We went and did it today. We went and bought the cheapest washer we could find and so far, so good. We started having problems with our 5 or 6 year old machine about 6 months ago. I looked it up on You tube and frankly, judging by the description, it looked to be a mess to fix. I kind of kept ignoring the problem, as it did a loud metal on metal grinding noise when it went on its final dry cycle. With the wash room door closed, it wasn't so bad. Within the last month though, it started developing a slow leak, which is something to worry about.
What bothered me the most about all this is that our first washer we bought was about $300 and we used it for about fifteen years. We bought it when we moved into our first house in 1996 and moved it to our 2nd home when it eventually gave out. I had wanted to get matching front loading washer and dryers in cherry red, but talking to enough people convinced me that those front loaders seem to have problems of their own. I went with another top loader, but it was different in that it had no agitator, the thing in the middle that helps mix the clothes through the water. At first it was no big deal, but over time, shit got old. We were supposed to load the clothes against the drum, and not let it cross through the center part. If it didn't like how you loaded the clothes, it would give you a UL signal, which means "Unbalanced Load". About the only way to fix this was to stop the machine, pull the wet clothes out, and put them back in, hopefully, in a better balanced way. This totally pissed off Big Mama.
Between the hard grinding noise, the leak, and the constant unbalanced load, was finally enough for me to say "we need a new washer." We started by looking at Lowe's and they had some good prices, but I wanted cheaper. We looked at Sears, where we had bought most of our other appliances, we were shocked to find they were in the process of closing, but still, of the washers left, none was as well priced as Lowe's, We then tried Best Buy and saw a floor model someone had returned, marked down from $400, down to $279.99. This means this machine was cheaper than our original one, like 22 years ago. That is winner winner chicken dinner, if it works like it is supposed to. I only say that because Lowe's did have one for $50, but it said "this is for parts", it was clearly dropped and everything inside looked misaligned and broke. The guy that helped us at Best Buy said that the machine works but honestly, Amana, is a machine that comes back a lot. He said this one came back because the people who got it said it was louder than they expected. Wife had been looking at reviews of it too, online and that seemed to be a constant problem, that it was louder than it had to be. The guy said to take it, you can try it until Jan12, if you are unhappy, bring it back before then and get a full refund. I figured that between their guarantee that it would work, the three year warranty, which was only $69.99 and the cheap price of $279.99, the decision made itself.
With my two boys, we had it plugged in and washing the first batch of towels within a half hour of getting home. I left the door open and hung out in the garage, breaking down boxes with Javalina waiting to hear the rinse cycle, when it spins the fastest to dry the towels and I never heard it get loud. Our previous machine got so loud, even with the door closed to the washroom, we had to turn up the TV, this was nothing. Wife gave it a good test run, washing about 5-6 loads. I noticed a lot less fits in each load, but we don't have to load it all delicately, making sure stuff is decorated against the drum. We are back to normal, where we just dump the basket of dirty clothes in and mush it to go in. Sometimes, spending a little money makes you feel like a genius.
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