I was just about to ask a similar question when Dee's post showed up. My BIL is considering a Craigslist purchase of a slightly used HE3t and its pedestal. This is a "divorce sale." However, the wife (who is selling the machine) and her movers had no clue about the need for reinstalling the shipping bolts. It was moved into her new home without them. I told BIL this was a no-no for the machine's suspension. So how could he tell that something got farkled in the FL from the move? Plug it in and run it through the spin? The machine is not hooked up to water. BIL is a mechanic extrodinaire, but FLs are a new beast for him. Is the suspension a reasonable repair to undertake with the technical manual and parts that run less than $200? Is there anything else that likely could have gotten messed up in the un-bolted move and he should check for? Help us, Obi Wans of the Laundry Room!

I've had a Kenmore front loader for 15 years that has been a great washing machine. It originally cost about $600 in 2001, and has just kept on chugging. Right at the moment, it is dripping a bit from the bottom from a leaking outer tank, but not enough leakage that it doesn't dry out between uses. Since it's on a slab, not a big issue, but I expect to be replacing it within a year or so, Can't really complain about that length of service for what we originally put into it. I'll be looking for another front loader, this one has gotten our clothes clean without damaging them with minimal water use. No smell, but we leave the door and the soap drawer ajar between uses so that they dry out inside. Yes, it does vibrate, but it doesn't rip out pipes and walls or walk around, just makes some noise on fast spin. I haven't got enough money to buy a washing machine that doesn't make any noise. And yes, there's a certain amount of luck involved with any major appliance purchase, and I'm well aware that we've been lucky with this one. Lemons do happen. But you can take a lot of the doubt out (except the probability of getting a lemon *smile*) by doing your research up front. Good luck!

My washer will do 2 rinses as default, or 3 if you select Water Plus. I've noticed that with some detergents you can get away with using just the 2 rinses and not have any soapy residue, but with the majority of other detergents you have to use 3 rinses otherwise laundry feels soapy and scratchy afterwards. BTW, I've found that using just the water plus function without the extra rinse - i.e. 2 high level rinses (the button can be programmed to add an extra rinse, do high level rinses, or both), that rinsing is improved on towel loads over 2 rinses at the standard level - however 3 is still the optimum. As the saying goes, three is the magic number :-). I have used 4 and 5 rinses before mainly in my older machines (my AEG could allow you to select up to 5, but it wouldn't spin until after the 2nd rinse), but have noticed no marked difference between 4 and 3 rinses no matter the load or detergent, whereas with some loads/detergents you can always notice the difference between 2 and 3 rinses. Some here argue that the standard rinse cycles on their machines rinse perfectly well, which I don't doubt. However in my opinion and through my experience rinse cycles do actually need water, and I've always noticed a considerable difference in performance between low and medium/high level rinses in terms of dog hair & lint removal. As well as the correct water level, another major factor in rinse cycles is how fast and how long the laundry is spun for. My particular machine spins laundry for 4 minutes at 1000rpm after the wash, and 2 minutes at 1000rpm after the rinses and the spins help no end too with the performance of rinsing. These high speed interim spins are important in today's front loaders, which only do a double rinse as standard versus triple or quadruple of yesteryear, and at a lower level. Jon

[This Appliances FAQ article was moved to the Laundry Room FAQ on 28 December 2004.]