Washing machines: planned obsolescence, replace every 5 years

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Washing machines: planned obsolescence, replace every 5 years

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#3426411 19-Oct-2025 17:41

noroad:

You use hot water?

Always. Cold washing is a myth unless you do not actually get your clothes dirty and they just smell a little bit.

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dafman

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#3426414 19-Oct-2025 17:49

sir1963:

Linux:

I have an LG front loading machine came with a 10 year warranty on the motor

But not the Drum ????

I also have a LG front loading machine that came with a 10 year warranty on the motor.

That was 15 years ago. Still going strong.

sir1963

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#3426467 19-Oct-2025 19:34

noroad:

Because we want to be able to actually get clothes clean without draining a shower or 2's worth of hot water in the process.

You use hot water?

We do once in a couple of months, it helps keep the seals supple and helps remove soap/dirt build up. But Apart from that, its cold washes all the way.

We are Top Loaders.

pdh

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#3426537 19-Oct-2025 22:17

One of the stupidities of front loaders is that they only connect to the cold water supply - never to the hot.

Apparently this was mandated by the EU - trying to move everybody onto electrical (instead of gas) hot water.

So, instead of using my 5x more efficient heat-pump generated hot water, the front-loader uses a 19th C resistance element to heat cold water.

I also think that the myth of front loaders being gentle needs debunking. It's new-tech bunkum - lie about a weakness & make it a feature.

Agitating clothes gently in a big vat of warm water - letting the dirt & sand fall to the bottom of the drum - is a lot gentler than making clothes rub over each other in a gritty, barely wet slurry for 20 minutes. That's how you polish semi-precious stones !!

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

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#3426538 19-Oct-2025 22:19

Top loaders agitating gently.

Lol.

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#3426544 20-Oct-2025 00:55

pdh:

One of the stupidities of front loaders is that they only connect to the cold water supply - never to the hot.

Apparently this was mandated by the EU - trying to move everybody onto electrical (instead of gas) hot water.

So, instead of using my 5x more efficient heat-pump generated hot water, the front-loader uses a 19th C resistance element to heat cold water.

I also think that the myth of front loaders being gentle needs debunking. It's new-tech bunkum - lie about a weakness & make it a feature.

Agitating clothes gently in a big vat of warm water - letting the dirt & sand fall to the bottom of the drum - is a lot gentler than making clothes rub over each other in a gritty, barely wet slurry for 20 minutes. That's how you polish semi-precious stones !!

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

I wonder if any tests have been done to prove either way. I remember F&Ps top loaders used to be called Gentle Annie which isn't too PC these days LOL. TBH I haven't noticed any difference with wear with top loader and a front loader, and I use both. But prefer the top loader for access plus it connects to my gas hot water which is cheaper to run than the inbuilt heater of the front loader.

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#3426548 20-Oct-2025 07:19

My F&P front loader had a hot water intake (I never used it). But because FL doors have to be hermetically sealed, it’s important to keep the door open when not in use so it can breath/dry out. A lot of people don’t and that’s where you have issue with seals failing and getting mankie.

bluey

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#3426549 20-Oct-2025 07:27

A lot less soap needed for a front loader too.

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#3426551 20-Oct-2025 07:41

pdh:

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

Lots of men have 20 year old shirts. How often do you wear them and are they faded or yellowed from UV damage? If they just take up space in your wardrobe let them go.

Any washing machine that has an agitator that moves separately from the drum has the potential to rub clothing. The Hoovermatic twin tub was famous for destroying shirt collars. Most modern machines aren't anywhere near as bad.

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#3426558 20-Oct-2025 08:20

pdh:

One of the stupidities of front loaders is that they only connect to the cold water supply - never to the hot.

Apparently this was mandated by the EU - trying to move everybody onto electrical (instead of gas) hot water.

So, instead of using my 5x more efficient heat-pump generated hot water, the front-loader uses a 19th C resistance element to heat cold water.

I also think that the myth of front loaders being gentle needs debunking. It's new-tech bunkum - lie about a weakness & make it a feature.

Agitating clothes gently in a big vat of warm water - letting the dirt & sand fall to the bottom of the drum - is a lot gentler than making clothes rub over each other in a gritty, barely wet slurry for 20 minutes. That's how you polish semi-precious stones !!

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

I think I went through at least three F&P top loading turbines before moving to a LG front loader. Way less water, way gentler on clothes, and the LG has never tried to escape the house while in spin mode.

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#3426589 20-Oct-2025 09:34

mattwnz:

I wonder if any tests have been done to prove either way. I remember F&Ps top loaders used to be called Gentle Annie which isn't too PC these days LOL. TBH I haven't noticed any difference with wear with top loader and a front loader, and I use both. But prefer the top loader for access plus it connects to my gas hot water which is cheaper to run than the inbuilt heater of the front loader.

I have an F&P top loader that is 16 years old and it's still going strong. Never had to repair anything and never noticed any wear and tear on clothes. I use mainly cold or warm washes, with the occasional hot wash.

Although speaking of wear and tear on clothes, I have noticed that many of my t-shirts seem to get a small hole in the same location, roughly where they'd rub against a belt buckle on my pants. Anyone else noticed this?

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#3426590 20-Oct-2025 09:39

pdh:

One of the stupidities of front loaders is that they only connect to the cold water supply - never to the hot.

Apparently this was mandated by the EU - trying to move everybody onto electrical (instead of gas) hot water.

So, instead of using my 5x more efficient heat-pump generated hot water, the front-loader uses a 19th C resistance element to heat cold water.

I also think that the myth of front loaders being gentle needs debunking. It's new-tech bunkum - lie about a weakness & make it a feature.

Agitating clothes gently in a big vat of warm water - letting the dirt & sand fall to the bottom of the drum - is a lot gentler than making clothes rub over each other in a gritty, barely wet slurry for 20 minutes. That's how you polish semi-precious stones !!

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

fairly recent converts to front-loaders. we got our bosch just before the first covid lockdown, and will never go back.

the 5x more efficient heat-pump water cylinder potentially gets negated by the need for ~2x more water, and the losses from the hot-water cylinder. depending on the distance to the washing machine, there would be a significant drop in temperature by the time it gets there. in our case, there's about 7 meters between the two, we pretty much gave up using hot water.

from our experience, top loaders with an agitator are rougher on clothes than front loaders. there are models without, that could very well be gentler. not having done a comparison, i cannot say one is better at cleaning than the other - FL vs TL. we had no complaints with our clothes coming out of our previous TLs. we do have that impression, as we are able to wash with (actually) hot water. it's also good to have some level of control on the water temperature - never bothered to check how accurately it measures 30, 40, 60 and 90-degrees.

nitro

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#3426605 20-Oct-2025 09:46

noroad:

You use hot water?

with the old top loader, we rarely used hot water (too far from our cylinder). we had no complaints about how clean our clothes were, because there was nothing to compare with.

i did periodically (at least annually, every 6 months if i remember) take the drum out and hit it with a water blaster to get the gunk out. if you've never done this, i can imagine what the unseen side of your drum looks like.

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#3426616 20-Oct-2025 10:19

Hey Nitro, what brand of top loader and how long to get drum out?

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#3426630 20-Oct-2025 10:50

k1w1k1d:

Hey Nitro, what brand of top loader and how long to get drum out?

I have a fisher and paykel, and it takes about 5-10 mins to get the drum out.

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