Home Appliances

[SkyLander]

So we bought a new house. It will be finished around March so I have begun the now amazingly fun task of finding appliances.

Washer:

The laundry room is on the second floor. We have been using an agitator washer for the past several years and my wife does not want an agitator washer anymore. So that leaves me with the two options of HE Top load or a front load washer. Which one is better? I've heard HE Top loads can ruin clothes. Front load washers can apparently smell bad and have vibration issues. What brands are good in this area? Everywhere I've looked I keep getting mixed reviews on every single washer I look at. So far one of the top is the Maytag Bravos XL.

Dryer:

I've pretty much just relented myself to getting whatever matching one comes with the washer.


Fridge:

I'm leaning more towards the french door with the freezer on the bottom. Most of the issues I've read have to deal with the icemaker/water dispenser. Would a side by side be better though in this regard? One problem is that I haven't gotten an exact measurement of the space, I would assume it is a semi standard space for a fridge so I am hoping 33/36 inch space in the cabinets for the fridge.

Anyone I'm just looking for what people have used and what they like.

[th'FOOL]

Don't get front loading washers unless you can leave the door open when its not in use

[Azhag]

For freezer, i've had both. Not sure on how ice-makers work if you have a bottom freezer, ours didn't have one. Now I have double doors with the left side being a freezer and I've found it is much less flexible size-wise for putting things in the freezer because that side is smaller. Hard to fit big items into the freezer in our model at least.

[Isgrimnur]

My parents have a bottom freezer with a door water/ice dispenser.

[Ironrod]

My electric company has rebates for front-loading washers -- I think they give you $50 back, presumably because front-loaders are more efficient. You might want to look into that as well as the energy savings.

[Crusis]

I can't offer advice on all of the appliances you listed but our Washer died a few days ago and we've done a lot of research. We're going with an LG front loader that also offers steam for cleaning. They are running a small rebate at our energy company but the washer is still close to $900. The thing that tipped the scale after talking to many salesmen (and reading reviews) was consumer reports listing this washer as one of the best.

With the french door fridge. When both doors are open it lets out all of the cool air. If you have a lot of people in and out of the fridge you lose a lot of efficiency. Some have double doors with the first door opening up to quick items like soda and milk and eggs but they are crazy expensive.

There are several 'standards' so measure very carefully before you make a decision. When our house was almost finished we went in with a measuring tape to be safe.

[Zinfan]

Had a side by side fridge/freezer and replaced it with a french door with freezer on the bottom.  Much better IMO, easy access to the fridge stuff and more room in freezer compared to the side by side which was just too narrow to really get much in there.  I'm not a fan of ice/water dispensers in the door of the fridge and lots of problems derive from those things and they take up room inside the fridge anyways, I use ice trays to make ice and don't miss the automatic ice maker at all.  If the kitchen is small and you don't have a large family you could look at counter depth frigdes, not quite as deep as a standard one so it saves a bit of room.

I have a Fisher Paykel washer that is top loading but I'm not sure what you mean by agitator?  I would think all top loaders use the same basic mechanism to wash the clothes.  Anyways the F&P works well and I have no plans to replace it anytime soon.

[Calavera]

Don't get front loading washers unless you can leave the door open when its not in use

This plus cleaning the washer isn't an optional thing. Do whatever the manufacturer recommends. I've got an 3 year old Whirlpool and we use Affresh once a month to keep it clean. Haven't had any problems after we started doing this. Might seem silly, but if you don't it's going to smell and it's a giant pain to get rid of the smell. We figured this out after about a year...

As to the vibration complaint, they seem to be more sensitive to being level than top loaders. Ironically, I've found the best way to level them is to load it with a load of wet towels and put it on spin. Adjust the legs until it's smooth. If the legs don't have lock nuts you'll want to add them or you're going to be repeating the process over and over.

Keep in mind with the 2nd floor laundry (we have one too), a front loader washer weighs around 300-350 lbs.

[SkyLander]

Does the front loader on the second floor vibrate the floor? Or if you balance it right it's okay?

[Calavera]

It's basically right above my study (where I am a good chunk of the time). The vibration isn't that noticable except when the pump is running to pump the water out. The pump on my model is pretty noisy. The spin cycle isn't really noticeable except when the load isn't balanced. Keep in mind the wash tub itself is suspended on pistons, so it can move around a bit without moving the frame. I had to clean the washer today anyway, so I just put it on the clean cycle now. I'll post again if my opinion changes.

I've got a Whirlpool Duet 9450. I would not suggest this model or a Whirlpool. The Maytag line is better if you're going to buy something from Whirlpool.

[Blackjack]

I've heard HE Top loads can ruin clothes.

My mom got a top loading HE washer a couple years ago from Home Depot for her house. The caveats:

-While you would think not using an agitator would be gentler on clothing, I've had numerous collar buttons yanked out of my shirts. Which virtually never happened with agitator washers. I don't know if I'd say they "ruin" clothes, but the manual had a lot of cautions about reminding you to zip up and button certain things. The HE water jet process seems to sort of thrash clothing in a way that can pull and yank on certain things (like collars, apparently). Beyond that, I haven't had any problems with HE damaging clothing -- just be sure to use an HE detergent, not regular laundry detergent.

-If you overload or unbalance the load, sometimes it will just stop in the middle of a load. If you're not there to see the weird digital readout gibberish that warns you about it, it can be frustrating, esp. if it gets stuck in wash cycle (i.e., soggy clothing). This hasn't happened to us in several months now -- we're just kind of careful about how we load it.
-It's a minor inconvenience, but you have to use one of these HE washer cleaner capsule things, maybe once every 15 washes. The machine has a little reminder light about that when it's time to use it.
-While the HE washer we got was billed as very quiet, there are times when the water jets or whatever make a very peculiar sound, very different from that of an agitator washer. This is considered "normal." Overall, it's pretty quiet in operation.