I bought a cheap Whirlpool after my Kenmore that I had for many years finally died. So far, so good. Crossing fingers. The brand was recommended by the guy who used to fix my Kenmore and who finally told me I might want to start looking for something else.

You might have it checked since the older models can sometimes be worth it. Both my siblings have Maytags close to 35 years old still going.

The problem is it’s hard these days since a new Maytag today won’t begin to compare with what you bought in 1998. My advice is to look for what fits your needs best instead of focusing on a certain brand. Nothing is made the way it once was. Believe me, I was not happy when our Whirlpool washer died after 4 years. After shopping around we bought an LG washer/dryer only because the features fit what I wanted, and nothing to do with brand name. That was almost 8 years ago so fingers and toes crossed!

Thanks, you make some excellent points.

Lulu, when I was shopping for a new washer 3 different sales people told me to expect 5-10 years from a new washer these days. Just don’t rush into a Maytag because you have one that lasted 25+ years. That very likely won’t happen again. Again, look at what seems a good fit for you vs any specific brand.

I've been very happy with my LG units (in various homes), but I've always had LG front load washers - I don't know what their top load washers are like. But I also have an LG stove and refrigerator (and TV, before it fell off the wall), so I'm generally happy with the brand.

Speed Queen. Best money we ever spent on appliances 😊

My research did show great reviews for Speed Queen. Unfortunately their inventory was very limited when I was looking. What was available didn’t work for me but you might check.

My Maytag is almost 40 yes old! 10 yrs ago my husband put in a new transmission. I know it can last forever and when it dies I plan on getting a Speed Queen.

We have a basic Whirlpool HE top loader, bought in 2016. When it stopped draining some years ago hubby fixed it using YouTube videos - and he's not especially mechanically inclined. It's been quite dependable since.

I bought a top loader GE last year when my 2005 GE died because it was one of the simpler ones I could find. They've become way more complicated and more vocal with chirps over the years. Good luck.

Some after the sale good advice. i have an appliance plumber come in and checks out all my appliances. When i bought new appliances i chose the ones he keeps running. only American made. I buy Whirlpool oven, microwave and GE dishwasher. Speed Queen washer and dryer and those two hold king size comforters. If something were to go wrong, he has easy access to part. perhaps you have a dedicated Appliance Plumber in your town. This man works alone and his wife answers the phone. He has a Niche and voted the number one plumber in the DC, MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA AREA.

Speed Queen. The last washer/dryer you'll ever buy.

I'd go with either Whirlpool or LG. We've had our LGs for 14 years now and still going strong.

Speed Queen

You may want to check outside dimensions. New appliances seem to be huge.

At my age, nearly anything I'd buy has a lifetime warranty.

Here is a discussion on washers from the Appliance Forum.

I had LG washer and dryer in L.A. and loved both, plus they were both fairly quiet, unlike the Whirlpool washer and dryer at the new house, which have a similar look. All of these are front loading, but I have a much older top loading washer here at my house on Salem, and it is a Maytag, as is the dryer. I haven't replaced them because they work very well, but again they are old, and you cannot buy them unless you find them used.

Local on the radio appliance sales (speed queen only) and repair says: NO Samsung, NO Lg. Yes to GE, Whirlpool, older Maytag. He bases his opinion on how easy it is to get parts to repair in the future.

My appliance repair guy said he has Speed Queen and recommends them. Reliable, easy to repair when it does need it.

I always think it's funny when people base a purchase on how easy something will be to fix when it breaks down, whereas I make a purchase doing some research to see how often, if at all, it breaks down. I see this with cars as well as appliances - I don't want one that's easy to repair, I want one that's unlikely to break down in the first place.

Yale Appliance looks at reliability based on how many they sell vs. how many service calls they get about them, and they've tracked them over the years. (You can google them.) Of course, it doesn't count those where the owner calls an independent, but I prefer to think of reliability rather than ease of repair.

I have rentals & own 7 washers & dryers. I have a set of LG top loaders with the clear-see-through washing machine top that have been in a rental for 7 years. They were 2 years old when the prior renter left them....no room in the U-Haul for them. 9 years old! Or I own HUGE Samsung's, front loaders, 10 years old! A newish Maytag top load washer & gas dryer. A set of old Sears Kenmore. A whirlpool electric dryer. A GE washer, no agitator, top load, stainless steel drum. They ALL work and get no special treatment.

We have an LG pair, a little over 7 years old with the washer being a top load, no agitator. I love both of them. However the dryer stopped working this weekend. Repair guy will be here next Monday. We’re fairly certain it's one (maybe 2) of the controller boards and maybe the door light switch based on scouring the internet for the problem.

My last washer was a less than 5 year old Whirlpool front loader and i swore I would never do that again. At the time I had a mid-range Maytag dryer (over 10 years old) and almost hated to get rid of it, but wanted the matching pair.

A Speed Queen or Maytag commercial washer is your best bet. Capacity is limited in the top loaders models so a front loader is required for more capacity.

I wanted a top loader speed queen during our last purchase but my wife wanted more load capacity for big blankets so she picked a Samsung and it had horrible performance so we returned it the next day. My wife picked a GE with a vertical agitator that kind of works with the ability to add more water and by manipulating cycles and adjusting water levels my wife was somewhat satisfied. '

I'm not allowed to do laundry so the final choice was hers but if it was me I'd have the speed queen sitting in the laundry room. The top used brands in laundromats just so happens to be Speed Queen for reliability and efficiency and followed by Maytag commercial and then Electrolux professional. They are available to buy but will cost more. I think a Speed Queen is $1400?

Well, we just got home after ordering a new set. i wouod have preferred to come home and do more research, but my DH is very impatient when shopping in that we seldom get to look at more than 2 places before he needs to have a decision. so, we decided on another Maytag. The old one, I jist realized, was the commercial model which is likkey why is lasted so long. We ( mostly he) didnt want to fork out the money for the commercial model again, so we wenr with a basic model with a 10 yr warranty on the transmission, motor and drum. we also bought an extended warranty for 4 years.

so, I hope this will do us for a while. The kids have left home, so its just the 2 of us and we dont do a lot of laundry, so I hope we did ok.

I had to get a new washer a couple of years ago after the old fashioned dual action agiatator one just was beyond fixing anymore. And I used to repair it myself. Like an old car, it was simple and parts were available and I was young. I use that washer for at least 30 years. It was a Kenmore, so probably made by Whirpool. I loved that I could set the temp, water level, agitation time and even just a rinse and spin cycle. All of the controls were simple and up front and well defined what each one of those controlled or did.

So, for personal reasons, I wanted another old fashinoned one like that and not one of these HE washers.

Also didnt want an investment kind of appliance because it is likely that we wont be here to reap the benefits of it. So, I decided on a simple GE agitator model.

What I found is that this has a single action agitator and not a dual action agitator! I never knew that there was such a thing as an agitator that didnt make that two step dual action. I had never seen any agitator do any different .But this one only goes in one direction and the result is oftent that items get just tigtly wrapped around the agitator! WTF?

To make it an even worse machine, all the settings are totaly cryptic and make it appear as if the machine has so many different features. THEY ARE ALL, EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, PURE NONSENSE! Just cryptic nonsense that controls no definite action! pure nonsense that is intended to make it seem as it were loaded with features, when the reality is that I no longer can easily make the machine do what I want it to do, because the settings are so badly definied and really meant nothing. I cant recommend this washer at all!!

We dont need much as it is just the two of us. But this washer is easily the worst and I was so surprised. no dual action on teh agitator? You know what that is if you ever had one of the agitator models. It goes "swish swoosh", "swish, swoosh" . etc. Now this one just squeaks forward and sounds like someone is strangling a goose!

Have you had someone come look at it? My Whirpool quit working about two monts ago. It is about the same age as yours and it works just like I like. I was afaraid I would have to go buy a new one.

It was the lid switch that stops the machine if the lid is open. It cost less than $100 to fix and took him may 30 minutes.

“…so we wenr with a basic model with a 10 yr warranty on the transmission, motor and drum. we also bought an extended warranty for 4 years.”

We also purchased the extended warranty. Our credit card company extended our 5-year warranty for another 2 years. We did have to use the card for the purchase, but not a big deal since we paid it off right away. I’d heard about it prior to buying the new w/d, so I called our cc company to confirm.

Thanks for that, i asked and my DH had checked that. he has an electrical and plumbing ticket so he did go over it all..

I know extended warranties can be limiting with helping but maybe better than nothing, especially with today’s quality.

I will never buy another extended warranty. All have never been used. I will just buy another appliance or phone.

I’d never bought an extended warranty until we had such bad luck with our Whirlpool washer. Just seems the poor quality you get these days for what you pay is too concerning.

I would urge you, if it's not too late, to get your washer repaired. Our Maytag, which was 32 years old, went kaput. Our repairman said that if it was any other brand, we should junk it. But, it would cost about $600 to repair We junked it because I thought a new one wouldn't cost more. So we bought a new one, I won't mention the brand, and it was recalled for jumping aroung and even injuring users. So we returned it (had only had it 45 days) and bought a different brand it also jumped around, Went on Craigslist and found a Maytag which a very handy guy had refurbished. Bought it for $275 and it was like new and runs just great. Another repairman, for our dryer, told me a few years earlier that when the dryer goes kaput (he discovered a dime in the casing which was making the noise we heard), to repair it as all the appliances are now junk In fact, the guy that sold us our "new" Maytag would not take our one-year-old washer as he said that they are all now junk Our "new" Maytag was manufactured before Whirlpool took it over so I knew it was good I investigated Speed Queen and the ones they make now are not nearly the quality and good design that they were ten years ago.

My 15 year old Maytag has never cleaned my clothes. I can put pants or placemats in the machine and they come out in the same position with the food still stuck to them. I don't want to jinx myself but.......

Odd, I made the above comment the day this thread was started. WTF??