I Hate My Washing Machine

That is what I have concluded and am going to use as a justification for buying a new washer and dryer. My first washer and dryer were the Lady Kenmore brand from Sears. I loved them and kept them for eighteen years. At the time I replaced them, Maytag was the top rated brand. I gathered literature and decided I wanted the top of the line models with the electronic touch pad controls. No store in Beaumont carried them. One store was willing to do a special order.

 

I will say the dryer has been a very good dryer. I have no complaints, but the washer is a different story. I live by myself and most of my washer loads are very small. As a result, the washer tends to distribute the clothes to one side and become unbalanced. Several times that machine heaved itself half way across the utility room before I could get to it. Then one time I went in the utility room and the floor was covered with water. The repairman told me the seal around the agitator was leaking. He said that was the worst possible type of repair and often the repairs are not successful. Because the machine was not even three years old at the time, I had it repaired. It had to be taken to the shop to do the repair.

 

When the machine came back, it leaked again; but it did not do it every time. Repairmen made several trips to my house, and it would not leak on demand. I wrote letters to Maytag. They refused to do anything for me because it was off of warranty. Finally I talked to the manager of the store where I had bought the machine. He told me they were going to stand behind the machine and replace it free of charge. I could not believe that he was being that generous. He kept his word. I got a new top of the line Maytag.

 

The second Maytag had an even larger capacity tub than the first one. This was definitely not a plus for my small loads. This machine seems to have an even greater tendency to become unbalanced than the first one. Whenever I wash a small load, I stand right by the machine when it goes into the spin cycle and try to feel if there is excessive vibration so I can redistribute the clothes before it throws itself across the room.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was washing a load of queen size sheets and pillow cases. This is normally a large enough load that I do not have to worry about it becoming unbalanced. I was upstairs, and I heard the thumping. When I got to the utility room, the machine was two feet away from the wall and still moving.

 

Another thing I hate about the washer is that it will twist my sheets into a rope. When I take them out of the washer, I have to untwist and untangled them before I put them in the dryer. I know this is causing my sheets to wear out faster than they should.

 

I had previously decided I would get a new refrigerator when I move, but since my washer and dryer probably have a few more years of service left I thought I would move them. Now the more I have thought about it I have decided I should not continue to suffer with a washing machine that I hate. I subscribed to the online edition of Consumer Reports this week. Whirlpool, closely followed by Sears, has the best frequency of repair record. I have been studying the Sears Elite and the Whirlpool Duet washers and dryers. These are front loading machines and are also very expensive. Whirlpool claims you can wash one or two items on what they call a quick wash cycle. Whirlpool makes the Sears washers and dryers. I am leaning toward Sears because their Elite models come in a blue color that I like.