Upgrading to a High Efficiency Washer and Dryer
November 15, 2009 
12 Comments
We experienced a family crisis late last week, everything in our house started to break, our happy infrastructure was literally falling apart. First to quit on us was our fridge water dispenser, closely followed by the ice maker, then our clothes dryer decided to stop drying!
We easily managed without the ice maker and water dispenser but we quickly realized that the clothes dryer was a fairly critical piece of what makes our lives tick by so smoothly. Without our clothes dryer the pile of dirty clothes quickly reached new heights and a pile of already washed rugs started to stink up the laundry room with a rather nasty “sour” smell…
Our Old Washer and Dryer (In a Messy Laundry Room!)
But as the saying goes, for every cloud there is a silver lining, and our silver lining was the chance to upgrade our out-dated washer and now broken clothes dryer. We went to our local Lowes store and spent about an hour checking out the new features and ratings for the “high efficiency” front loading washer and dryers.
We quickly found a washer and clothes dryer pair which fit both our budget and our desire to go green with energy star appliances. We ended up choosing a pair of Maytag appliances and together they cost about $1600 which was a lot but we managed to take advantage of a 0% for 12 months deal so the decision was easy (well fairly easy – big purchases always give me a cold sweat!)
We read that the new high efficiency front loading clothes washers can save anywhere from 20% to 66% of the amount of water an old top loading washer would use! Also, the tumbling motion of the front loader is less harsh on the fabrics being washed so our clothes should look good longer…
Our New High Efficiency Washer and Dryer Installed
An early Sunday morning delivery woke us up and got the dogs barking! It was all totally worth it, the new washer and dryer looked great. We had to run the dryer for 30 mins without any clothes to burn off any dust left over from the factory (the installation technician gave us lots of tips like that!).
One big change was that we had to switch to the new High Efficiency (HE) laundry detergent which forms less suds and helps wash clothes more efficiently. After our first load of washing through the high efficiency washer we noticed how dry the clothes are once the wash cycle has finished. The install technician explained that the spin cycle of the washer actually removes a lot of the water from the clothes which makes drying times even shorter.
Top Loading vs New High Efficiency Designs
The above diagram shows how the front loading high efficiency washer uses much less water than the traditional top loading washer.
We are going to monitor our electricity and water usage to try and figure out exactly how much the new washer and dryer are saving us, stay tuned for more updates next month!
Next on our hit list of high efficiency or energy star appliances is the fridge freezer, we will be getting a new energy star fridge freezer which should further improve our energy savings. Have you recently replaced some old energy hog appliances? Tell us your story by leaving a comment…
Hey Martin,
I really like your illustration of the "Top Loading vs New High Efficiency Designs" Where did you get this?
Thanks,
Danielle
Danielle@wsamarketing.com
Hi Danielle,
We're glad you found our green blog…
The illustration was part of the instructional material that came packaged with our MayTag HE washer and dryer and I think it was part of the Tide HE detergent promotion material. I couldn't find the illustration online anywhere, just on the printed info that came with our purchase.
Hope this helps?
Martin
Very cool new washer and dryer you have there. I hope I can afford to do some upgrades on my appliances too. Most of our home appliances are old – acquired about the time we moved into our house some years ago. I have a feeling they are shouting for upgrades and would want to retire soon, LOL.
Thanks for sharing those illustrations of the differences between a traditional and high efficiency washer and dryer. Being able to use half the amount of water per load may save hundreds of dollars per year not to mention water. Good post.
It saves no water or electricity if you have to rinse two or three extra times and have to iron them they are so crushed in the process of the so called “washing”. I have called the company over and over and the units are working as they were stupidly designed to work! I broke out all over for the first time in my life with a rash and after washing a load of black clothes I saw why, soap on the clothes not even dissolved. YES, I used the proper amount of soap and the HE as instructed! No hope for the stupid things. I am 70 years old and know how to be GREEN, by just not wasting but this new HE washer wastes because you have to rinse and rinse to get the soap out.
I bought the HE washer and dryer about 4 months ago and I literally hate it! Everything is twisted, tangled and wrinkled beyond belief. I have been washing clothes for 52 years but this is the first washer and dryer that ever made me cry. Everything has to be rinsed several times to get out the soap, no matter how little HE detergent I use and EVERYTHING has to be ironed, even the no press blouses. I hate it! I cry about it, I could KICK myself. My husband’s handkerchiefs come out of the washer still FOLDED like I put them in. How could that possibly be clean? I am going to cut my losses and sell the set for the best offer. Who EVER dreamed this up, the U.S. Government I imagine? If you rinse several times extra and have to iron what is HIGH EFFICIENCY about that, not to mention my back!
Well after reading your post, I feel so happy that I returned my HE washer last night. I tried to like it for 3 weeks, but it simply would not clean my husbands clothes. He does landscaping and his clothes are actually dirty and the HE would NOT get the dirt out..AT ALL! I actually had dirt in my dryers lint filter and it turned my dryer sheet BROWN because his stuff was still filthy when it went into the dryer. Will get a good old fashioned washer and be plenty happy.
I purchased an impeller style, top load high-efficiency washer 3 months ago and have hated it ever since. Your post is exactly what My husband and I say. I am rewashing things even at the highest water level (which is the sheets setting on mine) and it does the best job, but not at all close to what a good old-fashioned post-agitator style can get done. I hate the thing and can’t believe anyone thinks these things are great! I also think the Government is in on pushing these things. Wait till enough people bring them back to the store like we did. We were lucky enough to get to Home Depot before the time for return was up and had the store manager completely agree with me about what garbage they are. She uses her son’s when she goes to his house and hates it. So she knew what I was talking about. The icing on the cake for me is the moldy, mildew smell on towels that have been WASHED IN BLEACH!!! I can’t get over it.
I am in the same boat as you. We moved across 2 states which was quite a feat since we are in our late 60s. We left the washer and dryer for the new owners since the washer was over 10 years old and we didn’t want to move them. We would have made a different decision if we had had any knowledge of HE washers and the fact that freedom of choice would be limited to a washer that DOES NOT WASH CLOTHES and obviously uses more energy in the process. Now after 6 months the Whirlpool Cabrio WTW5640XW will not drain the water completely and spin the clothes. They are wringing wet. Lowes is taking it back and we are upgrading to a more expensive washer. My fear is that after all this money we will be just as unhappy with it. I can’t believe we citizens of this free nation are putting up with shelling out tons of money for High Efficiency appliances which are anything but efficient. The environmentalists are killing this country with this ridiculousness. We will soon be forced into buying cars which will only go 40 miles on an electric charge (requiring many hours) and will not do anything good for the environment. My question to you: “After you sell your set, what will you replace them with since there seems to be no other choice?”
I’m glad to know I am not the only one who HATES my high efficiency washer! It does NOT get clothes clean. How could it when it agitates so slowly? Also, there is no way for me to adjust the water level and I’ve noticed the clothes on top are barely wet! In addition,the clothes come out with soap spots even though I have it set
on “2nd rinse”.
Go green -and brown, and white, and all the other colors of spots left on the clothes by this “washer”.