After years of sending Prudence every day down the road a quarter mile to the crick down by Jimmy's house to wash the clothes on a rock, I decided we could splurge this year and upgrade our laundry process. What do you think?
Actually, Prudence hasn't done the wash on a rock in years:) The drum in the Maytag we've had for the last 12+ years began to leak about 2 months ago. I called the local repair man and found out that it would cost $250+ to fix, so we began the research. And I'm using the royal "we" on this one. You've got to know Pru to know that no purchase like this is done quickly or easily. Every website and resource is read and re-read and everyone that's purchased a similar item is grilled. She was intrigued with the promises made by the front load washer people. Bigger loads, less water, and cleaner/"dryer"/less worn clothes at the end of the wash cycle. And for the most part she found they were true. Everyone she talked to raved about them. The biggest deterent was the cost - $1000 (after stand and sales tax) for the one most people recommended: the Whirlpool Duet. But most people claimed that the payback in water alone would be in about 3-5 years. Labor Day weekend most everyone was running sales (and some with 1 year free financing!), so I told her she needed to pull the trigger. So she got Best Buy and Lowes in a price war, and Lowes wanted her business more. She drives a hard bargain! Gotta love that girl!
Last Saturday the beast was delivered - free (part of Prudence's deal)! She stayed home from The Boy's soccer game to be there for the delivery dudes. They did an excellent job. I guess the biggest complaint with these washers is that they spin so hard and fast that they shake the whole house if not leveled right. The guys put in a load of towels (the heaviest thing we had a lot of), did a wash and rinse and leveled the thing to the point where I can't hardly hear/feel it when it runs. Even quieter than our old one! They were there about 1 hour and Prudence and Panda were able to make the end of Em's game. When we arrived home, everyone crowded in our laundry room to bask in the glow of the miracle machine. Prudence announced that it had a DVD that we needed to watch in order to run the thing. A DVD? To run a washing machine? Yep. And The Boy couldn't have been more excited. He swore he'd watch the DVD all day. Need to get the kid out more. Anyway, all of us rushed into the living room and for the next 30 minutes were educated on the new way to clean clothes. The washer would dispense soap, bleach, and fabric softener at "just the right times" to take the thinking/guesswork out of laundry. But it was very picky about what kind of soap to use and how much to put in it. It had safety features that would prevent the device from being used for evil instead of good by young laundramateers. Unfortunately, the washers-in-training were also in the room, so they now know all its secrets. Drat!
After we'd received our training - I'm still waiting for my framed certificate - we all went to the laundry room to give her a spin (pun intended). The Boy called us on every cycle change. It was amazing to watch it lazily flop our clothes around during the wash cycles and then turn around and spin like it was trying to open a wormhole for time/space travel. After an hour, everything was finished. The clothes seems to be a little dryer, and there was more of them to put in the dryer. The dryer took everything in and dryed them as promised. It was purchased 6 months earlier after the Maytag dryer failed for a 3rd time. We went with an extra large conventional dryer then as Prudence's research showed that there was no advantage to purchasing a fancy front loader to match a future front loading washer. Time will tell if it saves the condition of our garments and money in our checkbook. No one at work has commented on my cleaner duds. And if they did, I'd have to get another job. Might have to anyway to pay for this new luxury...
Anyway, this new gadget makes me feel like George Jetson! Now where do I pick up my space plane and the automatic dog walker?
9 comments:
whoa!! $1000?! That's crazy!! It better last a long time or you'll have to send Vinnie and Knuckles to the Whirlpool offices to get you a "refund". ;)
Remind me to tell you sometime about the $150 washer/dryer combo Jon bought for us (it's this crazy little thing that washes, then dries the clothes... in the same drum... it;s wacky!)
Wow! That is soooo 22nd century, dude! lol Sounds awesome. I've heard lots of good things about front loaders myself. Good choice!
Have a great weekend!
Any appliance that requires the viewing of a DVD prior to use is cool in my book.
I love the idea of the whole family huddled around the washer looking at it. "Look ma, the fandangled warshin thing has a door in the front"
Hope your weekend is humming along, buddy.
LOL! Congrats on the new purchase!
You brought back some crazy memories for me while I was blog walking. I laughed so much at your mention of Zamfir!!! And your refrence to Velveeta casserole had me in tears laughing!
One phrase comes to mind... "Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
We just bit the bullet and got an upright. After years of shouting over the noise of the last one, we had to keep looking at this one to see if it was actually working! They're so silent!
Congrats on the new primo appliance!
I'm so jealous! I love those front loaders. They are supposed to be absolutely awesome!! WOO HOO for Prudence! From all I have heard, it will be worth the money in the long run.
Kill Bill Vol 2 is an awesome movie! Is it over yet??
: ) Sue
Yep, pretty dern big city, Vern! Seriously, I'm jealous- I've been wanting one but can't get past the price tag quite yet. Of course, with the ominous sounds coming from the laundry room as I speak, I may have no choice but to dive in.
I love the mental picture of the family studying the instructional DVD, then watching the clothes being washed- more fun than old-time radio!
We were lucky enough to need all new appliances when we bought our house last year. So we got the front loaders as well. The matching set. We were also very excited about our extra quiet dishwasher. It is amazing the things that get us excited as we get older.
Your washing machine story reminds me of when I was little (about 1948) and we had a front loading Norge with the little porthole. When it went into spin the closest person had to run and hold it in place or it would walk across the floor.
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