washing machines

[Quartlow]

Ok I've been on the hunt. seems the wife wants a new machine since the old one is about on its last legs.
She is pretty set on getting a front loader. My concern is some of them have them small motors to run them.

Well I found a machine made right here in Ohio
http://www.staber.com/store/1673182/home
They used to refurbish commercial units.

Seems it is a top load machine but is horizontal axis like a front loader. Very few moving parts, seems to be easy to service. And the price isn't too bad at $1199.

Anybody have any experience with them. Seems most of the solar power web sights are pushing them since they won't void your warranty for using solar power.

[wiam]

I can not help you with the model you are looking at.  Mine was making a wicked squeal in the spin cycle.  It seamed to be coming from the transmission.  I decided I was not going to put any money into a 10 year old washer that has done at least a load /day.  My septic has issues so that is why I looked at front loaders.  After I ordered one the old washer did not make any more extra noises.  :  Since it was a specific question about one brand I will not mention what I got but so far we really like the front loader.

Will

[SwampDonkey]

My mom has a front loader and likes it. She noticed once in awhile that the clothes weren't ringed out well. But, apparently what ever it was it hasn't happened in awhile. I have a top loader, but I have two septics and the one with the washer is ona  separate line than the rest of the house, except a down stairs washroom which isn't used much. Maybe ya need one of them septo vac packages ya throw in the toilet once a month. Yeast will do the same.

[Quartlow]

Septic isn't really an issue here, yet. I was looking to spend less on hot water more than anything.

Wiam, you can toss your brand name in there. I'm a long way from pulling the trigger yet, about $1199 away  :D  :D  :D

I think it was Patty and Norm who just bought a new one. I am kind of concernred about its ability to clean really dirty clothes

[SwampDonkey]

For a $450 kenmore, I figure it will take 10 years to recoupe the $750 for the top of the line rig. My power bill is only $55/mo on average all year for everything that I have that draws power. I pay more in insurance and taxes.  : Your about to learn another lesson.  ;)

[Quartlow]

I'll trade you power bills. mine averages $120. Summertime we wash a lot of clothes. Since I change as soon as I get home. then go out and work around here.

[SwampDonkey]

Are you running a little electric heat to? I had a small room that was well insulated running on base board heat and that Dang thing added about $60 to my eletric bill. Were'nt long before I stopped that up quick.  ;)

[thecfarm]

Quartlow,we have never used hot water for our clothes.But than we don't have any real go to town looking clothes either.I get my clothes real dirty too.Pine pitch,dirt in the garden,grease,digging rocks dirty.Everything get the cold water and comes nice and clean for another go round.

[wiam]

Quartlow mine is a LG brand I got it at Home Depot.  $799 - $50 rebate from LG and  $50 from energy star.  This one claims to use 66% less water.   I get very dirty and wash my work clothes in hot water.  Seems to do alright, but I have only had it a week.  My hot water is not an issue because it is heated off my outdoor boiler. 8)

Will

[Quartlow]

SD, I just have a wife who only knows one way to flip a light switch, she don't understand it turns lights off too  :D :D

Furnace blower drives it up in the winter, and right now theres a blower running in the greenhouse at night thats gonna add a few bucks to this months bill, Electric stove and hot water tank. Then theres AC in the summer. It gets up above 80 and I can't sleep

thecfarm
cold water won't get diesel smell out, and working with blacktop you get a lot of that  :D

[scsmith42]

Quartlow, I've used front loaders for about fifteen years.  A buddy of mine used to own a bunch of coin laudromats, and he educated me on the benefits of them.  Primarily, they use less water and electricity, and do a better job of cleaning your clothes.

My first one was a surplus commercial Wascomat.  The darn thing was bombproof, and did a great job cleaning the clothes.  My only complaint was that it was small (Wascomat only made one unit that was single phase - the rest were three phase - not an option for the house...)

A couple of years ago I purchased the top of the line Kenmore HE3 units.  Whirlpool offers the same units.  They are made in Germany.  The washer and dryer combo was about 2,500 back then.  Thus far, I had to put a water pump in the washer (I think that a piece of metal got stuck in it and caused the impellor to spin on the motor shaft).  We use them to not only was our farm clothes, but also all of the laundry associated with my wife's veterinarian business.  We typically do at least one load a day, and some days two to three loads.  One nice thing about the HE3 units is that they have a special "sterilization" cycle that you can choose that super heats the water.  It's good for not only killing germs, but also in getting nasty smells out of the clothes.

Most frontloaders do a better job of cleaning clothes than top loaders, and they are more gentle on the clothes at the same time.  This is because they clean by a tumbling action and a high G spin cycle, and top loaders clean by constantly agitating the clothes, coupled with a low G spin.  The top loaders tend to tear down the fibers in the cloth.

When I got my Wascomat, I had some grubby old grease-stained jeans that I had washed many, many times over in a top loader.  After several trips through the Wascomat, the old stains were gone.

[Don_Papenburg]

I used to have an old maytag wringer washer .  I put a pair of real greasy dirty insulated coveralls in there one morning then went to town to get a few things and get right back . well I met one of my friends and went over to his place to help with a project and didn't get home till night . that old washer had been chugging all day and I had coveralls that were as clean as new.

[iain]

Front loaders is the norm here

bought our last one from Costco its a whirlpool

it does at least a load a day, lots of settings for what you want heat amount of wash, iron free, ( i dont buy clothes that need ironing) and a timer so you can set it to finish at a specific time

i remember top loaders from my youth, ( they will stay a memory)



Iain

[SwampDonkey]

thecfarm
cold water won't get diesel smell out, and working with blacktop you get a lot of that  :D

Someone in Sussex was washing overalls with diesel on them and after washing them stuffed them into the propane heated dryers in the laudromat. Everyone was gone from the 'mat for a bit and came back to see the side of the building blown out. After that there was signs all over the 'mat saying no petro soiled clothing allowed. 

[Captain]

We also have one of the high end Kenmore models.  Works great....and the gas bill for hot water has reduced as well.

We will wash the dirtiest stuff in warm/cold.  All else cold/cold.

Captain

[vgbob]

Not sure what your concern about a small motor is. They generally
take less power to run. And use less water as you know.
I had a Philco, made in Italy, for about 20 years. It was smaller than
an equivalent top-loader, but you could stuff it full and it did a
great job. I tried to find something similar a few years ago when
it finally needed to be repaced and most of the stuff seems pretty
expensive now. I ended up with a Maytag Neptune, but I can't
recommend them. It works fine, but it apparently is 'computer
controlled' so that all sorts of things screw it up. Being out of
balance is one of it's favorites, and that is when it's lightly loaded.
And from what I understand, at least a few years ago, not many
people are authorized to service them. (I could fix anything on
the Philco, it was just a simple motor, drum, and switch to control
the functions)
So, I'd recommend a front loader, just depends on what  you can
find that suits your needs and wallet.

[Quartlow]

Not sure what your concern about a small motor is. They generally
take less power to run.

My general experiance has been when you take a small motor and try to make it do the work of a big motor  it doesn't last as long.

My understanding of they new ones is that each motor is a differant speed, when it goes into the spin cycle first motor starts it spinning, when it gets up to speed the next one kicks in and so on.

Maintence is a big issue with me. Staber claims theres nothing on the machine you cannot fix yourself. If you can't figure it out they will walk you through it. Now I realize that undr warrenty they should fix it, but if a maytag foes down and they can't get a service guy out for 2 or 3 days your SOL.  From what I have read so far if a staber breaks down under warrenty and you want to fix it yourself they are ok with that.

Just out of curiosity I went to stabers website and checked the major parts. They only list 6 items, I suppose these are the ones they figure will break.

Motor (Siemens)Siemens motor    
$175.44

Lid LockLid lock mechanism    
$23.15

Timer (Mallory)Mechanical timer    
$62.58

Drive BeltDrive belt    
$22.88

PumpWater pump    
$49.45

Motor controller    
$178.50

totals out to $512.01

Near as I can figure thats a major overhaul. And they don't void the warrenty if you work on it. I've been doing some snooping today I can buy the neptune cheaper, but to me there just looks like a whole lot more to go wrong. It's a washing machine how many settings do you need?

I sent them another email with some questions and will probably get an answer tomorrow. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards it I just want to find someplace to go look at one before I buy. I hate to make a trip just to look. since its a 3 hour ride

[Frank_Pender]

You folks need one like I picked up a few years ago.  I was mondernized a bit with a electric motor and all.  Originally, it ran on a small gas motor.  It is a 1923 Matag. I am the second owner.  I have had it for about 25 years and it is still working great.  They don't make them like that, anymore. 8)

[scsmith42]

Quartlow, the Staber concept is intesting.  I've asked my buddy from the coin laundry business if he knows anything good or bad about them.  I'll let you know his thoughts when I hear back from him.

Scott

[Quartlow]

I found a few forums on of all things , washing machines. I only found a couple of negative feedbacks on the staber. Probably the next least complained about is the Maytag neptune's.

Seems like the biggest complaint, some say its noisey, a couple said it doesn't do well on a wood floor. oh though others claim its not that noisey and does fine on their wood floor. I guess it boils down to how good your wood floor is  eh?.

So far the pro's are, in my book anyway

All stainless steel inner and outer drums.

Drum is supported at both sides.

Top loads, no front door seal to worry about ever leaking.

Simple to work on.

The con's

Can't find one to go look at.

No local parts.

Seems like the people that have posted about it either love it or hate it. The lovers seem to outweigh the haters about 15 to 1. But we all know people will complain about a product long before the will praise it.

[SwampDonkey]

All I know is my clothes are clean when I wash'm in my top loader. I don't get real soiled unless it's a rainy day and the softwood leave bark dirt on your pants and shirts. My work clothes are cheap and disposible anyway if they do look bad. ;D

[scsmith42]

Quartlow, here is the feedback from my friend about these:

>
> I saw these units at a trade show several years ago.  The overall 
> construction was good its basically a front load washer loaded from the  top(vertical
> tub).  I thought it was a good unit but when compared to the  front loaders it
> was smaller capacity.  The cost vs the size we didn't  think they would make it
> in the coin ops.  Have never seen a coin laundry  equipped with these.  Looks
> like they are going for the home owners  now.  Not a bad choice.

[wiam]

Quartlow I will vouch for the wood floor thing.  The floor will vibrate in the spin cycle.  I have gone in the basement and put in an extra support under the washer.  This almost eliminates the whole house vibrating. :D

Will

[Quartlow]

Scott, thanks for asking about it, some good info to add.

Wiam, I live in a trailer and even the top loader shook the floor, I solved the problem by taking the washer and dryer out and building a second floor on top of the old one by laying 2X4's on edge cross ways to the floor joist's, then putting a sheet of 1/2 inch ply on that. Tyed the whole thing together. Elimanted the vibration problem, as long as the washer doesn't get out of balance anyway

[blueox]

Quartlow,

I have the Whirlpool Duet front loader & dryer. I've had them for 2 years and I don't think they've ever had a days break. I spend most of my day in the laundry room as we have 4 girls who change their clothes a zillion times a week. We have never had a problem (knock on wood....)

I know it was mentioned that someone had a problem w/ the clothes not spinning completely. This happened to me one time...the problem is over filling them. You can fill them, but don't CRAM it full.

I also have an Amana "top loader" which I've had for years and I wasn't about to part with it because as I said before I do a lot of laundry, so basically I have my own lil' mini laundry mat in my home. I like the Amana for lil' things I want to soak, I haven't figured out how to use the front loader when soaking clothes...and I use it for my "fine washables" that I'm supposed to wash by hand, but I use the Amana instead.

I have the Kenmore Elite Dryer, regular basic dryer...but it's running constantly as well.

The top loader will fit more clothes and the dryer will dry all those clothes in the same time or less than the Kenmore....the top loader is equivalent to almost 2 large loads of clothes...thats a lot of clothes.

I say your wife deserves the best Front loader you can find!! She'll be happy, which means YOU will be happy. Cuz everyone knows that when the woman is happy the whole house is happy!!

Good Luck Laurel