Top Load or Front Load....?

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top load or front load

Wow!! What an interesting response from you guys. It's interesting to read the different opinions. Well, after reading the different answers, I will probably just stick with a TL washer. I haven't had any problems with it. Either that, or I will go back to the good ole' days and beat my laundry on a rock down by the river or use a washboard !!

I am currently in the process of restoring a 60 year old wringer washer. It actually still works.....wish me luck !!!
 
Wow..

Well you aint afraid of pulling out the big guns Johnny ha ha...having collected twinnys, wringers possers and lime barrells one can firmly say that a horizontal access turning drum far outweighs anything else in the efficiency stakes, in water consumption, energy efficiency, detergent consumption per kg washed you will always get the best efficient results - hence why its the machine of choice for commercial launderies etc...

Nowthen before everybody swipes right from brown, most of us here will get the best results from any wesher made whether it be top load or a cement mixer, because we would (hopefully) understand how the machine worked and adapt our resources accordingly...!!

What model is the twinny you have Johnny ?
 
brucelucenta

you might have to rethink that not everyone are into frontload washers i might be using 1 now but to me a 1 hour wash cycle is just to long and for me the more water the better the cleaning power grewup with topload washers set from my youth mny teen year still had the original inglis dry till 1992 washer was replace aroud my teen years 1988 by a whirlpool washers and also asl long as some consumers buy topload washsers companys like whirlpool inglis speed queen general electric will keep making topload washers the set my mom and i have now might be 13 years old and will eventualy require replacement so while doing research i have look at the speedqueen model awn432 and it would fit or need perfectly since i do not see the use in my case of lots of cycles the only cycles i use are normal perm press delicate hand wash if needed and soak and not everyone wash the same.

pierreandreply4-2017033106372707311_1.jpg
 
top load or front load

Hey Mike. I have a Servis MK2 supertwin. We have had it in the family about 35 years without any problems. It was my grandmothers before me and as far as I can gather, I think she bought it some time in the 1960's. I think by that time the brand name had changed from "Wilkins Servis" to just "Servis". Always has been one of my favourite brands. I also have another Servis make. It's a Servis 1108 twinny.

Quite a debate going on here Mike !! Top load or Front load ?
 
I agree with Bruce

Everything he said. FLs do take longer but with some extra rinses ultimately clothes are cleaner and better rinsed, with far less detergent and water. Win-win. It's worth the extra time. Especially when washing towels and blankets, I sometimes do think, jeez, the TL was easier, none of this time spent trying to balance, but then I remember I'm getting almost twice as many items washed in that FL load, and it'll dry faster due to better extraction.

I expect that the cost of detergent for a TL will eventually become cost prohibitive. As more and more people get HE units and start using only a tiny fraction of the detergent they used to use, the detergent companies, to survive, will reduce the size of bottles and greatly raise the prices. Already starting to gradually happen. Groceries here are stocking way more of the smallest sizes.

Might as well get with the 21st century.
 
I have both front and top load washers in my laundry. I have to say the front loader does a much better job than the TL machines and it is my main driver. In Australia we are very water conscious and FLs use a fraction of the water the TLs do

I have 3 Fisher & Paykel TLs and they are not bad and do a pretty good job. They spin really fast too. I also have a Maytag Atlantis and it is rubbish and I rarely use it though the dryer is fab and they look pretty cool side by side. I also have two GE Filer-flo which I love to use but they are not as good as the F&P washers.
 
I'm a Top Loader!

Front load machines (especially these dreadful new "energy savers" that take eons to complete a cycle) are awful. A folded handerchief remains folded after an entire cycle. How clean is that? Top loaders take less time and actually clean the clothes. And besides, front loaders are not that exciting to watch...give me a Penta-Swirl, Roto-Swirl, Pulsator, Burp-a-Lator, Activator, Surgilator any time!
 
Its interesting to hear how much people like there front loaders, I personally cant stand them. I don't feel like the cloths get rinsed well enough,a front loader takes way longer than it needs to to complete a cycle and could someone explain why moving surfactant through cloths requires an $800 computer? Instead of throwing money at gadgets and gizmos that will eventually be the downfall of a machines longevity, personally speaking I find a wringer washer with a double washtub and laundry spinner to be a much more dependable and sound way to put $800 towards laundry equipment. In 1hr and 1/2 you can get everything washed and thoroughly rinsed in a wringer that an he machine would take 8 hrs to do. Just my personal thoughts but as they say "to each their own".
 
The way I figure it, if I can wait 45-60 minutes for my Kitchenaid or Maytag dishwashers to do a load then why can't I wait for the washer to do a load..The Asko takes 45 minutes for a normal load and the Miele 59 minutes at 120F and 66 minutes for 140F both with extra rinses.  I'm just used to it after all these years.  Try getting embedded paraffin wax out of cotton in a toploader.  Both my Euro FL machines with powerful heaters can/have. 

 

A folded handerchief remains folded after an entire cycle. How clean is that?

True...but you don't throw socks wadded up in a little ball into the washer do you?  I unfold my handkerchiefs when I stick them into the whites basket...but to each his own.  I'm just being snarky...it's all in good fun!
 
How to get paraffin was out of cotton in a top loader - you first use a hot iron and kitchen paper to get the excess wax off, then you spray laundry stain remover on the remaining oily stain and wash it on hot.
 
I vote for front loaders. Use way less water and energy (and detergent)---water will always be a perennial issue here in California, in spite of this winter's record snowfall.

My current (Electrolux 60) and last FL (Frig 2140---given to my neighbor, works perfectly at 11 years of age) get clothes cleaner than any TL I previously owned. Yes, the cycles are longer, but the result is cleaner clothes. I use the delay wash option to my benefit, setting up a load to run overnight or while I'm at work, which obviates the longer cycle time. The older 2140 had only one option, an 8 hour delay, but the 60 has delay from 30 mins to 24 hrs.

Additionally, fast final spin speeds shorten drying time.
 
Hands down on the front loaders. They do more per sq.ft.,they use less water,less bleach,less detergen,less fabric softener,less electricity and do a more thorough job getting clothes clean using a less vigorous method. They also spin much more water out to save time,energy and are more gentle on fabrics. No sharp agitator blades like the "cruel action" agitator post types.
 
I vote traditional top loader hands down. Never had a problem and as I've stated before in other threads, my clothes are no less clean or in worse condition than the clothes of people who launder theirs in (expensive, top of the range) front loaders. In fact, I will put money on my clothes being better rinsed and containing less detergent residue, because my machine is a traditional, no-frills, no eco nonsense machine, that uses plenty of water for rinsing. Clothes clean up well in either type of washer, but effective rinsing is an issue with many high efficiency machines. Here in Australia consumer review organizations rate rinse performance as important as wash performance and top loaders generally perform better at rinsing according to their assessments.

Either types of washers have their advantages and drawbacks, but whatever the differences are, a well-designed, good quality washer will get the job done well enough. It's up to the individual consumer to decide for themselves what they are looking for in the products they choose.

In most cases the differences aren't that significant to get passionate over. The best performing products are usually the ones where the focus of design remains on the primary function. Many manufacturers are promising consumers all kinds of additional features and benefits to meet perceived consumer demands, but rarely do they deliver all that is promised.[this post was last edited: 4/1/2017-21:09]
 
To be totally honest, IF there were still an abundance of replacement parts for ALL old machines I would have probably a couple of top load sets. A Kelvinator and possibly a Norge, Frigidaire or even a Speed Queen, all solid tub machines. They all washed, rinsed and spun clothes out quite well and I liked using any of them. However, that is not the case. A vintage machine always has the possibility of breaking down and there are just no parts around for them anymore. It is regrettable, but true. If Frigidaire had not sold out and still made a washer that agitated up and down, that would be the set I would have. But there are no such machines anymore. I don't even look at laundry in the same way as I used to these days. It is now just another necessity that I have to deal with and after using every kind of washer and dryer around in my existence, I have reached the conclusion that a front load washer does an excellent job of washing, rinsing and spinning my clothes out with no linting or wear to them. That is just not something that even the best top load washers I have used could do with the same degree of excellence. This machine does it's job with a minimum of water too. I have used the front load washers from the past too. The westinghouse machines were adequate, but that's about it. Even they did a good job giving lint free loads, but were only fair at washability and at extracting water from the clothes. They also only rotated in one direction which caused balling up of items like sheets. The new front load machines are just far superior to ANY HE top loader. I will admit that the Speed Queen top loader is as close to a traditional washing machine as you can get now. But why have something new that uses vast amounts of water to do the same thing a front load machine will do at far less? Not only that, but the Speed Queen limits you to ONE rinse and that ONE rinse requires you to do a deep fill rinse. The front loaders will do up to 3 extra rinses and STILL use far less water than the Speed Queen uses with just ONE deep rinse. It only makes common sense to go with a front load machine and I look for Speed Queen to quit making their top loader before much longer anyway due to goverment interference.
 
Hey Johnny...
I've recently bought a top loader as I do a shed load of laundry because of some air b and b places I have. I also run a front loader alongside it, so a few months in, I have a better understanding of them both!

I'd say I much prefer the top loader for washing towels, sheets and other "robust" items of clothing. The top loader washes these really well, and even when I use the 6 minute "light" programme the results are great! However, I would say it is let down my its poor spinning performance, so I do run them through the front loader before drying.

The front loader is 100% better for washing more delicate items of clothing, or dark clothes that would need rinsed very well - despite the huge amount of water the machine uses, it doesn't rinse as well as a front loader - end of! I've used the hand wash programme in the top loader too and it is useless - again, the front loader does this programme much better.

Here are some pictures now of my set up - I have all three machines on the go at the moment!

chrisbsuk++4-2-2017-07-30-20.jpg
 

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