When my over twenty year old heavy duty Whirlpool washer quit one Saturday during a rinse cycle, I could hear the un-welcome sound of grinding gears. So, I took a quick drive down to my local Lowe's to see what they were offering. The old familiar Whirlpool brand was standing there in the first row as I entered the Appliance Section. Who was standing there first in line was none other than the top of the line WTW6600SW2 Cabrio. Gleaming white, with a nice looking see-through glass top-loading door and a stainless steel tub, I noticed immediately there was no tall center agitator. That and the nice simple but computerized look to the controls was enticing - but what interested me most was this model has a capacity of 4.5 cubic feet which includes a heavy duty tub and motor, for longer life.
Someone must have whispered something in my ear as I normally never buy the first thing I see at any time, regardless of the brand. So what if I have had great service from my
Whirlpool water heater and over 20 years service from my last Whirlpool washer? George Jetson must have been there silently encouraging me as I peeled the plastic from my wallet and made the purchase - to return in a half hour with my old GMC Sierra pickup for the new machine (no scratches wanted in my new
Siverado truck). The Lowe's employee said the machine was heavy when I asked about the weight, but he was a stout young fellow with a large wheeled dolly and he placed it easily into the bed of my truck. When I returned home, I backed up to my front porch, let down the tailgate, and started to slide the boxed machine off the truck onto my porch.
It didn't slide that easily, but I jockeyed it around without too much strain on the terra cotta broken-tile porch and foyer floor - or to my aged and arthritic body. Once in the house and to the kitchen, it slid much easier across the kitchen ceramic tile floor to the laundry room. The manufacturer says something like 165 lbs., but I believe that is the load of clothes it can handle and not its actual weight. I had previously removed the much lighter old broken machine - before returning to Lowe's in my older GMC pickup. The hook-up was simple as Whirlpool provides new marked (color coded on the hose ends) hot and cold water hoses with gaskets, marked connections on the machine, and a nylon tie strap and bracket for preventing a kink in the drain hose. Whirlpool also provides a quick set-up sheet and an easily understood manual, if one bothers to read them first - I didn't, and quickly removed the box and styrofoam packing from the bottom of the machine and the top of the tub. The drain hose is attached from the factory and you just use a pull-cord, attached to it, to pull the drain end from its stored position in the machine. It took maybe all of three minutes to attach the new hoses in position, turn the water valves back on, and plug in the power cord. I later spent maybe five minutes more to level the machine with its feet and tighten their lock-nuts while using a level for proper positioning. It actually took me much longer getting the machine into my house and to the laundry room.
Yes, I think I met George Jetson at Lowe's that Saturday and again in my laundry room... Until I saw this machine in operation and actually read the included manual, I had no idea what the HE was about other than maybe it could clean the HE'' (double hockey sticks) out of my wash. Automatic sensing features means much less water and soap is needed and used per cycle - a surprisingly small amount if one looks through the tempered and scratch resistant glass lid during cycles. With the sound level of operation so low and the lack of a standard agitator, I had to look - and I couldn't help but wonder if there might also be some un-noticed ultrasonics involved in the cleaning process. Once I saw the spin cycle hitting what is probably the advertised 1000 rpm. top speed with the medium load of clothes placed in it, still wet from the previous broken washer, heard the subdued the jet-like whine, and how dry the clothes were when removed to the Whirlpool dryer beside this new electronic house-keeper, I was fairly sure George Jetson was again standing there grinning close by - or at the least his wife Jane, when I instinctively stepped back after seeing how fast the tub was spinning up. A few steps into my adjoining kitchen, from the laundry room, confirmed the sounds of a washing machine were completely gone beyond the laundry room itself with the door shut. This made my old "quiet" model conventional Whirlpool washer appear to have been a thrashing machine by comparison - and it was always much louder than my Whirlpool dryer. Now, no one knows the washing is being done unless they physically enter the laundry room - or ask someone who knows. Well, I can still just barely hear my old Whirlpool dryer running in the kitchen - but, by the time I hear it, it's a little late to be thinking of adding any more dirty clothes to the wash.
There was a very slight vibration during the spin cycle on the first run using the rinse cycle only, and spin dry. That evening I cured that using a level and the machine instructions I finally decided to read - adjusting the feet properly and locking them down with a 9/16 open wrench. I confirmed the cure the next day when I was asked to start the machine - now labeled "your washer" and only slowly gaining favor with use by others still sceptical of it's use of so little water and the HE soap, and it being so quiet.
Yes, I was shocked by all of this, but dismayed a bit only by the fact my new machine was not supposed to have any diet of standard soap powder. I had an almost full 16.43 lb. container of Cheer sitting in the laundry room beside another large full box. As I looked at all of the soaps there, none were HE. Disappointed, I looked to the Internet to learn something of HE soaps. What I found out brightened my day and may possibly brighten the wash. HE soaps are in line with the pricing of standard soaps used in older more conventional washers per load. They take up less shelf room and you use very little per load by comparison to standard soaps in older standard washers.
Standard soaps make and require more suds to clean good, but HE washers do not tolerate the additional suds well due to their sensors and more efficient cleaning action. Similar to the soaps used in dishwashers, HE soap eliminates the additional suds to clean even better using a different process from older washers and additional suds actually interferes with the machines cleaning action. HE soaps and washers help prevent the dyes in some clothes from transferring to other clothes in the same wash. HE washers also adjust their cycles according to the information their sensors supply about turbidity in the washer water - just like the new GE dishwasher I own and the GE it replaced.
I just bought HE soap, and I'll use the standard powdered soap on my garage floor and driveway as I always have when needed. Tide 2X "Free" concentrate in the 100 ounce bottle was $13.00 at my local grocery store and it appears to be free of the perfumes and other additives that can cause irritation. That's 64 loads or washings using the Tide measuring cap and instructions to use the first fill line (about two tablespoonsful). With my soft well water, that probably means we'll use much less liquid concentrate than recommended - just as I experienced with my dishwasher, which only needed a quarter of what I had thought was needed to clean properly. HE liquid soaps appear to run about twenty cents per load using the recommended level on the bottle - or about a dime more per load over regular detergent. But once the savings in hot water and plain old cold water are factored in, that dimes worth of difference starts diminishing rapidly - including the power usage.
As for HE liquid soap performance in the machine, I personally used the small included sample package of Tide "Plus" 2X concentrate and it did an excellent job on a large load of clothes for the first complete washing run. The Tide "Plus" left the clothes very soft and with a lightly perfumed odor after they had dried in my Whirlpool dryer - and the load included a pair of heavy jeans I wear at home while doing yard work. A pair of my heavy Carharts might just come out feeling like a soft terry cloth. That's probably why I decided on the Tide "Free", as I don't like my work jeans too soft or my clothing smelling like a rose garden - I'm just as repulsed by perfumes as I am bad odors and I experienced a rash and itch once using standard Tide many years ago due to additives in it. I had a few permanent press cotton shirts in the mix as well and, after reading about wrinkles using these HE machines, I found nary a one when I promptly removed my clothes from the dryer as one should.
Okay, I don't normally use a washer in my home - that's left to others. Usually, I only know the clothes are being washed when I hear the noise coming from the laundry room - and that's no more with the WTW6600SW2 Cabrio. This time, I just wanted to see what the HE in the Cabrio was all about myself. Besides what I already mentioned, I noticed the machine instructions recommend you lay the wash in little piles around the tub away from the center, and as high as you can see the stainless steel tub. I had always laid clothes stretched out around the agitator in the old washer - and not that high. The washing action is very different, but looks just as violent if not more so than a regular washer has during wash cycle - just much quieter. It's a devil of a nice looking and performing machine - so now I know what the "HE" is about.
Provided controls, cycles, and settings:
The front control panel consists of well lighted controls lit by soft green LEDs and providing a number of options. I'll just start here by describing the buttons found there.
The sound for alerting one, the washer is finished, has three levels that can be set by pressing the button there for this. These are "loud" (industrial loud), "soft" (loud enough), and "off" (probably right for most). A lighted bar LED shows the set level. The Cabrio is so quiet one could go to sleep beside it and never know it had finished with this control set to off. Turned to an on level, the control will awake them from the soundest level of their sleep - and will continue until the lid is lifted.
The Cancel/Pause button can be pressed once to interrupt a cycle and release the lid lock so additional clothes can be added while the "Add Clothing" light is displayed. Two presses of this button will interrupt any cycle, drain the water and reset the machine to power "Off".
The Power button is to the left of the large round cycle control and it lights when pressed to initiate power to the settings. Another button to the far right of the panel actually initiates the "Start" of the machine, once the user has made the desired settings.
There are three control buttons that also allows for manually changing the default settings of each setting on the round knob and the
fourteen cycle settings it offers. The mentioned buttons allows for adding an Extra Rinse cycle, Pre-Soak, and Deep Clean. Above them is a Delay Wash button with a horizontal LED display that displays the status of the running machine operation. All buttons light when activated for an operation. This section appears above "Options" with all but the aforementioned except for the Power Button. The digital Delay timer/"Estimated Time Remaing" is also found here.
Three more vertical LED bars have their own buttons for changing the Spin Speed from the maximum allowed for the operation from three levels of spin speed to off. To the left is LED bar display for Soil Levels of Heavy, Normal, Medium, and Light. To the right of the Spin Speed is the Wash-Rinse Temp. These levels are Hot/Cold, Warm/Warm, Cold/Cold, and Tap Cold/Cold. This section is labeled Modifiers.
Onto the actual wash cycles are "Normal" at the twelve-o-clock position, "perm press Casual" at one-o-clock, and the following in like fashion. "darks Colors", "Quick Wash", "Wool", "handwash Delicate", "Clean Washer with bleach only", "Soak", "Rinse & Spin", "Drain & Spin", "Whitest Whites", "Heavy Duty", "Bulky Items", and "towels Sheets". Yep, I counted fourteen of them to my surprise. We're until yet to use all of them, but the machine manual describes them all in detail.
I guess I fudged a little counting the cycle for the "Clean Washer with bleach only" cycle for the recommended one per month maintenance cleaning of the machine to prevent any hidden mildew or mold in the tub - but who wants to see thirteen cycles, especially if they could be a bit superstitious.
Live and learn, I looked under the skin of the old washer - and sure enough there was some mildew/mold growth hidden near the top of the tub liner. Had anyone told me this was there, I probably wouldn't have believed it - as we do use a lot of Clorox. Anyway, Whirlpool recommends the use of 1 cup of Clorox bleach used in the "Clean Washer with bleach only" cycle each month to prevent this and to keep the various sensors clean. Small price to pay, that can also improve your health outlook.
We've only used a few of the cycles, "Normal"/"Heavy Duty"/"Bulky Items"/"towels Sheets", so far. But every cycle has performed an excellent cleaning using the smallest amount of 2X Tide "Free" we could ever imagine would work in a washing machine. We've also added a little powdered Oxy-Clean on occasion without problem, but the box does say it is for HE washers and the recommended amounts.
Of note, I have seen it stated to use only HE rated detergents and not those stating "HE Compatible", as it can cause the machine to malfunction and have extended run times with poor cleaning results - over sudsing from standard soaps can also cause damage. That's no problem here, as we will be careful to use recommended HE washer products as instructed in the manual. Still, we'll keep a watchful eye when adding the Oxy-Clean whitener, or when purchasing any product for use in the new washer.
The 2X Tide "Free" has done an excellent job so far, and it has left no noticeable perfume odor or anything to irritate sensitive skin in my family. Of course, the rinse cycle of this machine is also amazing - and that could be a large factor as well.
Update Jan. 15, 2008:
Due to extreme drought conditions in my area of the state I reside in, the standing water in my wells is about 60 feet below normal and creating great difficulty for pumps. City water is available, but at prices I don't want to mention as everyone is taking the hit. I had to replace a pump in one normally 30 gallon per minute high capacity well and throttle it back to no more than 10 gallons per minute, as there is now only three feet of standing water above that submersible pump. Another well pump in a deeper well has also felt the strain and will no longer make any better than 10 lbs. of pressure from a norm of 60 psi., and I have a new pump ready to install in it as I write this. It too will soon fail, requiring the new more powerful pump. Well drillers here have a 3 month backlog of wells to drill, so going deeper for more water is not a quick fix - and it costs $20 per drilled foot plus what's needed to finish one. I'm talking of finished depths of at least 200 feet and more for a decent well without the required pump, casing, plumbing, and wiring.
What am I getting to here? This new water efficient Whirlpool 6600 uses much less water than any conventional model. If I was still using a conventional washer, I doubt my wells would have been able to supply the water needed at this point - and I would currently be using some very expensive city water of less quality. As it is, we are able to continue our normal routines at home. How much water does this washer save? On average, an HE model like this one will only use 20% of the water used by a similarly sized conventional washer. That's a lot of water savings in drought conditions when a similar conventional washer uses 80-90 gallons of water per load! This washer purchase just continues to please me more.
Conclusion:
What the HE (Cabrio)? I would say; "The Devil made me do it.", but I really didn't know what the heck a HE (High Efficiency) washer was all about when I bought it. My family will just have to get used used to using it along with all the other advancements to come - so will this old bird who still hasn't forgotten Flip Wilson's character Geraldine from the early 1970's or the Jetsons.
Actually, this machine is easier to use than my last one, and I have already taken a liking to it - just not so well that I'll be the one using it anymore than I used the last one... The old heavy duty Whirlpool lasted 20 plus years of frequent use for this family, with never a problem of any type. Of course, only time will tell how durable this Cabrio will be. But, if the new Cabrio is capable of standing that test of time - I see no reason it shouldn't, if the once a month cleaning with a cup of Clorox in the cleaning maintenance cycle is followed it should be another great Whirlpool purchase.
Whatever, I believe anyone should like this machine if they know how to use a washer and can follow simple instructions. "Meet George Jetson" - maybe you will also...
(chuckle) Okay, Jetson. What's next? A treadmill for my "Astro" or a new sky car for the other half?
Sorry Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty, I'm "movin' on up" from Bedrock with the space age - and it just got a whole lot quieter.
