Please Tell me one thing you'd like to change about your washer

13 years ago

I know everyone has their favorites when it comes to washing machines. Most prefer a FL, some a TL. There have been many discussions on which one is best and for various reasons. What I want to hear is if you could change one things about your washer to make it even better, what would it be? and why?

For instance, I love my little Danby, it will soon need replaced. The only thing I would change is it's capacity. It could be just a bit bigger, not Uber sized, just a a bit bigger. For a family of 4 adults, I end up doing 5 dark loads. It would be nice to get all the jeans in one load and I could combine the other 3 down to 2 as there are enough similar fabrics to do that.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

If you like you could do the same about your dryer.

Comments (12)

bigdoglover
13 years ago
Hi bigdogmom. I guess we both like big dogs!

I have an Oasis washer and dryer, top load. I actually really love them. Wouldn't change a thing about the dryer, it's really big and dries nice and fast and never shrinks anything.

Two things about the washer: I truly dislike having the washer tell me in what combinations I can have hot / warm / cool / cold wash. Since when do the people at Sears or Whirlpool know that I only want to be able to do a "normal" wash on warm/cold?! I also wish it would fill up with water -- more like the regular old fashioned wash machines. I sometimes wonder if things are really getting clean or rinsed because of the small amount of water in there, so I always do second rinse (and doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of the water saving device?) OK make that three things and it's about both of them. They have sort of rounded sides so that when put side by side there is a big crack between the two. I liked my old fashioned kinds that butted up against each other nice and square, leaving a big smooth surface that socks can't fall through.

Otherwise I have to say I love them and they're very pretty and pleasant to work with.
dadoes
13 years ago
Have you tried changing the temperature after selecting the Normal cycle? Are you sure it won't allow any choice other than Warm/Cold?

Oasis is an HE washer, It's not supposed to fill up with water. Running an extra rinse still uses less water than an agitator-style toploader filling the tub for one wash and one rinse.

Personally, I would never position a washer and dryer pair to be physically touching. Vibrations (even very small vibrations) that occur during operation over the long-term will cause abrasion and damage the finish of the sides that are touching.

:-)
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bigdoglover
13 years ago
dadoes, I will try changing temp after selecting cycle. I didn't know about that possibility. Thanks!

I don't really care if the finishes on the sides that I'll never see get damaged. I love my W&D snugged up to each other real tight.
popster
13 years ago
Heh, the name! Our new Fisher Paykel worked for 3 weeks and has been out of order for 6 weeks and counting. Lousy service an unavailable or incompetent supply for parts.
bigdogmom_pa
Original Author
13 years ago
bigdoglover - mine's a lrg German Shep, what's your's? Glad to hear you like your Bravo's. Hope Dadoes helped you with your water choices. However, I do know that some are limited due to cycle. Many machines won't let you choose Hot. And many don't even own a warm rinse.

dadoes - maybe you can help popster w/his machine.

popster - maybe post your question and dadoes is an expert at F&P maybe he can help you.

Keep the comments coming, I find them interesting and more informative than just asking what's your fav?
nerdyshopper
13 years ago
I'm with bigdog, I hate the fact that big brother is protecting the environment in ways that spoil clothes washing. I wish that some kind of research had been a part of the process so that companies could find what really works and come to a consensus and then write legislation. I'm sure that in a decade we will again have great machines, but for now we're stuck as things get figured out. Same thing would happen if all cars had to get 50 mpg this year. Great idea but it didn't happen because big brother knows we wouldn't stand for it.
oasisowner
13 years ago
I would like to have the same washer (Speed Queen) with a larger capacity. I previously had the Kenmore Oasis Canyon Capacity and the Maytag Bravos - I could wash a 6' x 9' area rug in the Oasis. However, the Speed Queen clean much much better and uses actual hot! water.
dadoes
13 years ago
I was going to ask popster about their problem, but didn't want to throw the thread off-kilter. He/She can perhaps start a new thread, or contact me off-board via e-mail.
bigdogmom_pa
Original Author
13 years ago
Oasisowner - a 6x9 rug? Wow, that does seem huge. You are right though real hot water is worth sacrificing a bit to get. Clean clothes are always a bonus. LOL

dadoes - I guess I didn't type that well to popster, I did mean a new thread.
popster
13 years ago
Update: I just got my Fisher Paykel back in service. I knew the diverter valve was defective the day after the machine stopped working. A combination of poor communication/errors by Lowes, the authorized repair facility, and F&P resulted in my washer being out of service for 8 WEEKS!!! To F&P credit, they told me next time to just call them and bypass the authorized factory repair loop. The wax motor failed.
bigdogmom_pa
Original Author
13 years ago
Popster - glad you were able to get your machine fixed finally. Whenever you have an issue w/your FP, Dadoes is the expert on them, owns a few, so post a question to him and he will help you.
davidro1
13 years ago
One thing I would change: Get the delayed start timer to be more able to measure timeframes that are less than an hour.

The one I have lets me choose hours. Apparently also less than an hour, but it's not very fine-grained there. The dial LOOKS like it takes delay start times of less than an hour, but it doesn't really do that.

Sometimes I'm going out to do an errand, and I want it to start and finish before I get back. Instead, it hasn't even started yet when I come home, or it has barely started. Defeats the purpose. Counterproductive. The complete opposite of what I wanted. Frustrating.

So, I've had to teach myself to turn the dial to the last click (also very coarse and not very finegrained). Even then it's not impressive. Why can't I have a delay of 10 minutes? Why can't it be easy to turn, and reliably set at ten minutes?

OK, I realize that many will say "who cares" and "why do you need to delay start for ten minutes". This is the feature that I want, for my own reasons. It will determine my next purchase. If I move I'm selling with a wonderful FL washer already installed and in its place.

HTH

Please Tell me one thing you'd like to change about your washer

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