Washer & Dryer Experiences: Front Loaders Worth It?

2L8IWIN

2L8IWIN

Club Member
Ive heard people go either way. Whats your experience? I would like to go with front loaders so I can stack them. The energy savings concept is great but damn they are significantly more expensive than the top loaders...


My 11 year old GE quit today...thanks
 
we've had LG front loaders for 5 years now and we like them. Easier to load /unload and the water usage is significantly less. and stackable :)
 
When we were looking last year, the HE front loaders have significantly longer wash cycles than some of the top loading or HE top loaders. We went with the Whirlpool Cabrio series HE top loaders and they are great. Cycles are 40-45 minutes for both washing and drying. If you get a chance, grab a Consumer Reports and check out their reviews. They break down the cycle times and cycle differences pretty well.
 
My mom hates hers, takes 2 hours to do a load of towells and uses the same amount of water, and more energy as my 10 year old washer that does the same job in 1/2 the time, Plus she has to buy expensive special soap
 
moneypit said:
My mom hates hers, takes 2 hours to do a load of towells and uses the same amount of water, and more energy as my 10 year old washer that does the same job in 1/2 the time, Plus she has to buy expensive special soap
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My mother-in-law got rid of hers for the same reasons.
 
We had HE Whirlpool top loaders in our old house and went with HE GE front loaders in our new house. I was skeptical too based on the reviews of front loaders but I am happy with them. Yes the wash times are longer but I am never sitting around waiting for stuff to get done, I just throw a load in and go do other stuff. The best part about the front loaders is that we put a counter above the units so you can just can stuff out of the dryer throw it up on the counter and fold everything right there.

Also, the one HUGE negative we heard about front loaders is people dealing with mold/mildew from water sitting around the door seal but we have not experienced that at all.

One last thing, the dry time on our front loaders is significantly reduced, which is great since gas is expensive. A whole load only takes 10-15 minutes to dry. The high speed spin on the washer is crazy, the clothes are almost dry when you take them out of the wash.

--Joe
 
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Maybe it's just the model I have but ours takes between 18-45 minutes depending on which cycle you do. One of the big things people screw up with HE Front Loaders is using a shitload of soap. You only need to use a very minimal amount of soap to get stuff clean, so our detergents lasts for a really long time.

The only thing that pisses me off, and it's a problem on tons of them, is that water pools in the rubber trim around the door and if you don't make sure it gets aired out, it will turn stank nasty.
 
DBK said:
The only thing that pisses me off, and it's a problem on tons of them, is that water pools in the rubber trim around the door and if you don't make sure it gets aired out, it will turn stank nasty.
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We kicked down for the good Electrolux ones and we like them except they do have this exact problem. Need to leave the doors open often so that they dry out.
 
Most people I know that have them dislike them for the reasons already listed.

Longer run times
Smell awful if they don't air out.
 
We bought the kenmoore elite HE front loads 4 years ago. We use the SHIT out of them and have had ZERO issues with them. Yeah, they rubber will smell if you dont clean the unit on a weekly basis but how hard is it to spend 30 seconds wiping it down while doing normal cleaning. It uses less water and i dont know about others but a standard wash time is 41 minutes, i dont think thats bad. We have had Sears come out for a checkup and they checked out fine. They will tell you that running the washer half full can do damage acctually and to make sure its full before running a load. My neighbor has some other brand front load and bitches about it smelling all the time. Maybe some brands are worse then others but im not sure.
 
We bought the LG Front loaders 9 yrs ago and my wife loves them. I don't use them but she likes them so I am happy and my clothes are nice and clean. It does use less water, less soap, takes a VERY long time to do it's job but I don't care about that. She says she would get them again if she needed. She's never complained about hte leftover water issue mentioned above and we haven't had a stink issue. I am aware that there is a "cleaning" cycle that needs to be run time to time to keep it from getting a musty odor but she does that and all has been well.

I hate to say this out loud but we have had NO problems and have had them in 3 different houses so they've been bounced around a bit and no problems at all. They were pricey but worth it since I don't have to listen to bitching and haven't had to spend my day off diagnosing and fixing something on them.
 
soap said:
One last thing, the dry time on our front loaders is significantly reduced, which is great since gas is expensive. A whole load only takes 10-15 minutes to dry. The high speed spin on the washer is crazy, the clothes are almost dry when you take them out of the wash.

--Joe
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Not true. Natural gas is actually a lot cheaper right now than is has been. I keep an eye on natural gas prices, right now it is under $0.48 per Ccf and will be lower next month. Jan. of 2009 it was $0.79 per Ccf.
Right now it's at the lowest price I've seen in the last 10 years or so.
EDIT: This is based on my DTE/Michcon service. Other suppliers may vary (I doubt it)
 
I have 2 badass ones and they have been pretty problematic.... But I still like them when they are working..

As for the smell, every now and then run a small load of socks with some bleach and then let it air out, doing it every now and then helps a bunch.
 
I'll never go back to a regular washer. 54 minutes on the normal cycle (actually ranges from 40-54 minutes depending on results from its "tests") to wash. Dryer takes 40 minutes to dry on "normal" which is usually 15-40 minutes depending on moisture content in the exhaust.

You can put clothes on "super wash" which is basically longer with soap and a second rinse.

Energy use is reduced by half. Water use is tiny. Detergent use is minimal (I use HE Seventh Degeneration, a blob about the size of a Kennedy half is all you need).

Mine are four years old. I'm sure modern ones are even better.

EDIT:
If you leave the washer door ajar it will dry out and not smell. Or run it periodically in the cleaning mode with bleach and that will get rid of the smell.
 
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we've had our samsung front loader for almost a year now and have zero complaints. it's just me and my GF in the house with 1 roommate so it never has HUGE loads in it. average load time to wash is probably 45 min, the soap cost isn't that big of a deal because you use a smaller amount. we buy it at sams and a $19 bottle lasts a couple months.
 
My sister and my parents both bought new houses. 2010 and 2011. They all hate the new washer and dryers. My Mom said she'd rather have a $399 special from Home Depot. If either of mine go, I'm buying the cheapest ones they have in stock. I have badass kitchen appliances, I don't need fancy washer and dryer to sit in the corner of my basement.
 
Wow, I'm glad I read this because I swore I'd NEVER EVER BUY another front loader again! This makes me think that I probably got a POS model and I will give the design another shot. I have a GE front loader set. About 4 years old (max) and bearing in basket is wasted. problem is I can't just replace the bearing. Have to replace the whole basket half and potentially shaft as well. Had quote for 1100-1200 bucks! Obviously, it didn't cost that much new!

They do (did) a pretty good job at cleaning the clothes and they don't use much water or detergent just like the others said. Also, cuz of high speed spinning, the washer gets the clothes pretty dry so drying time is not much.

I run my washer on the "speed wash" setting most of the time, minimizing the wash time (over traditional top loader units). Since our clothes don't get that dirty anyways, this works awesome!

Another point that I didn't see mentioned is these units are much easier on the clothes as far as wear and tear.
 
They do sell packets of washer sanitizer that most companies recommend you do every 6 months on the HE washers, both top and front loaders. I've done it twice because we have hard water and it seems to help.
 
Also, we always leave the washer door open after doing wash that day and just close it next day. Never had a smell issue.

Definitely, agree with using the packets. Heard that they tend to get nasty deposits and potentially mold or what not on the other side of the basket (where you can't see). Good to periodically clean with packets. Wish I could have got enough use out of mine to need to clean deposits up (I never used the packets) lol! Good luck
 
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