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rroo

Washer and dryer- features?

rroo
11 years ago

I am currently looking at washer and dryers as I will need new ones for our new house. It has been 7 years since I have bought any and I am sure they have changed over those years. I am wondering which features you love/recommend in washers and dryers? Also wondering what the steam options are for and if you have and like the steam option?

Thanks!

Comments (2)

  • mydreamhome
    11 years ago

    I love having the sanitary cycle on my FLs for washing towels, dog bed, baby diapers (when the kids were babies) and especially soiled clothes. My rule of thumb is that if a stain doesn't come out in the sanitary cycle, then it will never come clean.

    I wish I had the steam option on mine, but I bought it way before that was even a mainstream option. Basically the steam can be used to freshen garment & help de-wrinkle garments. If I'm not mistaken, you can put dry clean only garments in on the steam cycle to freshen them up too (no stain removal though).

    With all that being said, there are times when I wish I still had a top loader. While I have a soak cycle on my FL, I never feel there is enough water in there for a true soak. I do think I was able to get more laundry in my old top loader too. My FL and my old top loader were the biggest you could buy at the time and while the FL I have is the one that advertised 16 pair of jeans in 1 load, I have not found that to be the case if you wanted to actually get those jeans clean. In fact, I wanted to buy another set and stack them in the laundry room so I would have 2 washers and 2 dryers to speed up the laundry process--DH vetoed that idea, though.

    I think it's Electrolux that has the shortest express wash cycle. That would be a very nice feature to have. The longer wash cycles have also been a learning curve for me vs my old top loader. I guess less water means longer cycles. On my washer the shortest wash is 30 minutes--I think E'lux was something like 15-18 minutes.

    Hope this helps!

  • gr8daygw
    11 years ago

    My next machines will be old fashioned agitator top load. I have now had the Bravos Maytag HE machine and also a front loader HE by GE. Abosolutely hated the Bravos, total POS. The GE front load by comparison is a wonderful machine but I just can't do things like open the top and soaking things sort of manually and it makes clothes smell clean unlike the low water usage of the frontloaders. I really love my GE frontloader but I am tired of wiping it out all the time and worrying about it and then doing those clean wash cycles that seem to use tons of water, why not just use more water each wash? If you do a stain wash with a second rinse the cycle takes 2 hours and 31 minutes!!! It's taking me all day or maybe two days to do just a few loads. I wish I had never gotten rid of the still working pair that I had that were 18 years old.

    I think if I were to be looking today for a machine I would go for a Speed Queen because they are still made in America and not in Mexico or somewhere else and also they have a good top load from what I am reading on here and elsewhere. I may possibly be tempted to look at their front load. But I don't have the pedestals and I nearly have to sit on the floor to unload the machine. I put a little Rubbermaid stool in the laundry room so I can just sit on that and do what I have to do ie all the wiping out and transfer from washer to dryer. Sometimes I like to shake the clothes out, maybe turn back right side out etc before putting in dryer so that's why it takes me a while. Next time it's back to the future with the old school full agitator top load.

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