Kenmore Elite HE3T Washer 'Washes' The Competition Away!


Okay, what is a married guy doing writing about a washing machine? About 4 years ago, our old machine just stopped doing a thorough job cleaning our clothes.

What were the signs of my wife's 20+ year old washer not doing a good job anymore? I started to scratch and scratch and scratch. At first, I thought I must have had contact dermatitis but couldn't find the source. My wife thought it was the detergent she was using. So, she switched to a fragrance free hypo-allergenic brand but I still broke out in hives.

So, she watched the washer one day and noticed that it wasn't churning the way it used to. So, for a short time, she had to run the machine twice. Not exactly economical in terms of water, electricity and most importantly, time.

So, we were on a hunt for a washer.

Why waste time? First thing I did was get a copy of Consumer Report magazine with their top rated washers. The Kenmore Elite HE3t came up on top each time.

I am so incredibly happy that we consulted the magazine because I was about the get a Maytag Neptune solely based on the fact that my wife's 20+ year old machine was a Maytag. Not only did I read review after review of how horrible this machine was with repair after repair. I found out that there was a class action lawsuit against them. Whew! In fact, one of my employees mentioned that she had a Neptune and within a year, the display went out and required an expensive repair. Of course, it happened out of warranty. Isn't that almost always the case?

Well, back to the Kenmore Washer. We head over to our local Sears to check out the washer. I loved the look of the graphite model. It is almost black and just smacks of a really smooth and slick look. It was a few dollars more than the standard white model but I just thought it would be a real contemporary addition to our home.

Well, looks aside. What really mattered was performance. When we test drove it at the showroom, the salesman showed us one feature that convinced us to get it for sure! It has a second rinse feature. This button rinses the clothes a second time to get off any residual soap that may be (but unlikely with a washer this powerful) left behind to irritate my delicate soft baby skin!

Another stroke of luck? It was on sale! $200 off! Who could ask for anything more?

As my wife would be the true person to say how well it works, she doesn't come on this rating forum. So, it is up to me to write a performance review on it.

Well, the first thing I noticed was that I stopped itching. So, from a performance stand point. That was all that mattered to me.

What was an added bonus were the incredible features that came with it.

Besides being incredibly efficient with detergent (I noticed that my wife buys a lot less detergent) and it reports to use a lot less water than any top load washer. It also uses a lot less electricity than a top load washer. Top load washers are horrible when it comes to electrical consumption. Plus, the churning action, as I later researched, is a lot harder on clothes wear and tear than a front loader that tumbles the clothes to clean.

So, what are some of the buttons on the front of the washer? Let me go take a look. Hold on.

Okay. I'm back. Did you miss me?

Laundry modes are heavy duty, normal, whites, sanitary (which www.sears.com claims to kill 99.999% of a certain bacteria), handwash, wool, silk, delicate and express.

My wife uses only two settings: the normal and white setting. Rest assured, they are excellent at cleaning clothes but it is more than comforting to know that there are other features if they are ever needed.

Awesome features include a prewash feature. You add a little detergent to the soap tray (you don't have to add detergent to the clothes compartment anymore) prewash compartment and it will pre-wash the clothes a little before the main wash.

There is also a soak feature and a stain treatment button as well. My wife has not used these so there is no report from the peanut gallery on these options.

I remember on our old washer that there were 3 temperature settings. This bad boy has 6. Six? Do I need six? Beats me but it is cool to have for that just in case.

Another cool feature is the spin speed selection. There is a super fast one that really extracts the water out of the clothes for increase dryer efficiency and shortened drying time.

Another feature that has never been used? The soil level selection button. Why? Because this washer is so effective at cleaning clothes, it was never needed to select the high soil level.

I do laundry for one thing only. I keep a pretty large saltwater coral reef aquarium and require a lot of white towels to wipe things down, keep things clean etc. I have a ton of towels that I toss in there, press the sanitize button and takes care of them without thought or worries.

My wife sings the Kenmore Elite's praises when she does very large items like our king size comforter and the always huge load of darks. She just stuffs the washer without thinking about how much is in there because it has always handled anything it was given without a stutter.

The operation of the washer is quiet, not silent. It has a cool feature in which before it spins a load, it rocks back and forth to balance the load so that it spins it evenly and without excessive vibration. Does it work? A whole hearted 'YES'. What an incredible design thought.

To not be totally biased, I will have to say one negative thing about the washer. There is a time display that tells you remaining time for the cycle. Well, let me tell you. It lies! When it says 45 minutes, give it a good hour. The cycles take a lot longer than displayed but it doesn't matter because you can do such huge loads at a time. It doesn't really slow you down because you do not have to do multiple loads of the same colored laundry

This washer is overkill for my wife and I. It is more than well equipped to handle a very large family and whatever the dirty while we live out life.

I never thought something like a washer would make my life more comfortable and stress free but the Kenmore Elite HE3t does a wonderful job at having one less thing to worry about!

I will write a review on the newly acquired matching Elite HE4 gas dryer when I have had time to use it more to evaluate its performance.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1100