Kenmore 43142 Front Load Washer: A Machine That Loves My Clothes!
Written: Feb 25 '03 (Updated Jul 24 '09)
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Pros: Uses less water and saves energy. Quiet operation and 3 spin speeds.
Cons: More repairs than expected! Foul odor inside the machine after 2 months of use.
The Bottom Line: More problems associated with front loaders in general. If we were not on a septic system I would purchase a top loader.
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| elzora's Full Review: Kenmore 43142 Front Load Washer |
Update 1/21/07
I purchased another extended warranty on this front loader. It was $157 for two years. The repairman for Sears had earlier tried talking me into buying it from him (to save me money), but said he couldn't sell it to me before the current warranty expired. Not true. I did purchase the warranty directly through Sears and saved $50 over his quote! So much for "saving myself money".
Update 11/20/07
My washer was making a squeaking sound during the spin cycle, and my extended warranty expires in February. Sears sent out a repairman in 3 days to look at the washer, and he diagnosed another bad pump. He is ordering it, having it shipped to our home, and I have to call for installation when it arrives. If I didn't have the extended warranty, the total cost of this repair would have been $239.96. $147 for pump replacement and $89.96 for the pump.
Update 4/30/06
The smelly problem has become much worse since we have owned this washer. It smells ALL the time, even hours after running bleach through it. Drying the seal out in between washings does no good. A Sears repair man came out on Friday (4 hours late), and did his annual inspection that is covered in my extended warranty. You know what he told me? If the washer stinks, you should have complained about it when it was new. HELLO??? I DID. He basically said nothing can be done, and I have to "live with it". What infuriated me more was the fact that he told me my model usually only lasts for 6 years and then needs major work because of a bolt that breaks. When we asked the salesman at Sears about the reliability of these front loaders, he said we should be able to get 10-12 years out of them just like we did with our top loader. I will think very carefully about ever buying another appliance from Sears ever again. We've experienced TERRIBLE customer service and we dealt with sales people who did not tell us of all these problems (that every Sears repairman we spoke with were aware of!!).
Update 7/28/03
We have now owned this washer for 5 months and have had to replace the timer, the pump, and now the machine won't spin! Sears told us if we upgrade to a more expensive machine, they will credit us 100% for a trade in, otherwise they charge a 20% "usage fee".
Well, the repair man came out and the washer would spin for him. He asked me what I had in the washer when it wouldn't spin, and I told him one sweater (quite heavy when wet). He said that NO front loaders will spin with only one item in them, because they have sensors that tell the machine it is off balance. This has happened to me again, with washing one bath towel and several hand towels. I needed to wash this sweater separately because it was red and it bleeds ... I explained this to the repair man and he said I would need to put a red towel or something else in the washer with the sweater in order to make it spin. (I don't own a red towel!)
This is really a big drawback in my opinion, and I have spoken to other front loader owners who say they are able to wash one item at a time, so I don't know if the repairmans remarks are accurate or not.
We have now owned this machine for 9 months, and have had no further problems, other than the odor (which I remove with bleach). It has been quite reliable. Probably because we spent the money for the extended warranty.
Update 5/5/03
The second repairman, (who returned to replace the pump), told me that front loaders generally have more problems that top loaders. We require the front loader because of our new sewer system and the need for less water use. Both repairmen told me they highly recommend the extended warranty contract, and this is what we decided to do.
Other models were simply too large for our laundry room. I called Sears and paid $399.00 for a five year warranty. This covers everything. I was not aware that the initial one year warranty that comes with this machine ONLY covers manufacturers defects. If something gets stuck in it, say a sock, a coin, a piece of pen, etc. - and that causes some damage to the drum, the pump, or another part of the machine, this would not be covered under the initial warranty. The extended warranty, however, does cover all of these possible scenarios. We feel that with the higher cost of maintenance associated with front loaders, and the price we invested in this washer, it is money well spent.
Update 2/28/03
When we first used our washer, we heard a buzzing sound just before the spin cycle. The repair man ordered parts, but the store opted to replace it with a new machine.
Today the repair man returned, because the washer was making a loud low pitched noise in the same part of the cycle, right before the spin. He looked it over and said it was the pump - ordered the part and will be back in two weeks to replace it.
I discussed this particular machine with the repair man, and he told me that they have had a lot of calls on them recently for repairs. He highly suggested getting the extended warranty, which runs around $400 for 5 years, and covers more than the original 1 year warranty covers. He showed me how loose the drum is inside the washer, and said that a common problem is when the bolt on the back gets loose the drum really moves around too much, which can cause further damage - and estimates to fix such repairs can run upwards of $500-$600.
I have also heard of problems with the rear bearings on this model, some say that too many suds contributes to this problem. The manufacturer does recommend low sudsing detergent. The salesman told me that we could simply use half the soap we would normally use in a top loader, but my clothes seem to be coming out a bit dingy. I am going to switch to the low sudsing detergent.
After 2 months of use, I now notice a foul odor when I open the washer door. I mentioned this to the repairman, and he showed me something very interesting. When the load is done, there is always a small amount of water left on top of the rubber seal, but he lifted this seal up, and there was quite a bit more water trapped inside this seal, between the two pieces of rubber. He did not give me any solutions to fix this problem.
I was also experiencing more bouncing around and noise during the spin cycles. The repairman asked me if there was a crawl space under our laundry room - yes there is. He said these machines perform best on a solid (preferrably cement) floor. He also did NOT recommend stacking them in our current laundry area. This is something we had planned to do down the road, but I guess we'll rethink this idea.
Today I spoke with the Sears appliance department manager about all of these problems. He was very nice and said that if we are not comfortable with this machine, he wants us to bring it back for a complete and full refund. We are debating what we are going to do. If we decide to purchase another machine, I will do a review on that one as well.
Kenmore Quality?
We bought a Kenmore top loading washer 18 years ago, and it gave us super performance until 3 weeks ago when the spin cycle refused to work. I checked with Consumer Reports, and indeed the Kenmore front loaders were at the top of their ratings. We purchased this washer two weeks ago and I truly am enjoying washing my families clothes! I found that spending $4.95 for one months subscription of "Consmerreports.com" was money well spent! (This Kenmore, however, was not listed in CR).
Features
Energy savings! This model uses 196 KWH/year, in comparing this with other brands, the lowest energy use available on the market is 177. The highest energy users are 1298. You can see this washer will give you a huge savings, it's estimated yearly operating cost is only $8 with a natural has water heater and $16 with an electric water heater. (Based on washing 8 loads a week.) This machine meets the ENERGY STAR guidelines for energy efficiency. This machine also has a self cleaning lint filter.
Uses less water! We just replaced our septic system two years ago to the tune of $12,000 - the experts told us that the main reason systems fail is heavy water usage. This machine only uses 14 gallons of water compared to the 42 gallons our old top loader used! (Still, it holds as many clothes as our old top loader).
It's quiet. It is equipped with something called a "Quiet Pak" (TM)- the salesman told us there is extra insulation around the unit that cuts down on noise.
Multiple settings. Yes, there are actually 15 cycles and options available. The machine automatically adjusts the water level to the size of the wash load, and the "Auto Temp Control" regulates the temperature of the warm and cold wash water in any cycle. It allows one to choose options such as hand-washables, permanent press, eco cycle, regular cycle, short - medium - to heavy wash, prewash, second rinse, etc. Another feature is the pre-wash cycle, which helps remove stains. The machine will tumble the load for 6 minutes, drain, spin and shut off. To give you an idea how long this machine takes to do a load of wash, here you go: the "Power Wash" cycle takes 18 minutes, "Medium" takes 13 minutes, "Delicates" are done in 11 minutes, and the "Short Wash" is done in 6.
Three Spin Speeds! There are actually three final spin speeds on this machine. SLOW is for delicates such as cashmere or items that wrinkle easily. NORMAL is for most loads. FAST gives a super fast (and noisy) spin that extracts an amazing amount of water from the clothes. In fact, often they come out near dry, and thus spend much less time in the matching dryer.
No agitator. What does this translate into? Well, it's much gentler on your clothes, thus they last longer. Top loaders work because the agitator moves the clothes back and forth, but front loaders clean with a gentle tumble action.
Delay start feature: will allow you to select a setting of 6, 4, or 2 hours to delay your wash. For those of you who would like to select a wash time that is other than the peak energy hours, the "Eco Cycle" is for you.
The Dispenser Drawer is wonderful! It has a safety mechanism built in so that children cannot open it easily. You slide a button to your right and pull, the drawer comes right out. There are three compartments for soap, bleach and fabric softener. The machine will not start until the drawer is fully closed. I have found that since we are using a liquid fabric softener our clothes come out incredibly soft!
Indicator Lights turn on during the cycle and will tell you when the machine is in the WASH, RINSE, and FINAL SPIN modes. The door lock indicator lights up when the door is closed (the machine will not start when the door is not latched tight). A cycle buzzer comes on at the end of the cycle (or you can turn the buzzer off if little ones are napping).
No off balance problems here! My old machine was often off balance when I washed heavy items such as towels or rugs. With front loaders you never have to worry about this, and it will wash 18 towels in one load. I never would have been able to do that with my top loader!
A User Video comes with the machine, and it is helpful to watch the short video to get the most out of your machine. It talks about problem solving and when to call customer service.
One drawback of this machine is the height of the door. One would normally have to kneel on the floor or bend over quite a bit, in order to add or remove clothing. We purchased matching pedestals for the washer and the dryer, that added an extra foot to the door height. I am 5'2" and it is very comfortable for me to remove items. The door on the dryer can be switched so that it opens from either the right or the left, thus making the transition of the clothes from washer to dryer a snap! The pedestals cost us an additional $200.
Final Thoughts
I love this washing machine! I was told that cheaper top loaders will probably last 10 years if you're lucky. They don't make 'em like they used to! The salesman said the front loaders should last us 18 years like our old Kenmore did.
It comes with a one year warranty, and you can purchase additional coverage, which we chose not to do. I find that these extra warranties are not cost effective, especially when we purchased the best rated consumer brand on the market! The cost was somewhat high, we paid $750 for the washer ... and now just a few weeks later Sears had raised the price to $849!!
We feel we made a smart choice considering the energy savings, and water efficiency of this machine. The washer and matching dryer are stackable, so the controls are all along the front - since ours are not stacked, this leaves two large flat surfaces for folding clothes. The controls are so easy to reach that they are also very easy to clean. While I am happy with this purchase, I now wish I had purchased a top loader that uses less water. The repairmen from Sears all tell me that front loaders are much more prone to problems that top loading machines. I am very glad I purchased the extended warranty, this is one time it actually paid for itself - and then some!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 750.00
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