charlesp210
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Messages
- 11
In previous thread, I agonized over which washing machine to buy, ended up with Whirpool WFW9750WW, which is the top-of-the-line Steam Duet but in the 4.5 cuft category (far less expensive than the top-of-the-line in 5.0 cuft). My research was based on commentary here as well as reading back through about 4 years of Consumer Reports (never just go with the latest findings, but see how things have changed or stayed the same over time). I noticed that over time the step down size models seem to have generally best washing/gentleness performance, somewhat canceling out a tendency for fancier models (Whirl-tags anyway) actually to have slightly worse combined performance.
One key benefit is relatively short cycle times for a front loader, combined with "very good" (but not excellent) rated performance both for gentleness and washing performance. And lots of features including Whirl-tag exclusive FanFresh.
I've had this now for about a month, and very much like the features and the way it works. It's true, like most or all modern Tier 3 water saving FL it uses very little water in the wash cycle. It's hard to see any water in the drum unless it's empty. But then it turns out the "wash" cycle doesn't actually last that long in this machine. The bulk of time is spent in the "rinse" cycle which has considerably more water, almost looking like (if not quite as good as) the video I saw here of Speed Queen. You could almost think of the wash cycle as a kind of detergent rich motion-enhanced "soak" cycle, followed by wash/rinse cycle that actually removes the dirt.
One curious thing about my machine, it's actually made in Germany according to the sticker on the front door. Funny if you buy actual German branded machines you may get one made in USA (Bosch) or Mexico (some Miele), but I got one buying an American brand mostly known for manufacturing washers in Mexico these days.
I have to be very very stingy with HE liquid detergent, even more so than with my Calypso. But yesterday I discovered the real trick to eliminating detergent fragrance from the clothes. It's been said here many times. Warm water rinse. Yesterday I ran my load of sheets and pillowcases in one load (used to take two loads in Calypso to get reasonably clean) with warm water rinse and max rinse selected (and with the extra time consuming Bulky cycle, so total time was 1:24, which is very long for this machine). Wow did that work well. I don't ever remember having my sheets so soft (I never use softener), clean, and totally free of liquid detergent smell (I'm currently using up my bottle of regular Cheer liquid HE).
I think I'm sold on warm water rinsing.
With cold water rinsing, I was noticing somewhat more liquid detergent smell than with my old Calypso (which was great for rinsing out anything water soluble...it constantly pours water over everything).
I used to be afraid that warm water rinse would leave more minerals from the water heater. I certainly wouldn't drink warm water from the tap. But the whole point of washing machine is to remove stuff from clothes, and if it can remove the liquid cheer scent, it can remove just about anything.
Even though this is a highly featured model, it is annoying that it lacks any sort of memory for previous settings (once you have fully canceled a cycle by pressing stop twice). This is especially true of the FanFresh option. If it were up to me, I'd just set FanFresh to remain selected all the time, though at this time my machine has zero smell anyway now. Even with very simple controls, my Real Maytag Neptune Dryer always remembers the last settings for any kind of selection, so if you select Auto Dry it remembers the last temperature and dryness you selected for Auto Dry, which I think is nice. Whirlpool washers seem to have that feature only for the largest drum size (which uses LCD rather than LED display).
One key benefit is relatively short cycle times for a front loader, combined with "very good" (but not excellent) rated performance both for gentleness and washing performance. And lots of features including Whirl-tag exclusive FanFresh.
I've had this now for about a month, and very much like the features and the way it works. It's true, like most or all modern Tier 3 water saving FL it uses very little water in the wash cycle. It's hard to see any water in the drum unless it's empty. But then it turns out the "wash" cycle doesn't actually last that long in this machine. The bulk of time is spent in the "rinse" cycle which has considerably more water, almost looking like (if not quite as good as) the video I saw here of Speed Queen. You could almost think of the wash cycle as a kind of detergent rich motion-enhanced "soak" cycle, followed by wash/rinse cycle that actually removes the dirt.
One curious thing about my machine, it's actually made in Germany according to the sticker on the front door. Funny if you buy actual German branded machines you may get one made in USA (Bosch) or Mexico (some Miele), but I got one buying an American brand mostly known for manufacturing washers in Mexico these days.
I have to be very very stingy with HE liquid detergent, even more so than with my Calypso. But yesterday I discovered the real trick to eliminating detergent fragrance from the clothes. It's been said here many times. Warm water rinse. Yesterday I ran my load of sheets and pillowcases in one load (used to take two loads in Calypso to get reasonably clean) with warm water rinse and max rinse selected (and with the extra time consuming Bulky cycle, so total time was 1:24, which is very long for this machine). Wow did that work well. I don't ever remember having my sheets so soft (I never use softener), clean, and totally free of liquid detergent smell (I'm currently using up my bottle of regular Cheer liquid HE).
I think I'm sold on warm water rinsing.
With cold water rinsing, I was noticing somewhat more liquid detergent smell than with my old Calypso (which was great for rinsing out anything water soluble...it constantly pours water over everything).
I used to be afraid that warm water rinse would leave more minerals from the water heater. I certainly wouldn't drink warm water from the tap. But the whole point of washing machine is to remove stuff from clothes, and if it can remove the liquid cheer scent, it can remove just about anything.
Even though this is a highly featured model, it is annoying that it lacks any sort of memory for previous settings (once you have fully canceled a cycle by pressing stop twice). This is especially true of the FanFresh option. If it were up to me, I'd just set FanFresh to remain selected all the time, though at this time my machine has zero smell anyway now. Even with very simple controls, my Real Maytag Neptune Dryer always remembers the last settings for any kind of selection, so if you select Auto Dry it remembers the last temperature and dryness you selected for Auto Dry, which I think is nice. Whirlpool washers seem to have that feature only for the largest drum size (which uses LCD rather than LED display).
to spend all that money like they make it sound. Typical political BS - they will always make it sound correct to their advantage.
Thanks 3beltwesty!
