The clothes washer at the new house having apparently died (it was old), KJ and I are looking at new washers. Right now it's between a GE and an Amana. The GE is about $100 more expensive, but based on the energy charts should make up the difference within a decade. Does anyone have any input on these or other brands' reliability or related issues?
Don't buy a GE. They're a very, very far cry from what they used to be. We bought a Maytag set three years ago because, at the time, the washer had the largest tub. We've had very good results.
90% of home appliances sold in the US are made by like 3 companies, who slap various names like Amana, Maytag, etc. on them. If you Google around, you can find out who makes what and which ones are the same, save the name. This is handy, because even though they might be identical washers, other than the name, their prices can be very different. No point in buying a high dollar washer if you can get the exact same thing for less.
Just bought a pair of GEs but really only because the Maytags were outside of the pocket change at the time. LGs are nice but pricey. We had a set of Kenmores that lasted twenty years before the washer took a dump. The dryer is still functional.
My sister bought a new LG washer and dryer about 3 months ago, she does not like the front loaders. We own Roper (By Whirlpool) and they have lasted YEARS.
This is one of the biggest problems for general labour-staffing agents. Besides taking up to a third of earned wages, they frequently "cycle" employees to avoid having to classify them as permanent.
I have a Cabrio (which is a giant top loader HE machine). The things I like about it: It is water efficient which is important because we live on dugout It does a LOT at one time which is great because I'm doing laundry on an almost constant basis (4 loads a day, its nuts. I have honestly debated turning us into a nudist household at times.) It has a timer and I can set a load to be done for 5 am when I get up. The things I do not like about: It does not get important things out. Like stains or puke or lots of dirt (all of which go through our house a lot with 3 kids). Nothing that is bigger than the end of an eraser will go through the holes (except for change which slips through and clogs up the hoses) If you do not zip up zippers (which NOBODY ELSE in the house does) it gets little burs on the middle part and rips holes in the knits I repeat. It does not get stains out Oh and if you put anything powdery in it like powder oxyclean - it won't get it out in the first wash so you have to do an extra rinse.
Maytag just opened a plant here in Memphis. I would imagine their quality will drop, considering the labor force here.
Electrolux wins in many of the quality rankings. That said, Samsung normally does well and that's the brand I bought when I switched to a front loader. I haven't had any problems though I don't really like the cheap plastic feel of the thing where as my clanky old GE which I had before was all metal construction and seemed like it could survive a nuclear war.
