Talk to me about front loaders!!

[sneakysparkle]

I need your advice!!

We have decided to get a new washer and a dryer (yay thanks K Rudd!) - we definately want a front loader.
So far we have found 3 that we like - a Bosch, a Maytag and an LG. We cant afford top of the line stuff, something mid-range I think.

So here's my questions...
What do you think of these brands? What do you have at home? Is 6.5kg big enough? Any other recommendations?

Thanks guys!

[*charmalea*]

we have just bought a 7.5kg LG front loader and we love it !! we got it from clive peteers around about $850 ... we are really happy with it and the clothes wash up soooo much cleaner than a top loader ...

it takes for ever to do a load (some loads up to 3hrs !!!!!!)

but its great and so glad we got it!!

[squidipa]

go the bigger the better 6.5 kilo front loader is not the same as a top loader as u cant fill them as much. they wash GREAT had myn for about 5 months and love it. pick one with a longest warentee if possible. and use front laoder washing powder. loads taker longer to wash tho but they do wash great and uses way less water.

our door on ours droped a little and i rnag them and they came right out to my house to repair it. also pay the extra for the longer wraentee as if your paying what ya are ya cant afford to have to replace whole thing 1 day out of 2 years hey if u have any otehr q's let me know


did u know they have washing machine's front loader and dryers build in one too.. this is my dream item lol

[BrightSparkles]

We have a westinghouse (sp?) and i LOVE it. It was even better that we got the $100 water rebate and washing powder.

I find that clothes last longer with a front loader and it doesn't seem to be as harsh on the clothes. And DFs buttons stay on his work shirts longer - which is ALWAYS a plus LOL

I don't know much about the brands that you've looked at. Bosh is meant to be quite good i think.

[Bathsheba]

My sis has a front loader, I have a top loader. Sis lives on a farm with tank water so saving water was priority for her and I'm fairly certain nearly all FL are waaaay more water efficient than TLs. Is this why you are considering buying one? If so go for it.

However I personally would struggle with a FL. Maybe because we are a family of 5 and I do at least 2 loads a day. I found that with sis's FL each cycle took aaaaages. I think over an hour. My TL does the same kind of cycle in half the time. I wonder if this impacts on electricity use?

I also am the kind of person who often starts a cycle and then likes to be able to pop in a few extra items while it's filling up. Obviously can't do that with a FL.

But this will be an interesting thread to read. We have a LG 6.5kg machine and it's getting to be a bit on the small side for us now that we have switched to king sized sheets. Doing 1 sheet at a time really sucks I dream of buying a Maytag 8kg TL. That would do us for the rest of our life i reckon! They are so well made. When I worked at a child care centre they had one: it was soooo good. Maytag is a great brand but definitely up the top end of the range.

[Pandora]

I dont htink 6.5 kilos is big enough for a family of 4, from my experience.
I am replacing my LG 7.5 kilo front loader today and even with that size we do more than one load a day, and only have the one bub ATM.

I have had nothing but trouble with it since about 6 months after we bought it (about 4 years ago now) and I know another BB member with a similar machine who had almost the exact same issue. But a lot comes down to the model you choose.

Maytag are a great brand in general, most commercial washers and dryers are Maytag. Bosch are also good, I would go with either of those brands over LG based on my experience.

As for washer dryer in one, Id never do that. Most technology works best when it has a single funciton, he more you add, the harder they are to fix and the more issues you potentially end up with.

You dont need anyting over 800RPM, spinning clothes that fast might dry them faster, but speaking from experience it also wears them out faster as well, and given you will have a dryer its just unnecessary.

We got our FP Aquasmart delivered today. Its a top loader, yep but it only uses a few litres more water than my LG (less than 5 per load more)

[sneakysparkle]

wow thanks girls - so much to think about!

bath - yep we did want to get a FL for its water-saving-ness

[Bathsheba]

As for washer dryer in one, Id never do that. Most technology works best when it has a single funciton, he more you add, the harder they are to fix and the more issues you potentially end up with.

You dont need anyting over 800RPM, spinning clothes that fast might dry them faster, but speaking from experience it also wears them out faster as well, and given you will have a dryer its just unnecessary.

We got our FP Aquasmart delivered today. Its a top loader, yep but it only uses a few litres more water than my LG (less than 5 per load more)

Excellent advice Ray! I completely agree. And can't wait to hear more about your aquasmart TL! (start a thread on it will ya? )

I understand that saving water is important especially if you live on a farm... but now that I read that some FL take nealry 3 hrs per cycle I would really worry about the electricity use.

[Pandora]

Most front loaders have a quick cycle - so 30min or so but generally with that you can only fill it to 2kg or so.
My LG also had a seperate fast cycle button that reduced the time of the full cycle whichw as just over to hours, to about 1.5 hours.
They tend to have reasonable energy efficiency ratings though.

If you have a choice membership check out their report on washng machines, it is fairly recent.

[Nelle]

No idea how big my Indesit front loader is, but it has a fast cycle, about 30min, and I pack it full, and it works fine. For us, living in the 'burbs, most of our clothes don't really get that dirty. It's the nappies and the like that can take maybe 1.5 hours.

[Daydream Believer]

We have a Bosch front loader thats just over 2 years old now & its fantastic. It uses less water than a top loader. It has only one hose connection to the cold tap & heats the water itself for warm washes. I had trouble with the top loader we had being a short person I struggled to get the stuff out of the bottom.

The regular cycle on a cold wash is 45mins, the express wash at 30 degrees is 15 min.
It has a 4 1/2 star energy rating.

Have no idea about dryers because we still have our old one & it only gets used once in a while

Hope that helps

[Rouge]

Yeah I agree most front loaders have a shorter function. They also have timers so you can put a load in before you go to bed and it is ready when you wake up. We do this all the time. I do roughly a load a day and ours is a 7.5 ltr. I wouldn't buy our brand again as we've had quite a lot of issues with it, but I have plenty of friends with LG and they swear by them.

We have a pretty exxy dryer but I absolutely love it and wouldn't be without it. Its an LG condenser dryer. It is extremely heavy duty and because its a condenser you don't get moisture on the walls, we also collect the water from the water container and use it to water the plants. If I were to buy another dryer (and we owned) I would get a gas condenser dryer as it costs about 6c per load as oppose to the ridiculous amounts it costs for the dryer.

[Pandora]

Cai that dryer sounds great. we had to repaint the laundry roof in our old house due to dryer related condenstaon issues. Hence the ceiling fan in the new laundry..too bad the dryer is in the garage

[*charmalea*]

i just washed a doona in my FL !! im scared abot my lg now lol!!!dh swears by LG... touch wood !!

[Rouge]

Yup thats the other beauty of FL's they should be able to take a doona (providing the size )

[*charmalea*]

it was a single size .. i dont think it will take my king size and you can cram in loads of towells with out them spinning around the agitatior ... and they never go off balance

[Bathsheba]

Yep, avoid central pillar agitators in TLs.... that takes up way too much room. Our LG TL doesn't have a pillar agitator which is one of the reasons we chose it. DH still has a tendency to stuff too much into it Can't stand that... it defeats the purpose, you can't expect a good result if you overfill it.... the clothes have to be able to move to clean.

Like the sound of condenser dryers too Cai. We rarely use our dryer... like you said, ridiculously expensive to use... I don't know how people afford it when they use dryers exclusively ie never line dry and I find they kinda wreck your clothing if you use them too much.