So today was my weekly trip to the laundromat, otherwise known as my Weekly Hour in Hell That Sucks the Life Out of Me. It's not that I mind doing laundry. It's that I simply hate doing it in a public place with children running around screeching and squealing, washing my clothes in machines which have contained items I don't even want to think about, and being pinned down by the pinball machine by a woman who wants to tell me all about how she found the Lord. Not to mention the horrendous laundry habits of others I am forced to witness.
See that picture to the left? That is a perfect example of how not to load a dryer. On the one hand, I am grateful that the woman did not take up twelve dryers to dry her laundry. She was clearly being considerate of others in that respect. (On a side note, nothing irks the hell out of me more than being in a laundromat with no free dryers because some jacknut felt compelled to use eight dryers for laundry she managed to fit into three washers.) But filling each dryer up halfway full of clothes is not the way to do it. I've seen people do this at home, too, and it just drives me bonkers. The clothes need room to tumble, to move about, and room for the air to circulate. When they finally do manage to dry, what you will have is a wrinkled mess that baked in the dryer for far too long because too much crap was jammed into it.
It also geeks me out to see someone load up a washer with underwear and other such items and then proceed to start a cold wash. And not use any bleach. If you think you are going to get your poopy drawers clean with cold water and no assistance from bleach, then you are sorely mistaken. You need hot water, and if you refuse to use hot then you need to add something to help kill the little nasties that are floating around in there. Cold water and detergent does nothing to disinfect.
Another thing that makes me want to stick my head in a washer and repeatedly slam the door upon my noggin is watching people add the additives to the wash. Look, if you are going to use a frontload washer, you need to use a high-efficiency detergent. If you do not, then you are simply loading up your clothes with detergents that the two (three, if you're lucky) rinse cycles will not be able to get out.
Check out that picture. That is not the washer of someone who used a regular detergent. That is my washer, and I use Tide 2x concentrate. I used about half the amount recommended for a small or lightly-soiled load, probably about three tablespoons. And it still suds like crazy! I suspect part of the sudsing is due to the heavy built-up these machines have inside from people using the wrong type of and too much detergent. But if my HE detergent created that much suds, imagine what a regular detergent does!
In case you are wondering why I, a person who writes a blog on washing machines, is forced to use a laundromat, I'll tell you. My landlord (aka, my stepmother) refuses to let me put in a washer and dryer, despite the fact that I have a washer and dryer hook-up in my apartment. It sucks, to say the least.
I miss my Neptune.
The most common complaint I hear about frontload washers is the fact that reversible doors are not common. Sure, most European washers offer the ability to hinge the door in the opposite direction. And the door of the original Maytag Neptune could also be reversed. But there has been a definite lack in the big, American-style frontload washers (that were not prone to massive infestations of mold, a la the Neptune).
Asko, the Sweden-based company with a long history of producing top-notch dishwashers and laundry appliances, has created a frontload washer that offers all the features American consumers are looking for with the ability to reverse the door.
This is not insignificant, and I suspect Asko will sell a fair amount of washers as a result of that one feature.
Not much information is available about this washer, so I have sent Asko an email and will follow-up once I get a response.
In the meantime, you can check out the Asko WL6511 on their website.
