Happy 20th Birthday to my Whirlpool Duet FL Washer

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That's awesome!

I now wish we could've kept the Duet here and brought the Maytag Neptune up to the cabin instead when we bought them both at the same time. I'm sure we would've still had them today if so but definitely for certain they're still at the cabin according to the Airbnb photos.
 
That's really impressive, really.
It's that typical roulette play where even a TOL appliance can be a dud - or in reverse, an "average" appliance can outlast any expectations.

Amazing thing is that there still is nothing considerably "better" (be it feature or efficiency wise) in that class.

Let's knock on wood you'll have many more of these posts to do!
 
wow... that's 4 years OLDER than mine.... it gives me hope that mine might have 4 or 5 more years left in it?

Not a speck of dirt or mold on mine either :)
 
Congrats! It’s a gorgeous machine so keep it until it completely dies. My Duet Alpha WFW92 set is 8 years now with no issues, aside from one worry it gave me about a month ago where for 2-3 cycles, it would occasionally make this tiny muffled squeal during the spins, and yet when turning the drum by hand or during slow rotations, it would be completely silent, so I don’t think it had anything to do with the bearings. After those cycles though, it’s been perfectly fine, so I’m thinking now something could have somehow gotten wedged against the seal, like a wad of hair or lint or something, and it cleared itself up. Otherwise, best washer I’ve ever owned, smooth and quiet as day one, and built like a tank. I’ve debated giving the set to my granddad after the house burning before his new house is built, so that I can get the 8620 set before they’re discontinued and they go back to the center knob design (barf), but I also wouldn’t mind keeping it until hopefully hitting that same age.

It does make me wonder why in the world you’d be strongly considering LG or anything but Whirlpool again as a replacement, after having this washer and the dishwashers that have done so well for so long. Despite the hate train that’s seemed to flare up around here recently against Whirlpool, their dishwashers, especially the KitchenAids, are the best they’ve ever been, and have been raved about by those that own them, myself included. As for their laundry and other appliances, the internet, specifically that Maytag-costume wearing Samsung apologist, and two *ahem* “very active” members of this site, seem to rant about apparent wide-spread issues, and yet the people who are actually in the field and dealing with customers directly aren't backing those claims up. The two local appliance stores around me say they’re still at the top in reliability compared to most of the other brands, save for Speed Queen, Miele, Bosch, of course, and one of them has flat out stopped selling LG or Samsung entirely because of their reliability and difficulty getting parts and service handled.
 
Reply #10

I have been using and or buying Whirlpool products for the last 37 years and in all that time I've only had one failure and that was the Maytag bravos X.

My current refrigerator and stove are Whirlpool and Amana and for the last 3 years they have been working great. No issues yet.

All my other vmw agitator washers performed well also, but I never kept them long enough . Maybe 2 years tops before selling them and trying other machines.

The reason I am a fan is because their products overall have served my family/me well.

I now have three classic washing machines from whirlpool. Two belt drives and a KitchenAid direct drive.

I'll say though with those machines they definitely cared more about quality then.
 
Honestly, I actually like the looks of the NEW FL Whirlpools... I just wish I could see how they actually wash/rinse...

To be clear, the only LG appliance I would consider is their FL washer... Nothing else that they make appliance wise..

I would get a Whirlpool dishwaher/Range/Fridge/dryer before LG... I agree with you. I really LOVE their dishwashers

I just think of all the appliances LG makes, I think they make their FL better than their other appliances.. But the MAIN thing is actually watching them go through different cycles and liking what I'm seeing more than I do the Whirlpools (but there's really NOT a lot of Whirlpools in action on youtube)... Like the new FL models (which I actually LIKE the looks of) I would totally consider that but first I need to see it in action..

Another thing I've run into is I feel like Whirlpool can't get it together with parts shortages since Covid... I LOVE my kitchenaid blender...it works great but the pitchers start falling apart after a couple of years... so I call and then send me another since it's a 5 years warranty.. I'm on my THIRD pitcher so far... and I called them again for another one and they're shipping it out when they become back in stock... this was 2 months ago and I haven't received it. I think it's just little things like that that make me wonder about them NOW vs then.. that's all.
 
cfz2882

I'm curious to see what your Kenmores look like, wonder if it's the same kind that was made around the same time as this Duet or if it looks any different back then.
 
I probably subconsciously jinxed mine by looking at Bosch washers too often. Then, about three weeks ago, it wouldn't turn on.

It would have been 14-years-old next month. Parts are still available... but that Bosch was calling me. 😉
 
Congratulations 20 year-old German built, whirlpool duet

These were quite good washers overall, and we have many friends and customers that have one this old that are still going. Some have barely been repaired at all. Others have had a number of repairs.

I don’t think this is unusual the whirlpool full-size front load washers that came after this are also holding up very well.

Like most good washer dryer pairs the dryer that matches these duet washers will far out of the washer, just basic physics and dealing with water.

The two big exceptions in history to the dryers outlasting The washers were Frigidaire dryers from the 70s often died long before the washers and Maytag stream of heat and halo heat dryers Often didn’t last as long as the Maytag washer people just got tired, repairing the stream of heat dryers often times.

I have one of these German built KitchenAid proline washers and while I’m quite happy with its performance overall I’m glad that it’s in the outdoor laundry room because it’s always been a frustrating machine to watch these duets. They have too much trouble balancing and they keep timing out to a longer cycle time. We sold a pair of these to my former partner and he still has them. The washer was only repaired once the dryer never but it used to be so frustrating to do laundry and because it would say 11 minutes to go and you’d come back 20 minutes later and it was still trying to balance made it very frustrating to get things done around the house But with mine it’s outdoors I don’t pay any attention to it, the only other problem with this machine was the tangling of jeans and long sleeve shirts, so I just don’t wash anything but towels and such in it.

Overall, my front load three year-old Speed Queen washer is superior, it never has trouble balancing it never extends its cycle time and virtually no tangling.

My last service call Friday evening was a German Maytag duet, the little plastic piece that hits the power button broke, and you have to take the control panel apart and take the broken button out so you can take a pencil with an eraser and hit the button manually this is one of many common problems on these German duets. They had really bad plastic Parts. Other common problems were bad, drain pumps, bad motor boards, bad inlet valves, but there’s never been a washing machine made that didn’t have some problems eventually so overall I would rate the German duets as a very good washer, certainly far better than the Maytag built duets.

John L
 
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