4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
The update: the terrible noise is gone!
Date of Review: Feb 18, 2006
The Bottom Line: I have not used this machine long enough to recommend it to anyone. I will post updates.
First, thank you everyone for all your comments about my earlier review!
I know now what it was: the two bars under the machine were never removed. The delivery guys from Best Buy just brought the machine in and left. Last night my husband read the washer manual (troubleshooting part) and looked underneath the machine, and sure enough: the two bars were still there. He removed them and we did another wash - no noise! We selected on purpose the Extra High Speed, just to see the difference. The machine vibrates a bit when it picks up speed during the final spin, but it does not bother me at all.
Everyone, please make sure the two bars and 4 bolts are removed when you are installing the machine! Trust me: it is crucial.
Overall, i am very happy with my washer so far. We've done 3 loads.
Somebody made a comment about how the washer does not have temperature labels on them. This does not bother me. All you need to know is what type of fabric you are washing. The machine figures out the water temperature for you. It also has an internal heater in it to make sure the water gets very hot when you are washing whites, for example. I like the fact that it has all the basic functions and cycles i need and it's VERY simple to use.
Some people said they saw some lint on their clothes after the wash. I did not see anything.
The matching Whirlpool dryer is also great so far. It automatically stops the cycle when your clothes are dry, not having to worry about over drying your clothes. A small quirk is that you do have to press start twice. It also does not have as much lint in the lint catcher as a normal dryer would. I am not sure if it's a good or a bad thing.
We did have a hell of time getting the dryer connected. The main reason we got this washer/dryer combo was because we wanted to put it into our existing pantry, which had the typical door width dimension of 27" (overall with of 40") but its depth was also only 27". This w/d unit really made more sense to us because it had the same dimensions as the Maytag, but a 1/2 cu.ft. larger drum size (2.9 vs. 2.4). I was told average capacity on all washers is 3.2 cu.ft. However, the problem with this dryer is that a) it doesn't come with the side connection option (Maytag did) and b) it's all the way at the bottom and center of the back of the dryer. So our installer felt it necessary to hardpipe it (vs. flexi), and so after stacking them he actually climbed over the top of the dryer in the closet and hung upside down to reach the bottom of the dryer! We figured hey, it would only be a one time thing having to connect it--until we figured out the washer still had the rods in it and take it all down and unconnect everything. So he actually had to come back the next day to make the connection again because I couldn't.
At any rate, I don't know if going with a flexipipe all the way would have made it easier or not--still a lack of space to be trying to connect to the back of something that's in a closet! Just simply bad engineering and design in this respect.
The stacking kit: a severe disappointment for $25. The dryer sits directly on the washer, and all the "stacking kit" is is two VERY bendable U brackets that one side screws to the bottom of the dryer and the other catches on the back lip of the washer. They really just got in the way during installation (remember, closet) and I'm really not sure just how useful they are (they only keep the dryer from coming off of the front of the washer, no side to side support). You'd almost be better off just getting a two pieces of 3x1 sheet metal and drilling it to the washer and dryer.
Overall though, we're happy with it, the machines themselves seem to be working fine, they just could have put a little more thought into the installation side of it.
