If you’re on the hunt for a new washing machine, I’ve got some well-researched advice to make sure you get satisfaction and the best value for your money. I recently gifted my mom a fully automatic front-load washing machine, and finding the right one was quite some work. Let’s get into that:
Top Load Washing Machine or Front Load Washing Machine
If you see online, or go to the shop, there are basically two main types of washing machines – top load and front load.
Top Load Washing Machine
In top-load variety, you know it. You load your laundry from the top. This is good for most general-purpose use in India, especially with not so guaranteed water supply. In fact, you can use it without a piped water supply (I can tell you how). Electricity consumption is slightly less than the other variety. The bad side is: the drums and bearings usually last a bit shorter than the front-load types.
Front Load Washing Machine
These are the classic washing machines and look superior to front-load ones. Choose this if you must impress others with the looks and perceived quality. Here you load your clothes from the front. Generally, front load washing machines consume slightly less water, detergent, and electricity. Not much difference though. Now that you have pictured the two types, you know that you can not open a front-load machine in the middle of a washing cycle.
Next is how automated the machine is.
Semi-Automatic Washing Machine
If you’re under a budget and don’t mind lending a hand, this one’s for you. This uses less electricity. Has a dryer – but you’ll need to move your laundry from the washer to the dryer manually. These come with almost similar set of options as in the fully automatic I will describe below.
Fully Automatic Washing Machine
This does washing and drying in one go; saves a bit of electricity as well. No need for manual work. There are quite a lot of options in the options panel.
In the models I considered, there were features like air-dry etc. Trust me, that doesn’t do much better than you drying it outside. Machines with a hot air dryer can actually dry clothes properly.
Most of these machines have separate options to do just one specific action – e.g. “spin”. So you can just bring wet clothes and spin them in the machine to remove water before you dry them outside.
That was a too simple description of things to know when buying a washing machine. Let me know if you have questions and I will try to answer that in specific.
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Air dry is gimmick only. I completely forgot about that in my washing machine until I read this. LOL
Washing machine with heater are too costly. But other than a heating system inside, there is no real drying by air dry. The cheapest ones are from Whirlpool which is not a good brand overall. Still you can try this https://www.amazon.in/Whirlpool-6-5-Fully-Automatic-STAINWASH-PRO/dp/B084CM7DT2
That is a complete package.
Whirlpool is cheap for a reason. LG machines are much heavier and more stable on the floor. Whirlpool machine at my how was just wandering around on the bathroom floor. Finally donated it.
But the performance varies from machine to machine. Do check in a shop if you can and compare how easy or difficult it is for you to move the machine on the floor.
I have heard good things about Samsung washing machines. They are aiming to capture market in India and hence selling good machines at a much-discounted price.
Yes, you are right. Whirlpool machines are not stable at all. We had one but it is not automatic, so may be that’s the reason. However, I agree that LG has some really good machines.
Recently I was calling the technician who installed my Bosch washing machine. While doing the service he confirmed some very important messages which I thought to share here. He was suggesting not to buy Bosch washing machine through online purchase through Flipkart. Some time before he went for a service of a washing machine and during inspection he noticed that the drum has not been supplied by Bosch and it is a repaired and from another old machine. What he says is that the machines which are returned by customers are repaired by the vendors and are also being Re-supplied through Flipkart. Flipkart do not have any mechanism to chk the same. When I asked the technician for true fact finding of this, he said he personally found one and exposed the same to his company. So let’s beware.
Yes, this may happen, but not always. I think we can trust online shopping now. Yes, there are some products that we can choose to buy offline, but I have never faced any issues while buying an electronic item online and almost everything in my home from tv to freeze is bought online. So I trust online personally.
I am planning to buy a washing machine and your post is informative and helpful. Gave me an idea about different types of washing machines. Can you suggest a few good brands on the basis of your experience? It would be of great help.
There are many good brands, but you can look among Bosch, Samsung and LG. I think you can get all you need from them. Their services are also good and will you can find different sort of purpose and design in these brands.