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I'm surprised that anyone still makes top-loading washing machines. They completely disappeared from the UK market decades ago, due to the vastly superior energ

• etimberg 10y ago
  Probably because they're much cheaper. Plus, it's easy to manually adjust the cycle (or add things at a later point) since you don't need to drain it to open the door.
• Spooky23 10y ago
  Top losers are cheaper and more reliable. Even factoring water and energy usage. We bought a low tech, inefficient speed queen with a 7 year warranty. The 10 year TCO is like 40% less than a comparable front loader.
  • roseburg 10y ago
    Speed Queen now makes the best top loading machine, hands down. It's just hard to find them locally. I believe they can be purchased on Amazon now.
• FigBug 10y ago
  They are cheaper
• carterehsmith 10y ago
  They tend to be cheaper than front-loaders.
• 1123581321 10y ago
  We bought a top loader recently. It was by far the cheapest option that met our volume and reliability requirements. We estimate that an equivalent front loader would break even in about 10 years, which isn't very good. Also, we buy used/refurb appliances when possible, and there aren't many available front loaders.
• cpr 10y ago
  In our case, we've been buying the last of the Speed Queen line of completely mechanical washers and dryers (multiple houses). They're reasonably priced, built like tanks, and can be repaired by mortals with screwdrivers, soldering irons and wrenches. But, apparently, they're on their way out. Frustrating.
• xeeeeeeeeeeenu 10y ago
  Top-loading washing machines take up considerably less space than their front-loading counterparts, especially when their doors are open. It is very important in cramped flats.
  • yabatopia 10y ago
    But you can't put a dryer on top of it, which is a great space saver. And most dryers are front-loading, why not washing machines?
    • xeeeeeeeeeeenu 10y ago
      In Europe most people don't own separate dryers. Washing machines have that function built-in.
      • nommm-nommm 10y ago
        Whereabouts in Europe? When I lived in Europe nobody had dryers at all.
        • shanev 10y ago
          The AirBnB I stayed at in Helsinki had a tiny washer with a built-in dryer. It fit in the bathroom which is the size of my closet in the U.S.
      • roel_v 10y ago
        In my part of Europe everybody has separate washer/dryer and combo machines are hard to find/have limited options available in b&m shops.
      • yardie 10y ago
        I've used those washer/dryer combos. I don't know why they bothered, except for small loads the dryer was effectively useless. It was faster to bag up the wet clothes and drive over to the laundromat. Gas fired dryer had a load done in 20 minutes.
• kuschku 10y ago
  > vastly superior energy and water efficiency of front-loading machines. Don’t mix up the two different types of top-loaders There’s the European Model, and the American model. The American model is inefficient, but the European model of top-loaders is just as efficient as front-loaders, far easier to construct, and requires less maintenance. I’ll quote Wikipedia to explain the European model: > Some machines which actually load from the top are otherwise much more similar to front-loading horizontal-axis drum machines. They have a drum rotating around a horizontal axis, as a front-loader, but there is no front door; instead there is a liftable lid which provides access to the drum, which has a hatch which can be latched shut. Clothes are loaded, the hatch and lid are closed, and the machine operates and spins just like a front-loader. These machines are narrower but usually taller than front-loaders, usually have a lower capacity, and are intended for use where only a narrow space is available, as is sometimes the case in Europe. They have incidental advantages: they can be loaded without bending down; they do not require a perishable rubber bellows seal; and instead of the drum having a single bearing on one side, it has a pair of symmetrical bearings, one on each side, avoiding asymmetrical bearing loading and potentially increasing life. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/European_top_washingmachine.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/European...
  • nickpsecurity 10y ago
    I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info. How long do the European version last? Over here, it's 20-30 years with little to no maintenance. That's my baseline for these things.
    • ferongr 10y ago
      Mostly the same as a front loader, maybe a bit more since they have two bearings instead of a single one. Washing performance is equivalent to an automatic front-loader, with similarly low fabric wear. Furthermore, it can also spin-dry clothes like a front-loader and that removes the majority of the moisture from clothes.
      • jakobegger 10y ago
• agumonkey 10y ago
  I deeply believed front loading was energy wasting and only here to free the top part for interior design while looking like a fancy boat window.
  • kuschku 10y ago
    That is true if you look at European Top Loaders. US Top Loaders actually work completely different than all other washing machines, and are far more inefficient, and wash the clothes worse, and reduce their life span.
    • agumonkey 10y ago
      Ha, what is wrong with America ? Is it some attachment to some kind of traditional washing machine looks that keeps people into buying them ?
• ekianjo 10y ago
  Cheaper, and more practical to use as you dont need to bend as much to get your clothes out.
• roseburg 10y ago
  Few reasons. One is a positive history/experience with them. The Whirlpool made (most common machines on the market) top loading machines were rock solid for 30 plus years. People would often have them for 20-30 years. (and still have them, keep them maintained) Another reason is they do a better job of washing clothes as they use more water. This is important for people that have kids, do cloth diapers, or are actually washing dirty/muddy clothes. They also don't have mold issues because of rubber gaskets and have been historically cheaper to maintain and repair. The new top loaders, specifically Whirlpool made vertical modular washers are complete garbage. They break within 2-3 years of buying new. Whirlpool stopped making the direct drive top loading washers that everyone loved about 3 years ago. Now you can only buy them used, and I would highly recommend doing so if you need a good washer. Front loading machines do spin the clothes a bit dryer, which saves on dry time, unless you hang dry, then it really doesn't make much difference. But they cost over twice as much and are about double the price when it comes to repairs. Hope that helps! Here's a post I wrote up on the subject. http://recraigslist.com/2015/10/they-used-to-last-50-years/ http://recraigslist.com/2015/10/they-used-to-last-50-years/
  • nickpsecurity 10y ago
    " The Whirlpool made (most common machines on the market) top loading machines were rock solid for 30 plus years. People would often have them for 20-30 years." This is no exaggeration. The one that broke for me was estimated by the technician to be 20 years old with the dryer he said was probably 30 years old. We'd kept them for years and years with no need for repairs. They did the job. I told him in IT that complexity just made stuff break more often or take more work to fix. My prediction was that the old stuff was still more reliable & cheaper to fix. He confirmed this was true. Said the new stuff was all garbage that kept him in good business. I asked for the most reliable, used, old washer he had in stock at their warehouse at the time. The one he gave me for $80-100 looks old as the other stuff but similarly works fine. I never buy new washers or dryers. I'd consider newer dishwashers because both Consumer Reports I read a long time ago and personal experience had them breaking a lot. I'm curious about feedback if they've improved in reliability over time. Washers & dryers the old ones win hands down at 20-30 years operation. They're the mainframes of appliances.
• michaelbuckbee 10y ago
  Bought a house built in 1995 with a designated dryer closet (only place with hookups) front loaders are about 4" deeper on average than a top loader and modern top loaders barely fit as is.
• tzs 10y ago
  I have a top loader because that is what came with my house, but if I were replacing it I would probably stick with a top loader because the front loader advantages are minimal in my personal case. My water comes from a private well and ultimately ends up in the drain field of my septic system and then presumably eventually makes it back down to the local table from whence it came. For me the cost of water is simply the cost of electricity for the well pump. I've never measured the power usage of the pump, but based on the voltage it runs at and the current rating of the circuit breaker on its circuit, and the rate it pumps water, and my electricity rates, the most it would cost to fill a large top loader is about $0.05, and so that is an upper bound on what a front loader could save me on water costs. From what I've read the energy savings of a front loader comes from it drying better during the spin cycle, so you don't use as much energy when you use your dryer to dry the load. However, I usually do the wash in the morning, and then don't get around to moving it to the dryer until the evening. By then it has dried out quite a bit on its own, and is really just damp rather than wet. The dryer makes short work of it. I'd have the same timing with a front loader, and so from the dryer's point of view the difference would be damp vs. less damp, not wet vs. less wet, so there would not be much energy savings. I doubt that these tiny savings on water costs and dryer energy could make up the price difference over the lifetime of the unit.
  • kw71 10y ago
    I use hot water in laundry sometimes and that is a cost that you didn't mention. My front loader takes a longer time to do a wash cycle, and I think its better spin cuts drying time by 1/3.
  • shostack 10y ago
    How do you avoid mold and mildew issues when leaving damp clothes in there that long?
    • tzs 10y ago
      I didn't even know that could be an issue. I did some Googling, and it appears that how long you can leave clothes in the washer depends on local conditions, with many people reporting that they get a full day or more before it becomes a problem. I guess I have good enough local conditions to allow for the several hours mine often sit in the washer. Maybe at some point I'll do some experiments and try to see what the limits are here, probably after I get around to building the temperature and humidity sensor network that I want to put throughout my house to better understand my HVAC system's performance.
• nom 10y ago
  I Ctrl+F'ed for "counter weight" but it does not appear anywhere here or in one of the mentioned articles. Front loaders are harder to build, they have to use a huge counter weight due to the nature of the horizontal drum. There is only one bearing at the back that supports it all. The vertical design is easier to build and more reliable. However, US culture is probably the dominating factor here.
• GarrisonPrime 10y ago
  Front loaders in the US are crap. They break down constantly and are expensive to repair and replace. Top loaders are simple, cheap, and last at least a decade with maybe just one or two minor maintenance issues.