« Spring is Around the Corner | Main | Spring 2011 has Sprung? »
March 19, 2011
A Little Quibble
I was over at the Weekend Pundit's site and was taken by the post, They Don't Make Them the Way They Used to - Part II. From an article that was being quoted came this gem
"But, as Americans are increasingly learning, front-loaders are expensive, often have mold problems, and don't let you toss in a wayward sock after they've started."
This sentence caused me to question everything else because, in my experience, this is not true. I have owned 2 front loaders, and I could push a button on either of them, at any time during the wash cycle, and add items. Maybe there are front loaders out there that this can't be done with, but I haven't seen them.
I also haven't had mold problems with either of them, but I have heard of others that have. There is now a product out on the market that you can run thru the washer once a month to "freshen" it. Also, just running an empty load with bleach once a month would probably take care of it (or, God forbid, actually hand clean it once in a while).
Anyway, although I generally agree that things aren't made as well now as in the past, I am just so picky I needed blog-fodder, so I had to address these little inconsistancies.
Posted by Bogie on March 19, 2011 at 09:09 AM in At Home, Weblogs | Permalink
Comments
I found the same thing you did - no problems adding something to the wash after it had already started. Ditto with the mold problem.
But then I haven't used one of the more up-to-date front loaders, and knowing the Safety Nazis as I do, it wouldn't surprise me to find you can no longer just "add a sock" in the middle of a cycle.
Posted by: DCE at Mar 19, 2011 11:41:30 AM
Our current front loader is 2.5 years old. I don't know if anything has changed since then - maybe Wichi Dude can help with that.
Posted by: bogie at Mar 19, 2011 5:47:12 PM
I "know" that with ours, it "allows" for items to be added in the first few minutes of the start of the wash cycle...never tried after that time frame as we seperate our stuff pretty good ahead of time. May have to try now...just because.
As far as mold...nope, haven't had a problem, though have heard about it. We simply do what they suggest and run a "cleaning" cycle once a month with liquid bleach only. Seems to work fine for us.
Posted by: Wichi Dude at Mar 19, 2011 9:41:19 PM
Our front loader is about one year older than Wichi Dude's, but I echo his comment. Actually, I'm pretty sure that I've added stuff beyond the first few minutes. (One can always pull the plug to re-boot!)
Actually, I'm not sure that things are being less well made so much as materials have changed. Currently, we seem to wish to upgrade/update equipment frequently just to get the latest technology; thus, less wear-resistant materials are sometimes used. (I'm thinking in terms of nylon latching mechanisms where we used to have steel, etc.)
Posted by: Cop Car at Mar 20, 2011 12:36:21 PM
