Sunday, April 25, 2010

High Effeciency my foot

Our old washing machine finally died, so we bought a new high-efficiency front loader. We were set on buying an h-e top-loader. However, we couldn't find one with an internal water heater. Perhaps we should have let the water heater go.

Our electricity bill shot up after buying the washer, probably due to increased dryer times. With the old washer, a load could be finished in about 30 minutes. With the new washer, the "predicted time" is 57-59 minutes. However, actual tends to be much more than that. (I often see it go from 7 minutes remaining back up to 12.) Load size is much larger. However, a standard full load tends to end up much wetter (and take forever.) Maximum efficiency seems to only be obtained by using a smaller load (about the size of the old washer.) However, this creates major time issues.

With the old washer, you could wash two loads in less than the time it takes to wash one in the new one. Hmm... Even if it uses half the electricity to run, since it takes twice the time, it will break out even.

This also creates problems with drying. With the smaller, faster loads, there was plenty of space to hang up all the clothes. Wash a bit, hang up. Maybe throw some damp stuff in the dryer. Wash another. Hang up.

With the new one, there is a lot more clothing at once, exceeding space (and patience) to hang up everything. You could stuff it all in the dryer. However, this will be stuffed, and take forever to dry. Hanging up some, and drying some is perhaps the best solution.

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