No help on makes of machine but can I put in a word for the traditional clothes line? Cost free and makes the washing smell wonderful. You wouldn't be stuck now if you had one available, if only as back up.

Most Americans do not use clotheslines as a matter of course.

Also, with all the allergens floating around in the air, machine-drying is the only way for me. Plus I like my clothes soft - not stiff! lol

I have a clotheline, out of sight. It is jst a length of line between maple trees and it is not located in a convenient plave to where I do laundy. However, I am glad I have it and it is very useful flor some items.

In the US, some housing is prohibited from having clothelines (zoning or homeowner associations). Apparently they are deemed unsightly (they can be) and working class.

I knew someonewho bought wooded, rural acreage in New Hampshire. Dirt roads. Their deed prohibited clotheslines.

Roxanna, why areyou replacing both W& D?You want a matching set?

If budget is an issue, have you considered a service call to see if the dryer is repairable? I know this is likely not the answer you are looking for. Dryers tend to last longer than washers so I'm curious if you can still get life out of both of them prior to getting new ones.

@petalique - clotheslines are prohibited in my entire town/village. lol

I do have a retractable line in my garage that we use to dry out tents and camping stuff.

Someone a few towns over had a great setup. His clothesline was pretty much hidden from view — enclosed in an attractive wooden lattice that hid the clothes, but allowed ample air flow.Eventhat was out of the way, off his deck.

Something like what is on the left.

Agree you might have it checked. If not, my best advice is look for features you like vs any certain brand. The pros/cons for just about everything can make you crazy. We replaced a Whirlpool washer (only lasted 4 years!) with an LG. Nothing to do with the brand; I just liked the features…still do! Again, don’t get stuck on any particular brand. None are made the way they once were. Look for what seems to fit your needs best.

I don't think I've even seen a clothesline, certainly not in my homes nor in any others I've been to or passed by, in the last 50+ years.

Are you in a larger or smaller community? Our choices are somewhat limited here - I think approx 75% of the stores that used to sell appliances no longer do including our Sears which has closed.

Make sure you have warranty service available to you promptly so you are not waiting a week should something go wrong.

My BIL has given up on his lifelong Maytag addiction, they are no longer the same machine. He has put in GE. I like them OK, do not love them and I've used his. Another SIL just recently bought Speed Queen. I might be tempted by those even though they are smaller in load size than what I've been used to.

A nephew with young family has had very good service from the LG set he bought when they were expecting their first baby - now 10 yrs old.

It's a bit of a cr*p shoot right now with the way the machines and their makers have changed. I can only say good luck and I hope you make a choice that pleases you.

My last pair was purchased 5 years ago last month. An appliance, not box store. We knew the owners parents. I asked him which set his own wife was using - and bought those. Maytags still. They came with a full 5 yr warranty on both and there has been two expensive repairs on the washer already that I did not have to pay for.

Have you looked at the Laundry forum here? Lots of suggestions and opinions on brands and features. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/laundry

roxanna, for a new appliance, you might check with your credit card company. When we bought our LG washer/dryer, our credit card company extended the 5-year warranty for another 24 months at no charge. It required the purchase to be made with the card, but not a big deal since we paid it off right away. That was 8 years ago. So far, so good!

Thanks for all the replies! It's going to be a lot of researching, I can tell.

I grew up in the countryside with clotheslines out behind the house -- it was a huge chore to walk around the entire length of the attached ell to that location, and quite dreadful in the cold months (sheets became stiff as boards). Didn't get a dryer until I was in college.

I do think that having my defunct dryer checked out will be a good option. What do I have to lose? And I am not sure the washer really needs replacing yet. So just buying a new dryer sounds good, if this one can be fixed.

Is anything made these days to the longevity standards of older times?? My mother's washer lasted for about 30+ years for a family of 7, as did her 1940-era cook stove!! Planned obsolete mindsets are ubiquitous, it seems. Which (IMO) leads to problems with disposing of so much stuff x the expanding population... le sigh.

Thanks again!

“Is anything made these days to the longevity standards of older times??”

Sadly, no. The days of your mom’s quality washer have passed. When I was shopping for a new washer, a salesman told me to expect 5-10 years for a new washer. Then he said to cross both fingers and toes at 5 years.🫤

”I love my LG washer and dryer.”

Outside, my LG is also a top loader and 8 years old. Which model do you have? We have this set.

I love the smell of bedsheets that have dried on a clothesline. 💕

I’m not much help. 🤠

Clothesline are pretty common in Newfoundland and Germany.(from what I’ve seen )

UPDATE -- partially. Using the oft-incomprehensible-to-me modern technology of the internet, I searched troubleshooting for the dryer. Mention was made concerning the belt -- to hand-turn it to see if it would spin. It did. Followed up with a call to a professional friend of my DS#2 (who had successfully fixed the washer a few months ago) and he will be here tomorrow morning to check it out. =)

YAY!

👍🏻!!!

I bought a washer directly from LG last winter: LG WM 3400. It is a front loader and it is almost scary how little water and detergent it uses - but everything is coming out perfectly clean (although the dirtiest items are only my garden grubbies and cleaning rags.) My only complaint is that sometimes the sheets come out twisted into ropes - I don't yet know if that is from too large a load or not large enough, or if it is just random.

It was on sale for about $150 less than at the retailers, and they also gave me a 4 year extension on the warranty. Plus I got a rebate from Rakuten -6% IIRC. I have to wonder if the current tariffs would increase the price significantly. It was shipped from within the USA.

I have an LG dryer that I got from a neighbor who was going to trash it. The heating element had burned out. I got the part from Amazon (a seller who was extremely helpful), found a Youtube video showing the repair, and was able to fix it. I believe that it may have failed because the interior of the dryer was packed full of lint - it's a wonder that it hadn't caught on fire. That repair was about 5 years ago and it is still working fine.

My only complaint is that sometimes the sheets come out twisted into ropes

Ah, yes, memories of my parent’s front loading washer.

“I don't yet know if that is from too large a load or not large enough…”

Maybe too large a load and/or the spin speed could be too high. I’ve not noticed that with my LG (top loader) when I wash sheets. I tend to give them plenty of room to move around.

Chloebud, had to look up the model number. It is WT7600HKA, and the dryer is DLEX7600KEA. I got the dark charcoal color. Just wanted something different. My last couple of washers and dryers had never been a ’matched pair’ and it was about time. I was so ready to get rid of that nasty Whirlpool washer, I bought them right around the time I retired.

I know I'm living on borrowed time with my washer/dryer, which are General Electric. Do they even still make them? They are 24 years old, a matching pair. The dryer will live forever because I LOVE hanging clothes outside. Thank heavens I don't live in an HOA because there is nothing more refreshing to take sheets off your line and putting them directly on the bed. My first washer after marriage was a Kenmore. I bought that when my baby was born and when he was 25, I sold it still working for $25. Never thought that would happen again, but it has. My washer/ dryer are in a small alcove off the side entrance, and it's a tight fit. I breathe a sigh of relief every time I use it and it works. The thing that scares me most is our Jenn-Aire side by side with a built-in wooden front is 24 years old and I will be so depressed when that goes.

“I was so ready to get rid of that nasty Whirlpool washer…”

I can relate to Whirlpool washer problems!🤬

”My first washer after marriage was a Kenmore.”

Same for me and it gave me almost 20 years. I got the ”biscuit” color and thought it was so pretty. By the time I replaced it the color looked more like dingy/dirty white to me.🫤 My mom’s washer and dryer were Kenmore and lasted for what seemed like forever.

I have no idea why this has been posted in the Perennials forum, but I have used a clothesline for my entire adult life, aside from having a dryer for a couple of years when my son was a teenager and I lived near the Finger Lakes where sometimes you didn't see the sun for weeks. Even so, I used a clothesline whenever I could. I detest dryers, though in my new home I got one for emergencies. Probably don't use it 3 times a year. Dryers are expensive to use, are very hard on anything with elastic--think bras and undies--and wrinkle my linen sheets horribly.

Dryers are simple mechanisms compared to washers. Is the machine completely dead? Do the controls power-on but it won't start? Does it run but doesn't dry/produce heat?

Whirlpool still produces the same two dryer mechanism designs they've had for years. The top-filter design (which of course isn't used for frontload-match models, else access to the filter would be a challenge if the machines are stacked) dates to the mid 1960s. The other design with filter inside the loading port dates to the mid/late 1980s.

GE's dryer design is also still largely the same. Haier bought GE appliances division in 2016.

LG - they make some of the best front loaders on the market. I've had different models over the years in different homes, and they've all done great.

“Dryers are simple mechanisms compared to washers.”

Right. When our Whirlpool washer died after just 4 years the dryer was doing fine. I wanted a matching set, so we bought the LG w/d. The Whirlpool dryer went to Habitat for Humanity and is likely still doing fine.

I also recall years ago when our old Kenmore washer finally gave out. The dryer was still great.

Kenmore appliances were superior back in the day.

Havent read all the comments but this is a frequent topic on my local FB page.

The two least popular are LG and Samsung for reliability and getting service.

The two most popular are Speed Queen and GE.

My old Whirlpool has lasted many years.

Might I suggest that if you DO end up buying a new washer and dryer, check their top surfaces. We recently bought new Maytag washer and dryer. The washer is a top loader. Both of the tops have a slant down toward the floor. It is impossible to put much on top of them and expect whatever it is to stay there very long (a marble will roll right off). I have always used the tops of our washer/dyer as overflow for whatever when entertaining or to fold towels on top of, and that space isn't so useful any longer. If I had realized this when we purchased, I would have tried harder to find front loaders to fit our slim space.

Bluebell, i believe most washers come with leveling feet. Maybe check for that?

UPDATE TO MY UPDATE: Excellent repair guy came and solved my dryer problem (something electrical). Hurrah! He said it may do for a while, but it is old (found out from DH that we bought it in 2005) and not to expect much.

As long as I get new ones before snow flies in New England, I'm good. =)

Thank you, all, and good night!

Speed Queen appliances are manufactured in the USA, in Ripon, Wisconsin. There's good reason why lots of commercial laundromats use them. According to my favorite repair shop (very reputable w 5 star Google reviews), they're the least repaired appliances going.

Amana, Whirlpool/Roper, Maytag are runners up dependability wise in the order listed. They strongly advised steering VERY clear of LG or Samsung. Samsung makes great cell phones and TV's, but not so mush laundry appliances. Naturally there are exceptions. There are lots of LG and Samsung on Marketplace for good reason.

Glad your dryer was repairable! I couldn't live happily without one.

"Kenmore appliances were superior back in the day."

Sears doesn't/didn't have any manufacturing facilities. All Kenmore appliances were sourced from the other major makers. Kenmore laundry was 99% Whirlpool from the 1940s until sometime into the 2000s or 2010s when they sourced some models from other makers (along with Sears Brand Central bringing in other-branded products). The leading three digits on Kenmore model numbers (before the period, syntax of xxx.xxxxxxxx) is a code for the source manufacturer).

"Bluebell, i believe most washers come with leveling feet. Maybe check for that?"

Leveling or lack thereof isn't the issue. Some machines nowdays are designed such that the lids/tops are sloped.

When we were shopping for washers a couple of years ago, the top rated in Consumer Reports were LG and Electrolux. We are very happy with the Electrolux. It was delivered and installed quickly by a local chain who had them in stock. That's super important because not everyone carries them in stock or in a regional warehouse where they can come in a couple of days. If you want a high end brand like Miele you have have order it.