OT - Washing machine recommendation?

[Abner]

Wife bought a set of Electrolux w/d. Not fixable by me- loaded with electronics.

But...
The washer has a spin out cycle that is nothing short of amazing. Reaches 1200-1350 RPM fully loaded with little to no vibration. Sounds like a jet winding up. The clothes are damp/dry when removed. Saves on drying time by over 1/2. I suspect some day when the tub balancer goes haywire I will come home to find a huge hole in the side of my house.

[vpt]

Just chalk this up to "they don't build em' like they used to" ... The old Sears Kenmore / Whirlpool were bullet proof. belt drive and a big heavy cast iron transmission with real oil lubrication, controls all solid electro-mechanical. These two classics; "Lady Kenmore" washer and gas dryer were new in 1964, still doing the job after a family of four including two very active boys. yes some maintainance and repairs along the way, belts, clutch plate, tub bushings and seals, dryer gas ignitor, fan bearing rebuild ... but all fixable by the home mechanic.
Joe B

I would actually like to find some nice chrome classics similar to these. I like the looks of the classic machines plus like you mentioned the quality.

[wierdscience]

Need to scratch Kenmore as it is no longer built by Whirlpool. They entered into a contract with LG.

Well crap!Another one bites the dust

[Paul Alciatore]

We have a pair of Whirlpools, washer and dryer. They are at least 20 years old and still going strong. I think I had to replace one hose fitting on the washer some years ago, not due to any defect, but rather a heavy handed mover. Before that we seemed to go through washers and dryers about every 3-5 years. I hope they still make parts for them because I am very reluctant to replace them.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I took the agitator off last night and couldn't find anything wrong or any pawls problem. The fact that the tub takes forever to spin down after the spin cycle indicates a worn out brake lining...I think.

I'm now mustering up my courage to try to fix it later. We found last night if we split the loads into 2 or 3 smaller loads with less water it works OK other than the slow spin cycle rundown. SWMBO preferred to fill the thing up & go with max everything.

If we can get by for a couple weeks until I get a breather from paying shopwork, I'll try to fix that problem and also replace the worn out snubber ring that controls out of balance load dampening. It's been needing that for 2 years now.

Like my ex-boss used to say: "Mind the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves." Definitely gotta watch the pennies around here!

[gellfex]

NEVER EVER buy a Frigidaire or Kenmore frontloader washer, or anything else from them for that matter. The 1st generation of domestic front loaders were complete crap. They were made with bad bearing seals and cast aluminum spiders to hold the steel drum that literally turned to dust. These pricks sold a washer with a faulty design that uniformly broke after 4 years, and have stonewalled many thousands of customers by blaming them for using the wrong suds for a repair so expensive the machine is effectively totalled. Even in this internet age it's amazing they can still sell goods after this nonsense, Consumer Reports and other similar groups are failures.

Here's video with over 500 comments, there's lots of other sites on the topic.
http://www.appliancejournal.com/appli ... nt-load-washers-fail-271/

I've got LG now for 3 years, so far so good...

PS beware of Samsung, their customer service is horrendous, and there's a class action suit about their fridges having a bad design and them just stonewalling. My 5 year old fridge just needed a new mainboard for $300. Had they simply made it with a USB port it could probably just been fixed with a new firmware.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Dah ta dah, dah ta dah….mournful playing of Taps in the background. Well done my good & faithful Maytag.

I bought a new brake hub, stator & snubber ring on Thursday to bring Mr. Maytag back to life. I roared home from work that evening, pumped full of coffee & optimism, ready to fix him up. Pulled him out from the wall, jerked the belt, front cover, tub springs, hoses and then the entire tub/trans unit out and set it upside down in the shop floor for corrective surgery. Got the 200 lb. spring tensioned stator off safely but alas, when I pulled the stator off I was horrified to find it and the brake hub full of transmission grease. Called the parts dude the next day and nope, no lower transmission seal available for this model. It’s $275.00 for a new tranny so that’s it for this 12 yr. old feller.

SWMBO picked out one from the big box store yesterday and it’s on the way to be installed this morning. Man. I hope this one is as good as the last one!

[aboard_epsilon]

Dah ta dah, dah ta dah….mournful playing of Taps in the background. Well done my good & faithful Maytag.

I bought a new brake hub, stator & snubber ring on Thursday to bring Mr. Maytag back to life. I roared home from work that evening, pumped full of coffee & optimism, ready to fix him up. Pulled him out from the wall, jerked the belt, front cover, tub springs, hoses and then the entire tub/trans unit out and set it upside down in the shop floor for corrective surgery. Got the 200 lb. spring tensioned stator off safely but alas, when I pulled the stator off I was horrified to find it and the brake hub full of transmission grease. Called the parts dude the next day and nope, no lower transmission seal available for this model. It’s $275.00 for a new tranny so that’s it for this 12 yr. old feller.

SWMBO picked out one from the big box store yesterday and it’s on the way to be installed this morning. Man. I hope this one is as good as the last one!

that wouldnt have defeated me ..i would measure the seal and source it elsewhere ..plenty of seals on ebay....cars seal ..motorbike seal ..whatever...it would have gone in
all the best.marki

[DICKEYBIRD]

There probably is a seal available for it somewhere but it's not accessible from the outside. You have to split the trans. case and remove the splined output shaft to access the seal. Not worth the trouble on this old machine and the clothes were piling up too. SWMBO not happy.

Besides, I'm done with the whole mess now and I want to spend my measley 2 days off in the workshop.

[aboard_epsilon]

Trouble is the new washer you are buying will be scrap in less than 7 years time.

all the best.markj