In general, here are things I get excited about:
- Tools
- Food
- Building things
- Beer
- Donkeys
You’ll notice nowhere on that list does it say “cleaning” or “chores”. And yet, in the last ten months I’ve spent approximately fifty hours of my life at a laundromat. So you can be pretty sure that when the big Lowe’s delivery truck showed up at my house this morning with these babies…
I did a little happy dance. (Side note: MysteryMan claims I look like Elaine from Seinfeld when I do this, but I tell him its much better than the complete mental and physically collapse I would have if I had to spend one more Monday night sitting in a broken plastic chair watching my clothes tumble dry for hours.)
These are clearly not hooked up and working yet — I hear there’s a bit more plumbing work to finish– but with the joys of washing clothes while simultaneously tiling the master bath on the horizon, I’ve refused point-blank to do any more laundry until I’m doing it in my own house. Which means the clothing situation should get real interesting in a couple of days.
What you’ll notice– particularly if you were around for the great washer/dryer debate back in august— is that I didn’t buy the standard front loaders that everyone seems to have these days. I’m not opposed to them by any means, and in fact I went back and forth on the front vs top loaders intermittently for the last seven months. On one hand, I liked front loaders because you get a solid work area on top and they can handle seriously dirty clothes. On the other hand, the fact that they’ve been known to be stinky and super expensive to fix when broken had me taking a second look at cheap, old-school appliances– you know, the kind that can be fixed with a wrench. That being said, I went into Lowe’s with the intention of buying the least expensive Samsung front loaders, which get the best reviews of any washer and dryer I’ve found.
However, when I found out all front load washer doors are right swing* and can’t be altered, I considered that a sign from the laundry gods that I should go a different direction. You’ll notice that my washing machine hookups are located on the right side of the laundry room… that means the door would be in the way when transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer.
That is one of those things that will drive me up the wall for the next ten years, so I immediately scrapped that plan and went with this Whirlpool EnergyStar washer and the matching dryer. And they were they $400 less than the Samsungs which cannot be overstated.
*There actually was one LG set that opened the “right” way for my laundry room, but the guy said point blank he wouldn’t sell them to me due to reliability issues.
5 Responses
Woot woot! Happy dance for you…
I have had those exact machines for 3 years and I have never had a problem except for the time I pulled the drain hose out and forgot to put it back in and I flooded the laundry room. I have also found my 40lb 5 year old standing on the dryer door trying to reach for something on the shelves above it and it didn’t break.
Fratelli!!! I love my Fratelli. Good choice.
YAY! So happy for you! My Kenmore washer & dryer were bought new almost 14 years ago at the Sears scratch & dent store. When they die, I had already decided, I’ll purchase a set like yours – for the exact same reasons.
BTW, the visual of you doing the Elaine dance is cracking me up!
late comment, They won’t tell you this at the store, but the front loaders eat your clothes. They also wear out your clothes fast. Apparently they clean by abrading your clothes on other clothes with as little water (ie lubricant)
as possible which makes sweaters fuzz up really fast. Also did I mention I take clothes out of them with holes in them. I don’t know if it’s the washer or the dryer. They eat clothes.
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