The washer is dead, long live the washer

After two previous near-death experiences that would probably have cause most people to replace it, our washing machine became gravely ill again a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't technically dead, just agitating very poorly. We decided it was finally time to invest in a new one. D made a strong argument for a front loader despite my vow to never give up on top-loading. As almost always happens when we want to invest in an electronic, we turned to the wirecutter's recommendations (which also explained why top loaders are less than ideal as front-load technology has become so much better). We decided their reasoning was sound and proceeded to order the recommended pair, the eloquently named LG WM3770HWA and its mate. There was a complication over the drier (more on that later), staggering our delivery dates a bit. So for one weekend, we went from this:

 to this:

There are lots of fancy shmancy settings that, even after reading the manual, I have no idea how to use (seriously, I cannot figure out the difference between "extra rinse" and "rinse and spin" and still don't really know when to use the various sanitary/steam/"allergiene (TM)"settings. But it has lots of overrides so I can get exactly what I want, has a "cold" wash that adds extra time but is more energy efficient and equally as cleaning, and has its own water heater so that we can actually, for once, wash our cloth diapers in actual hot water (our old washer could only use the temperature out of the water heater, which for safety reasons we leave at 120 degrees). It spins out much more water than our old washer, which means things are almost dry before they ever touch the dryer. It's energy star too, which is good for saving power and also for the rebates we're eligible to claim.

One annoying negative is that the door opens with the hinges on the left, which is not changeable. It blocks the way to the dryer. The hoses are too short to switch the order (i.e. move the washer to the left). The only solution we've come up with is to buy another laundry basket, move the wet clothes to the basket, then drag it over and load from the basket into the dryer. I'm sure we'll get used to it, but it's pretty irritating.

The big win is the surprise at the bottom. I knew I wanted to put the unit on pedestals because the added height makes it a little easier to load/unload. For only $100 more than the cost of the pedestal, thanks to a sale, I got a "sidekick." It's a tiny washer under the big washer. It uses its own water and settings, so I can run a hot load above while running a cold load below (or just a load below - it doesn't need the top to be on in order to run). I have no idea if it will be worth it in the long run, but the novelty right now is huge. So far I've cautiously upped the ante on what I've tested, even venturing to some hand knits that I would never mix with regular laundry. This might save me from having to hand wash as much as I do now. I also plan to try it on cloth diapers for those times we have one or two and don't want to wait until we have a full load (like this morning when I discovered last night's diaper up in the girls' room after we did the full cloth diaper load last night). D's extra muddy bike clothes will also get the sidekick treatment.

I had planned to write this post up on Saturday, not Monday, so there would be more suspense before the dryer arrived but...

Stay tuned as I put it through its paces.