• Bio

Lissa Coffey

My washer and dryer are 10 years old now, which I understand is the lifetime of these appliances.  We use them a lot – probably 8 loads or so a week, so they might be older than their chronological age.  Last month I was having problems with the dryer again, so I had the guy come out and do a full service, cleaned out all the lint, etc, it was beautiful.  For about 3 weeks.  Then Wednesday morning I went to run a load and it wouldn’t start.  Dead as a doornail. Another guy came out yesterday and told me we need a new motor.  I wasn’t crazy about putting in a new motor in an old machine – and given the wear and tear it’s been through over the years I was thinking we were due for a new one.  After all, if I put the price of a new motor towards the new machine it couldn’t be that much more, right? So, I headed off to Sear’s.  I mean, the sooner I order, the sooner it’s delivered, and I already have wet laundry waiting to be dried so I’m kind of in a hurry here.  It’s been 10 years since I’ve been dryer shopping, and let me tell you, things are different out there!  Prices are higher – what did I expect?  And, of course, there’s the whole washer/dryer set thing happening which made me want to get a new washing machine, too.  A lot of the washers are front-loading now – so I asked the difference between front-load and top-load.  Big difference, turns out!  The traditional top-load machine uses 40 gallons of water to do a wash.  The new front load kind uses just 14 gallons of water!  That’s amazing… and when you figure I do 8 loads a week, that’s a huge savings of water.  The other difference is that the top load version has that spin thing in the middle to rotate the clothes around, up and down.  The front load kind uses gravity, so it doesn’t have that middle thing.  You can fit more stuff in there. I opted for the bottom of the line front-load washer and its matching companion.  The old machines will be hauled off and recycled or donated when the new ones arrive tomorrow. Life’s little interruptions.  I wasn’t planning on spending the money, but in the long run, I feel better for saving water and energy, and now I have at least another 10 years to go before I’ll have to deal with it again.  By then they’ll have some other fancy features I’ll just have to have.