New Washer Shopping Trip V3.0

[Iowegian]

Went to the local Lowe's store. The machines they wanted to sell were located on the end-caps, just like you'd expect in a retail environment. They had a Samsung washer-dryer pair in red on one of the end-cap displays. Pretty tinny machine, plus the side panel color didn't have the metallic paint that the front panel did. Kind of like the stainless steel appliances that have have SS fronts but black painted sides - cheezy and cheap.

Going down the aisle, they had several Electrolux machines. They are made in Mexico. Didn't impress at all with build quality. But the Maytags/Whirlpools are just as flimsy looking/feeling.

To Lowe's credit, the carbon-based unit covering the appliance department wasn't pushy at all...

 

[tomturbomatic]

Carbon-based unit

You are funny. We had a assistant division chief that a former section head referred to as a non-carbon-based life form. Lowe's employees can be nice. The appliance dept. was having a clearance sale years ago and they let me buy a 12 gallon electric water heater for $50.00 instead of the $100 marked on the tag. I had a plan for it. I got adapters to convert the connections from pipe thread to hose thread so that I can connect it with hoses and was going to replace the element with one I could run on 220, but I don't need it now. Even on 120, it would make a great booster for a front loader if the main water heater was far from the washer.

I would not buy a new washer without a demonstration. It's too big an investment to buy a pig in a poke. I would want to see how easily it balances/distributes the load, how well it spins & rinses. Do you have a Sears nearby? They used to have at least a few machines hooked up. Maybe they don't anymore.

 

[whirlcool]

Nope, in another thread I mentioned that the days of having a hooked up washer are over. In fact the ONLY washer I ever saw hooked up an running was a wringer washer at Sears in the early 60's. It had a clear tub so you could see the wash action. It looked like they had toy plastic chips in the machine circulating about demoing the wash action.

Now I have previously seen tons of the Maytag clear dishwashers in various stores. You pushed the button to see it operate.

With most stores all you can do is ask and the salesman will tell you how it works. I guess if you don't like it you can return it.

When we bought our Whirlpool TOL electronic set we have to have it special ordered.
We never even saw it until it arrived at our house. Which we thought was funny because it was considered the best washer by CR magazine that year. But we went around to various appliance stores from small to large and nobody stocked it. Everyone said it was a special order machine. Most service techs said that they never have seen this model before, only heard of them. The reason we went with it is all our friends indicated that Whirlpool was the best out there so we went with their judgement. And it did indeed turn out to be a very reliable machine.

Why would CR review such a machine of this level?

 

[tomturbomatic]

You were cheated. Into the late 60s, our Sears had not only washers, but a LK combo hooked up, ready to punch the dial and instantly display the roto spray wash action. So neat. One Saturday evening as we were leaving, it was drying.

 

[Iowegian]

@tomturbomatic:

We do have a Sears nearby. Haven't been there in about 6 months, but I don't recall seeing anything that was ready to run last time I was there.

When I was a kid, our local Sears had a dishwasher with a plexiglass or lexan front that ran constantly. Was pretty cool - not sure why that isn't used as a sales tool these days.

 

[tomturbomatic]

"not sure why that isn't used as a sales tool these days."

Because every man and many boys walking past would think, "I can piss harder than that machine can spray water."

Even when Maytag & KA had plexiglass tubs for demo machines, if customers were looking at the Maytag wash with those high power needle sprays that cleaned very well, they would drop consideration in a minute if the KA was started and they heard and saw what one member here called the "hurricane in a box" washing action.

 

[Iowegian]

Could very well be. But the local Sears store had that demo machine running for months and months to the point where the clear plastic had yellowed so you could hardly see what was happening inside.

We had a house in the early '90s that had a MT dishwasher. The mesh screen at the bottom had become torn unbeknownst to me and most of the spray arm holes got plugged with tomato seeds. It was quite an exercise poking and flushing them out - kind of like those little plastic kid games with the bbs in them...

Once I replaced the mesh screen and got the arms cleaned out, it worked well, though.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Iowegian,
That demo Kenmore DW was the old style, right, not a tall tub? At least there was a lot of water flying around. I was always sort of amazed at the way the water from the end hole on the wash arm just sort of sluiced water up the side of the tank as it passed. It was not really a hard spray like the KA, but it was probably many times more impressive than what the sprays are like now, which is why they need an hour in the wash portion of the cycle.

 

[Iowegian]

That Sears DW demo was back in the mid-1970s, whatever they were selling at that time.