So, my mom went out of the country on Thursday for a month. Wouldn't you know it, the washing machine has died.

Obviously I'm not going to wait till she gets back to let her go pick one, any suggestions? I'm going to head over to Sears tomorrow to find one.

 

Top loader or front loader? Top loader; Fisher & Paykel IWL16

 

Probably front loading - I'm told they are more efficient, correct?

 

i'd go with a high efficiency, you can go top or front load. we looked at front loaders, but it seems pretty inconvenient to load (since you have to bend down) unless you get the stands which are another ~$150. Check with your local water company, we got a $200 rebate for getting a high efficiency washer. We went with kenmore, but i'd suggest getting a 1 month online subscription to consumer reports for like $6, which will point you in the right direction.

 

More than you need/care to know; http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/laundry/

 

Have you considered getting it fixed?

 

It's about 8 years old...not really worth it.

 

Front loading washers are way more efficient than top loaders. There are efficient top loaders, but even they use ~ twice as much water as an efficient front loader.

I'd recommend the Whirlpool Duet Sport front loading washer.

If you are concerned about ergonomics, you can easily build a wooden pedestal stand. Thats a much cheaper solution instead of spending $200 on a plastic 10 inch pedestal stand.

 

the top of the line LG front loader is best rated by consumer reports.

 

Buy American...

(mine isn't working and it's from some slovic country.... )

 

I have a Front loader and love it, I found mine at sears open boxed for 520 out the door, the instrument panel was bad so they replaced it so it is a brand new washer. cool thing is that my old one crapped out and I had the sears home protection. the cost to fix it would be over 500. so they wrote me a check for 500 to replace the broken old one. so only cost me 20 bucks up front. then you get in california a rebate for HE washers, and that was 75 bucks

so overall they paid me and my wife 55 bucks to take this washer off their hands so we were ahead in the money

I would check sears for open box washers, I always find good deals with them.

 

Thanks for the info... ordered CR for the month. Checked with the water company, the lady joked and said they want to charge us more now.

 

Family has always been partial to Kenmore... so I checked out CR and Sears - $1300. Whatever, I might as well just get it.

Correction to my above statement, it is actually almost 10 years old.

 

Are you expecting your mom to pay you back? You may want to consider what your mom would realistically be willing to pay for something before running out and buying the top of the line.

If you're paying for it, then do whatever you want.

 

Well...I can charge her card - but it doesn't really make a difference. I take care of the bills.

Either way, I bought a Kenmore. There were two...one for $200 more had a few extra cycles (wool and the kids cycle) - I figured it wasn't worth the extra two hundred. Don't you have to dry clean wool/silk anyways?