Dammit, now I have to clean my keyboard again!
carguy123 wrote: Front loaders are the TRENDY thing. You can get the same water usage in the newer top loaders with none of the issues. PLUS spend a lot less money. I just replaced my front loader with a top loader and I could have bought 2 top loaders for the price of 1 front loader. Plus I got a much bigger drum and I'm finding the clothes take a lot less time to wash so we can get more loads an hour in when we have a house full of guests. You use the same HE deteregent.
I was thinking I'd get a front loader, to save water and electricity, until I actually started to research things and learned about all the issues. I ended up with a really nice Fisher & Paykel high efficiency top loader and their low-end (relabeled GE Profile) front load dryer for far less than the cheapest front loader combo I'd found (under $800 for the pair after rebates). Can't wait to get them hooked up and actually use them :).
BoxheadTim wrote: They aren't cheaper, but they tend to use less water and, depending on the machine, less electricity, even though they run a lot longer than the standard US top loaders. What kind of amuses me is that pretty much everybody in Europe uses front loaders and still has clean clothes. Disclaimer - we just bought a set of used front loaders (washer and dryer), but they were expensive machines when new. Seems to make a massive difference, in quality and longevity (now there's a surprise). But then again we live on the edge of the desert so I don't think it's massively smart to run lots of water through on every wash if I can get the same result with a quarter of the water.
My experience is the same as yours. And actually, the washing time of our front loaders have been less than our top loaders were. We never had an expensive top loader, so it's not really apples to apples. But when we did decide to spend some dough on a washer we went with the front loaders, and have been sold ever since. They have all 3 been very quiet, the loudest they get is the cloths tumbling on the toss cycle after the spin cycle. And I've also been totally floored how dry the cloths are after the spin cycle. It only takes 15-20 minutes in a dryer and even the towels are completely dry.
And as far as the mildew thing, let it dry out. We leave ours open when not in use, and it has completely stopped the developing of smells. We still clean it from time to time, but somehow it also doesn't seem to get dirty as much, even in the massive crevices of the door seal.
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