So, again, I'd like to start this by saying that I'm sorry you're having troubles, it's no fun, and also that I have no direct experience with the machines you have, although I have several friends who own equipment from LG and they're happy with them.
I'd also like to say that I fully understand wanting to kick something you never liked to the curb even if it's not broken. I think it's your call and you should do what makes you happy.
However, I'd like to mention a few more things in case it might help you or other people reading this thread.
It's astounding how many *different* things can be described by very similar words. A friend of mine visited old castles in Europe in the mid '80s and came back home laughing by how every single docent described the castles they were showing as "we tried to keep it *exactly* like it was 300 years ago" and some of them were super clean and some of them were filthy beyond description.
So, we have had every kind of description for LG washers here in AW: some say that when you select "hot" the machine does a warm wash, and when you select "warm" it's barely lukewarm etc. I'd say take some measurements, or at the very least do what you can to feel the door etc. Because yes, you may have been selecting "warm" all this time and getting a cold wash.
All fabrics "pill"/wear out -- it's just that fibers from some fabrics are weak enough that they break and fall off, while stronger fibers like polyester ball up instead and become conspicuous. Polyester also relaxes a bit with warm/hot water and resists breaking, while in cold water, particularly low level, it will be stiff, break and pill.
Let's talk stains for a second. There's a *big* difference between enzymes sold for the Euro market, where most washers will have heaters powerful enough to fill with cold water and heat it to boiling, if necessary, and enzymes sold for the American market, where washers tended to be top loading and fill with pre-heated water. As you can imagine, enzymes for a "profile" wash, where the machine raises the temperature to human body temp and keeps it there for a decent time, then raises the temperature further, are less expensive than enzymes that have to withstand 120-140F pronto. Nevertheless, most low and middle of the line detergents in US are designed to work at the very least well with 120F exposure immediately, and the top-of-the-line detergents in US work so well because they tend to have at least some of their enzymes that work well in hotter water (140F).
There's more: most of the FLs tumble the clothing and fill at the same time, so no stain will *reach* 140F immediately, in fact, the room-temperature clothes and the machine will absorb heat from the water and even a straight 140F hot fill will end up closer to 115-120F, which is why we tell folks to get a FL with a water heater. This will *not* set the stain, in particular, it will remove the stain just fine with detergents that have high-temperature enzymes in them.
The "hot water will set stains" *can* be true in particular for 1940's conditions: detergents with no enzymes, and people used to let the washer fill up with steaming hot water, let it go for a few minutes to dissolve the soap/detergent, then chuck the clothes in, which would expose the stains to 140F instantly, cooking the proteins and setting the stains.
Now, let's talk about "green" detergents. Yes, it probably has enzymes. Most "green" detergents in US up to a few years ago had none, but then, in actual scientific tests, they kept getting to the bottom of the list because they did not clean very well; enzymes are very expensive compared to other ingredients, though, so I'm not sure they have enough enzymes both from the point of view of number (protease, amylase etc) and from the point of view of percentage of weight of ingredients. I think you will have *much* better luck with Tide HE Turbo or Persil, although many people complain about the strong perfumes in such detergents. The other thing I want to make you aware of, is that until American laws become very stringent with labeling, a "green" label means nothing, in fact, in almost every single case it just means that the manufacturer claims "no animal cruelty" when in fact *all* they are doing is waiting for patents to expire (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate, two major surfactants, have been *extensively* tested on animals over 50 years ago, and the patents have expired decades ago, for example) and using the ingredients. There's no glory in copying Unilever's or P&G's 25-year old formulas and selling them for a high price -- I think it's dishonest on multiple levels; they could sell it for much cheaper, given that they had to do *no* research and they are using 3-decade old formulas, they could be honest about telling us exactly what they are doing. At this point, I'd rather pay slightly less for TOL stuff even though they supposedly tested on animals. I may change my mind later about that.
I'd like to mention fading too. There are a few things to consider here. For example, did you buy beautiful dishcloths or summer clothing that were hand-dyed and hand-woven in Madras, or similar places? The kind of thing you *know* might bleed colors and/or fade, but are prized *precisely* because of that? Then yes, maybe cold or warm wash is advised.
Almost everything else sold in the US is not processed like that in the last 50 years or so. Almost all fabrics that you see for sale are dyed with a process known as "fiber reactive dyes" (Procion[tm] Dyes, for example). Fiber reactive dyes attach themselves to the molecules of the fibers and do not come off until that piece of fiber degrades, to begin with -- that's why they are known as "colorfast". Things that have the potential to degrade the dye-site in the fiber include strong bleaches (chlorine bleach, ultra-violet rays, sunlight), but usually not regular washing even at 140F. In fact, one of the problems one encounters often with such dyes is that the way to *properly* finish the dying process is to rinse the just dyed fabric very quickly in cold water, then another warm rinse, then it should be washed in hot (140F) water, rinsed and dried. Because that process takes time, energy and money, a lot of manufacturers take a shorter, but almost as good, route: they rinse the excess dye, dry the fabric and slap a label telling the buyer to "wash separately" and declare themselves happy. Most people will maybe wash separately once or twice and toss them in a hot or warm wash with other clothes later. The people who washed the items in *hot* water first or at least warm water will experience a *significantly* longer wearing and new-looking garment, because the hot wash will finish setting the dyes more effectively. More about fabric dyeing can be found in the Dharma Trading website (link below).
I used to keep a few cotton dress shirts my husband and I had: they were black or very dark colors, they were over 15 years old when they finally started wearing out. In the last few months of use they got visibly faded (all of a sudden) and started ripping apart at the seams. The remarkable thing about them, though, and the reason I used to show them to everyone who even mentioned fading, was that the *inside* parts of the cuffs, collars, hems etc were still *very* dark, almost the same color they used to be, while the outer parts, which had been in the sun, were the only parts that have faded. Those were not shirts which had dried on the line in the sun -- they were put in the washer, from there to the dryer and then closets. The only sun they were exposed to were the short walks from parking lot to office and back, or walking around to have lunch. I think we can safely discard any "hot water fades fabrics" or "hot dryer fades fabrics".
I'd like to mention two other sources you may find interesting: Cheryl Mendelson's book (Home Comforts: the art and science of keeping house) mentions one of the reasons she started writing the book was because she was a lawyer and she got appalled that one should *not* have to have a Law Degree to be able to do laundry. Most of the things we see on labels nowadays are there because the law is vague enough to require that care labels have to "mention at least one safe method of cleaning" the garment, not the most effective, not the one that will make the garment last the longest etc. Thus you get so many "dry clean only" labels when *everything* in the garment is washable, but no one bothered to pre-shrink say, the shoulder pads or rick-racks or other trim before attaching them to the final product, so now you get to spend *your* money sending the stuff to the cleaners.
Harriet Hargrave, a famous quilter, studied textiles and wrote a book about it (From fiber to fabric). In it, she mentions asking a lot of professors about the "cold wash is best". Well, what a surprise, what the professors said is that any *good* fabric should have been pre-shrunk at the factory and, in most cases, for most people, the hottest wash they will subject the fabric to is 140F and, back when she wrote the book, most domestic dryers would dry the fabric above that temperature, so it shouldn't matter. Also, they pointed out, "cold wash" is relative: at that time, most of the textile schools and remaining fabric mills were in the South, where a cold wash (with pure "cold" water straight out of the tap) is about 80F which is actually lukewarm, and indeed, many current washing machines dumbed down the Hot to 100F or less, the Warm to 85F or less etc.
I will be frank with you -- *currently* most garments sold in US can be washed safely in "warm" (110F/40C) or even "hot" (140F/60C). The couple of fibers to watch out for: some acrylics are temperature sensitive, most can be washed well until 120F; the one that catches people by surprise is polypropylene, a fiber that tends to be used for "technical fabrics", that is, fabrics that people wear in very cold weather because they are light and insulate well, thus being useful for camping/hiking. Those tend to be in socks, some underwear and t-shirts, for example, and they actually can melt in as little as 120F, so one needs to be careful with wash and drying temperature.
What about silk? What about wool? Glad you asked. Those can resist very high heat, but both get weaker when wet, so it's best to wash them gently. Wool, in particular, can take over 250F, which is why one often finds pressing and ironing boards that have a felted wool batting to cushion the fabric to be pressed or ironed. Notice the disparity here: when the wool is not moving, it can take steam and heat just fine. The problem with wool is that the fibers are very much like human hair, which will take and keep a curl when the temperature gets high enough and then gets rapidly cooled, which tends to felt wool. If you are washing wool, you want to keep agitation to a minimum (to prevent the fibers from interlocking [felting]) and you want to keep the temperature *very* stable, which is hard to do at home with hot washes, and the reason we're told to wash wool in warm or, even better, lukewarm or cool water.
So, with all of that in here for you to mull about, we come back to your problem: I am not sure that *any* of the new washers that *look* like your old Maytag will *behave* like your Maytag.
What can you do? Well, again, ask many many questions. If you can arrange to test drive your friends' washers, do so, with the caveat that by now, what is sold to the home market can be sufficiently different from what you find at the laundromat that I don't consider "I used it at the laundromat" as a real, useful, test drive.
You can try to buy an older set -- lots of people are desperate to get rid of their sets because they want to use the newfangled stuff for sale. You could find a gently used, never broken set. Maybe even one of your friends wants to swap your equipment for theirs, both of you would be happier.
All I can tell you is that my parents like traveling to touristy places and coming back with "the t-shirts" for themselves and us kids. After a few too many times they kept asking me and my siblings how come *our* t-shirts looked brand new after 5 years and theirs were faded and/or worn out, and all of us telling them we wash our stuff in hot water with front-loading washers, they finally got a clue and switched to FL when their set died. They seem happy with it so far.
Good luck!
-- Paulo.
Fabric dyes of all types in one place! We have only the best, freshest, most vibrant fabric dyes at super great prices for all kinds of fabric. The right dye to use depends on the type of fabric you are dyeing.
dharmatrading.com
