POV: choosing a new washing machine

Clean Cloth Nappies admin member Jes reflects on her selection process when buying a new front loader washing machine. 

At 31 years old, I’ve only ever bought 3 washing machines. 

The first was a cheap second-hand one when I rented a house that didn’t have one. I can’t recall what it was other than a noisy top loader that sucked at cleaning (probably because of that 30 min cold, eco-detergent routine of the dark ages) and would spin so hard it would walk across the floor and unplug itself.

The second was my beloved Fisher & Paykel 8.5kg WashSmart Front Loader. This was the first machine I brought new and the salesperson did a good job of selling it to me as I had zero clue what to look for. Our inherited 5.5kg Fisher & Paykel top loader had died a week or so before and I had no plan other than to leave with a washing machine.

I’d used many top loaders over the years at various rentals and family members’ houses and the two I had owned were not particularly effective at cleaning so I knew I wanted to try something new. I went home with a brand new FL on the back of my ute and high expectations of this newfound laundry bliss.

I didn’t find this bliss until I stumbled across Clean Cloth Nappies the following year. After some reading up, a bunch of questions and some trial and error, I had finally achieved that dream of laundry bliss. 

Replacing my washing machine

Five years later, after several years of happiness, the time came to replace my machine.

This time I approached it differently, I had years of experience and an understanding of what is important in a washing machine, how to utilise its features and what type of cycles and size my family needed.

My washing machine requirements

I knew I wanted another front loader and around the 8-9kg size. I knew I wanted European manufactured and I knew I wanted one that either did not automatically adjust the water and time, or had the ability to easily override this.

The brands I ended up narrowing it down to were 

• Bosch
• Electrolux
• Whirlpool

After some conversations with Clean Cloth Nappies Unicorns, our VIP group who are a brilliant sounding board, I was pretty set on a Bosch. 

Setting a budget

I went into this with a budget of $1800NZD. The only Bosch that fit into this was the Bosch Series 4 which was not European manufactured. This was well above what I was prepared to spend.

That narrowed it down to Electrolux & Whirlpool.

Electrolux Ulimatecare 500 in 9kg or 8kg were on my list of options and whilst they both had settings I was impressed with and would meet my non-nappy needs, one of the big challenges members of Clean Cloth Nappies had talked about was the inability to turn off or over-ride the autoadjusting which caused issues with getting optimum cycles for nappies and dirty family laundry.

There were ways around it but it resulted in either a prolonged first wash which then requires adjusting for the main wash or more admin than I was willing to commit to if there was a better option.

Selecting my preferred machine

Whirlpool 8kg Freshcare+ was the last one on my list and initially it was the one I thought I’d be least likely to get. It was the cheapest which my instinct told me was not a good thing however it had similar cycles to the Electrolux models, max spin speed of 1400rpm (200 more than the Electrolux) and best of all? 5-year warranty vs 2 years for the others.

Whilst you cannot turn the 6th Sense off, you can easily override it which is not ideal but significantly easier than the Electrolux I considered.

With all that said, it was off to the store to purchase my new machine and for the grand total of $1119NZD, I purchased my third new washing machine. 

It’ll take time to work out the settings and best way to use my new machine but so far, I’m impressed although the spin cycle is louder than I’m used to.