front load washers

[kenmac]

For those of you that have them. Have you had any mold issues ?? I was reading C R & they stated several brands were having issues with mold & that there was a class action lawsuit against manufactures with these problems

 

[thatguy]

i have seen ppl online mention a 'musty' smell because you have to keep the door closed, but no mold problems... But one leads to the other i bet

brian

 

[Travelover]

Front load washers retain a little water in the bottom and will mold if you keep the door and detergent dispenser closed. I always leave the door open and periodically run a white load through with a little bleach. No problems.

 

[radman1]

I don't get the fascination with front load washers. Cost more up front. More difficult to load/unload. Can't add item to washer once it is started. Suppose to use less water and can be stacked with dryer if space is an issue. I have had 3 friends with them and they have had issues with them. 2 with leaks around the door seal and a few other problems.

 

[Bird]

Suppose to use less water

And less detergent and get the clothes cleaner, if you believe the salesman. When our front loader Maytag died after three and a half years and Sears said the repair would cost more than I paid for the washer to begin with, we went back to a top loader. Now I've read some reviews about the top loader we have and complaints about it being noisy. And they're sure right; it's the loudest one I've ever heard. However, in our case, it's in the garage so the noise doesn't bother us one bit as long as it does a good job.

 

[zimcocomp]

I just installed a new washer and dryer a couple a months back. When I checked with the service department (which I always do) for things to watch for they definitely warned not to leave the rubber boot wet. Just wipe dry after each use and leave the door open a crack.

 

[Travelover]

I like the way they spin clothes out almost dry - much less drying time. If you mount one on a wood floor, you may feel it vibrate the whole house, if a load is unbalanced.

The early Maytags had problems and kind of made a bad name for the front loader's dependability. Think GM car diesels from the 70's.

 

[Bird]

The Sears service technician also said he tells everyone that IF you buy any of the machines with the lights and digital displays to either buy the extended warranty or service contract or have a pile of money handy.

 

[kenmac]

I like the way they spin clothes out almost dry - much less drying time. If you mount one on a wood floor, you may feel it vibrate the whole house

The artical mentioned that front loaders spin much faster than top loaders. If installed on a wood framed floor that you would notice more vibration than with a top loader. It Also nentioned to use a special low suds det. in front loader. The reason I bring this up is. My wife has been eyeing front loaders for some time & just wonder if they are worth the trouble

 

[zzvyb6]

I had a Maytag front loader with the mold problem. Turns out it's aggravated by not using the new 'e' soaps. (You use a LOT less detergent). These washers also had front door closure latch problems (The "wax" motor: sort of an electric heat activated hydraulic cylinder on the latch. And of course the bearing seal problems. Instead of paying $900 for a new drum assembly, I beat the bearings out and replaced them with water friendly, sealed ones for $35. Yeah, the front loaders use less water, spin much faster to save dryer cost, but were a royal PITA. Parts on eBay now.

BTW: The sloshing sound you hear from the drum is not water that remained in the drum, but a saline solution which is part of a self balancer system needed for the seveal periods that the drum goes thru when spinning up in super fast dry mode. I replaced mine with a super big capacity top loader with efficiency options and never looked back.

 

[rox]

The artical mentioned that front loaders spin much faster than top loaders. If installed on a wood framed floor that you would notice more vibration than with a top loader. It Also nentioned to use a special low suds det. in front loader. The reason I bring this up is. My wife has been eyeing front loaders for some time & just wonder if they are worth the trouble

I have a front load over here in France but our models are much different than American models, ours are much smaller. I have a "big" washer and it is supposed to wash 7 kilos of laundry but that is wet laundry. They way they work is they use much much less water but they run a long time. For a heavy duty load mine runs over 2 hours. So I don't see the big deal sure you save on water but you spend on electicity. I have big heavy bath towels but not bath sheets, jsut very large bath towels and I can only wash 3 or sometimes I'll do 4 but it won't spin all the waer out if I load 4 towels so then I have to take half out and run an 8 minute spin cycle.
Most fo the time I add in 10 liters of hot water after it has filled because more water jsut plain gets the clothes cleaner. With all this said I can say that the machines get the clothes very very very clean. Cleaner than any US washer I ever had. But my daughter has a newer style American washer and tha cleans very very good. If I have the $$$ next time I need a new washer over here I am going to go for giant size. Small loads and a long time to wash makes for a lot of time devoted to laundry. At least the machine ahs a digital display and tell me how many more minutes until it is done. I like the front loaders because you can use the top of the washer as a countertop.

 

[Scooby074]

All front loaders are not created equal. My father is using a Miele set. They've been making front loaders for a very long time and it shows.Its amazing. Yes it uses much less water. And less soap (50ml Persal Brand) per load. He hasnt had any issues with mold or smells either. As a matter of fact i take my laundry to his place to do it because my clothes come out much cleaner. Believe it or not i can feel the difference. Yes its more (around $1000 ) expensive than a sears or maytag but ive been really impressed. When my old maytag (over 20 yrs old the **** thing wont die) finally kicks it im going with a Miele.

Edit: Rox, you typed your post while i was typing mine Yes the european models are quite a bit better but do a smaller load. Dads Miele washer on a normal load runs 59 mins ( it has a display) and the dryer runs almost 2 hours. Its the only dryier i can use that doesnt shrink my clothes.

Interesting about you comments that your load wont spin out? Ive STUFFED dads and never had that problem. Are your sure its balanced and plumb? If they/re not plumb in all directions, the computer will stop or slow the spin if the balance gets out of whack.

 

[RonMar]

We shifted to one this last fall, so far no smells. Ours uses around 1/4 the water(I measured the output of both old and new machine) and this can be important if you are on a septic system. Biggest cause of odor I have read is using too much soap, and I believe it. Too much soap leaves a residue that builds up over time. This is where the mold/musty smell gets a place to grow. It also dosn't help when the soap manufacturer reccomends way too much soap. The soap bottle directions typically indicate a particular line on the included measure cup for front load washers, and I think this is WAY too much soap.

If you have a front load washer, here is a quick experiment for you. Run a normal load using the indicated ammount of soap. When the load has finished, run an additional rinse/spin cycle and watch the load carefully thru the glass window. IF you used the soap companys reccomendations, you will still have soapy water on that additional rinse cycle, and on the one after that...

Based on some internet reading on the smell issue, and the above experiments, I have followed the advice of a service tech and use 2 table spoons(less than 1 OZ) for a full load, and so far no odors whatsoever. The cloths come out great.

They do vibrate more during spin and a re real sensetive to feet adjustment. A solid floor is a must for the washer. Stacking is good here as it adds mass to the washer and will help reduce vibration. That fast spin sure saves on dryer time, which is your real power user of the wash cycle.

 

[milkman]

We've had the front load Bosch for about a year now and it uses a lot less water to do a load than the old Maytag top loader did. The front loader washes two and a half times more clothes per load and less water than one load in the Maytag. The two and a half times more clothes dry in 40 to 50 minutes and a load of clothes out of the topload Maytag took 70 minutes usually so I can see more of a savings in the drying than in the washing. We don't have city water so the water savings is important to us also. The wash cycle is longer in the frontloader, about equal to the dryer cycle so it saves some trips to the laundry room, haven't had a problem with mold, just followed the instructions in the manual to leave the door unlatched after emptying the washer. The only glitch experienced so far is, the fabric softener dispenser quit working and after looking online, I found others with this model had the same problem and to fix, just lift out the dispenser and flush it under the faucet with warm water. As far as vibration on wood floor, this frontloader is in the same spot and we feel it a lot less often than we did the old Maytag.

 

[dmccarty]

We went with a front loader years ago. It dropped our water bill by a good $25-50 a month.

We have mold/stains on the gasket but its not a big deal. We do run bleach in the machine from time to time and leave the door open periodically.

Our houses have been on slabs so when the thing starts to take off, err spin, it does not shake the house. If you put this thing on a second floor I think the house would move.

We like ours. It saved us a small fortune in water bills back in the city.

I don't find the front end loaders hard to unload. I think they are easier. Having said that our Whirlpool has a LARGE door. The other brands at the time had very small doors.

We will get a front loader when these wear out. Ours have to be about 5 years old.

Later,
Dan

 

[marimus]

We just got a new top-loading washer (Electrolux EWT959). It recycles the water from the bottom over to top of the washing, so it uses no more water than a front-loader. You also have to use less detergent (same as frontloader) - however you can add washing whenever you want, and it does a 9.5kg (20lbs) load.

It spins the clothes at 900rpm with no detectable vibration, just how fast do those frontloaders go?? It also takes 1/2 the time of our old frontloader

Very happy that toploading washing machines have caught up in technology.

 

[FarmGeek]

I bought a new low-end GE front load pair last April and so far, I知 pleased. I don稚 need a digital display, fancy cabinet colors or more than three wash cycles. All I want to do is wash and dry clothes. This they do very well.

The decision to switch for me was in electricity savings. Since the washer spins the load almost dry the dryer only runs for 20-30 minutes for a full load. My old Maytag used to take an hour and a half.

Your mileage and results may vary but I知 glad I made the switch.

 

[rox]

We just got a new top-loading washer (Electrolux EWT959). It recycles the water from the bottom over to top of the washing, so it uses no more water than a front-loader. You also have to use less detergent (same as frontloader) - however you can add washing whenever you want, and it does a 9.5kg (20lbs) load.

It spins the clothes at 900rpm with no detectable vibration, just how fast do those frontloaders go?? It also takes 1/2 the time of our old frontloader

Very happy that toploading washing machines have caught up in technology.

9.5 kilos is sweet. Mine is 7 kilos and it is a bit small for me as with our guest house, all the guests we get plus doing laundry for our vacational rental property in Cannes I end up doing a lot of laundry and especially heavy bath towels. If I was doing jsut normal family loads I think it would be okay but I sure am aiming higher ont he enxt washer. Ours can spin up to 1,200 rpm and it really helps on the bath towels. I can djsut the rpm to lower for things I don't want to come out all wrinkled.

 

[charlz]

We switched to front loader washer and dryer in October or so when our old top loader washer finally died... they are not cheap

The first months power bill was about $15 cheaper.... we have an electric hot water heater so I think the difference was from using less hot water. We certainly don't run out hot water in the winter evenings the way we used to with everyone taking hot showers etc. The next power bill had the xmas lights on it so I am waiting for the one after that to see if it is lower as well. Being on a septic system I really like that less water is going into it.