I personally know people who own LG, Whirlpool, and GE front loaders. I don't know anyone who owns a Bosch. I plan to buy my Bosch this weekend. I compared all the machine in a store where they were sitting side by side and I liked the way the Bosch was designed best. The LG's were cool and came in pretty colors, but they cost more. I also can't get past the fact that LG's are Goldstar.

All that said, my friend with the LG says she is reasonably happy with it after 8 months, but you should make sure you leave the door open between uses. Hers gets a musty smell after being closed for a few days. She tries to leave it open, but someone is always closing it as they pass through to the garage (her laundry room is a breezeway between the house and garage). I suggested slitting a tennis ball and putting that over the latch so it cannot be shut. I havn't talked to her in a couple weeks (snow everywhere) to see if she tried that. You also need to be sure to buy HE detergent, I know people who had suds problems diluting the regular stuff they had left.

Good luck, hope you enjoy your new machine!

Haven't read all the Bosch threads, but my impression is that this is an equal opportunity site when it comes to trashing pretty much every brand in existence. Even the revered Miele gets trashed. People without problems tend not to go around the internet posting spontaneous notes about their great experiences with a product (maybe Amazon has a greater share of these types of postings).

We all decide on a particular product for different combination of reasons. For some it's the ...

color, dimension limitations, price/budget, Consumer Reports ratings, availability of sales and service, brand reputation, prior experience with a brand, standard warranty, orientation of door swing, distance from domestic hot water heater to laundry room, availability of a built-in heater, whether the heater operates in all settings, availability of special features like a profile wash or maximum temperature, voltage available in the laundry room, maximum spin speed, ability to take LCB,

and a host of other reasons why a person chooses a particular machine. Lots of people have found the LG machines have the right combination of features for them.

I thought the same thing when I first started coming to this forum, but about Miele. It's cyclic. BTW - I do love my Bosch, but can't say what's right for you.

When I make statements on this forum, I base them on both personal experience and what I've gleaned from reports here in the years I've been an active participant. I don't 'have it in' for any company, nor do I benefit in any way if anyone buys the same machine I have as opposed to any other.

Two years ago the LG used to be the machine I would recommend to anyone was looking for a stacking large-drum FL, and along with the Bosch (and ahead of the Kenmore et al) even without the stacking. I *liked* the LG - they are beautiful to look at, have good specs, and were available for a good price. I stopped recommending them because (a) the price zoomed way up, (b) too many misrepresentations by the company and by their customer service, and (c) too many cases reported here of egregious problems for which LG wouldn't even send a tech out, let alone succeed with a repair under warranty. I'd be happy to describe some of the cases under (b) and (c) that influenced me, but I'm sure someone would find this objectionable.

With Bosch, customer service has a tendency to be arrogant, but almost every case that has come up on this website in the last couple of years on their machines has been resolved to the owner's satisfaction. With Whirlpool/Kenmore/etc, the situation is a little spottier (and possibly regional), but it is likely that the reports look worse than one would expect just because they have such overwhelming market penetration in the US.

I don't know what people are saying on eWhining and similar sites, this is the forum I pay attention to, in part because there is a dialogue: when someone complains about a company or product, one can dig deeper to see what the problem actually was. (The overwhelming majority of problems people have with any FLs can be traced to user error; this is manufacturer-independent. This is especially true for problems with biofilm and with cleaning ability.) There is also a history here: when a company touts a new machine or new features, we can wait for a year or so to see if the reality meets the hype, and not base one's opinion of a machine on a few week's exposure to it or marketing hype.

If my posts were the ones that bother you, then I am sorry, but they represent my best judgement, and I assume are interpreted by readers of this forum accordingly. Poor gordonr has had to put up with my blather for years, so as a newcomer you should count yourself lucky! - DR

dross,

Blather away. Your posts have substance and are informative.

The variability of installation quality must drive the manufacturers crazy from a customer service perspective. You can see why Miele doubles their warranty to 2 years if you use a factory trained installer. We recently had a Miele dishwasher installed and it was 100% worth having the trained installer. He knew all the tricks and did an extremely professional job at a fair price.

Dross couldn't have said it any better. Most prorblems reported here can be traced back to user error. Furthermore, about talking to my friend at a local appliance store informed me that when it comes to bosch (especially), it's not about lack of parts and availbility, it's that most stores will only have 1 tech that is trained to repair Bosch appliance line. Therefore you have to wait for service from that particular tech. Whether this is true or fiction, it does make sense to me. I own a bosch dishwasher. When the door handle started coming loose, I called the store from where I bought the machine and I did have to wait a week for the tech to come out. Would I buy another bosch dishwasher?? YOU BETTCHA!!!!!!!!. Infact I like the dishwasher so much, I'm getting a Bosch Washer and Dryer for my new house once it's built. However, I will be more careful where I buy the units and will also ask how many techs they have for bosch.

This rant isn't just for Bosch. I believe that when making any sort of large purchase like this, and before laying out the cash, check, credit card, Everyone should ask about the service and how many techs are available. Regardless of the brand.

Just because parts are avaliable doesnt mean they are on hand. I work for a Ford dealership. There are millions of avaliable parts, but a dealership can only stock a practicle supply of the most commonly used parts. It would cost them millions and millions of dollars to warehouse all that they could be called to use.

Same goes for appliances. So there may be that door latch avaliable in the USA but it may take a day or three to get it into the hands of a tech, then time to arrange a repair visit to your avaliability and the techs.

Also the number of techs trained doesnt necessarily reflect the business volume a certain place does. There are MANY people trained to work on Kenmore/whirlpool/maytag/ge and still the sheer volume of appliances out there makes getting to you and yours a matter of many variables.

I am being completely humorous at this point. When did washing clothes become such a task? Need a doctorate in Bio Physics to do the laundry! Now you have to dilute your fabric softner, avoid using softner sheets (sensors), don't use the recommended amount of HE detergent, ONLY use HE, leave the door open (musty odor) etc! I absolutely love my FL so much that I had a flashlight watching the clothes wash (sad, but true) I am only 38 and ironically I am an engineer, but I guess this is the avenue life is going down now. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be buying surge protectors for my laundy equipment so as to avoid lightning strikes and ruining the "onboard computers".....on a washer and dryer! I had Kenmore w/d that my parents brought me 16 years ago out of college and when I GAVE them away on Sunday they were still running fine without having to jump through all the hoops I am having to do now. Oh well I will stop my whineing I am using 11 gallons vs 40+ per wash, clothes will last longer, saving on electricity and water, got a new toy, get to talk to enlightened folks about it, and lastly the w/d are a nice showpiece in the laundry room now. I did a faux finish and everything. The laundry room is now part of the decorum!

Buying a FL made me a bit more neurotic at first, but the symptoms seem to have subsided. LOL...

I LOVE my Asko, and for a while thought gee why does everyone hate Asko -- did I buy a lemon? But no, it's great and has been working wonderfully for me. I've posted positive comments on several occasions simply because of the many negative posts -- I WISH Asko was paying me, but alas! I agree with previous posters that a lot of complaints that you hear on this, and other, forums are due to user error.

You can complain that your high-end oven doesn't bake evenly when your cakes come out with a hard crust and unevenly baked, get the techs to check it out on multiple occasions, and even get the manufacturer to exchange it or buy it back because you are convinced it's defective. But then the same thing happens with the new oven, and darn it what's going on? Then you realize your dark colored, non-stick bakeware is causing the uneven heat distribution. When you switch to lighter colored, silver finish bakeware the problem disappears. But in the meantime you've posted negative comments, trashed two manufacturers in the forum, and have created a very visible complaint that could sway others from buying those brands.

[The above is based on actual events, but has been dramatized for impact. :P]

It seems that people have a tendency to buy their washing machines based paint color and whiz-bang led lights.

We recently had a lady come on asking for purchase advice between 3 brands.

Despite the reports of severe durability problems and service disappointment with one of the 3 brands she was considering (LG), she nevertheless bought that brand solely because she was mesmerized by the color.

I wish everyone good fortune and happy results with their decisions. But sometimes one wonders what leads people to the decisions they DO make.

Is it criticism of anything not Bosch, or is it that criticism of LG bothers you?

I have read a lot of happy reports from Whirlpool, Kenmore, Frigidaire, Miele, Bosch and even LG owners.

But overwhelmingly in the past 6 months, the saddest stories and the most disconcerting reports have come from LG owners.

You can complain that your high-end oven doesn't bake evenly...But then the same thing happens with the new oven, and darn it what's going on?

Obviously, *all* ovens behave this way, and oven technology must simply be not ready for prime time. Ovens can't cook anything better than the old fashioned open fires that were good enough for our mothers. Ovens were invented just to improve energy efficiency, not to make it possible to cook food better and more easily. No, it is much better to stick with the cheap, reliable open fire.

Oh, and don't even think about installing an oven inside your house. Ovens were not designed for house interiors. The fact that myriad Europeans have had ovens in their homes for years is irrelevant; their homes were built hundreds of years ago, before architects perfected the special oven-unfriendly building techniques in use today. Besides, the Europeans need ovens, since their open fires are so wimpy - hardly any flame at all, to speak of.

Oh, but if you must install an oven in your house, the only one to consider is Whirlpool's new Suet Snort, since it has special "gas whumpeters" engineered for inside installation. This is the only model that has these gas whumeters, at least the only ones inscribed with the letter "W", and based on unsupervised head-to-head trials with a few of Whirlpool's old models these ovens are far better for indoor use than all the competition from every manufacturer. We know that this is true, since someone from Whirlpool customer service said so on this very forum! - DR

! rotfl

I always had problems with Bosch Spark Plugs, and found that AC/Delco and Champion were more reliable. I was surprised that they expanded from ignition parts into laundry machines.

It's a shame that people would consider a washer solely based on the color. I looked at LG's, Bosch, Whirlpool's and Kenmore's (Whirlpools in colors!). The extra premium for a colored washer was ridiculous. Quite honestly you'd have to pay ME to have an orange or red washer in my home. Blue or stainless-- eh, who cares?

I was strictly after an He washer and dryer to get my clothes clean and dry. Unless one is planning to feature the washer as art, it makes no sense to pay extra for color.

I was down to features for the price. I never understood the premium for Kenmore. I narrowed my choices to Whirlpool Duet and LG Tromm. The LG had more features for less money. I bought the LG and have been very pleased. No problems with either set I've owned. I had the first LG set stacked on a crawlspace for a year before we sold that house and had to leave the set behind. Our second set has been getting our clothes nice and clean for 8 months in our new home with no problems. We like LG so much we also purchased an LG fridge for our new home when we moved. One minor problem with the icemaker after 2 months that was fixed promptly and without hassle by LG.

I can't bash any brand I've never had experience with. Sure, I can quote the experiences of others, but there's always two sides to every story.