Originally Posted by
Barb in Louisiana
I have had a front load washer for several years and have never had to clean it. Perhaps one of the reasons is, I never shut the door unless I am washing clothes, therefore the gasket dries out each time. Also, my husband has a sensitivity to soap left in clothes. The rashes aren't comfortable, so I rinse every load twiced.
I will say that you cannot soak clothes in a front load. Mine is very bad with bleach. You will get spots when the bleach is added to clothes. I gave up even buying bleach. Even the powdered bleach makes a mess. My next washer will be a top load, even though it will be hard for me to get everything out of the bottom of the tubs. Guess that's where hubby comes in and does his part.
This isn't true of all of them. I've had my GE for several yrs. It has a soak feature on it which allows me to soak an extra hour beyond the normal was cycle, maybe longer never seen what would happen if I pushed the button twice. I've never had problems with bleach spots on my clothes. I always save my whites and do a load with bleach. If I need oxiclean I put it in with the clothes since I use liquid soap. I put vinegar in where the bleach goes if I need extra freshness in the water. You do have to be careful with color catchers and small items just with top loaders. I got a color catcher caught once and it was under warranty so I watched the guy and then yrs later when my machine had the same symptons, I went on you tube and found out how to do it and it was a mitten from my granddaughter. I love my front loader, gets clothes clean, less water and has all of the features that others complain it doesn't have. I would love to have the drawers that go under it but I have a shelf over top of the machine so there is no room. So no complaints here. The matching dryer dries so fast I'm usually waiting for my washer to finish or they finish about the same time. It senses the moisture in the air and determines if clothes are dry instead of going by the timer. By the way, with color catcher, just pin them to a wash clothe.