Why should I buy a front-loading washer?

You’ll save water and the energy needed to heat it. Your clothes will last longer and you’ll put far less detergent and bleach into the waste water stream. Washers that have earned the EPA’s Energy Star rating can potentially pay for themselves in utility and other savings long before they wear out.

How much can I wash in a single load?

2.7 cubic feet translates to about 14 pounds dry weight of mixed cottons. You should be able to wash a set of king size bed linens, a few towels, a week’s worth of cotton underwear and some socks, all in the same load.

How much water does it use?

At least 1/3 less than the typical top-loader uses to wash the same load (approx. 25 gallons vs approx. 40 gallons).

How long does it take?

The longest Cottons/Durables cycle with an extra rinse takes about an hour. Many machines have short wash cycles closer to 30 minutes duration.

Front-loading washers can take a little longer to wash and rinse your clothes but the final spin removes so much moisture, the extra time will most likely be made up while drying.

How does a front-loader get clothes just as clean with less water?

The typical top-loader cycle consists of a simple wash/spin/rinse/spin sequence, with the washer filling and draining after the wash and rinse. In a front-loader, the clothes are lifted and dropped into a more concentrated solution of water and detergent. The reversing tumble action kneads the water and detergent deeply into the fabric fibers. Then, a series of rinses and short spins removes both the loosened soil and the detergent. Since the washer never fills above the bottom of the washer door, much less water is used than in a top-loader.

But none of these washers have a water level knob!

The washer will determine how much water is needed based on the weight of the load and how much water is displaced or absorbed by the fabrics, but it won’t be higher than the bottom of the washer door.

Which detergent?

Opt for a low-sudsing formulas, specially recommended for front-loading machines, For example, Country Save HE Laundry Detergent. After you start the machine, watch through the washer’s window while the wash cycle progresses. As long as the drum doesn’t completely fill up with suds, you can continue to use the same detergent.

Hey, this face cloth just came out of the washer and it isn’t even wet! I don’t think it even got washed!

Actually, it did, but because of how small it is, it was wrung nearly dry by the washer’s extremely fast final spin.

OK, but while that load was in the dryer, my daughter washed one of her sweatshirts all by itself and the washer didn’t even spin! Is something wrong with my washer?

No. If you try to wash a single item, the washer may sense it as a clump of wet laundry that won’t distribute itself throughout the drum before the spin cycle begins. Better to wash 2 or 3 sweatshirts or throw in a couple towels as “ballast” for the spin cycle.

Yeah, about that spin cycle. This washer NEVER seems to go out of balance and dance around the laundry room like my top-loader did. Why?

Simple motion dynamics. The much higher spin speed and the perpendicular rotation create a gyroscopic stabilizing effect. But for that to occur, the washer has to be loaded with enough laundry to distribute and balance.