I don't know about a waiting list for machines overall in a marketplace, but we might see increased demand.
Actually if what a couple sales people have told me recently is really true, there is a filament of the U.S. washer market right now that is buying top loaders to replace front loaders they bought 5-10 years ago.
I know of a couple people in that group who bought top loaders in 2010 to replace front loaders that they felt were unsatisfactory. I think my sister would be a willing entrant to the market as well if my brother-in-law would go for it (she has a 2008 LG Steam washer which drives them crazy). I should probably offer them another nice BD set so they can sell their LGs while they still have value?
I think the sheer numbers of top loaders that are disposed of weekly would surprise us all. If even a small part of these are re-directed to rebuilders, there would probably be an ample supply. The smarter thing to do however might be to keep the top loaders from heading toward the recyclers in the first place.
What needs to happen, as I see it anyway, is to change the thinking of the big box stores which have an almost neurotic desire to keep all their haul-aways away from re-users like us (they foolishly think these machines are going to interfere with future sales of new machines) AND we need to re-educate consumers as a whole in the overall energy use (aka carbon footprint) that is involved in every step of replacing a machine. Focusing on just energy and water savings of the new machine alone does not account for nearly all the energies used.
In fact, many believe the most efficient option involving using or replacing a working T/L washer is to use it until it legimately requires replacement, and learn to use it efficiently. Disposing of a machine early often can consume as much overall energy as the new machine saves. People don't think about the energy it takes to source, build, and distribute a new machine, AND in the energy it takes to transport, dispose of, and recycle the old one.
There are a lot of opinions out there on the above, and every time I look at Craigslist I see ads that say "Upgraded to front loaders so we're selling these". If we had a dollar for each household that "upgraded" only to be unhappy later, I wonder how much money we'd have?
I think it would be fascinating to study how many consumers who have machines equipped with a Perm Press cycle, actually use that cycle on a regular basis, and thus estimate how much water and electricity (due to added drying time caused by slow spins) could be saved simply by switching many of those loads to the Regular or Normal cycle. I bet the savings amount would be staggering, and this could be done without making or buying anything...
Gordon
