My 4 y/o LG made front loader

[brucelucenta]

As much as I always enjoyed watching and working on and using the many top load washers I have had the pleasure of through the years, I have to admit that my LG made Kenmore Elite pair really does do the best job of any machine I have ever used or had. It does take longer, but the job it does is superior to anything else I have ever used. And it does it all automatically without having to reset or repeat anything. Not only that, but it will wash and dry a huge load of clothes at one time. It certainly is not entertaining, but perfectly serves it's real purpose and so does the dryer. I save a lot of water and drying time in the process too. Things have certainly changed since the invention of automatic washers and dryers.

 

[yogitunes]

'worked on'....that's the key there!....

many of these machines look nice, and most likely will work well for many years.....

WAIT!!!..until you have to work on one....even something as simple as replacing a pump....and what you have to take apart to get to it....talk about Mission Impossible!

I started to understand why so many are just tossed rather than fixed.....

 

[brucelucenta]

I agree and when I have my first major breakdown and repair on this machine, I may change my mind. But unfortunately, it seems like there are few that aren't a lot of trouble when you have to work on them. That was one reason why I am glad I have an LG made pair. At least they have the best repair record of front loaders with the features that are important to me. I got these mostly for capacity and they have been excellent so far. If I were to even consider a top loader again, the only one would be Speed Queen and it will simply not hold what this machine does. The rest of the top loaders are quite inferior from what I can tell. I have watched numerous youtube videos of various top loaders and am totally underwhelmed by any of them. Maybe I am just too old school, but they seem unnecessarily rough on clothes and just do not wash or rinse them well at all. I always knew front loaders would save on water and after they reversed rotation, they seem to clean every bit as well without being rough on the clothes. They do it all with a minimum of water, since that is how front load machines work. I surely miss having a top loader just because I can open the lid and stir the clothes around or add something at any given time and I felt more in control of what was going on with my clothes. Also, I could actually watch as my clothes were washed and rinsed and see them better than in the front load machine. But this machine does a better job and uses far less water and less energy to dry them than any of my top load sets I have had other than the rapidry 1000 set I had and with that set the washer was small capacity and kind of rough on some things. It had a lot of linting that I don't have now.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

I would never go back:

To a TL. For years all I wanted was WP/KM DD machines. 1.5 years ago I took a leap of faith and ordered up a Speed Queen frontload set. 0 regrets, cleaner laundry, less linting, better rinsing( I can do up to 5 rinses), much faster spinning (1200 vs 640 RPM)and greatly lowered utility and chemical costs.
WK78

 

[henene4]

The germans have been doing it for pretty much ever... If the Germans keep something for more then ~15 years you know it works.

 

[richimaor]

German washing machines

I agree with the fact that Germans have been doing it better, one clear example are Miele products, compact but outstanding machines in every way possible...

 

[maytag85]

Top loaders are the true, althentic automatic washer!!!

Front loaders have a larger capacity, but the take forever!! We use to have a Kenmore front loader, but we were tired of it not cleaning our clothes, and it was a SHREDMORE!!

 

[askolover]

I can get a load of clothes done in one hour in either of my two front-loaders.  It took some getting used to when I switched but I just rearranged my schedule.  Start the washer and walk away to do another task.  It lets me know when it's finished.

 

[brucelucenta]

Honestly, I don't mind even when I have ALL the options that take longer for a load in my front loader. It does such a tremendous load at a time, I don't need to wash as often or make as many loads. It really does a fine job. The drying takes much less time than it used to because of how much water it extracts too. For me it is a win/win situation.

 

[Unimatic1140]

I had guests come this past weekend to stay. I pulled both the comforter and the queen size sheets and four pillow cases off of the guest bed upstairs. I put the comforter in my LG and started it first and then I put the sheets and pillow cases in my 1947 GE Automatic. The sheet set in the GE washed (I selected 12 minutes of wash time, 3 to 20 is the range), dried in the Wards gas dryer and then put back on the bed before the LG even finished the cycle. After I finished making the bed with the sheets/pillow cases and I went back to the basement and the LG was in the final spin. I did give me a good laugh at the idea that it still wasn't done. It took 90 minutes in the GE Harmony dryer to completely dry the comforter, nearly two hours after I made the bed with sheets was that comforter ready to go on the bed.

 

[maytag85]

Front load washers take forever! One of the many reasons why I prefer top load washers. I don't mind vintage front loaders, because they work just as well as top load washers, and use water to clean!

 

[dartman]

I still like my he toploader

The Kenmore 28102 still seems to be working fine since 2014 and I figured when it breaks it will be cheap and easy to service since it's a Whirlpool machine DD with a wash plate.
Same thing clothes are cleaner saves a lot of water and electricity and does a lot more per load. It also usually takes forever so do something else while it quietly does its job.
Lil sister got a new Kenmore fl deluxe set and loves them but they never do any repairs themselves and can afford to pay for what they think is the best, then pay to fix it when it breaks.
Our machine does have a fast wash setting that only takes 28 minutes but it's really only good for touchups of almost clean items. We hardly ever use it.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
I picked up a Kenmore Elite yesterday, and already had an older LG Tromm, both FLers.
I noticed they both had rust at the base. The LG to the point of needing a new "foot".
The kenmore is not nearly as bad, but is only 3-4 years old.

So keep an eye out for rust is all i'm sayin'...

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Robert:

The LG took that long to wash a comforter plus 90 min in the dryer? That is not true of all FL machines. I can wash 2 king size homemade quilts in my Speed Queen with 3 rinses in 53 minutes and the SQ dryer has them dry in less than an hour.
WK78

 

[helicaldrive]

Front load gets things cleaner

Much cleaner. I keep a thick white throw on a sofa my cats like to spend the day on. Occasionally one will puke yellow bile all over it. Very difficult stain. The corkscrew agitator Dependable Care Maytag used to need as many as nine washes, even with chlorine bleach, to get it out. The SQ top load usually needed two washes. The SQ front load gets it out first time every time. There is no comparison. All my clothes and bedding are so much cleaner with the FL. It does take longer. The standard two rinses are not enough, and extra rinses are needed. Probably there is more fabric wear with the longer wash time and higher friction in the FL, but on the other hand things don't get pulled and stretched by an agitator. The TL, especially the short stroke Maytag DC, would sometimes roll sheets into a tight rope so they wouldn't get clean and I'd have to start all over. No such aggravations with the FL. The water and detergent savings are phenomenal with the FL. Cleanliness is my first priority and if it takes a little longer to get cleaner that's fine with me. I'd never go back to the TL.

 

[brucelucenta]

Yep, I concur with that too. It really only makes sense that a front load machine is going to clean and get rid of everything in the way of dirt and stains. It all drops down to the bottom and is flushed away along with lint and any other sediment. I also use the maximum amount of rinses to make sure the detergent is fully removed. When I put a big load in with ALL the additional settings for heated wash and such it may take close to 3 hours, but is worth the knowledge and evidence of nice clean well rinsed clothes and bedding that is close to dry. It takes very little time to dry in the dryer too. I do truly love some of the old top load machines I have had in the past, but they just don't come close to comparison in either cleaning, rinsing or spinning my clothes out as well. I would never want to go back to a top loader and now the ONLY one that even works well IMO is a Speed Queen top loader.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hey Nick, I should point out this is a really thick comforter so it normally takes about 90 minutes to dry in the Harmony dryer, longer if I don't take it out and reverse it about 60 minutes into the dry cycle. I used the normal cycle in the LG which is 1:10 minutes. I don't understand why you cannot select the fastest spin on the Bulky cycle, makes no sense what so so ever. If anytime you need a super fast spin speed its with bulky items.

The 1947 GE top-loader finished in 33 minutes and with a 9 minute final spin at 1140rpm without needing any special routines to balance itself, it just simply spins. The sheets are so well spun out of that machine that they took less than 20 minutes to dry. For a total of 0:52 minutes to wash and dry. 10 minutes to make the bed 1:02, back downstairs to the basement with 8 minutes left to go in the LG.

I have little doubt that the sheets were perfectly clean, soft and smelled wonderfully from the GE. I think the LG is excellent at cleaning, but I don't have very dirty things to wash overall. The dirtiest things I have are yellow micro-fibre cleaning rags from Costco. They never come out completely clean from any washer of mine even from the LG on sanitary-steam. So I haven't really noticed any marked improvement in cleaning ability using the LG over any of my other best vintage top loaders. Of course a lot of this can be attributed to major improvements of detergents over years. I mainly use white Tide-Free Pods and Liquid.

Also the idea of the sediment at the bottom of my solid tubs is very rare, a few of times a year I'll wipe something out with a paper towel, but again it hardly ever happens. I have never once needed to vacuum out a washer in 20 years of having these early machines.

 

[henene4]

The Bulky cycle has a limited spin speed to protect the item and the machine. Especially quilted stuff can suffer from to high spin speeds, or large items. If they don't form a ring around the tub but instead stretch across the drum in a FL, the forces can cause wear on seames.

The LG dosen't use special routines either to run a 30min TurboWash. Wash, spray rinse, deep rinse, spin.

And comparing washing a comforter with a load of sheets is kind of a moot point. Could the GE even wash that comforter?

And sure, the LG might not outclean anything else by miles. It does however use far less. So the cleanlines per resource is FAR ahead.

 

[Unimatic1140]

No the GE or any other machine outside of my 1965 Wards would not be able to wash that comforter, the capacity isn't large enough. I used to wash it in the Whirlpool Combo, but since I got rid of that machine in my quest to downsize a bit and was offered the LG, I decided to give it a try. And while I absolutely agree with you Henrik that the LG excels in "cleanliness per resource" versus 70+ year old machines, this makes the modern machines perfect for the masses/non-washer enthusiasts in the 21st century. However many of us here are washer enthusiasts, myself obviously included.

While I think the LG is excellent overall, my experience with having these machines lined up side by side and using them has been that it's simply not that BIG of an improvement in performance over the best of the early standard-capacity machines. My opinion is not based on memories from 15 or 20 years ago, I'm actually using these machines simultaneously side-by-side. Again some of this excellent performance I attribute to the best of the modern detergents. I'd like to see how well the LG cleans using Dash or All from the 1950s/1960s formulations, I suspect not as well.

However where the LG falls dreadfully behind the vintage machines is simply in the enjoyment factor. Granted that is my opinion and others may thoroughly enjoy watching their HE/FL wash clothes, it just doesn't do it for me. This is a very important factor in doing laundry for many of us here. I can easily stand over or be around a vintage washer and observe or casually observe the entire 30 minute cycle and thoroughly enjoy the experience of washing clothes. I cannot do that with the LG, the cycle is too long and too repetitious to be of any enjoyment for more than a few minutes. While some may poo-poo the idea of washing clothes needs to be fun, if that wasn't the case, this website and social-network/community would not exist as it does today.

So at the end of the day if I could only have one washer, it would not be a modern HE anything, it would be a vintage top-loader that cleans nearly as well, rinses better, spins just as well if not better, does it all in half the time and is high on the enjoyment factor.