We’ve had several of these and I’ve yet to find one that the wife can’t frequently cause to go out of balance during the spin cycle. That makes it stop and add more water in an attempt to get the items redistributed inside so it’s better balanced. If that fails after a couple of attempts, it’ll give up and signal for manual intervention. Needless to say, all that “add water fix” means the washer is nowhere near as water-efficient as advertised.

It would be great if someone made a robust machine that could spin unbalanced loads without the drum whacking the sides of the machine because of less than adequate horizontal support. The wife prefers top loaders, but I’m wondering if front loaders would be a better choice?

In case anyone’s wondering, marginally engineered products are what I’m bitching about!

Speed Queen. If you can knock one of those out of balance, you need to have someone else wash your clothes.

I have a Whirlpool Cabrio that's almost 5 cu ft. I've never had it go out of balance with anything. You just need to leave the space open in the middle of the drum.

Speed Queen - you could load it with 75lbs of bricks and it would still remain in balance.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I have a Whirlpool Cabrio that's almost 5 cu ft. I've never had it go out of balance with anything. You just need to leave the space open in the middle of the drum.

does yours ball up the sheets and then cover that giant ball with one sheet over every thing ?


I have to redistribute our loads a lot, sheets, towels, sweat shirts

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I have a Whirlpool Cabrio that's almost 5 cu ft. I've never had it go out of balance with anything. You just need to leave the space open in the middle of the drum.

does yours ball up the sheets and then cover that giant ball with one sheet over every thing ?


I have to redistribute our loads a lot, sheets, towels, sweat shirts

Once in a while with the sheets. Maybe once out of 6-8 times with sheets only. No other type of clothing does this.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Speed Queen - you could load it with 75lbs of bricks and it would still remain in balance.

Looked at them previously when we were replacing the last washer. Only problem was they don't seem to make any that are larger than about 3 cu. ft. and the wife tends to wash big items (comforters, blankets, etc.) that won't fit in smaller drums. I didn't see any bigger ones even in their commercial line.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

sheets only. No other type of clothing

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

sheets only. No other type of clothing

LOLOLOLOLOL. None of those in my house, so no worries there!

The SQ will wash as large as a queen-sized comforter. If I have anything large than that, I just take it to the cleaners.

The smaller tub size is worth having the superior quality of the SQ.

I would love to be able to convince SWMBO of that, but I suspect it won’t fly. Given our bedding is California King, she’d be making a lot of trips to the laundromat.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I have a Whirlpool Cabrio that's almost 5 cu ft. I've never had it go out of balance with anything. You just need to leave the space open in the middle of the drum.

Same here, I think we've gotten it out of balance once & it was loaded pretty heavy.

My old HE machine, sucked ass and would ball crap up all the time, tear clothes, and overall not do a good job. Dumped it for a non-HE model that does a full tub of water and none of those issues. The only foul up is large comforters which sometimes get wrapped around the agitator (thank go this one actually has an agitator). Old HE was 5.3 cuft new is 3.5 cuft and does a better job washing stuff and can wash just as much because I could only fill old HE unit 1/2 full or it wouldn't wash anything.

Never again will I buy an HE washer.

Switch to a front loading low water usage one and then you will really know frustration... these were designed to be used by people who at the most work in an office, never hardly ever even sweat and never get actual dirt on their cloths....

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Switch to a front loading low water usage one and then you will really know frustration... these were designed to be used by people who at the most work in an office, never hardly ever even sweat and never get actual dirt on their cloths....

I work in engine rooms on yachts some days of the week and get oil, grease etc on my clothes. I had a set of front loading Whirlpool duet's 4.1 cu ft and they did an AMAZING job on cleaning my clothes. The washer went 9 years of hard use before my tenants broke the door latch and I didn't have time to deal with it so just bought a new one. I sadly left them at my 4 plex and bought 4.8 cu foot Whirlpool duet top loaders which do a good job on cleaning but nothing like those cabrio's did. I found the trick was to only use enough soap for a small load (measurement on the bottle) or the machine would dump it all out and refill the washer with just water. Try ALL stain lifter laundry soap.

Hate to admit this but I am over 70 and thanks to my mother and two wives, I don't recall ever using a washing machine.

I've had front load for the past 20 years or so (Maytag Neptune and now SQ). I know people have this or that complaints about them but I haven't had any issues with them (other than the Neptune finally died). They clean well and I like the tumble cleaning action over the horizontal agitation of top load. I do use soap and bleach for each load; I'm a stickler for clean towels, sheets and clothes and am happy with the results.

My only complaint with the SQ is size - I can't fit king size (down) comforters / covers well. And it's the only load that will shake the machine. The SQ is exceptionally rock solid.

Again, YMMV and plenty of people avoid front load. I've been happy with them and haven't even considered a top load.