What is the best washing machine for a family of six in 2015?

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GratefulDad said:
The Speed Queen says it has all metal components. Now I need a to find a store that sells them.

How is the repair service on them?
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Don’t know? I’ve never had a problem! I can load 7 to 8 large blue jeans, and the spin cycle is smooth. That being said, the delicate or hand wash cycle is not as good as other washers I’ve own. Does the job though.

Speed Queen Service Repair Centers
 
I wish we had repaired our old Whirlpool instead of getting rid of it and buying a new washer. I dislike the new machine intensely. It’s a GE top loader with an agitator. I don’t know how it does it, but this new machine manages to tie the clothes in knots.

Does anyone here have one of those new agitator-less machines? Do they get the clothes clean? The appliance salesman told us that agitators are eventually going to be phased out.
 
Terra_Rosarum said:
I wish we had repaired our old Whirlpool instead of getting rid of it and buying a new washer. I dislike the new machine intensely. It’s a GE top loader with an agitator. I don’t know how it does it, but this new machine manages to tie the clothes in knots.

Does anyone here have one of those new agitator-less machines? Do they get the clothes clean? The appliance salesman told us that agitators are eventually going to be phased out.
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I had a topload HE Maytag without an agitator and my clothes were CONSTANTLY tied my clothes in knots. It took forever to transfer to the dryer because everything had to be untangled, especially sheets. Also, I found that it definitely wore clothes out faster and required more ironing because the dryer couldn’t get out all the wrinkles from the washing machine. So frustrating! My new non-HE Speed Queen does not do that.
 
GratefulDad said:
The Speed Queen says it has all metal components. Now I need a to find a store that sells them.

How is the repair service on them?
Click to expand...
Their website should show you the dealers in your area. I just got the 432 model for a great price from the local {Catholic owned……yay!!!} hardware store…no problems so far 😉
 
We just bought a new one about three weeks ago. It’s a front loader GE. If you want to do large loads, a front loader can handle more than a top loader–when it comes to the agitator-less models.
 
We have a top loading GE model with a HUGE drum. It literally can wash every pair of jeans in our house at one time, or the sheets off One Cal King and three single beds at one time with room to spare.

I love it…sadly I would never by another GE product…not because the product is bad but because their customer service SUCKS. It broke last November, and it took 7 service calls, 5 incorrectly ordered parts, and a TON of time on the phone working my way up to the head of service’s office to get it fixed.

It’s working again and I still love the machine, but after the maddening experience with Customer Service…well lets just say when the deep freezer died recently (this was expected since it was so old Moses probably stored Manna in it), we did not replace it with a GE model.

If you look around you can find a high capacity top loading machine. I love mine.
 
We have an old top loading Kenmore.

When we bought our house 3 years ago…hubby rushed out to a used appliance store to pick up a washer and dryer.

The dryer was a GE and gave us nothing but issues…it finally stopped working after having it only 3 years a few weeks ago.
We bought a new Kenmore dryer.

The washer is a gem. It works great and shows no signs of stopping. As long as I use regular Tide detergent…it cleans everything beautifully.

We used to Cloth diaper too…so our washer had it’s work cut out for it.

I don’t like front load washers. You have to be careful with the amount of soap you put in or you’ll over sud the load and have to re-wash everything.
Plus…someone else mentioned this…if you find something you want to wash but a load is already running…you can just toss it into a top loader…you have to start an entire new wash for something you may have forgotten with a front loader.
 
Alix1912 said:
We have a top loading GE model with a HUGE drum. It literally can wash every pair of jeans in our house at one time, or the sheets off One Cal King and three single beds at one time with room to spare.

I love it…sadly I would never by another GE product…not because the product is bad but because their customer service SUCKS. It broke last November, and it took 7 service calls, 5 incorrectly ordered parts, and a TON of time on the phone working my way up to the head of service’s office to get it fixed.

It’s working again and I still love the machine, but after the maddening experience with Customer Service…well lets just say when the deep freezer died recently (this was expected since it was so old Moses probably stored Manna in it), we did not replace it with a GE model.

If you look around you can find a high capacity top loading machine. I love mine.
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THIS!

Nothing but issues with GE customer service. Our dryer had broke before and it was a nightmare getting it serviced.
It took two service guys to come out and finally fix the machine.
It only worked for another 2 years and then the motor went again.

My husband and I looked at each other and new we needed to drop the cash and just get a new dryer.
Less money in the long run and FAR less aggravation.
 
Kelfa28 said:
We have an old top loading Kenmore.

When we bought our house 3 years ago…hubby rushed out to a used appliance store to pick up a washer and dryer.

The dryer was a GE and gave us nothing but issues…it finally stopped working after having it only 3 years a few weeks ago.
We bought a new Kenmore dryer.

The washer is a gem. It works great and shows no signs of stopping. As long as I use regular Tide detergent…it cleans everything beautifully.

We used to Cloth diaper too…so our washer had it’s work cut out for it.

I don’t like front load washers. You have to be careful with the amount of soap you put in or you’ll over sud the load and have to re-wash everything.
Plus…someone else mentioned this…if you find something you want to wash but a load is already running…you can just toss it into a top loader…you have to start an entire new wash for something you may have forgotten with a front loader.
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Just want to point out that it is possible to open a front loader to add forgotten items. I do it all the time with my Bosch.

I’ve had it at least 15 years, it uses very little water and detergent, holds a very large load, and does a fantastic job of getting my clothes very clean. I also love the hand wash cycle for washing sweaters, which we wear often.
 
Book_Worm said:
Just want to point out that it is possible to open a front loader to add forgotten items. I do it all the time with my Bosch.

I’ve had it at least 15 years, it uses very little water and detergent, holds a very large load, and does a fantastic job of getting my clothes very clean. I also love the hand wash cycle for washing sweaters, which we wear often.
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I have to say–**I never thought we’d have a front loader. **But. When our aging top loader wasn’t working so well and my wife was insistent that we needed a new machine, and her parents had just bought a new LG top loader, and she was sure that’s what we wanted, and she started doing her investigations into it (she’s an engineer by training), and she asked at the locally owned appliance store, she was told that there is no #1 brand among clothes washers (unlike other home appliances) and a front loader can handle more laundry than a top loader…we ended up with a front loader.

We could immediately tell the difference. Our clothes actually came out cleaner. The delivery guys installed it and told me not to use more than 1 or 2 *tablespoons *of liquid detergent. They said the manufacturer’s rep told them, ‘If you can smell the fragrance of the detergent when the load is done then you used too much.’

As for the odor and mildew that can plague front loaders, the solution is to just leave the door open a little so it can dry out between uses.

It uses so little water that you can’t even *see *any in the bottom of the tub while it’s running.

Time will tell, but so far…it was the right choice.
 
We just bought a new set almost 4 years ago. At the time, we just wanted a traditional top loader with the agitator because we had heard about so many issues with the new fancy front loaders not getting clothes clean. We were very frustrated to find that we couldn’t find an extra large capacity top loader. They were all the traditional size which was way too small for 6 people…and much smaller than our current Maytag (Even though they said “extra large capacity” on the tag, they were much smaller than what we already had. "Extra large capacity my bum :rolleyes:).

So we went with the Samsung top loader without the agitator. We’ve been VERY happy with it. Clothes come out clean. The water level adjusts to the load you put in. So it’s customized to save water but your clothes are still bathed in water, not showered like they are in a front-loader. I don’t have to do as many loads and can get the laundry done so fast. Yes, the cycle takes longer but it’s still less changing loads from the washer to dryer. And I tend to forget to change them anyway so it’s better for ME to be able to do a larger load even if it takes longer.

I do worry about the computerized controls failing and being expensive to repair. I wish I could find an old-fashioned top loader with mechanical controls that could keep up with my laundry needs. But I think it’s a trade-off for me. Thankfully, we’ve been lucky and haven’t had to do any repairs so far. And I no longer have massive mountains of laundry that I’m constantly fighting.

My only complaint is that it doesn’t have a spin-only cycle. So if the load gets imbalanced (very rare, only if I put try to put in a big bulky blanket with sheets or something like that. I have to wash the bulky blanket alone…but I can also easily wash my king size bedspread without squishing it up. 👍) it’s a pain to get it straightened out. It does have a “rinse and spin” cycle…but that’s not helpful when I’m trying to fix an imbalanced load. Problem solved if I quit trying to throw sheets in with comforters :o

Also, I have to give Samsung a big, huge shout-out for customer service. We have a Samsung flat screen TV that went black a few months out from the warranty expiring. DH got on Samsung’s facebook page complaining about it and they contacted him and sent a repairman out and fixed it for FREE. $600 in parts/labor. 👍

Good luck on your search!
 
masondoggy said:
My only complaint is that it doesn’t have a spin-only cycle. So if the load gets imbalanced (very rare, only if I put try to put in a big bulky blanket with sheets or something like that. I have to wash the bulky blanket alone…but I can also easily wash my king size bedspread without squishing it up. 👍) it’s a pain to get it straightened out. It does have a “rinse and spin” cycle…but that’s not helpful when I’m trying to fix an imbalanced load. Problem solved if I quit trying to throw sheets in with comforters :o
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Sounds like yours is similar to mine. My basket, or whatever you call the things the clothes go in, actually moves in the machine during the cycle, so it can use less water and get more force without using as much power. Hence its designation as “high efficiency” even though it is a top loader. I also find it has quite a lot of capacity. It does adjust the water level automatically, but I can override it if I wish.

The controls on mine do have several cycle options, but I can also set a cycle and then use a ‘forward’ button to just move it to the next step in the cycle. So I have done spin only by setting a “rinse” cycle and then just fast forwarding to the spin. Or I can skip the spin when I’m doing diapers.

Because of the way the clothes move, the top does lock when I’m running a cycle, but I just have to push pause and it stops and I can open the lid.
 
We have Zug washing machine (Swiss make)

It is excellent and has child lock:thumbsup: to name a few.
 
So what type of washer gets the clothes the cleanest?
  1. Traditional top load with full agitator?
  2. Top load agitatorless?
  3. Front load washer?
We have been using the front load Speed Queen washer at the laundry mat and it seems to be doing a good job cleaning.🤷
 
GratefulDad said:
So what type of washer gets the clothes the cleanest?
  1. Traditional top load with full agitator?
  2. Top load agitatorless?
  3. Front load washer?
We have been using the front load Speed Queen washer at the laundry mat and it seems to be doing a good job cleaning.🤷
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Family of six+ and we have a six year old Whirlpool front loader we bought at Sears with the extended service plan through them.

I believe my old traditional top loader with full agitator got the clothes a bit cleaner - however it’s not enough of a difference to really matter.

What does matter is that the HE front loader uses much, much, less water. Where we live, the water and sewer rates (sewer based on amount of water you use) are very high, and we simply could not afford anything not water-efficent.

Over those six years, it’s broken about four times - each time it took Sears about a week to get someone out, but it got fixed each time.

I feel like we’ve gotten good value out of it - I do about 3 loads a day, every day - and so the energy savings have far outweighed the inconvenience of the break downs (all of which were covered under the service plan). We bought a floor model, so the savings from that pretty much covered the cost of the service plan, so I feel we’ve done well.
 
GratefulDad said:
So what type of washer gets the clothes the cleanest?
  1. Traditional top load with full agitator?
  2. Top load agitatorless?
  3. Front load washer?
We have been using the front load Speed Queen washer at the laundry mat and it seems to be doing a good job cleaning.🤷
Click to expand...
I’ve never owned a front-load so I cannot vouch for it but I will say that for my husband’s work clothes (that are always filthy from grass, mulch, dirt, etc.) the top load agitator (non-HE SQ) definitely cleans them better. As for the rest, it’s probably a toss-up, but I find that the my clothes don’t end up in tangled knots with an agitator.
 
Has anyone heard of or bought an appliance from HHGregg? They seem to have good perks and easy to do business with.
 
Update…Just got our new washer this weekend. It is a Maytag top load, High Efficiency Low Water Washer. What I would call agitatorless, no real agitator. Wife wanted to try the “new technology” and get a larger tub.:rolleyes: $459, 4.3cuft. We did get the HH Gregg 5yr. Performance Plan for $150. I’m not a fan of either the agitatorless washer or the extended warranties, but if she is happy, oh well.🍿

I will say the washer that is being replaced is a Maytag bought in 1996, $588, 3.6cuft. No extended warranty, all porcelain, mechanical dials, full agitator, etc. The only thing close to that type of washer was the Speed Queen.

Will report on the wash times and efficiency later.
 
We’ve got our GE front loader a few months ago and…we hate it. I think what we’re going to do is chalk it up as a loss, see if we can sell it on Craigslist, and buy a top loading machine, preferably a Speed Queen if we can afford one.

It. Just. Doesn’t. Work. We have to do pretty nearly every load on the heavy/hot/heavy setting, which defeats the purpose of High Efficiency. Our bath towels never smell fresh. They smell like stale water.

I was reading about, ‘oh, you have to make sure your water is properly conditioned…you have to make sure you’re using such-n-such detergent…use this recipe for detergent…’

No. Uh-uh. If my old top loading agitator machine got the clothes clean and all I had to do was dump in the detergent and turn it on, how can all the extra work be called “Progress”? :hey_bud:

All FWIW.
 
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