So... I think my washer just bit the dust. We've been talking about getting a HE washer and dryer for a while, and now we just may have to... I do an insane amount of laundry, Usually 5 Extra Large loads a day, and with boy 4 due this summer I'm just gonna be washing more

Does anyone here own these? Are they front or top load? Is it worth the extra $$? I think I just read it uses SO much less water (like 38 gallons to 18 gallons) Also the clothes dry faster?
Any input/opinions would be really appreciated
Thank you~

I was just at Sears yesterday, asking questions, as I believe I will be buying a new washer in the near future.

After perusing through all the brands and features, I was still drawn to the LG and Bosch washers. LG brand has a great reputation for quality and durability, and Bosch (believe it or not) is the same company which makes after-market auto parts, and they hold the same reputation in that field, so what would make me think otherwise about their appliances?

What you want to do is go online, look through some appliance departments at stores, and at Best Buy. List the features which are most appealing to you, and go from there. Be aware that front-loaders now come in different drum capacities, too, so if you have a large family and need a large-capacity washer, it might help you narrow down your choices.

Sears has a great selection, even if their customer service sucks. Go their website first, then check around to see who has the same thing at other stores. And ask about meeting or beating prices. In this economy, stores will do almost anything to get your sale. Oh, and all their Kenmore appliances are on sale for 15% off until Saturday.

Theresa

Thank you! I was just on BestBuy.com and Sears.com, but I never thought to compare the features I want! I was getting overwhelmed by the selection... I'll go try again

Well, we had a front loading Neptune HE which I thought I would like a lot more than I did... Always seemed to find a sock that I had dropped AFTER the wash cycle began.. (And being front loading, once it's loaded and started - that's it.)

Now have a Fischer & Paykel HE Aqua Smart top loader which I just love. When I find any "dropped" items, I can pause the machine and add the item without a problem. (And don't have to worry about the front loading seal EVER leaking since there isn't one.)

Also, you can switch between HE and regular cycles depending on the type of laundry you're washing. And the spin is phenomenal. (If you choose "fast" spin, the items come out needing hardly any time in the dryer.)

All in all, lots of wash options - but very easy to use. (No agitator so you can pile the laundry in and doesn't walk at all when spinning.)

HTH

Lol... we just moved into a new house, and every time I walk into the laundry room the washer has "walked" about a foot forward... Must be the tile floor? Never happened in the old house
I never thought about not being able to throw something in after it started with the front load... that's helpful, thank you. (I always find something else to throw in) Have you noticed a difference in your water bill? Our new house is heated with radiant heat throughout the floors, so I'm expecting a rather large water bill (the house is 4000 sq ft), so anything that can combat the amount of water we use would be a good thing!

Well, we have well water so we don't get a water bill. However, the clothes don't sit in water like a normal washing machine. In HE, the water is forced through the items as the drum either tumbles or rotates.

In the F&P, depending on the cycle you choose (depending on items being laundered) the machine uses a more normal cycle or HE. But either cycle (especially HE) uses VERY MUCH less water than a non-HE machine.

Liked the F&P also, because it has very few moving parts which should translate into longer life.

Yes, the selection can be daunting. And FYI, the F&P doesn't have THE largest capacity (can't do King size comforters or 32x40 padded dog beds).

But I wouldn't necessarily trust ANY salesperson to direct me to my dream machine. They can only sell what they stock, so what they stock is what they're going to recommend...

Online research and reading customer reviews, as well as my sister's owning a F&P (different model, though) influenced our decision.

Happy Hunting!

I'm off to do more reading, thank you guys for posting!

Ooh, JanH- it has auto out of balance correction?? My MIL ALWAYS puts the laundry in wrong when she is here and then tries to blame me when it starts making noise... lol... at least this would stop her. I have one other question, my dryer is only a couple of years old... do you think I should buy a new dryer too or just keep the one I have? Are they meant to work as a "team"?

We had one of the first Maytag Neptunes and I loved it. Although, it did have recall issues on some parts which we had repeatedly fixed for free. When we moved we decided to leave it behind and get a newer front loader. We just have a basic ge now. Of course about a year after we bought it, front loaders suddenly became popular. Now there's a lot more to choose from. Yes, the door locks so if you need to stop it, you have to wait two minutes for the door to unlock. Not a big deal for me since I do soooo much laundry with 4 kids, I just throw stuff into a different load. It definately cleans better and does dry things well. What I really love is that I can put in hand wash items. There's nothing for them to get snagged on and the gentle cycle is truely gentle. So sweaters in the winter are a breeze.

Keep in mind that if you get a HE washer you will have to buy HE detergent or you will be up to your neck in bubbles! I've tried lots of different brands and the brands that work better cost more. However, I've recently been using Meijer brand (store brand) and it's awesome. There are washers out there now with bigger capacities than I have and I can fit a lot in mine. Our king size comforter "can" fit, but it doesn't clean as well because it's really stuffed in there.

The F&P sounds great, we looked into F&P's, but at the time they were more than they are now. I have a Bosch mixer! Love Bosch appliances.

I have the LG front loader washer and dryer. At first I was in love.
Now its just a pain in my butt. I have to wipe the door down, the inside rings etc after I am done with it. and I even let it air dry out and when ever I open it I have this musty smell its driving me insane.

I dont remember having that problem with my top loaders.

I have a pair of Samsung HE front-loaders and LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

I have seen a $10 - $12 drop in my water bill since buying them last November. They work phenomenally. And as a family of 5 (with three teenagers), we wash ALOT. And I have a strict one-time-bath-towel-use rule...sop we wash about 10 loads of towels a week.

The washer spins like 18000 RPM or something insane like that so a big load of towels (we use big thick towels, almost the size of bath sheets but not quite) dries in like 18 minutes.

And they play a happy little song when the load is finished.

Oh, and they do have a feature that allows me to throw stuff in that I've dropped on the way to the laundry room after the cycle has started.

I only use Tide HE, which consistently scores amongst the highest rated detergents.

Cakepro- the happy little song sounds an awful lot better than the annoying buzz I hear now ;D

I alos have an front loading LG washer and dryer, but I've never had any of the issues that DanielleG has. When we first got them and I did the first load of clothes, they felt so dry I didn't think they got washed!

What kills me is the price of the HE detergents! THe money you save getting a HE washer/dryer, you make up for in the cost of the darn detergent!
Do you really have to leave the doors open?

When we moved into our house 2 years ago, I had to buy all new appliances. For the washing machine, my only 'want' was that I wanted the largest capacity available (4.7 cu ft). I really didn't care about top load vs front load or color. We ended up with all Kenmore Elite stuff because of the promotions they were running at the time.

We bought this one http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02628062000P?vName=Appliances&cName=Washers+%26+Dryers&sName=View+All+Washers

I liked the front load models they had, but the top load models were all cheaper by several hundred dollars. There was one more expensive one than this one (also a top load), and the only difference was that there was a window on the door. I wasn't really interested in paying $100 more to be able to watch my laundry spin.

Anyhow, it's a top-load, HE washer. We haven't had any problems with it. I can stuff a king size comforter in it with no problems. It does help with drying because it spins much faster than the old style.... the front-loaders tend to spin even faster. You have to buy the HE detergent, like someone else wrote already. The other thing with this one is that there is no big agitater 'pole' sticking up the middle of the drum..... there is just a hump on the bottom of the basin...so that helps you to pack more stuff into it.

HTH!
Denise

We have had our HE washer and dryer for about a year now and I just LOVE them!! My water bill went down $40 per month! I also love that I can do all my laundry for the week in about 3 hours! One more thing that I really have enjoyed is that mine have a chime on them for the end of cycle instead of that awlful buzzer

I havent noticed the HE detergent being any more expensive but I can tell you that you use so little it lasts a long time! I think I have only used 4 or 5 bottles in a year

I'm pretty sure the only detergent I buy is already HE... I get it at BJ's, and last time I looked they only sold HE... I usually buy whatever they have a coupon for in their book... What I really care about is the fabric softener, I ONLY buy blue Snuggle... Do I have to buy HE softener too or doesn't it matter?

Funny this post should be on here:

I was just out pricing these. Appliance smart has a pair of front load Fridgidaires for $899. Plus you get a years supply of HE Tide free.

I went to Sears Outlet, 2 different Lowe's, HHGregg, Best buy and Home Depot and three of the stores no one even came over and the others, no one was willing to deal with me. I even told them I had $1000 in cash and was willing to buy right then and there. Here I thought economy being bad and all, they would be willing to take down their prices.

Their loss I guess. I will probably go to Appliance Smart tomorrow and set up delivery.

My dryer takes about 2 hrs to dry so I wanted to get a new set because I am sure my washer will crap out soon too.

Barb

I have LG HE washer and dryer and love them. Gotta say though, that the first time I heard the happy song go off when it was done, I thought one of the kids toys was going off and was looking all over for the culprit, before I figured out it was the dryer.

I also have the LG HE combo and loved them at first, but the washer really is a pain. I don't like the fact that you have to constantly clean the door and the seal, and you also have that little drain at the bottom to deal with. I guess I just like a low maintenance product, which compared to top loaders, these are not.

On the other hand, my water bill is half what it used to be and I can pause the machine after it has started if I need to add other items. I'm not sure how far into the cycle you can do this--usually when I need to add something else, it's right away. However, I have added something after it had been going for about 3 minutes, I just hit the pause and it unlocked.

I've also noticed that pretty much all the detergent around here is HE, I don't notice the regular stuff anymore. I just wait until Target has it on sale and get a couple of bottles at once.

Thriftyfun.com is a great site for product reviews, as well as a lot of other things. I've found it to be almost as addicting as CC!

The F&P washer has HE detergent and liquid bleach dispensers - but no fabric softener dispenser. They recommend fabric softener dryer sheets.

The Neptune dryer is still going strong. However, we're leaving the appliances when we move so I think I'd like to get another F&P washer and their matching dryer. Theirs is the only TOP loading dryer I've ever seen. (Has fins to tumble the items. Wonder how that works for sheets, etc.).

Anyway, I think it would be nice not to have to bend down to get the clothes out of the dryer. Getting a different brand that has one of those new fancy "bases" (instead of using cinder blocks) would also work..

baker4life made laugh... When the first load came out of the F&P, I also thought there was something wrong because the clothes were hardly wet. (Never thought that when we had the Neptune.)

We bought the F&P washer and dryer about 4 years ago. I absolutely love them. My washer is the one before the HE the PP was talking about - but its spin cycle is fantastic and the clothes are just damp when they come out. And the washer does not 'walk' either.

We purchased the top loading dryer to go with it - and it is a dream! It rotates forward for about 4 minutes and then stops and rotates backwards for about 1 minute - which keeps the clothes from getting tangled and not drying completely. The dryer is always finished with its load before the washer finishes the next load.

However - we purchased this set from Lowes - but about 20 months into the 2 year warranty the dryer started making a grinding noise. Called Lowe's and - of course - they did not have a repairman for the F&P. After too many phones calls on my end to other F&P dealers in a 3 hour radius with no results and 2 more phone calls back to Lowe's manager -- he delivered a brand new F&P dryer to me. So far so good with this one.

So my biggest suggestion to you is the same I gave my DD and future SIL is - buy your appliances from a dealer who WILL and CAN repair them. That is worth much more than 2 years no interest!!

Good luck - it is a daunting task!!

Suze