Washing Machine Blues

They are one of the most used appliances in the house, especially when you have 7 children. It is an item that when you purchase it you want it to last forever so that you do not have to buy another one again. Or have it break down and your left with piles of washing waiting for it to be repaired, or when you can purchase a new one to replace it.

Well I think mine is on the brink of breakdown. It still works, goes through the cycles but when it has to do that last spin cycle it has an automatic detection of an unbalanced load. When it detects that the load is unbalanced during the spin cycle, it suddenly stops and it starts to fill the tub again. Every wash load it is detecting an unbalanced load and I am spending way too much time in front of my washing machine, watching and waiting to see if it is going to spin through or stop and refill. 

I can't believe I have even considered sitting on the washing machine to see if this would help. LOL! All I have to do to rebalance the load is pick up the clothing and redistribute the load in the tub. Then hit the restart button and off it goes but now it does not always complete the cycle and keeps refilling. It's like it has become over sensitive, maybe it is getting me back for all those loads of washing I do. Maybe it's tired and needs to be put in the retirement home, but I just want to hold onto it for a little bit longer, I'm not ready to give it the flick, it has been good to me.

Did I mention it is a top loader, I think you may have guessed because I don't think the front loaders have this problem? When I do decide to buy a new one or if I am forced to I may be choosing a front loader over the top loader, shhh I don't want to offend my washing machine! I have not had any experience with a front loader as my mum always had a top loader and of course I just followed suit, as you do. It was just what I was used to. 

Time to do some research I think!

So now CHOICE have done the work for me - YAY! 

They both sound as good and as bad as each other. My current machine does not have an agitator, it is the impeller type model so it does have less clothing damage and I seem to be able to fit more in. I always wash in cold water unless there is something that desperately needs to be washed in warm water, but that is very rare. I usually will soak the clothing item in a bucket of warm soapy water then put it through a wash cycle with the other clothes. I don't like the idea of longer wash cycles - time is money you know! 

However the front loaders use less water which would be great for me as my household is run on tank water, so every drop is precious. But then they say that it does not always clean the clothes perfectly because of this. Cheaper to run! Now that is always a positive in my books! But then they generally cost more to buy than the top loaders. I guess over years you would make that up by the money you save on energy costs.

What would I do if I had to add washing into the load, I am always finding an odd bit of clothing lying around somewhere and always after I have just started the load, so I am able to just toss it in. With a front loader you can't do that but then it would just have to wait until the next load which there is always more of that, it never ends!

 This is going to be a tough decision I may need some input from my followers about your own personal experiences with your type of washing machine.