Kenmore Elite HE3t Front-Load Washer: The steam destinks cloth diapers!

My top-load washer of 15 years started dying last fall. The agitator didn’t want to agitate, it was horribly loud when it spun, parts started falling off…we patched it together as many times as we could, but it also just wasn’t washing clothes well. The only time I could get things really clean is if I did a small load with the water level on high. So it wasn’t washing and now I was wasting water UGH!

Just before Thanksgiving, the washer completely quit…no spin, no agitate. There was no wash in my washer anymore. I needed something new. I knew I wanted a front-loading machine. My mom has had one for a while, and I loved how much less water it used and how it seemed to be really gentle on clothes. I decided I wanted a front-load Kenmore Elite HE3t based on the running sales and reviews. Sears had some screamingly awesome deals, and we ended up buying the washer, and getting the matching dryer  for ~$100 more. (The dryer is a dryer…there’s not much to say about it, it dries stuff, in a short amount of time…I’m happy hee)

I was really excited about this set because I was going to be able to stack them. They stack perfectly, and I’m amazed at how sturdy they are. Even with an unbalanced load, they don’t seem tippy at all. No more walking washer!! Our water heater is so happy. When stacked, the dryer controls seem far away, but they are still really easy to use, and everything else you do with the dryer is right at eye level. Slogging laundry is hard, no matter if its from side to side or top to bottom.

You just don’t realize how much room an agitator takes up until you don’t have to deal with one. The 4.o cubic foot drum is ginormous! Even after 3 months, I’m still amazed at what I can pack in there. There is a sweet spot though…if you overfill it, stuff just doesn’t get clean. Under-fill it, and it doesn’t spin all the water out. That sweet spot is still nearly double what my extra large capacity top -loading washer loads were. I love that! This washer hardly uses any water. That part is so nice. We pay the same amount for water no matter what in our town, but we are using much less energy refilling and heating up water from the water heater.

I wash cloth diapers. One thing that made me want the H E3t model was the Steam feature. I’m not a germophobe, but this seemed like a nice thing to have when washing cloth diapers. I have cut down on stinky diapers so much since I got this washer. I use the steam feature to get them nice and hot. I don’t really notice that anything is extra super shiny clean from the steam, but with cloth diapers it really kills the stink. I didn’t know how a front-loading machine would do with cloth diapers, but this one has done amazingly well. It really gets out stains, and stink. I can program it to do my cold prewash, hot wash and a 2nd rinse and then walk away and know it will get all done. So it doesn’t take all day to get a load of diapers washed. I would always forget to restart the washer, that doesn’t happen anymore. My son’s diapers are cleaner than ever, and I’m not even using special detergent yet. I think they could be even cleaner with Rockin’ Green Soap.

Its a whole new way to wash clothes. There is a bit of a learning curve. Everything from when you can put clothes in the washer, to what and how much detergent you can use. You only use tiny amounts of detergent, and I even use less than the recommended amount. I can tell there’s a lot of soap buildup on my clothes. I would like to try a clean rinsing natural soap  to see the difference. You do have to plan ahead a little more than with a top-loading washer. You add your soaps and fabric softeners at the beginning, and you have to remember to put everything in the washer before it starts. I have always found stuff to add to loads, and you really can’t do that anymore with a front loading machine. There is a tiny window where you can open the door to add stuff, but its better to just let it do its thing and add the thing you forgot to another load.

There are a few quirks and things I don’t like about it. I had my old washer for 15 years, had I wanted to put about $100-300 into it, I probably could have gotten a few more years out of it. When it was working, it still did a good job washing my clothes, just in an inefficient way. From the research we did, and anecdotal evidence, front loading washers on the market right now only last about 5-8 years. That’s kinda a bummer for how much they cost. It has a really big washing quirk. If you wash a blanket by itself, you always have to spin it again to get the rest of the water out. For some reason, it can’t balance a single blanket correctly enough to spin the water out, but if you run a drain & spin cycle it does it just fine. The manual does mention this, but its just really weird to see it in action, and a big PAIN when you forget about it and start to pull a really wet blanket out of the washer.

I’m really happy with this washer so far. I really hope it will last a long time, and not cost too much to maintain. The capacity is awesome, its saved me so much time already. Its quiet, cleans well, and has a lot of features that make it easy to wash a wide range of things. If you are looking for a workhorse machine, this is one to look at. You get some great features at a decent price. If you are washing cloth diapers, you would really like the steam feature. It gets cloth diapers just that much more clean.

The only thing I’ve not settled on is what detergent to use. I’ve been using Target’s house brand, but think its too foamy. If you have a front loading machine, what detergent do you use?

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