Steamwasher technology unproven?

16 years ago

Due to the slowness of my laundry room redo! I am still deliberating on whether or not to buy a LG or a Maytag Epic. Yesterday a repair man told me that the LG technology is great...no belts, less things to break (pardon my lack of technical terms.) He did caution me not to buy the Steamwasher, because he feels that it is new and unproven technology.

Having bought a Calypso,I can understand what he is saying, but everyone seems to love their Steamwashers!

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

luvtocook_2007
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you hate to iron, the steamwasher is valuable. I use the steamfresh mode to get the wrinkles out of shirts containing polyester or rayon fibers. The shirts do not come out as if freshly pressed, but are passable. The instructions say not to use the "steamfresh" mode for cotton or silk fabrics, but I put my cotton items in there to get them steamed. Since the fabric comes out damp they can be pressed right away - makes ironing much easier.

As far as the cleaning enhancement with the steamfresh mode, I am less impressed. After reading several comments here about the LG and how well they clean, I was totally underwhelmed with mine. My clothes did not come out cleaner (my 22 year old TL Maytag cleaned better). I had a towel that was wrapped around a pulled pork from the BBQ. The BBQ sauce leaked all over the towel. After cleaning and drying, I could still smell the BBQ sauce and smoke on the towel. The towel is rust colored so I couldn't tell if the stain was removed or not. Tomato sauce type stains and grease did come out completely either from other garments. Some of the problem might be due to the ECOS HE detergent from Costco I was using.

I tried cleaning some dirty towels and socks on the sanitary cylce with some bleach. Still the towels and socks did not come out looking really clean and bright. The machine uses such small amounts of water that I am not sure there is enough to dilute out the dirt and smells.

The factor that killed the machine for me was the excessive vibration from rinse/spin and spin cycles. My laundry room is a 2nd floor location, mid span in my house on plywood and linoleum. The machine made my house shake from one end to the other. I bought anti-vibration pads to no avail. I spent countless attempts trying to fine tune the leveling (despite the fact it was already level).
Thank goodness Best Buy has a 30 day return policy. I exchanged it for a GE Harmony.

I have used the GE Harmony for a week now and love it. It spins to 1000 rpm vs. 1300 for the LG though I could never spin at the extra high speed or my house would fall off the foundation. I kept the LG dryer. The dryer loads are equal in time or 5 - 10 minutes more Harmony vs. LG at 1200 rpm.

I switched to Tide HE and the tomato stains are out. As far as the pulled pork towel is concerned - I repeated the experiment with another lighter colored smoked filled towel. I used a pre-soak, vigorous, extra hot cycle on the Harmony and everything came out - smell, stains and all. Using that cycle with my kids socks and 1/4 cup bleach - they came out very clean and bright. Some people comment that the TL HE machines do not move the clothes around and tangle them up. I watched the rotation of clothing through the glass lid and they do get rotated. There is a bit of tangling or twisting of pant legs, but it's no big deal.

Regarding the vibration - the machine will vibrate some on the fast spin cycle but it does not seem to transfer to the floor. I have my laundry detergent on the floor right next to the machine. The contents do not jiggle at all.

Capacity wise, the LG Tromm I believe has a 3.75cf vs. 4.0 on the Harmony.

Lastly the Harmony cost me $500 less that the LG Tromm with Steamfresh. (33% less) That buys lots of water. I have to admit - the LG is a cooler more stylish machine.

Good luck with your decision.
luvmylg
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
luvtocook all of the LG steamwashers have a capacity of 4.0 GE does not make a washer w/that size capacity. I don't know if that was a typo in your text above.
Marlabe...different strokes for different folks. Everything does not always work for everybody, I am glad luvtocook was able to get something that worked for her/him.
Luvtocook you mentioned "As far as the cleaning enhancement with the steamfresh mode, I am less impressed". Did you mean "SteamWash" because the "SteamFresh" is not a cleaning cycle.
I have the 2487 SteamWasher in red and it is absolutely fabulous. I do not use the SteamWash cycle that often as it is not necessary for our family to use on a regular basis, but the few times I have used it I have been extremely impressed. Marlabe the LG 2688 is the top rated washer per Consumer Reports. There is no functional difference between it and the 2487 except for top spin speed of 1320 vs. 1200 and full LCD display. One word of caution though; LG is relatively new so I would ensure they have service READILY available in your area.
I am not one to believe that LG is the ONLY washer available on the market to provide exceptional washing of your laundry, there are a lot of options out there, go with your research and the features/look/quality/price/capacity etc that fits you and your family. Good luck.
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mrb627
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The GE Harmony is a 4.0 cu ft. machine.

MRB

Steamwasher technology unproven?

Comments (3)

luvtocook_2007

luvmylg

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