izzi81

Having spent quite a while googling this topic and finding very little, it's time to try BE! In our rented cottage we have a top loading washing machine. It looks pretty old, was pretty gunky when we first moved in. I've never had a top loading machine before, and at first I thought they were quite cool, until I noticed its doing nothing to clean clothes! I'm using Tide liquid, which should be pretty good, but anything with a mark on it that goes into the machine comes out with the same mark on it. I resorted to a 1min scrub with my UK Vanish prewash bar on a mark on my hoodie which the machine failed to shift and in that 1min it was gone. So what's going on with the machine? It seems to work fine, fills up, spins, drains, all that. It just doesn't clean!

We can't afford a new one so I'm wondering if there's anything I can try, or am I just stuck with a useless machine

bats

Mine, an old one that came with the house, works better than the $$$$ Duet sport brand new all singing all dancing machine we had in the previous house. I reckon it's the crap laundry detergents sold here. We've started using Tide capsules and they are better.

Kaye5

We haven't mastered this yet either. And the whirly thing in the middle rips the clothes (or maybe our clothes are so old... which is a possibility).

Washer is old, though - came with the rental house. Maybe newer ones are better.

I can't find a washing liquid that smells of anything or cleans anything - have been going through them one by one. I'll give Tide a try when it's on offer!!

Though could be something to do with the no scents thing they have in lots of places?? I am guessing.

On the plus side - a huge load is done in half an hour, not the two hours it took for half the load size in my UK machine.

Kaye5

Oh, we also have a dishwasher that doesn't wash.

And a fridge that for a while didn't refrigerate.

All our appliances are Kenmore - but all are old.

bats

North American appliances are usually bits of tat.

Jackandvictor

We stayed in a holiday rental where we had use of a top loader. The wash took a whole 14 minutes and basically just wet and spun the clothes! We came here in 2006 and used a top loader in our suite. Again useless! All stains remained!
We have a front loader now which is better but I so miss a proper fabric softener which gives the clothes a nice smell. I wish they had Lenor or the sensations one which gave a smell for months. My towels stink of wet, sour water here despite using a fabric conditioner. Long gone are the days of beautifully smelling clothes when I ironed them. Now I get a sour water smell...charming!

Piff Poff

I use either Fleecy or Downy, and get nice smelling clothes, I even got the comment oooh you smell of fresh laundry the other week. I do also use a bounce or equivalent sheet in the drier when I remember to buy them. We also for almost a year had really bad sulpher smelling water but our clothes didn't smell eggy after washing them.

brissybee

I love top loaders!

I would advise not to overload the machine so the clothes can have a good swirl... and use a good detergent. We use Bio Zet here (not sure if it's available everywhere) and on stains, Preen degreaser. Clothes always come out clean.

Laundry wash bags stop things mangling.

With top loaders, you can add clothes and water for last minute changes from a small to big wash, chuck in an extra sock once the machine has started and even remove something if it looks like leaking colour.

That's my top loader rant over.

izzi81

I'm glad it's not just me!
I don't really have a problem with smelly clothes (though my googling before posting did suggest running the machine on hot with white vinegar in the softener bit and baking soda in the machine with no laundry to clean it once a month...). It is great that its so fast, but I wonder if that's part of the problem? But then I always wondered why my UK machine had to take over an hour to wash things!

Maybe it's just the detergents that are the problem. My Vanish bar got the mark out almost instantly so maybe ill have to keep trying. Capsules are an idea, and I'll have a look for bio-zet and preen pretreatment.

I do like that you can open the top loader and add things if you forget something, it seems a good idea but a better idea is clean clothes lol. There are just 2 of us so the machine is never super full.

I think when eventually we buy a machine I might end up going back to a front loader.... But that's some way off yet I'm still recovering from the price of our mattress!

Edited to add: googled bio zet, it's Australia only! Oh well...

Siouxie

+1

If your machine isn't getting your clothes clean the chances are that you are overfilling it without realising.

Fill the tub with water before adding the detergent, then add the clothes.

Don't overload it with clothes, make sure the water can get to everything.

Liquid detergent tends to get clothes cleaner, I find.

bcmama

We've got one and it seems to be ok, so long as we only half fill it. I just tend to buy whatever detergent is on offer, using Purex & Downy atm which leave the clothes smelling nice. I also find the dishwasher to be pretty rubbish, again it's not the newest and find Finish detergent better than Cascade.

Mikeypm

the top loader in our rental seems to be ok, no idea what washing powder we use. The dish washer is newer and we use finish in that and it works fine

cjones

We had one of these threads quite recently, and I still stand by my assessment.

If anyone's interested, the bloody lawn mower's started playing up recently, but I'm hoping I can get away without having to get it serviced until next spring... Washing machine's running like a dream.

Mad Jockette

I had a top loading washing machine when I was in a rental apartment. It was useless, didn't clean properly and stretched my jumpers. I would never use one again

dfjordan

Top loaders are popular in the US , but not in other countries. As is normal in the US, the only thing that's important to the manufacturer is cost and the top loaders are much cheaper to make in various ways. Many tests have shown that the washing action in top loaders is inefficient, but cheap, but also, that same action , over time, destroys the clothes. Additinally, they use far more water than front loaders.
Always pay the extra and buy a front loader