Complexity has a risk for more failure. A match and wood is simpler than a high efficiency furnace with all the sensors to heat your home.

Cars today are far more complex than cars of the past but todays cars are safer, more fuel eff and last longer.

I'm taking the plunge due to a failure of may 20 year old waher that did not get the water out and beat the cloths up.

So I'm taking a risk with FL but taking an extended warranty to hedge my bet.

So the question maybe " is today technolgy ready" to be worry free.

Toploaders nowadays may be electronically-complex, but they're largely simple in terms of mechanics.

The largest-capacity toploaders on the market now are HE machines typically with the "gadgets and functions" that are of concern to you. The Oasis, Cabrio, and Bravos agitator models would the largest non-HE or semi-HE choices, but they are fully electronic on the controls. Whirlpool and Kenmore have a couple "traditional" transmission/agitator models rated at 4.0 cu ft, but they have automatic water level sensing, which you don't want.

What brand/model are your machines now?

Sure cars of today last longer, due to better engineering and superior lubricants. However, not sure most complex washers of nowadays fit this description. Present-day automobiles and washers have one thing in common, when either of them break, rarely can an owner do the repair. This is the way the manfacturers want it! I would draw a parallel, for example, between Lexus and Milele, both expensive but reliable.

Please tell me what items you purchase today that most people can repair. Not TV's, Electronic Equipment in general, appliances and auto's to name a few. When washers were manual and you had to turn the rolls by hand to get water out and hang on a line outside outside for complete drying, life was simple and reliabile.

Many major appliances certainly can be repaired by DIY. Washers, dryers, dishwashers, ranges, cooktops & wall ovens, some kinds of refrigerator problems. Parts are easily available online or at local dealers, and a lot of service info is also available online.

www.searspartsdirect.com
www.repairclinic.com
www.partstap.com
www.applianceguru.com
www.servicematters.com

There are many more.

Quality appears to have declined, but not because of an increase in technology or complexity. The first W/D my wife and I had were 15 years old and came with our house. Never a problem in the next 6 years. We built a house and installed Kenmore W/D in 1988. We had 3 service calls in 15 years.

Replaced them with high-end Maytag. Numerous service calls in 3 years with final one a recommendation for replacement since repair would cost same as new ones.

Purchased Miele W4840 / T9820. Specifically wanted highest reliability/quality available. We were willing to pay to avoid breakdowns forcing us to go to laundromat. Have had several service calls in 1 yr we've owned them. Dryer has now been unusable for 2 weeks waiting on parts after it self-destructed. 3 of this laundromat trips we'd wanted to avoid.

I don't think the problems we and others are experiencing has much if anything to do with complexity or too advanced of technology. It's purely an issue of poor quality control and poor customer service. Too much focus on low-cost manufacturing (which is really irritating when you purchase the highest cost units available) and driving costs down in other areas. In reading through these and other forums I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that Kenmore is the best 'reliability value', Whirlpool likely 2nd. Miele and Bosch used to be, but no more. Sadly Asko appears to be declining as well.

jsfox, I'm wondering what service you've needed for the W4840.

I remember that the 1962 Whirlpool washer my family had during my childhood years was repaired numerous times in its 15 years of use. The tub bearings were replaced twice.

The 1976 Whirlpool had a few repairs in 18 years, but less than the 1962 machine. The bearings going bad is what triggered a new machine, but they lasted 18 years vs. average of 7 years on the 1962.

The 1994 KitchenAid (now 15 years old) that came next is doing equivalent to the 1976 Whirly on repair history/frequency.

My 1999 Fisher & Paykel has needed no repairs, nor has the 2004 F&P.

Dadoes,

I agree stuff can be repaired but I also said most people do not repair them.

Some people like the challenge but most do not.

And then they fuss and complain. It's their loss. I've seen people toss a washer to the curb and spend hundred$+ on a new machine just because a $20 drive coupler broke. Ridiculous.

I think nowadays washers are pretty much designed to last 5 years. The extended warranty people won't sell a warranty that lasts longer than 5 years from purchase date, and they know their business. They've no doubt got it all graphed out and five years is where the average expenses involved in keeping machines going starts to climb steeply.

Right now I'm waiting on delivery of a Bosch frontloader.

Old top loader machine is six years old, the five year warranty has expired. Getting someone to look at it would cost AU$110 before they even dropped their tool kit down next to the machine. I could open it up myself and tinker with it, but I've a fair idea what is going wrong and it would need a moderately priced and somewhat fiddly to install new part and since I'm not terribly good at such things there's a chance I'd balls it up so bad as to make it not repairable at all. A large machine is also difficult to handle when doing repairs, and both my partner and I have had back injuries in the past. And quite frankly, the old machine was OK but it had it's problems.

New machine cost AU$745 delivered. I get AU$200 of that back from the city because they run a rebate scheme for buying high efficiency water using appliances. In every year of use I'll probably save about AU$100 on my water bills. And it's a nicer machine in general, with a better choice of cycles. And I get to buy a five year extended warranty for it for just AU$99, thus securing myself from most unexpected expenses associated with the machine, an option I no longer had for the old machine.

What happens with the old machine? It gets taken away by the delivery guys and delivered to an appliance reconditioning center that will look at whether it can be repaired and resold economically. Since this occurs at their timetable rather than as a call out, they can do this rather cheaply. Maybe it gets fixed up, maybe it gets broken down for parts to fix other washers, maybe they pull all the stuff that can be sold as scrap out of it and junk the rest.

I would prefer that the expected lifespan of a major appliance was ten years or more, but that's just not how things are any more.

haley_comet, sounds like you're a good candidate to consider the Speed Queens or Fisher & Paykal. Maybe keep the machines you have and have 2 sets going for as long as it lasts? If you have the room, it would sure help your capacity for laundry.

I don't think anything is made to last anymore let alone laundry appliances. If things last, then companies make less money. I know this sounds terrible, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was found out years from now that companies built things purposely to break and wear out faster. That is one of the main reasons why I try to find things at a decent price without a lot of bells and whistles attached. I would love the bells and whistles, but being out $700 for a FL vs. $1300 to $1400 for a FL is a little easier to swallow. Especially if I only get a few years out of the darn thing.