Front load washer/dryers: the nightmare The Internet makes them out to be?

I will be moving soon, and a place I found that checks about all of the boxes only has room for a stackable washer and dryer. I'm hoping that this place will be one of the last that I rent, so I would prefer not to get throwaway appliances.

I have heard a lot of complaints about front-load washers; what is GRM's verdict? These will need to be stackable. Have any manufacturers to recommend or avoid? I have used laundromats much of my adult life, so the typical array of settings is "FUNCTION" and "NOT FUNCTION." Gut feeling is to get something that is as mechanically simple and robust as possible; pay for quality, not gimmicks, etc.

Any ideas?

We have Fridgidaire Affinity Front Load Washer/dryer stacked. ~4 years old, no Issues so far. We have hard water and they seem to tolerate it well. The "funk" that is rumored has been controlled by running a system clean cycle with special cleaner pellets (available everywhere) about 1 every other month, and wiping the door seal down with bleach solution about 3 times a year. We also always leave the door on it's "kickstand" that holds it open 2-3 inches.
These things will WASH/DRY SOME DAMN CLOTHES. We've not had any issues with clothes not getting clean. I will buy again, assuming they last another several years probably the same brand.

Good advice, there. We've only ever owned front loaders -- going back more than 30 years, in fact -- and they work great. I don't have personal experience with cleaner pellets, but we do leave the door propped open between loads.

My dad is an appliance repair guy, so i'll repeat what he tells all of his customers:

tip 1- do not overload them. The salesman will tell you all day about how having no agitator means you can fit more in it. Don't believe it. If you throw clothes in it and you have to push the pile down to put more in, you have probably twice as much laundry in there as you should.

tip 2- if possible, set it to spin slower. They spin really really fast to dry out the clothes as much as possible before drying to save energy. More speed means more bearing wear, and those bearings are annoying as berk to change. They also aren't cheap. This is especially important if you (or whomever does the laundry) ignores tip 1.

tip 3- pre-clean any clothes that are actually dirty. Less water means less ability to remove stuff like mud from clothes. If you sweat a lot, no problem. If your clothes are caked in filth, get as much off as you can before going in the washer.

tip 4- use the right soap (usually HE for front loaders) and don't use too much. It messes with the seals, which aren't fun (or cheap) to replace.

New and old driers are front loaders, and aren't much different as far as use goes. If you follow those 4 tips, new front loaders aren't any more problematic than old top loaders.

For companies he usually recommends whirlpool (or whirlpool owned companies). Some of the other companies making front loaders aren't necessarily inferior, but whirlpool is the only company he has known to send replacement bearings at no cost when the machine was no longer under warranty. It doesn't always happen, and they dont' cover labor, but those things are pricey and it cuts repair costs in half.

Avoid LG, the company blows. Some repair people won't even work on them since they are not always willing to sell parts to people who don't do warranty work for them. People are hesitant to do that warranty work because, again, the company blows and will take forever to pay said repairman/pay as little as possible.

Also don't believe consumer reports, they are merely a list of which companies have paid them more to be rated higher.

Maytag Neptune is probably the reason for most of the front load washer dislike. A very popular and problematic machine. Even has its own special forums and web pages. I happened to have had one, they really are the problem machine the internet would have you believe them to be.

Fundamentally though, a front loader is not the end of the world or inherently evil, bad or otherwise unpleasant. About the worse thing is that you can't simply open the lid part way through to add more clothes and you can't easily do a soaking in them.

Since you're stuck with stacked machines, front loading is all but you're only option. That or an all-in-one machine.

Inlaws spent a buttload of cashola on a pair of Bosch frontloads a few years ago. They had a ton of issues in the first two years, got them replaced and are ok now. I know that the wash cycle is about twice as long as our "old style" top load washer. that and the price was enough to stop me from getting one.

We had an LG. Horrible piece of crap. I repaired it when it was 2 years old, and that was a pain. Then 16 months later something else went bad. During that whole time it was leaking water, not cleaning clothes, or spinning much water out of them. I junkd it and bought an American-made too-loader and am happy.
We used the right soap, left to door open, cleaned the seals, and everything else my friend, the applince relairman daid to do. He said fromt loaders are just inferior, and LG ARE JUNK.

I had a whirlpool duet "sport" (for real - they were called sport) set in Niagara Falls that I sold with the house. Got separated a couple years ago, and when I moved into my new place I want out and bought another set of Whirlpool duet machines. I leave the washer door open between loads like before, and I've never had a funk problem with it. I've never needed to use a cleaning tablet, or the cleaning cycle.

I have Samsung front loader washer and dryer.

Neat feature: it senses if there is still dirt or soap in the rinse water and will repeat until clean and clear. This means a normal load doesn't take long at all but very dirty clothes or (especially) things like comforters will take forever to get rinsed properly.

With so many people in the house mine does a load every day, sometimes 2-3 a day and it's 3.5 years old. We just had our first problem and that was kids dragging wet crap out pulling the gasket loose (which went unnoticed by said oblivious kids) and it got torn a bit. Last night I put it back together and ran it and no leaks so I guess I can put off replacing the gasket for a bit.

Before the divorce I bought the Maytag Neptune set and was happy enough with them but not as much as what I have now.

My new place has smaller Bosch stacked front loaders. Only done a few loads so far but they seem to work fine. Cycle times seem to be a bit longer, but I think these were selected for how quiet they are, since they are being used in an apartment.

I'm on my second Maytag Neptune. First one after 7 years or so started beeping all on its own and then soon after fried the circuit board. Took it all apart and found new boards for $150 to $225, and I wasn't sure that was the only problem, just the most obvious. I found a 5 year old Neptune washer and dryer on CL for $100. Problem solved. Didn't need the dryer and finally after walking by it in my garage for a month, I scraped a perfectly good dryer and a washer that I think only needed a board. Washer and dryers are one of those things that cost a fortune new but you have a hard time giving them away when they are used.

We've got a Kenmore front loader. Not stackable.

We have never had an issue with it- it is about 10 years old.

I've never read the info on the internet, and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

In reply to iadr:

Why in the world would you put 500 loads in a machine that didn't do the job?

Masochists... you are only hurting yourselves.

DrBoost wrote: We had an LG. Horrible piece of crap. I repaired it when it was 2 years old, and that was a pain. Then 16 months later something else went bad. During that whole time it was leaking water, not cleaning clothes, or spinning much water out of them. I junkd it and bought an American-made too-loader and am happy. We used the right soap, left to door open, cleaned the seals, and everything else my friend, the applince relairman daid to do. He said fromt loaders are just inferior, and LG ARE JUNK.

We had LG front loaders too and I echo everything the good Dr reported above.

In reply to Mitchell:

We have Whirlpool Duets, which we got about 4 years ago. I don't know if they're stackable, but I love them. They do a metric buttload of laundry, much more quickly and easily than my 10-year-old toploaders did. I do about 6 loads a week, usually all in one day, no problem.

I don't really know why they're supposed to be awful. I've never had a lick of trouble. I leave the door of the washing machine open an inch when I'm not using it, and it never smells. If I do a load of garage clothes and rags, I'll run on of those cleaner tablets through it. Otherwise they are quick, quiet, and trouble-free.

I bought one of the Whirlpool Duet models that are a serious contributor to the hate, I'm sure.

It got loud. When it was a little less than a year old the drum bearings sounded like a jet. Then... it made a horrible noise and the drum had about 3" of play. I tried to have it taken care of under warranty but it was going to be $300 for the service person because only parts were included. Naturally, it voided the warranty for me to do it so they wouldn't send me a whole new drum assembly unless I agreed to the $300. I politely asked them to have intercourse with themselves and took it apart myself.

It cost me $54 in much better quality sealed bearings from McMaster Carr. The originals were open style cheap junk chinese bearings and were very rusty like water had got to and de-greased them. The drum seal was in-tact so I stiffened it with silicone. Then there was 45 minutes on the lathe to weld/turn the shaft that got ruthlessly buggered up by the drum when the bearing broke apart during the spin cycles and probably 3-4hrs total of disassembly/assembly. A lot of folks with laundry probably don't have welders and lathes so I was lucky in that regard ;)

It's been 5 years and it has been trouble-free. It is superior in performance, volume and speed over the old top loader but I'd still not recommend this particular one. YMMV.

dyintorace wrote:

DrBoost wrote: We had an LG. Horrible piece of crap. I repaired it when it was 2 years old, and that was a pain. Then 16 months later something else went bad. During that whole time it was leaking water, not cleaning clothes, or spinning much water out of them. I junkd it and bought an American-made too-loader and am happy. We used the right soap, left to door open, cleaned the seals, and everything else my friend, the applince relairman daid to do. He said fromt loaders are just inferior, and LG ARE JUNK.

We had LG front loaders too and I echo everything the good Dr reported above.

Another "LG is crap" vote here.

Repaired mine the first time at 3 years old (sensor, so not too hard) but at 7 years old, I had to replace the bearings seals and the "drum spider". If I hadn't done it myself, the price of that repair would have been more then a new washer. LG engineered obsolescence into the washer by putting an aluminum structure to hold a stainless drum.

fanfoy wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

DrBoost wrote: We had an LG. Horrible piece of crap. I repaired it when it was 2 years old, and that was a pain. Then 16 months later something else went bad. During that whole time it was leaking water, not cleaning clothes, or spinning much water out of them. I junkd it and bought an American-made too-loader and am happy. We used the right soap, left to door open, cleaned the seals, and everything else my friend, the applince relairman daid to do. He said fromt loaders are just inferior, and LG ARE JUNK.

We had LG front loaders too and I echo everything the good Dr reported above.

Another "LG is crap" vote here. Repaired mine the first time at 3 years old (sensor, so not too hard) but at 7 years old, I had to replace the bearings seals and the "drum spider". If I hadn't done it myself, the price of that repair would have been more then a new washer. LG engineered obsolescence into the washer by putting an aluminum structure to hold a stainless drum.

Huh. Well, our LG washer and dryer have been flawless for about 4 years so far, with heavy use. Exception that proves the rule? Also, Consumer Reports seems to think they are pretty good:

In reply to nocones:

For the hard water... I run a load of vinegar thru the washer and dishwasher every so often. With the washer, I run it as a clean cycle, then right after, follow it with another using a full tray of bleach. I never use the pellets at all.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

fanfoy wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

DrBoost wrote: We had an LG. Horrible piece of crap. I repaired it when it was 2 years old, and that was a pain. Then 16 months later something else went bad. During that whole time it was leaking water, not cleaning clothes, or spinning much water out of them. I junkd it and bought an American-made too-loader and am happy. We used the right soap, left to door open, cleaned the seals, and everything else my friend, the applince relairman daid to do. He said fromt loaders are just inferior, and LG ARE JUNK.

We had LG front loaders too and I echo everything the good Dr reported above.

Another "LG is crap" vote here. Repaired mine the first time at 3 years old (sensor, so not too hard) but at 7 years old, I had to replace the bearings seals and the "drum spider". If I hadn't done it myself, the price of that repair would have been more then a new washer. LG engineered obsolescence into the washer by putting an aluminum structure to hold a stainless drum.

Huh. Well, our LG washer and dryer have been flawless for about 4 years so far, with heavy use. Exception that proves the rule? Also, Consumer Reports seems to think they are pretty good:

See my post above. Consumer reports dont mean jack.

My parents have a neptune (one of the first) and they haven't had any problems. My dad knew from the start the marketing was a lie. People ran into trouble with theose because the salesmen told everyone they could stuff them as full as a top loader. Job security for repairmen I guess

The newer stuff is just getting more and more complicated, and each one seems to have one little hard to find (yet easy to fix) problem that results in most of them being junked because nobody knows to look for that one wire that alwasy breaks inside the the insulation or whatever.

SVreX wrote: We've got a Kenmore front loader. Not stackable. We have never had an issue with it- it is about 10 years old. I've never read the info on the internet, and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I would tend to avoid appliances badged "Kenmore" "GE" or "Sears". They don't produce appliances, they merely slap their badge on other appliances. You could very well get a good machine from a good company (as I suspect rex did) or just as easily something chinese that is terrible.

I used stacked washer and dryer (samsung or LG can't recall now) for a few years in a place I was renting and never had an issue. We always left the door open after a load to let it dry out and the only time it smelled was when my roommate left it closed. Lots of good advice in this thread so far.

Rufledt wrote: See my post above. Consumer reports dont mean jack.

Not that I have 100% faith in CR, but I'd like to see some evidence that they are as corrupt as you say. They don't have any advertising, so that makes it a bit harder to buy them off, unlike, say, Motor Trend. What's more, the reliability ratings aren't based on subjective factors, they are taken straight from their owner surveys. Here's the disclaimer:

We survey thousands of readers each year about their washers to find out which brands have the fewest repairs. Among front-loaders LG is among the more reliable brands. GE and Frigidaire are among the more repair-prone, though their repair rates are similar to Maytag and Electrolux. Among top-loaders, Speed Queen is more reliable than Kenmore and GE, but similar to Maytag and Whirlpool. That’s what we found when we asked nearly 73,000 readers who bought a clothes washer between 2009 and 2013 about their experiences. The graph shows the percentage of models for each brand that were repaired or had a serious problem. Differences of less than 4 points aren’t meaningful, and we’ve adjusted data to eliminate differences linked solely to a washer’s usage and age. Although we did not have enough data to include Fisher & Paykel, LG, and Samsung top-loaders in our chart, our analysis puts Fisher & Paykel among the more repair-prone brands and LG and Samsung among the more promising brands. Models within a brand may vary, and changes in design or manufacture may affect future reliability. Still, choosing a brand with a good repair history can improve your odds of getting a reliable model.

A survey of tens of thousands of owners is statistically more significant than anecdotal evidence from individuals. Again, I don't have blind faith in CR, and when it comes to cars, I essentially ignore them because they prioritize different factors than I do. But for things like appliances, I can't think of a time when they've steered me wrong.

My mom has a front loader, IIRC it's a Kenmore. Few years old, maybe 5 or 6? It seems to work OK, my gripes are it takes twice as long as my cheap top loader, you never know where it is in the cycle and unless you prop the door open damn it makes a funk. Based on these three problems no I would not buy one myself. Of course, if space dictates a front load stackable only you won't have much choice.

Samsung front loaders for 3+ years here. We do not have them stacked but its an option. No issues, we have been very happy with them. We leave the door open on the washer when not in use, no stank. It does get a bit funky if you leave it closed.

Only repair I have had to perform was replacing the front door seal which I guess you would consider routine maintenance on a front loader. Access was kind of a PITA but in retrospect once I got it apart it was easy to replace.

You can probably make the door seal last longer if you are avoid "dragging" your wet laundry out of the door. lift it up and over the seal when removing.