Energy Eff. Washers

[begreen]

I have heard & read where a front loader will develop moldy smell if not used frequently.

We've had this issue with front and top loaders. Now we always leave the door slightly open and that helps a lot. Also, running an occasional load of whites with bleach keeps it fresh.

FWIW we also get this in our Bosch dishwasher from the water remaining in the sump. A spot of bleach keeps it away.

 

[pinewoodburner]

We've had a front loader for the past 12 years. Frigidaire brand. Quiet and efficient, it has worked out well for us. We're now on our second generation. Watch the sale and shop hard. We paid about half of retail and got a rebate too.

I had one that lasted 6 years, had to replace the pump then the computer went. Had enough. The front loads do save money but every store I went to said they where not seeing much more than 6 years life on them. Maybe they will get better but the same stores said they where getting like 12 years on the top loads for the life expecency. The extra cost was to much for me so I wen t back to a top load with the front load technology. We will see how long it last.

 

[Fsappo]

Consider a Bosch. It was one of the few we found made in the USA. We like ours a lot.

Semi, your the second person this week that has recommended a bosch to me. What is it about it that you like-besides the USA part. (which is huge in my opinion, if true)

We upgraded our dishwasher last year. I told my wife we were buying a Bosch because it was made in the USA. Spent about $1K. I hate the thing and will probably end up buying a non US made one when the Bosch craps out.

I always try to buy American, but I'm not rich enough to throw good money after bad

 

[semipro]

Thanks PJ!

Consider a Bosch. It was one of the few we found made in the USA. We like ours a lot.

Semi, your the second person this week that has recommended a bosch to me. What is it about it that you like-besides the USA part. (which is huge in my opinion, if true)

Its efficient with power and water, quiet, and so far, troublefree. It cleans well too even with cold water. My only gripe is that it beeps when done and doesn't seem to give you the option of turning it off, a minor complaint. Its Energy Star certified so we should get a rebate.

I spent quite a while shopping washers at Lowes and Sears and this was the only one I found made in USA. Maytag, Samsung, and other mentioned here were made in Korea, Germany, Mexico, or elsewhere. Interesting that a German brand would be made in USA while the American Maytag brand washers I saw were made in Germany.

Also worth a look if you really want a top loader is the Fisher and Paykel brand made in New Zealand. Their design is quite cool and very simple. What amounts to basically a stepper motor direct-drives a top loading tub. There is no transmission.

I, also have a Bosch, a Nexxt 500. To turn off the beep/signal :

1) Select a program (wash cycle)

2) Press and hold 2 Option buttons until a short beep is heard. (Option buttons = Bleach; Rinse Plus; Heavy Duty)

Don't do this during a running cycle - don't know why, that's what the manual says ;-)

 

[semipro]

Consider a Bosch. It was one of the few we found made in the USA. We like ours a lot.

Semi, your the second person this week that has recommended a bosch to me. What is it about it that you like-besides the USA part. (which is huge in my opinion, if true)

We upgraded our dishwasher last year. I told my wife we were buying a Bosch because it was made in the USA. Spent about $1K. I hate the thing and will probably end up buying a non US made one when the Bosch craps out.

I always try to buy American, but I'm not rich enough to throw good money after bad

We like our Bosch dishwasher. It was the only one I could find that didn't pull air from under the dishwasher for drying the dishes. All others seem to. After pulling our dishwasher once to put in tile and finding the mummified hairy remains of a mouse near the inlet of the drying fan we decided that was a bad design. No doubt mouse parts had been distributed across our clean dishes for some time.

And, like you said, it was Made in USA.

 

[begreen]

We've had a front loader for the past 12 years. Frigidaire brand. Quiet and efficient, it has worked out well for us. We're now on our second generation. Watch the sale and shop hard. We paid about half of retail and got a rebate too.

I had one that lasted 6 years, had to replace the pump then the computer went. Had enough. The front loads do save money but every store I went to said they where not seeing much more than 6 years life on them. Maybe they will get better but the same stores said they where getting like 12 years on the top loads for the life expecency. The extra cost was to much for me so I wen t back to a top load with the front load technology. We will see how long it last.

I replaced our older frontload Frigidaire (actually made by Electrolux of Sweden) when it was 10 years old. Never did anything to it and it was working great. The newer unit is of similar design, larger capacity, but less water. I wasn't going to get it, we just needed a dryer, but we ended up with a heckuva good deal by buying last year's model from the dealer. So far we're really pleased with it.

I didn't like our first Bosch dishwasher either. They have an absolutely silly and bewildering model lineup. We often run half loads and air dry. The first model wouldn't let us do that. But our current unit does and so far it's doing a good job. It is very quiet and I like that. My concern is that they are making them so light duty compared to the older units that I wonder how it will stand up over time.

 

[StackedLumber]

Well, after reading this I did bite the bullet and bought a Bosch 500 front loader. Sears is running a 25% off discount and I had another discount on top of that. In the end, I got it for $779 out the door. Add to that we have the $50 Michigan rebate and someone bought my old Whirlpool for $150, I've come out pretty good in the end on this one. Now to see if it will hold up to the rigors of washing clothes for my three boys that seem to always find dirt and mud and anything else that can end up on their clothes!

 

[btuser]

I figure with the amount of money I save using a front loader, I could get a free washer every 5 years anyway. I can see how there'd be more things to go wrong (motors, belts ect) but the #1 thing I guess is the timers/circuit boards. I'm trying to find a surge protector for the house, last year I lost about $2000 worth of stuff during a vicious lightning storm.

 

[StackedLumber]

I put the $12.00 plastic pan under mine

Where did you get your plastic pan for it? Would like to get one too!

Thanks

 

[peakbagger]

I am late to this thread but did want to mention Staber Washing machines as an option. The are a US built top load horizontal axis washer, no transmission, as they use a variable speed drive motor coupled via a fan belt. They have a mechanical timer and the controls are simple. The units spin up to very high speed and get the majority of the water out. With a plastic top and SS drum they tend to last a long time. They are usually bought direct from the factory. Usully more expensive than a residential brand but they tend to run for a long time.

 

[StackedLumber]

well, now that I've got the Bosch up and running, I'm impressed. There's nothing about it that I don't like. . . .save one thing. I notice that some socks on occasion get stuck in the door area and not in the washer tumbler.

Someone mentioned about how long these take . . . boy were they right, but wow, they use so much less water, it's impressive. And the quietness level compared to our old whirlpool is great too!

AND on top of that, not only do I get the $50 State of Michigan rebate, but also our electric co-op is giving an additional $50 rebate on top of that! Add to that, I was able to sell the old one. In the end, it's totally worth it! And my electric bill will show it!

 

[semipro]

well, now that I've got the Bosch up and running, I'm impressed. There's nothing about it that I don't like. . . .save one thing. I notice that some socks on occasion get stuck in the door area and not in the washer tumbler.

Someone mentioned about how long these take . . . boy were they right, but wow, they use so much less water, it's impressive. And the quietness level compared to our old whirlpool is great too!

AND on top of that, not only do I get the $50 State of Michigan rebate, but also our electric co-op is giving an additional $50 rebate on top of that! Add to that, I was able to sell the old one. In the end, it's totally worth it! And my electric bill will show it!

The two front loaders we had previous to our Bosch both had the same problem with small articles like socks. I think its a front loader thing. I hope it does you well!

 

[Bill]

We just bought two new Samsung's and the first thing my wife thought is if the cycle time is so long, isn't it using more electricity? Didn't know what to tell her, except the washer is Energy Star. Yes you do have to keep the door open when not in use.

My daughter has the Bosch dw and it just broke. My wife said the silver ware holder was in the wrong place and said she would never buy one because of that. But it also was extremely quiet while running.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

well, now that I've got the Bosch up and running, I'm impressed. There's nothing about it that I don't like. . . .save one thing. I notice that some socks on occasion get stuck in the door area and not in the washer tumbler.

Someone mentioned about how long these take . . . boy were they right, but wow, they use so much less water, it's impressive. And the quietness level compared to our old whirlpool is great too!

AND on top of that, not only do I get the $50 State of Michigan rebate, but also our electric co-op is giving an additional $50 rebate on top of that! Add to that, I was able to sell the old one. In the end, it's totally worth it! And my electric bill will show it!

Let us know/keep us posted on if you see an electricity drop? and let us know appx how much shorter your dryer times are? (I hear the clothes come out almost dry)

 

[StackedLumber]

well, now that I've got the Bosch up and running, I'm impressed. There's nothing about it that I don't like. . . .save one thing. I notice that some socks on occasion get stuck in the door area and not in the washer tumbler.

Someone mentioned about how long these take . . . boy were they right, but wow, they use so much less water, it's impressive. And the quietness level compared to our old whirlpool is great too!

AND on top of that, not only do I get the $50 State of Michigan rebate, but also our electric co-op is giving an additional $50 rebate on top of that! Add to that, I was able to sell the old one. In the end, it's totally worth it! And my electric bill will show it!

Let us know/keep us posted on if you see an electricity drop? and let us know appx how much shorter your dryer times are? (I hear the clothes come out almost dry)

I'll keep you posted on the electricity. The dryer definitely runs less. We've run 6 full loads in it and none the loads have dried for longer than 25 minutes. Whereas, with the old washing machine we were drying for 40-60 minutes and towels were well over an hour!

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Wow, thats some serious savings.....we run our dryer for appx 55-60 minutes....pretty big loads....I'd love to get it down to 35 minutes or so.
Probably going to wait for the fall, as the clothes will be on the closthesline soon.
Thanks for the info

 

[StackedLumber]

Wow, thats some serious savings.....we run our dryer for appx 55-60 minutes....pretty big loads....I'd love to get it down to 35 minutes or so.
Probably going to wait for the fall, as the clothes will be on the closthesline soon.
Thanks for the info

For full disclosure . . . . my dryer is a gas dryer, but the fan and tumbler runs less . . . my real savings that I'm excited about is on the hot water side of things. Between my electric hot water heater and my well pump, I"m using nearly 1/4 of the water I had been using. (from 55 gallons to 13 gallons on a full load) Estimators that I have seen, say for our size family and laundry activity to expect to see an electric savings of $10-$20/month. I'll take it!

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Very good savings indeed.
How old are your boys (stackers)...mine are 7, 5 and 2 1/2...not real productive yet :

 

[StackedLumber]

oh my boys aren't that old yet, I just call them my wood haulers. My oldest is 4, and he actually does really good when it comes to the wood. When I'm making a box of kindling for the winter with the hatchet he picks it all off the ground and puts it all in a box. Then when I'm cutting slabs he can handle the pieces and he does really good putting them on the pallets. He also does ash duty out to the garden w/ the ashes. My 2 yr old likes to rake, so he gets bark duty with his little rake. My youngest just started crawling tonight so he'll get introduced sooner than later.

 

[semipro]

Very good savings indeed.
How old are your boys (stackers)...mine are 7, 5 and 2 1/2...not real productive yet :

Mine are 18 and 19 and still not real productive...

 

[StackedLumber]

Thought I would follow up here on our purchase. After a month, we found on our electric bill that we did save a little over $16 in electricity for the first month. Overall, we really really like it, but it def. has some pros and cons.

Pros:

It definitely is more energy efficient, everything from less water, less soap, less electricity, and dryer clothes coming out
I'd say it cleans equally well, if not slightly better than our older (11 yr old) Whirlpool, which is remarkable for it using 1/4 of the water
It is super super quiet-period
The capacity thing is huge, we've gone from doing nearly 2 loads a day-for 5 days to now getting all the laundry for the week done in 2 days. Frees my wife up big time
The timer that tells you exactly how much longer allow us to time our day out to keep it moving, really like that feature. Add to that the timer to start it, we can fill the washer sunday night and then the laundry starts at 6 on monday am, and by 7:30 we are putting the next load in.

Cons:

Wife doesn't like the side load design, she says she fights keeping clothes off the floor when she takes them out, she would go w/ an energy efficient top loader if she had the choice again.
Ours has a rubber gasket that has a groove in it that socks tend to fall into while it is cycling and then they have to be rewashed
It has lots of cycles to choose from (pro) but they take so dog gone long-up to 4 hours-that it makes it completely impractical to use them. For instance, the baby clothes cycle takes 3 hrs 48 minutes-ridiculous to hold up the laundry train for that long.

The only other thing I would say is to watch stores. We've found the Meijer will put the He laundry detergent on sale and we buy up in bulk big time. When we bought it, the Sears guy told us of a Sale at Meijer on the detergent and we paid $3.50/bottle compared to $7.90/bottle, so we picked up 8 bottles to last us a while. This last week, Meijer had Tide on sale for $4 off per bottle too.

Just my thoughts after a month and a week of using it.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I have mine for about 10 YEars probably saved twice its purchase price in water and heated water.
Water saving alone will pay for these washers over time My water bill was cut in half. I figure im saving $240 a year right there. THat does not include the cost of heating all that water that your no longer using. Definitely get the clothes cleaner and does not tear up delicates like the agitator does.

One side note ,i just cant get the wife to use a small amount of detergent. SHe has the mind set that more is better and the suds alarm comes on all the time.even with the HE detergent.
ALso this washer saves water cuz it automatically adjusts for load size which is great for people (like my wife ) who wash very small loads