High efficiency washing machines are not worth it!

For me, it all about the money. What is going to save me the most money. Or cost me the least amount of money. So I had a front loading machine which cost me a couple thousand dollars. At the time, my justification for buying this machine is that it would save me money since they don't use as much water or energy to wash a load.


These savings would also offset the cost of the machine and the cost of the HE soap, which is generally more expensive.

Even though I have well water, it is the environmentally friendly thing to do...Right?

WRONG!!!

Then my machine broke. Only three years after I bought it. I called a repair man and he told me that it would cost more to repair it than it would to replace it. How could that be? Well, he told me that it was the shocks that holds the barrel to the frame. With these front loaders, ie HE machines, you can't load them very much or else they bounce around and break the shocks. He also said that the front loaders never last very long. He was the one that suggested a top loader for my next machine. He said you can load them up a lot more.

So there went all the savings of my expensive HE front loader right put the window.

I found out later that 99% of the energy savings of the HE machines was that it took less energy to heat the water. Well, I wash all my clothes on cold, so where's my savings? Even if I got a HE top loader, which they have now, I would never benefit from the energy savings.

I also found out that you have to own a HE machine for 10 YEARS before the energy and water savings offsets the cost of the machine!! I only had my machine for 3 years!! So, I paid more for the machine, more for the soap, I wasn't getting the energy savings because I used cold water and I wasn't getting the water savings because I can't load the machine very much and have to run more loads. Also, I have a well, so I don't get a water bill anyway.

All that added together turns out to be nothing more than a big hustle! I went out and bought a $400 top loader that was NOT HE and now I load that sucker up with clothes for me, my husband and my four kids and use the cheap soap, or the expensive HE soap that I get for free using coupons.