Buying a washing machine

Washing machines come in two varieties:

• Front loading washing machines
• Top loading washing machines

Which one to choose depends on your budget, location you intend placing the machine and other factors.

Front loading washing machines:

Front loading washing machines offer "Tumble wash" technology. The wash drum of a front loading washing machine is fixed on its side (at the back) and you load clothes from the front (hence the term "front loading") . The drum rotates along a horizontal axis. Its analogous to the tyre of a car. Its fixed on the back to the axle and rotates clockwise.

The advantage of this is that the drum need not be completely filled with water. The drum rotates slowly during wash so that the clothes "tumble" from the top of the drum into the water at the bottom of the drum. Hence, even though the drum is not completely filled with water, all the clothes fall into the water for each rotation. Thus front loading washing machines consume less water, and hence less detergent and electricity to heat the water. Typically front loading washing machines consume one-third the amount of water top loading washing machines consume for each wash and rinse cycle. That's a lot of water saved. The wash action is also effective as the clothes literally tumble from the top of the drum into the detergent water below. It is for this reason that you should never completely fill the drum of your front loading washing machine with clothes. If the drum is full of clothes, the clothes don't tumble and the wash quality deteriorates.

A major advantage of front loading washing machines is that you can keep things on its top or thrust it below your kitchen cabinet. You only have to access the front of the machine to use it. Front loading washing machines also come with a pump to drain the water. This means that you can put the drain pipe at a higher lever (say into the kitchen sink). This can be very useful.

Because the drum is fitted on a horizontal axis, when the drum spins fast (at around 1100 RPM) for the dry cycle, the machine becomes very unstable (due to uneven distribution of the clothes on the circumference of the drum) and noisy. To prevent this, front loading washing machines usually have a heavy weight on top of the drum to stabilize it. This makes front loading washing machines very heavy to move. Hence don't buy them if you shift houses often. To prevent shaking of the drum, always wash small and heavy clothes separately.

IFB is a popular company that manufactures front loading washing machines. Of late, companies like Samsung, LG and Godrej have also come up with front loading washing machines.

To summarize:

Pros of a front loading washing machine:

• Consumes less water, detergent and electricity
  
• Provides better wash
• Usually comes with in-built heater
• Fits under your kitchen cabinet
• Has a pump to drain water

Cons of a front loading washing machine:

• Expensive
• More noisy
• Much heavier than top loading washing machines

Top loading washing machines

In top loading washing machines, you load the clothes from the top and the drum is attached at the bottom of the machine to the motor. The drum rotates along a vertical axis. This means that the drum has to be completely filled with water for washing the clothes. Hence top loading washing machines consume thrice the amount of water as front loading washing machines for every wash and rinse cycle. Also, the clothes just move about to and fro in the water. There is no "tumble" action like the front loading washing machines have. Hence the wash quality is also poor.

Because a top loading washing machine has a lot of water, its very difficult to heat it. Hence top loading washing machines usually don't come with built-in hot wash facility. You can instead connect your washing machine to hot water inlet if your manual permits it.

Whirlpool, Videocon and Godrej are some companies manufacturing top loading washing machines.

To summarize:

Pros of a top loading washing machine:

• Cheap
• Light weight
• Less noisy
• Need not bend to load/unload clothes

Cons of a top loading washing machine:

• Consumes more water, detergent and electricity
• Does not come with built-in hot wash facility

Tips for buying a washing machine:

If you can afford the cost, go for a front loading washing machine. It offers better wash quality, has low running cost (in terms of water, detergent and electricity consumed) and occupies less space. If you want a cheap, easy to move around machine, go for a top loading washing machine.

Things to look for when buying a washing machine:

• It should have the ability to remember where it stopped before a power cut and resume from that point when the power comes on again. This feature is a must. Many cheap top loading washing machines do not have this feature.
• Front loading washing machines should allow you to drain water manually when the power goes off so that you can remove the clothes and wash them by hand. If you can't drain the water, you can't open the door in front loading washing machines, as the water would spill from the front. IFB washing machine has this facility.

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