We finally broke down and bought a new washer and dryer. Our old washer is making this crazy knocking sound during spin cycles and sounds like it wants to throw the clothes out of it. Our dryer seems fine, honestly, but isn’t very efficient and doesn’t dry all that well. So, we’re getting a new washer and dryer. Since the old ones are fine, we’re going to have them move the dryer and washer into the utility part of the basement.

Because we are who we are, Heidi and I spent the whole afternoon running between Sears, Home Depot, and Best Buy comparing washers and dryers. Our criteria were fluid. We mostly valued efficiency and quietness. We figured it would be nice to have a set that would last us through whenever we had kids. So, we pretty much knew we wanted a decent sized front loader. We have friends or family with their own young families who have just bought the Kenmore Elite line or the Whirlpool Duet line (they’re both manufactured by Whirlpool to nearly identical specs), so we were looking at their lower and mid-tier line. I had heard good things from friends at work about the LG line as well. We also had joked around about getting the GE Profile Harmony line only because the washer and dryer apparently “communicate” with each other. We were mostly concerned about the washer so didn’t really do much research on the dryer.

The one thing we didn’t do before heading out on the President’s Day weekend research and purchase trip was check Consumer Reports or Epinions or whatever. In the end, we relied on our own BS detectors and cell phones to help us sort out the differences. We did run to the bookstore and buy the 2005 Consumer Reports guide. We identified three major differences for us:

  • water temps – Some of the washers have a “sanitary cycle” which uses an on-board heating system to add another 10 or 20 degrees to the temp of the hot water to “kill germs” and the like. Cleaning cloth diapers, for example, would be one use. We didn’t know if we needed this, but because both of us have allergies, we figured we were neutral on this.
  • spin cycle RPM – We’re skeptical about this but it stuck with us enough so that we considered it for the three models. The salespeople were telling us that the higher RPM motors would dry the clothes better in the spin cycle, leading to lower drying times in the dryer. This makes sense, and even our Consumer Reports book mentions this. We just didn’t know if it really offset the cost of the feature ($200 in the case of the Elites for the fastest motor) and the cost of running a spin cycle at 1300. We ended up trusting the books and the salespeople on this, so tried to balance price and speed.
  • brand quality – The cheapest model we saw in the ~$1000 washers was the LG. Everyone, including the Best Buy salesguy, pointed out that the LG brand didn’t have an established reputation in the States. We were cognizant of this, especially since no one we knew had one. It was significantly cheaper than the others, though, feature for feature, enough so that we could even buy the extended warranty and be at the price of the middle tier Elite (the HE3t).

After looking at this, talking to a bunch of folks, walking back and forth between Best Buy and Sears a few times and a trip to Home Depot, we ended up selecting the LG WM2277HW Washer and the matching dryer (DLE5977W) for our purchase. We, for now, have purchased the extended warranty from Best Buy (the guy mentioned at the very end that one key part (the motor) was difficult to find in the U.S.), but we’re thinking about canceling it since we don’t expect this to die in 5 years. The maintenance hassles, if any, will come after that unless this thing is a lemon or is faulty, like some of the earlier Maytag Neptunes were. I think I’m willing to take a chance on paying $2-300 later to avoid paying $149 now.

The LG had a lot of fancy features we’re never going to use, has the Sanitary cycle, and has an 1100RPM spin cycle. It’s also a direct drive system, so no belts connecting motor to drum. It has the normal features, too, like delay wash, a stainless steel drum, and a 3.72 cu. ft. capacity (which means we could put in our laundry for 2 weeks in one load).

I’m finally reading the Epinions reviews now and it looks like we should be alright. I get to go play around with dryer venting tomorrow. :) We have a vent run for the old dryer, but it’s been falling apart… it’s on our list of things to fix and the new dryer is making me get that all taken care of.

Some interesting facts if you’re looking for a new washer or dryer:

  • Most front loaders automatically adjust water levels based on what is in the washer
  • You can get your washer and dryer in fancy colors that cost extra
  • Your electric company might give you a rebate if your washer is an Energy Star compliant model
  • High efficiency washers (most front loaders and some top loaders) “work better” with low suds detergents
  • Elite and Duet RPMs vary between 1000RPM and 1300RPM