I do not own one but from all I have read and heard they can't be beat. When I need a new one I will more than not get Electrolux (dishwasher too).

There are folks here who have the "70" model.
Larsi does and can tell you forward and backward about Elux. As for me, I would buy them in a minute.

^Agreed but DON'T get an Electrolux dishwasher. Their old ones suck and their new ones are unproven.

My post above should have said "When I need a new one I will more than likely get an Elux". I need to reread what I type before posting!

hvtech-Yes I am going by Reviewed.com but the wash arm(s) look exactly like Frigidaire and havent they had this new arm for a while now and it has proven to wash better and less problems than the old style?
Growing up, my Mom had a Frigidaire washer, the kind with the up/down agitator and overflow rinsing plus the spin that was so fast things were about dry when they came out of the washer. Wish those were still being made. I would buy one in a minute. To me nothing has ever compared to a Frigidaire.

Those washers were the good Frigidaires, made by General Motors. White Consolidated Industries bought the brand in 1980 and ruined the brand by substituting the GM products for their own. The two lines had nothing in common and the WCI stuff was crap. In the 90s Electrolux bought the brand and tried to turn it around. They came out with some great cooking products and front load washers, both of those things I attribute to Electrolux's European heritage. Unfortunately, as for the rest of their product line... Let's just say they're still trying. LOL! These new Italian DW's they're importing could be the bee's knees, but they are very recent and we don't know anything about how they hold up yet. I would never put too much faith in sources like Consumer Reports and Reviewed.com and certainly would never use either of them as a primary reason for buying a product. You could be their beta tester, but why not let someone else do that and just buy a product you know should be good?

Sorry about my dishwasher diatribe, halgreene.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Wed, Aug 27, 14 at 21:40

Yes, I remember when they were bought out and then the company made several brands-right? What I remember right around me:
Lady next door bought a new Frig. washer and it lasted 2 years and the guy said it wasnt worth fixing(this was after the up/down style agi)
BUT: Lady down the road from me had a Westinghouse that lasted for Years(it was true WH) then when it was worn out she bought a Gibson and that thing lasted for years and years. During this time her husband was sick and ended up bedfast and later passed away so they washed all the time. It finally did quit and she got a KM then.This was all in the 80's early 90's.
Then in 92 my nephew got married and bought a Kelvinator washer( new). Of course they got divorced 3 years later and his wife got the washer/dryer and that washer lasted for years also-no repairs(and she overloaded!) I know of cause I stayed friends with the wife and new husband and they used it till she remarried a 3rd time(LOL) and then when they moved to a new house got new ones and left them in the house they had and sold them.
One last thing, a friend of my Moms had a Kelvinator dryer that she said she bought in the 80's and all she has ever had replaced was the belt. Two weeks ago she said it was getting too hot OR it wasnt drying at different times clothes would still be too damp so it took 2 cycles. Went to Lowes and bought a new WP. Guy brought it out and was replacing her vent hose and found her trouble--she had a bird nest in her vent pipe. Nothing was wrong with the old one after all so she gave it to her great grandson. So some of the WCI stuff was pretty good but if I had bought one of those of any kind mine wouldn't have lasted no time!
Apologies to the original OP--kinda got off the ELUX subject -sorry!

I 100% recommend the Electrolux Washer and Dryer. We have the Wave Touch (70 Series) and they are basically Incredible!!! ;) The Electric Dryer leaves clothes so fluffy, wrinkle free and soft (70 Series has "Perfect Tumble", which reverses the drum during the drying cycle) and the wrinkle prevent option can tumble the clothes in both directions for up to 3 hours after the cycle is complete.
The washer has the "Add more water" option, which is awesome since so many washers use way, way too little water to actually do a good job cleaning!
Electrolux units are incredibly quiet, balanced, easy to use once you get used to the controls and umpteen options....and fun to use too. Love mine. Btw....it washes King comforters like nobody's business ;)

Try doing a eBay/Craigslist search on these units by owners for resale. You will not find a lot doing this search so that means a lot of people are very happy with their purchase!

I have them and love them! I'm 65 yrs old and have done a lot of wash in my lifetime. These machines are unbelievable. Two years, never had a problem.

Fantastic machines. I actually enjoy doing laundry/1

Jane

I also have the 70 series Electrolux pair, and I've been very happy with it for the last 3 years. Like Larsi, I like the fact that I can program extra water, extra rinses, etc. I can also save my favorite settings for things like Kitchen towels (on which I use heavier settings) and whites. The dryer is awesome--I can set it to keep tumbling till I get to it, so no more wrinkled masses of clothing. I feel like the pair works for me instead of me adjusting to them, which is just what I want from my appliances. :-)

Cj

Off topic, but wondering if you took the extended warranty on the machines? Mine are 2 yrs old, never had a problem but just got an offer for extended warranty. Tempted but don't really want to spend $150.00 for a year. Just wondering if they know something I don't!

Jane

I did not buy the Extended warranty, because when I bought them Electrolux was offering a Platinum Plan included in the price. 1 year parts and labor and then 3 extra years all parts, but no labor.

I wasn't offered a plan, when I purchased, that I recall. I've had no problems and I do a lot of laundry.

I received an offer in the mail from `Electrolux offering a plan.
1 yr - 160.74
2yr - 305.39
3 yr - 433.97

That's a lot of money. I'm not sure if I should take the 1 yr.

When do appliances start to have trouble? I had Duets for 7 years in our old house with no problems. Never had a warranty but they didn't have the electronics these machines do.

Hadn't even thought about a warranty until I got this in the mail.

Jane

I was offered a plan through our appliance store, which I purchased due to the computer boards in these things being so expensive to replace. I get a refund on it if we never use it, and so far, it looks like we're getting our money back!

I just realized that the OP is looking at the 60 series, where most of us commenting have the 70 series pair. I don't recall what the differences are anymore (though while I was shopping I could have told you!) but one thing I think is super about the dryer is that it cools the load and then keeps tumbling--so that your clothing is wrinkle free and fluffy. I'd check for that feature on the dryer, because if the 60 doesn't have it, it's my opinion that it's worth whatever the extra charge is to get it. There's also a feature on the 70 washer that tumbles the load after it's done spinning so that it's all fluffed up and not plastered to the walls of the tub. This also really reduces the wrinkles. These machines were well thought out. There are a lot of features that I will never use, but the ones that I do use, I like a LOT.

Good luck to you.

Cj

Plug your washer into a surge protector and you should be fine. That is what I was told 12 years ago and so far no problems. I know that doesn't take care of parts that wear out etc. but the expensive boards was what worried me but no problems with anything so far.

re: 70 washer that tumbles the load after it's done spinning so that it's all fluffed up

The 60 series washer has the shrink guard feature, which agitates after the final spin. I'm not sure if that's the same as you're referring to.

The 60 series dryer does have an extended tumble, but only for 30 minutes. It also lacks the reverse tumble feature (trademark name "Perfect Tumble") that the 70 has.

RE: Try doing a eBay/Craigslist search on these units by owners for resale. You will not find a lot doing this search so that means a lot of people are very happy with their purchase!
I don't mean to pick on you, but bad statistical reasoning is a sore point for me. In this case, a more likely explanation is that you won't find as many for resale because Electrolux doesn't sell as many in the US as other vendors. I still believe they have a good reputation for reliability, enough so that we bought a pair a month ago, but that's based on CR which at least has a handle on using statistics.

Tumbling at the end, both on the washer and dryer are not special or unique features and are available on most brands.

How does it do with small loads? Any issues? (So many of the machines are so big today, I really need good cleaning and reliability, not huge capacity). Input much appreciated.

I'm not sure what a small load is for you. For us, our routine small load is a queen-size quilted mattress pad, typically with a couple of synthetic pillow tickings, and maybe a couple of microfiber dust mop pads. So it's relatively small by weight, but not that small by volume.

The washer does fine, but we have to be sure to use the minimum amount of detergent. We'd never use bleach on those, and never use softener.

The dryer, however, doesn't seem to have enough material for the moisture sensors to react properly, even on delicate settings. There would usually be one corner of the mattress pad still damp. Since this is a load of synthetics, adding an extra 10 or 30 minutes of additional no-heat tumble has solved that problem.

^Sounds like the Speed Queen front loader might be better for you... pretty weak in terms of capacity, but better built and more serviceable than the Elux. How small loads are you thinking of? They should both do fine in general on smaller loads. Elux is a nice product for sure though and it would definitely be my 2nd choice over SQ.

Thanks for the responses. My largest load is the weekly load of one set of queen size sheets. While I am familiar with the great reputation of top loading Speed Queen, I have heard very little about front-loading Speed Queen. The washer and dryer are in my kitchen and I really need the additional countertop space that a front loader would bring. (DH has made only one request with respect to my kitchen laundry plans and that is not to stack the washer and dryer or I would've thrown caution to the winds and purchased the stacked Speed Queen even though I was unable to find out much about the reputation of that model, I have heard even less about their unstacked front loaders). After doing a lot of research the Electrolux seems like a good idea but I'm concerned that it might just be too big. We are both small people so it's not like five pairs of jeans are going to fill that giant tub... My second choice is to buy a Bosch washing machine and a large dryer as I do think the extra space in the dryer makes a huge difference as far as how creased the clothes get. Feedback appreciated.

Practigal, I have a Miele washer and dryer and am very happy with the results of all my washes. It is not mega sized and I like that. It is 23" deep if I remember correctly. They would be perfectly suitable for a counter depth installation, side by side. I believe the height is somewhere around 33", counter goes right over the top. Miele has discontinued the vented dryer and now offers a condenser dryer, but you may still be able to find a vented dryer. I don't know how the condenser dryers are being received.

The washer has an on board heater, and at the sanitize selection it gets to 158degrees, the very hot is 140, the hot is ?, and the warm is 104degrees. I have used the machine to wash wool with beautiful results. I use the Miele liquid soap for wool, and the Miele soap for down for my down blankets and pillows. Otherwise I have a small collection of other recommended detergents recommended on the forum.

Depending on the vent run on the vented dryer (if found) there may need to be an inline booster fan. I am at the top of my length recommendation for my vent and it trips the filter/vent warning light on occasion. It was recommended that I get a booster fan by a GWber, who called the dryer a "hair dryer", LOL. Haven't done this yet. But its rare that the warning light comes on. My vent line is clear and I clean my filter after every load. The condensing dryer would be totally different though. If you have an opportunity to see a set it will be worth your time, even if you don't get them.

The front loading SQ is far better than their top loader. You don't hear much about it because it is very expensive so they don't sell many. Miele's front loaders are also excellent quality and are smaller than Speed Queen's, though much more feature rich.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Mon, Sep 22, 14 at 9:44

I was in love with the concept of the miele until I spoke with a friend of mine who has them (she loves them) but she also told me that she'd "only" had them repaired three times in the 10 years that she has owned them but that she didn't think that was too bad. They really are beautiful machines. My maytags have been in use since 1991 (washer which was reportedly purchased and in use since 1982) and 1994 (new dryer) and have needed no repairs. My laundry room is in my kitchen there is no other place I can locate it otherwise I would keep the Maytags until they die, if they do... I have spent several years thinking about the design of the kitchen, even trying to design around 30-year-old machines and realize that, unless I want the current hodgepodge, the best choice is really a front loader. The literally thousands of reports about dissatisfied washer dryer owners that have come out in the last 10 years have been extremely disheartening.... I also spoke with someone who had the Speed Queen stack for sale on craigslist. While he loved the washer dryer, he had had an issue with it clogging that cost him $400 to repair (service time, not parts), which is why he was selling the stack. As near as I can tell, none of the new washing machines have real filters but many thousands of us pet owners have dogs that shed and no amount of vacuuming will remove everything from the dog bed which guarantees that there will be a clog at some point in time. Having watched reviews for a long time, Miele are the most faithful to their product and for the most part their laundry products do seem to perform well, next in line is Electrolux they seem to me to be extremely large.... Thank you for the input.

LOL if you're afraid of repairs being expensive, don't get a Miele. Speed Queen has one of the easiest to service front loaders out there. Most front loaders including SQ let you remove and clean the trap easily, but if something else needing "unclogging" I can't imagine it would be more difficult on a different brand, and I also can't imagine that an SQ front loader would be more prone to clogging issues than a different brand.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 14:32

Interesting, I was specifically told that the Speed Queen's don't have a "trap" I'll have to do more research on that. Thank you for the heads up.

Didn't realize this thread was still running.

I had guests for a week and did 11 full size bath towels, hand towels, some face cloths, in one load in my Electrolux. Amazing how well they came out. I love these machines. I used max-fill and a heavy duty setting.

As far as small loads, I do many small loads as its usually just me and hubby. Washes perfectly. The dryer has a problem if just one shirt or a few t-shirts. I've found they do not dry properly and are incredibly wrinkled. I wound up rewashing them with other clothes. The washer has no problem with one item at all. Both machines have the steam feature which I use frequently especially in the drying. If you leave clothes laying too long you can run steam for 15 mins and all the wrinkles are gone. I rarely use steam in the washer but use it most in the dryer. Great feature!

They are large. Probably too large for a kitchen. Mine are on pedestals which raise them. I don't think they could stack.

I still haven't decided whether to take the warranty or not. They are exactly 2 years old and I haven't had a problem. I'm thinking, maybe they know something I dont, lol.

Jane

Jane, when drying one or two items throw 1 or 2 clean bath towels in with the clothes. This will help the load tumble and clothes will dry and be less wrinkled.

@Jane_NY

You're machines look awesome!

Regarding your dryer, do you find it noisy?
I read in some reviews that they are on the loud side (maybe an installation issue?)

How do you find the noise level of the dryer?

I would not call our Wave Touch (70 Series) dryer loud or noisy...but it is not as quiet as the washing machine! That being said, it is phenomenal. Getting the reverse tumble drum (Perfect Tumble) is reason enough to get the 70 over the 60. Amazing machines!!! I too do at least one very small load a week (maybe a few t-shirts, some aprons or some dish towels). No issues ever!

I agree with Larsi completely--the reverse tumble is awesome, no more tangled ropes of jeans or sheets, it all comes out nicely. And as I said, I love being able to set how long to keep it tumbling after it's done. I really feel like this set works for me, instead of me working around it. Being able to program custom settings is also handy. The kids or the hubs can go in and start a load of dish towels and just hit "dtowels" and all the settings I use are automatically applied.

I also do a fast wash on a few items on occasion, no problems. The dryer, however, needs a little bulk to tumble properly, so I use a few bath towels or a sheet to help it along if there's only one or two items in there.

Cj

Everything cj47 says is true!!! ;) I like the way you say the sets works for you, not you having to work around it. Very well said. Love Electrolux!!

I agree about the reverse tumble.

As I've said before, we have a model 70 dryer stacked on a model 60 washer, almost two months old, and so far, we're quite happy. We couldn't find any particular features to justify the model 70 washer, and the control panel on the 60 is much easier.

This thread has been so helpful! I'm now considering E'lux. In large part because of "Btw....it washes King comforters like nobody's business ;)" I really hate dragging them to the laundromat.

Larsi, thick comforters or thinner, summer weight quilts? How does the dryer handle them?

How do they do on heavily soiled clothes: day-long farming in Carhartt, & little kids who play hard outside & still make major messes while eating :/

Decker, those are my machines pictured above. They are huge and you can put the thickest comforters, quilts, etc in those machines. I always took my King size down comforters to the laundry to be washed, now I do them all, including down blankets, pillows and duvets in both machines. No more laundry matt or cleaners.

For really dirty clothes (stained, etc) I use max-fill to make sure they really soak. Everything comes out clean. I rarely do that as we have normal stains, but sometimes we work in the garden and jeans get full of Florida sand and dirt. Everything comes out clean. Sneakers, socks, etc. clean, clean. Its hard to describe, I've never had washers clean like this one.

Gary, do you ever use the steam features? I use them frequently. In the dryer, I left dry clothes over night. Hit the steam 15 min cycle and just took them out. They come out better than using just the dry cycle. Amazing, not a wrinkle even on my hubby's dress shirts.

I'm still debating the warranty offer which ends 9/30.

Jane

@Decker....We have washed thick comforters, blankets, machine safe quilts ALL with excellent results.

For the Dryer...for EVERY load we use Reverse Tumble, Wrinkle Prevent and if we will not be home for a while, we activate extended tumble.

I like to use the Heavy Duty cycle for towels, comforters and blankets. The bulky bedding and towels cycle are too hot, and they do not offer as many options. Heavy Duty also on the washer uses the most water, so it is great for thick items!!

We haven't used the steam feature, other than to just test that it was working. It's just recently, because of the Jewish holidays, that dress shirts are even making it into the hamper, and my preference is to remove immediately.

It will be interesting to see how my non-permanent press dress shirts come out. Because of job changes, I won't be wearing them nearly as often, so I'm prepared to iron instead of taking to the cleaners.

Thanks for more details! I'll be looking into these machines further. Sounds like maybe the right ones to buy.

I have a fairly thick comforter--nothing fancy, king size. The washer does a top notch job. It gets a little wrinkled in the dryer, though, which is not that big of a deal. The wrinkles smooth out once it's back on the bed.

Cj

Cj, try the steam in the dryer. I use that and the clothes look better than without the steam. Sometimes, I love what the steam does to wrinkles. Gone!

Jane

My feeling is that the machines diminish in value year after year, taking out a hundreds of dollars extended warranty on something that isn't that expensive to start with in my opinion is not a good value. My GE front load washer was under $600 two years ago so it wouldn't make any sense for me to buy a warranty for a third of it's value once it is another couple of years old. Three years of buying the warranty and I could have a new machine. I wouldn't like it but I would rather take my chances than to buy an extended warranty that costs that much. Maybe it would be better to take an insurance policy out on it! If it dies you get a pay out so you can go buy a new one. I know how you feel, it's hard to know what to do with all these new machines that seem to have a short shelf life.

Okay, I guess I'm the only one who really dislikes my Electrolux washer and dryer, LOL

I have the EIFLW-50LIWO washer and the EIED50LIW dryer, stacked because of space limitations. In my previous house I had a Duet front loader and dryer, placed side by side.

First of all, despite being 100% level (side to side and front to back) the washer rocks alarmingly several times during the high part of the spin cycle. We're talking several inches worth of 'sway' here, and with the dryer on top it is downright scary.

I absolutely HATE the fact that the door cannot be left partly ajar! There are only 2 options: fully closed or fully open. This is due to to the pressure-type closing which apparantly only Electrolux models have. Since my W/D is in a narrow entrance hallway this is annoying and is a navigation challenge of sorts.

The inside of the washer still emits a sweetish, perfumey odor 24/7. Electrolux said that my laundry products will take care of it; well, no.... because I have fragrance allergies I have to use 100% fragrance free products. Apparantly this smell is from the non-stainless parts of the washer and is the nature of the beast. Needless to say, my old Duet never smelled like anything.

The "sensor" drying on the dryer is a joke. Put in a load of just sheets, set it to 'casual' which is supposed to be a Medium heat, and it beeped 'done' in 20 minutes. Naturally everything was still wet, so I switched to Timed Dry...

... only to discover that you can't set your own Time for drying! You are limited to their pre-set times, and the middle ones are either 25 minutes or 40 minutes. Again... my old Duet let me choose the time down to the minute (which for 95% of my loads was 36 minutes).

And as a last gripe about the Electrolux dryer, when doing a set of queen sheets (2 sheets + 2 pillowcases) they wipe against the door and front gaskets the entire time. This is supposed to be a decent capacity dryer, and it can't properly toss a load like this around? My old Duet... oh, never mind, LOL

By now you're probably wondering why I didn't get a Duet pair instead of the Electrolux, right? ;-) Well, because after about 9 years the dryer started spitting little pieces of white plastic (insulation? who knows?) into the drum; and the thermostat became very unreliable (a Low setting gave the same heat as Medium or High). Of course by then the warranty was far from over and I couldn't afford to get it fixed or to replace it, so I just lived with it until the house was sold.

In retrospect, however, the Duets are looking pretty darn good compared to the Electrolux pair, LOL

My recent appliance salesman told me that the expected lifespan of today's new clothes washers and dryers is only about 8 years before developing major problems, and that if my Duets were even still operating at all after 12 years (which is how old they were when I sold) I was doing really well. A very sad commentary on quality, if true!

As an afterthought, another thing I don't like about the Electrolux (at least the model I have... the others may be different?) is that there is no function to add an extra rinse cycle.

I mean, really.... no option for an extra rinse, or for a rinse-only?!? Every washer I've ever owned, whether top or front loader, has had that option. I just assumed (duh) that it was a standard feature.

Helena, I looked up the manual for the EIFLW-50LIWO, and you have the option to select "Fresh Rinse" on your machine. That's an extra rinse with your cycles. I expect you could also select that with the "spin only" and you'd just get a rinse and spin independent of a cycle. Have you tried that? If it's not working, perhaps a call to your vendor is in order.

Best of luck,
cj

Yes, "Fresh Rinse", which should just be called Extra Rinse, is indeed an Extra Rinse. I use Fresh Rinse with Add more Water option, and my clothes look, feel and smell amazing!!!

I just read on another site where a guy has just gotten a new Elux W&D and he was explaining the "Fresh Rinse". He says the difference in it is that it fills the tub directly instead of routing the water through the dispensers. This way it is a "fresh rinse" with no chance of leftover softener, detergent or bleach involved.?

Link to "another side"

www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREADM.cgi?57002

Helena, you need to read the manual. You can time dry any amount you want. Push the custom button and set it to whatever you want. I have mine set for 10 mins, 15, 30, 1hr. I use the Fresh Rinse for all cycles. I also use 'Stain Treat' which adds extra water before adding the soap. There are so many options you can go crazy setting the washer.

My machine has a 'Rinse and Spin button.'

I bought the machines 2 years ago. I do not have reverse tumble on the dryer.

I do agree with you about the doors. I have room to leave them open but I would like to partially open them. My dryer works beautifully but I tend to use Normal dry. I do use Timed Dry at 10 mins if a sweater or something is still damp.

My machines have never had a smell nor shake. I also had Duets for over 10 years (sold them along with my past house) and they worked fine but there is no comparing them to these machines. The Duets were like toys. They always left soap residue and could not handle large loads. Same with the dryer. I always brought my comforters, blankets, etc to the Laundromat.

I don't have my model #'s handy. They are two years old, both machines have steam which I use often. Take a look at the manual. I think you will be surprised how many features these machines offer.

Jane

jane, the model I have doesn't have a Custom button. The only available Time Dry options are 10, 25, 40, 55 and 1:10 . Interestingly, the times shown in the manual are different from what the machine actually is (the manual says the choices are 15, 30, 45, 60 or 75 mins)!

My model doesn't have a Rinse & Spin. The only option for rinsing is the Fresh Rinse addition. No "add more water" option on the 50 model either.

sparky823, thanks for the explanation of how the Fresh Rinse works; the manual does not include that information. Luckily the previous owners of the house routed the washer drain line into a separate drywell instead of into the septic system (no sewers here, so houses with these old systems have to be careful with water usage to avoid backups).

This post was edited by Helena2013 on Sun, Nov 23, 14 at 11:43