Front or top loader washer?
 

Here in England just about everyone (including me) has a front loading automatic washing machine, been like that for decades. However when I was in America I only saw top loaders. Wondering why the difference? My Mother had a (rare) top loading automatic washer & it was really good, she loved it. However one day it sprung a leak & flooded the kitchen so was sent to washer heaven. She then got a front loader but was never 100% happy with it, she pined for her top loader..

Just kind of the way things are here.....IIRC the front loaders have a reputation for leaking easily and thus are not bought by homes....You see a lot of front loaders in laundry-mats so I guess they have a reputation for being cheap coin ops too....When I was a kid in the 90's one almost never saw a front loader, but they seem a bit more common in stores and homes since Y2K. Most front load washers and dryers tended to sell for use in tight places as stackers.
The nice part about the top loaders is that you normally don't need to bend down as much to load/unload.

I'm far from an expert on this so take all that with a grain of salt.

The front loaders are a lot more economical with water(and soap) had one, then landlady moved out and took it with her, back to a typical front loader. the front loaders spin faster and get out a lot more water. my clothes take twice as long to dry now, they were barely damp coming out of the front loader.

Hear in the colonies front loaders were used mostly in tight
spaces stacked with a drier on top. Weigh a ton from concrete
balances & suck to repair cause they are built in & often
have to pull them out. They also cost a lot more. I hated them.
They will clean better.

They are popular now, probably for water savings & Euro
look.

Whats best ? When someone asks me I tell them a 30 year
old top load Maytag & I am dead serious. I think only
Speed Queen still makes an indestructible washer built
like they used to be.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Top loaders by FAR are more reliable. The cheapest to repair are direct drive Whirlpool made stuff(Whirlpool, Roper, Maytag, Kitchen Aid, Estate, Kirkland, Admiral, Inglis). There are a few exceptions: the last made Maytags before Whirlpool built stuff(leaky seals and a bitch to replace)I don't mean the older indestructible ones, Later GE stuff is too plasticy, Fisher/Paykel is crap. Soon there will be no more direct drive washers since they are not too efficient. Front loaders are OK ONLY if you follow these rules: DO NOT overload them(causes premature bearing and seal failures), clean out all of your pockets(stuff ends up in the pump or wrapped around the rear shaft), NO baby socks(same reason as above), No bra washing(the underwire ends up in the drain boot usually poking a hole in it causing a leak), Use the right soap and not too much. If you follow those rules, they will usually last quite a bit longer

Funny We bought a NEW GE top loader set when we moved to FL in 04-05 and it was the best washer my folks ever recall having....Worked great, and never broke in the ~5 years we had it....Then we moved in the recession and the only people who would buy the place in over a year on the market wanted the appliances....We bought new top load GEs 3 years ago and they are the opposite of the last ones performance wise, and the control system is retarded, but so far are also breakdown free (stores we asked if they had GE when we bought them thought we were NUTS for wanting GE) ...

Pretty much until the 2000's the only front loaders we had were those stackable combos, often seen in apartments and other small spaces. White-Westinghouse was the dominant brand. I hardly saw any others, though a place we stayed out on vacation last year had a GE combo that was maybe 20-25 years old. Of course, in the US we always had space and plenty of water (in most places) so a top loader made sense. Nowadays front loaders are trendy and most folks consider them desirable. I've never used one myself; my 1990 model GE top loader still works well enough. Top loaders have a real price advantage, too.

What I don't understand is why washloads take so much longer with front-loaders. They may be more economical with water, but they sure do waste time.

I've seen Consumer Reports front-load washer ratings, and cycle times go anywhere from 55 minutes to nearly two full hours... for just one load! :wtf:

By comparison, my 20+ year old Kenmore direct-drive, built-by-Whirlpool top-loader will knock out full loads in 35 minutes.

I think I'll keep it.

I would like to have a good old westinghouse front loader from th 1950s those are the best...Timothy

front loaders are trendy right now...the big sell point is that they use less water,and they look futuristic and nice when painted in pretty colors,they charge a lot for em and i bet the profit margins are high...when we needed a new washer and dryer a couple years ago,we shopped for and bought the traditional toploader and matching oversized dryer...on purpose...my GF and i had both had experience with front loaders and despised them...

it is true that they don't use a lot of water,but we had both found that even commercial grade versions are slow and don't clean worth a damn,they just tumble the clothes back and forth using just enough water to get them wet...the fact that they now market special cleaners and soaps for these washers should tell you all you need to know about where the dirt does and doesn't go in these washers.how does something that should be full of soap and water every time it's used need special cleaning to keep from smelling??think about that....routine cleaning a top-loader is unheard of,its flushed with soap and water multiple times every cycle...as are your clothes!

if you're on a well or in some dry part of the world where water is expensive or conservation is important,a frontloader may make some sense...but this is not us,some things are worth paying for and i will gladly pay for the extra water to have truly clean clothes in 35 minutes

Decades TV, Has reruns of the old Westinghouse Studio One. They also show the old commercials of Westinghouse products, including the Laundramat front loaders. They still made them until the 1958 model year.
IIRC, they quit when their apppliance line was sold to White Consolidated.

Top loaders cost about 4/5 times as much as cheapo front loaders here in England, you can get a front loader at Argos/Curry's/Tesco etc for £150. (about $230) Cheapest top loaders are about £600 (about $900) if you can find any store that sells them. I understand it's the other way round in America..

Got a mid 80s Maytag with my house 12 years ago... always has been dead reliable, never a problem. Done lots of laundry in it too... I'm not one to replace things that still work.

Full sized top loads start abt $450 USD front load abt $650.
Top loads are very simple so you may be paying a back door
tax on water & electric usage. We have whats called Energy Star.
If I have a choice of Energy Star or not I alway get the one
without. They are cheaper, heavier & easier to fix. Also last
a LOT longer.

73 Zeno

My Grandparents had a mid 50s era GE washer-dryer combination--that is, an all-in-one. They had it for about 20 years. It might have served them longer but the last time they needed a repair they were told the parts were NLA. Today I have a little LG combo that, so far, has made it about halfway to matching the service life of their machine.