuff, few years old model wise but new and was well over $600 each when they first came out and are the mega load capacity ones too.

 

[StevenYoo]

ok, so does anyone else have any other experience with newer machines marketed as being less-power hungry and less thirsty?

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
Yeah, I used a Maytag Atlantis for a while. I have been a big proponent of front-loaders ever since.

Being a big fan of KISS. I was not too fond of the circuit board in it, but the lower water use was apparent almost immedietly. Not to mention the higher spin speeds, which cut down on drier times. (Which actually uses much more energy than the washer)

Captain Howdy, what is KISS?

 

[sdifox]

You can always just go with a commercial washer, they are all low water low electricity.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: StevenYoo
ok, so does anyone else have any other experience with newer machines marketed as being less-power hungry and less thirsty?

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
Yeah, I used a Maytag Atlantis for a while. I have been a big proponent of front-loaders ever since.

Being a big fan of KISS. I was not too fond of the circuit board in it, but the lower water use was apparent almost immedietly. Not to mention the higher spin speeds, which cut down on drier times. (Which actually uses much more energy than the washer)

Captain Howdy, what is KISS?

Keep It Simple Stupid

No experience with the newer Kenmore/Whirpool "Oasis". but the previous "Calypso" is junk. Stick with either a quality front-loader, or one of the conventional machines with a regular agitator...
Avoid the LG stuff sold many places nowdays...WAY too many reports of breakdowns and other problems with them. Nice looking but cheap "Made in China" junk...

 

[natto fire]

Yeah, I have had bad experiences with LG as a whole. Boomer was right as far as KISS is concerned. You don't need as much computational power needed to send man to the moon to wash your clothes. It just creates a headache further down the road when it will fail. And it will fail, that is just a fact of life when living with complicated electronics.

I am not sure how the energy use goes as far as complicated washing machines go, but I know that when our Atalntis was working right (which is 100% for 3 years BTW) it definitely was saving energy, as it could spin the clothes out pretty damn dry. I noticed the dryer reduction times pretty quick. And considering the dryer was electric and could draw about 20-30 amps for an hour it was definitely money well spent. Much better to have a 3-5 amp motor spin the clothes at 1000 RPM for a few minutes to extract as much water from them as possible.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: StevenYoo

Captain Howdy, what is KISS?

Originally Kepp It Simple and Stupid. I have seen Keep It Simple, Stupid

 

[Squisher]

I was in the market for a washer about 6 months ago.

I picked out one from Consumer Reports and started calling around looking for this model. In my attempts to find it I inadvertently called some people who didn't sell machines, but only serviced them. 3 of these guys gave unsolicited advice to stay away from any front loading washers.