European Front Loading Washing Machines

[mountainfrog]

Originally Posted by daydream

May I ask how much you paid?

Its price on 02/11/2000 was 5,985 RD$ (incl. a 10% discount), then about 370 US$.
Now they are more than double.

m'frog

[Keith R]

I found a front-loader on Molina's website that even has the Energy Star:

[Keith R]

For those of you considering purchase of a new washer (whether front- or top-load), you might be interested in the suggestions made in the latest installment of the Green Team blog, which addresses this very issue.

[cork]

Originally Posted by Keith R

Good point! I **ahem** shall refrain from saying why I agree, lest I get in trouble...

However, as a practical and cost-saving matter, I think clothes line drying makes alot of sense in a place where there's more hours of warmth and intense sunshine in the year than there are rainy days. And wind-swept clothes can have a special clean smell to them...

Just one thing Keith, here due to the winter's humidity, the clothes come off the line almost as wet as when they went on the line. They tend to get more damp in the closet. Sometimes it is nice to totally dry them out and prevent the mold and mildew. (lest we have to use some chemical to deal with that)

cork

[Keith R]

Hmm, well, cork, that was not my family's experience during our four winters living in SD. Perhaps you live in another part of the DR?

[Simon & Nicky]

When the power goes out and the clothes you need for the evening are still sitting in the machine, perhaps you can explain to me how you get them out without opening the door and letting all the water out! Also front loaders wear out MUCH quicker and you'll be spending days waiting for parts etc. Our American cousins got this one right for sure - think of the awesome forces that are running through the bearing on a front loading machine when the cleaner puts twenty towels in it (and she will)! The only reason why they are popular in the UK is because of the amount of space they save.

With regards to driers I have posted in the past about the gas powered machine I bought. Even though the price of gas is now much higher than it used to be, it is still cheap to run and great for getting rid of mold and mildew. In the summer when the clothes come in off the line wetter than when they went on it the machine is a God-send. (If you buy one don't forget to get it properly converted to LPG, the shop owners will tell you it will run OK but unless it expressly says it has been converted to LPG, all the jets will be wrong and believe me - it is dangerous to run a non-converted machine).

[Keith R]

Originally Posted by Simon & Nicky

When the power goes out and the clothes you need for the evening are still sitting in the machine, perhaps you can explain to me how you get them out without opening the door and letting all the water out! Also front loaders wear out MUCH quicker and you'll be spending days waiting for parts etc. Our American cousins got this one right for sure - think of the awesome forces that are running through the bearing on a front loading machine when the cleaner puts twenty towels in it (and she will)! The only reason why they are popular in the UK is because of the amount of space they save.

Good points. Thanks for raising them -- would have preferred having them as comments to the Green Teamblog posting, but the constructive input is appreciated no matter what the medium chosen. We want the blog to reflect "Dominican realities" as much as possible. We'll edit the entry to account for these two considerations.

As for the dryer, I don't know how day-to-day conditions are over long periods on the North Coast, since I have never spent more than a week at a time there. But my family managed nicely for four years without a dryer in Santo Domingo, and I know many friends and family who have done likewise.

But it's a personal choice, which is why the new series is called "personal choices." All we're trying to do is help advise those who want to reduce their environmental impact. An LPG-powered dryer still contributes (indirectly) to greenhouse gas emissions (and the drain on your wallet) more than using line drying.

Regards,
Keith

[Keith R]

I just checked with Consumer Reports, whose data on reliability/repair history is usually quite good (for US brands, anyway -- I'll see what I can dig up from "Which?" for European models). They say in comparing the two categories of washer, that there is no significant difference as a group in one requiring more frequent repair than the other. Of course, in each category there are going to be brands, and maybe even certain models, that are more problematic than the norm. In the front-load category, CR says this dubious distinction belongs to Maytag. The least problematic was GE's. I should note, though, that the GE, Frigidaire and Whirlpool front-loaders are rated as less repair-prone than the KitchenAid and Amana top-loaders.

Of course, in the DR before one makes a major purchase -- whether car, motorcycle, computer or appliance -- you should always first look into the local availability of parts and service for the models you're interested in. It won't do you much good to buy a top-rated washer in Puerto Plata, if at the first time it needs repairs you have to go to Santo Domingo for parts and there's no local repair guy in the PP area that deals with your brand & model...

The parts question can be particularly vexing in the DR. For example, one of the reasons we brought our Honda with us from the States is that every Dominican told us getting parts for Hondas is "no problem" in Santo Domingo. Well, first time I needed a small repair -- a US$10 part -- I couldn't find it anywhere in SD. Why? Because it turns out that most Hondas sold in the DR are manufactured in Japan, whereas mine was made in North America, and Honda has slightly different parts for the same year and model depending on point of manufacture and assembly!

[Keith R]

Simon & Nicky -- regarding your first point about the power going out during the middle of a wash. Why would you pull out your clothes mid-wash? In that situation do you usually pull them out and hand wash them, or do you leave them in the machine, hoping the power will come back on soon enough and long enough to allow the washing to finish? If the latter, as I suspect it is for most folks except for those stuck in zones experiencing 15-20-hr blackouts, then it wouldn't make a difference whether you had a front-loader or a top-loader....

[Danny W]

I will be buying a dryer for my house. In a house full of kids, you can run out of dry clothes in a hurry during a rainy spell. I don't intend to use it much, but when they need a school uniform shirt or dry sheets it will come in handy.