It's All Wishy Washy

Back in 2008, I was trying to make strides in the energy efficiency department.  We had a very loud, noisy, and less than "green" washer and dryer.  I was GUNG HO EXCITED about buying a new front loading, HE washer and dryer set.

Worst mistake EVER.

I will admit that in the beginning, I was sucked in by it's fancy spinning and near soundless operation.  I told everyone how great it was, how much it cleaned our clothes.  Before long, I started doubting my own words. I started feeling like maybe our clothes weren't getting quite as clean as I at first suspected.

And there were the problems...  mold, mildew, smells.  God forbid you forget a load in the washer.  It would take two wash cycles to get that mildew smell out of them.  And don't even get me started on unbalanced loads.  I had to start leaving the door and detergent tray open to stave off the ickies.  Running a cleaning cycle once a week with  *gasp* bleach.  I started to think this was way more trouble than it's HE goodness was worth!

Then I had a baby and began using cloth diapers.  Cloth diapers + front loader machine = DOES NOT COMPUTE.  I ended up getting lucky and my in-laws were moving into my step-FIL's parents house and they gifted me the old 40+ year old top loading washing machine that was there.  I would use it to wash my diapers, towels, and bedding.  The Husband is a welder/fabricator and his work clothes are filthy so he would use the top loader for his work clothes as well.

On top of all of this, our washer/dryer were in the basement.  I began to dread doing any laundry at all.  We live in an older home so we really didn't think there was anyway we could get them upstairs, but finally we figured out a way to set them up in the back room of our home.  It was long ago a back porch that had been enclosed.  Then....  THEN!!... the washing machine pump began to sporadically work.  Sometimes it would work just fine, others I would check on it only to find the water hadn't drained at all and was half way up the door and the door wouldn't unlock.  If you are familiar with front loaders, you will know that the water never gets that high.  What a pain in the ass.  We would have to remove the back of the machine and smack in the general vicinity of the pump to kick start it.

I was over it months ago, but we didn't have the money for a new washer.  The last straw happened when on Thursday morning, I attempted to wash a single load of clothes.  On Friday afternoon, I finally gave up and took the dripping, soaking wet clothes outside, wrung them, and hung them up on our clothes line.

Saturday morning, I bought a new washing machine.  A Samsung.  Our luck rarely swings to the good (as evidenced in the rest of this post), but Lowe's (the only place we shop) was having an appliance sale!  I was originally looking at one that would match our dryer, but we've been slowly replacing things with Samsung products.  We've had Samsung phones for years, in fact I still have my first flip phone Samsung that was washed and dried, but still worked, in a drawer.  When I saw this washer, it whispered my name.

I was stupid excited.  It's high efficiency and Energy Star rated.  It's actually got the highest Energy Star rating and only uses an average of $18 A YEAR!  It's the same height as our old washer, but a little slimmer. We've only had it since Saturday afternoon, but I have to say that so far, it is performing beautifully.  I even washed a full size comforter in it with room to spare!  Now I can wash all the sheets, pillowcases, and comforters (per bed) at one time instead of having to do them all separately.

 Moral of this story is... DON'T BUY A FRONT LOADING WASHING MACHINE!  This public service announcement is brought to you by a laundry washer tired of unclean clothes.  Good day.