New Washer

Our old washer broke once again two weeks ago. The old Whirlpool just hasn't been itself for the past year or so. First it started making funny noises. Then it smelled like burnt rubber from time to time.

Just before Christmas, Bobbie used it to wash a rug and it broke. We called Charlie, our repairman replaced a part and admonished Bobbie to take the rugs to the laundrymat. But in February we had the same problem. Charlie repaired the machine, but this time he didn't have a quick explanation.

Finally, two weeks ago it broke again. So after 14 years and $250 of recent service calls, we decided to buy a new washer.

Bobbie looked at the high tech front loaders at Home Depot, but was put off by the fact that our nearest Home Depot only had two top loaders on the floor compared to several top loaders. She didn't think she was hearing the whole story.

So we set a lunch appointment for two Fridays ago. We left John and Sarah to do homework and took Janine to lunch with us then washer shopping. We returned to an appliance store in a small town north of here. We bought a very nice Bosch dishwasher from them seven years ago. Based on that good experience, we returned only to find their showroom torn apart for remodeling.

But after a few moments of finding out how Bobbie preferred to do laundry and a lot of subsequent discussion, Rose, our sales lady determined that a higher-end top loader would be best. It took almost a week for delivery, but we wanted to make the right decision on a washer we would keep for many years, than a quick and regrettable one.

We ended up with the GE Profile you see in the bottom photo. It does just about everything but whistle Dixie. Most importantly it has the cycles and temperatures that Bobbie likes to use. She is a very idiosyncratic about laundry. She does many small loads at specific settings.

Later Thursday after the washer was delivered Bobbie was on the phone with Rose. It didn't sound as if the machine had started the load. Rose assured Bobbie that this new washer REALLY was that quiet and then said that she could schedule a repairman if Bobbie wanted. The first load really did get clean, and so will many more, we hope.