Turns out dryers are pretty simple and mostly all decent. It’s the washers that are more complex and you should choose wisely.
I spent like 4 days looking at videos about dryers anyway. It’s like, the most exciting thing to happen this month.
At least my clothes come out dry in one cycle now.
Roper or Speed Queen for washers. Don’t fall for gimmicks.
Roper is just Whirlpool now. Their current machines are rebadges of low end Amanas, which are in turn rebadges of low end Whirlpools. Compare the Roper RED4516 with the Amana NED4655EW.
As a matter of fact, compare their parts diagrams.
They’re the same machine. But the Amana has a lower MSRP. Define gimmick how you like and make of that what you will.
Whirlpool makes everything: Themselves, Maytag, Amana, JennAir, KitchenAid, Gladiator, Roper. Even Affresh cleaning products are made by Whirlpool. It’s Whirlpool all the way down. Speed Queen (Alliance Laundry) is at least still independent.
I didn’t know that about Roper, thanks. I guess my main point was just keep it simple. Little musical tunes and shit are just distractions from the fact that you spent 4x what you should have on what’s essentially a wet bucket in a box.
Yeah, there’s really not a whole lot going on in a dryer in particular that actually makes it dry. If you can do without the Wi-Fi and the zillion cycles (which most people probably don’t use to their full potential anyway) a simple machine does the job and has a lot less in it.
I think the basic models from the lower brands are probably pretty solid- less flash bust less to go wrong and economically repairable.
We got a Speed Queen washer and dryer and are happy with them. I’ve also heard that Maytag Commercial is decent but don’t have experience with them myself.
I will say, the Speed Queen appliances have needed someone to come out to service them (something happened with the washer that I can’t recall, and the heating element on the dryer drooped and shorted and then fell apart), but at least the warranty is long enough and there haven’t been any issues with the repair technicians. That’s all I really want - a device that if (when) it has an issue, it’s worth repairing.
The heat pump all-in-one washer / dryers are compelling. A friend has one (I believe it’s LG but may be GE) and he loves it except that one of the pumps fails almost yearly and he has to replace it. I guess he would rather do that than admit defeat and the pump is relatively cheap. Maybe he saves enough time washing and drying his family’s clothes overnight while he sleeps that it’s worth a multi-hour annual surgery.
There’s not much real world time savings to be had with the all-in-one machines except for the potential (or perhaps inevitable) gap between remembering to shovel your laundry from the washer to the dryer. If your life works like mine where you’re doing something else and not paying attention to the laundry machines – riding motorcycles, wrenching on engines, taking obsessively detailed pictures of pocketknives – that slack time can indeed be significant.
The major thing is that the heat pump dryers, including the ones in the all-in-ones, are significantly more energy efficient than a traditional resistive element dryer. Like, up to 70%. (Mind you, “up to” includes a fairly wide range depending on which two models you’re comparing.) You can do your own math but figure that a traditional full sized electric dryer probably uses about 5 kWh per cycle. If you live in one of those trendy areas of the country where electricity is north of 40 cents per kWh, chopping whatever it is you use in half might be appealing.
Yeah I think the all in ones are good for 1-2 person households. Add a few kids or relatives and the ability to get two loads processing at once with a traditional setup is indispensable.
My next one will be a used commercial washer
If you have any friends that work in assisted living facilities, you may check with them. So many times people pass on and leave appliances behind.
But I can play Skyrim on THIS one!
Rhyno you’re looking at your fridge again
let me tell you all about heat pump dryers …
What about them?
They’re the ones that actually have a good reason to be more expensive (because they’re much more efficient).
I just did the same 2 weeks ago! Only difference is i spent about 15 minutes and picked 2 new ones online and got them delivered and hooked up 2 days later. I couldn’t resist when we saw costco had a samsung dryer marked down to $375 which is normally over 1k. I think it’s because it was a color they didn’t make anymore so my win i guess! Best deal I’ve ever found. The washer we just got low-end but different brand then the one we had because it only lasted 5 years. Since we brought 2 items it was another $100 off. Costco was the best since the prices were mostly the same but cost nothing extra for delivery, parts, hookup, and takeaway. I agree, we didn’t care about them matching either so it worked out.
I would literally rather buy a random used washer/dryer pair off Craigslist than a Samsung at any price.
(Source: previously owned a Samsung washer and dryer. Still do, technically, because I salvaged the motors and bearings after they failed just out of warranty due to blatant planned obsolescence.)
Wasted research is still important.
Edit: typo resolved. ~~Also, maybe typo:
try in one cycle now~~
Yeah I fixed it immediately after posting but federation takes longer.
Honestly, I may be doing that soon myself. Our Samsung gas dryer of ~9 years decided to stop working over the weekend. We suspect it’s either the thermistor or belt, but I’m not readily comfy (yet) with ripping the unit open.
Our Samsung dryer quit after five years. This was last summer. Tearing into it and replacing everything was pretty easy. The whole replacement kit for our dryer was $30-40 on amazon
Yeah I’m really tempted to try, but my roomies aren’t too keen on my attempt. We already have a repair scheduled for the weekend. Maybe they’ll be able to educate me during the process.
Hopefully they give you some info. I got some good info from youtube for my repair.
Back in the day, if you owned a laundromat, the rule was to buy maytag washers, and “whatever” dryers…
eta: maytag doesn’t matter now.
Maytag are just shitty badge engineered Whirlpools. Nowadays it’s Speed Queen FTW.
Maytag Commercial models compete with Speed Queen.
What did you learn about your washer?
I’ve never had an issue with my washer, and I’m not gonna spend $600+ just to have a matching set, but when it goes I’ll probably swap it for a front load. Despite a little more maintenance they tend to wash better and spin faster so they will dry even faster.
I might also consider replacing it if I move into a space where stacking them makes sense.
I wish I still had a top load washer and will be going back to that when this one breaks. The front load always dumps newly cleaned clothes on the floor when we’re moving them over to the dryer.
If you live in a humid climate, you’ll struggle with mold in a front load. Work great in the desert tho!
It stays dry enough with the AC on. I’ve heard you just want to keep the door cracked open and swipe under the rubber seal once in a while
And buy the above-mentioned afresh tablets every 6 weeks. I got rid of mine after a year. My sister still complains about it. It’s such a problem that brands advertise that they’ve fixed the problem with nanoparticles and space age coatings. Muchike Subaru, they haven’t fixed the problem.
I’ll readily acknowledge that they spin way more water out and are likely more gentle on clothes, but I’ll never buy another.
Spinning faster seemed to damage my clothes faster. I just use medium now, and it’s back to what I expected. Clothes come out much, much cleaner than my old top load.
I would avoid Samsung. Their designs require a sacrificial plate for wear, but they do not use one.
I would avoid Samsung. Their designs require a sacrificial plate for wear, but they do not use one.
Sure they do. It’s just that their “sacrificial plate” is the same part that attached the drum to the bearing, so when it corrodes as expected the whole fucking washer breaks.
Hmm I wouldn’t think that spinning faster would do much. I mean, what’s the difference? Once it gets going any decent speed the clothes should be pinned against the walls so going faster just kind of compresses them, which I wouldn’t expect to do much in terms of damage. Interesting.
I didn’t expect it either, so I was surprised to see damage show up relatively quickly (a couple of months). My theory is that it’s wringing them out with a much stronger force than anything you could ever do by hand, stretching the fibers beyond their normal use.
While it seems to be a controversial issue, there’s something everyone agrees on - delicates should not spin at the highest speeds. Why is that? If it caused no additional wear, wouldn’t it make sense to use the highest speed on everything? If not, wouldn’t the same forces apply to all clothing, even if the wear is not immediately obvious?
It’s entirely possible that the damage was coincidental and unrelated to the spin speed. My data is anecdotal, and should not be taken as gospel. I could not find any meaningful tests on the subject (e.g. we ran these towels 1000 times on medium spin then measured the wear). Every source I found is either a random person pretending to know everything, or part of an obvious sales pitch.
Welcome to the wonderful world of appliance shopping, where facts don’t matter but people’s made up impressions apparently do, and resistance to change is a huge driving force behind purchasing decisions.
You’re probably right. If machine A shredded that commenter’s clothes more than machine B, it’s unlikely the spin speed difference – especially between comparable front loaders – was actually the differentiating factor.
I wish I’d done more research on ours; it was an older model on clearance so we got it relatively cheap and figured it would be good enough. It dries fine but the Sensor Dry only operates at one temperature: Warm. You can also push the Eco button which seems to lower the temperature slightly, while taking longer of course. In fact out of its dozen drying presets only one lets you change the temperature: Timed Dry. The only way I can dry my clothes on Low and try to prevent shrinkage is to put it on Timed Dry and run it for about 80-85 minutes, maybe shorter depending on humidity and how many clothes are in the load.
