2022 Smart Maytag Washer/Dryer Review

This is episode number 214 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're a DIYer or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett. Here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode of The Homeowner Show here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Everything's good. Life is good.

Fantastical.

Things are wonderful. And, uh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's it. How are you?

Good. Uh, I— well, I mean, I think I mentioned last time that we— last week, and we just got back from the dove hunt.

Yeah.

Um, so I have now officially cooked all of those dove. Um, And I believe I've mastered the, uh, the art.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

Well, I'll tell you this, um, I saw a post that you put up, and on the post I noticed that you were asking what was the secret ingredient.

Yes.

Which I think I know what the secret ingredient is.

Okay.

And I did, I did say on the post, so I didn't ever go back.

You never go— okay.

And I feel like if I'm being honest, that it's not your secret ingredient. I feel like it's your mom's secret ingredient.

I mean, if you want to be fair, it's not hers either then.

Okay, so I'll just tell people. I think the secret ingredient is pickled watermelon rind.

Absolutely.

Okay, I'm not wrong. I just know you. When I looked at it, did you see my comment?

I forget.

Mine was Jell-O.

Jell-O, yeah. I had a lot of people guess aloe.

Aloe?

Yeah, because it has sort of like a translucent— yeah, the way I cut it, it does kind of look like aloe.

Which is why I said Jell-O. Yeah, because it's translucent as well, a little bit. Yeah, I thought I knew what it was. I was just trying to be silly, but I wasn't wrong. I just know you too well.

Yeah, so I did it with that and with pickled jalapeño and then bacon on top of that. So the first round, I just did pickled jalapeño and goat cheese. With the dove breast wrapped in bacon.

I have to admit though that I wasn't invited to try any of it.

No, you were not. It was, it was a successful hunt, but not that successful.

No, I mean, the problem is like, that's the problem with like any— I mean, most type of bird, unless you get into like turkey, chicken or turkey, once you get into that size. But like most birds you're, you're shooting with, uh, with a shotgun, for example, right? You got to shoot a lot of them.

You got to shoot a bunch of them. Well, and like I did, like I shot— I mean, I ended up shooting like, like a day and a half. I— yeah, 18 birds.

I mean, it's not bad.

No.

But it's also not going to create a feast.

I mean, if we did all, uh, if we did all 18 at once, I mean, that's 36 breasts, right? Um, so I mean, like, that, that would feed my family for like a meal. But like, sure. Well, and I wanted to— I saved 4. I set 4 aside because so many people had told me like, look, the only way that you can cook these things is to wrap them in bacon, put them with something.

Which is what— that's— I mean, a lot of people will, will take them, they'll debone them, whatever, which is the take. It's tedious. and then you wrap it in bacon, stick a toothpick through it, and smoke it. Call it a day. Yeah, whatever you do. Yep.

Yeah, so I, I'm a big believer in like, okay, like don't do necessarily what everybody tells you. Like taste the ingredient. Okay, what is it? So like I, I just pan seared 4 of them. Okay. And just like regular like garlic, pepper, salt.

Sure.

Just to see like What does this do? What? Yeah, like, what does it taste like? And like, I actually think they taste really good all on their own.

Okay.

I mean, like, I would have been fine eating them like that.

Okay.

They're very rich. I mean, kind of, kind of like quail. Not quite as rich as quail.

Yeah. When you say rich, you mean like, what, what flavor are you thinking of whenever you say rich? Because I'm thinking like, they're definitely more of a gamey bird than—

Yeah. Like, I think of chicken thighs as being rich.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Um, and probably, probably why I prefer it over white meat. I like dark meat more.

And, and some people do. And like, I, I've grown to appreciate the dark meat for different, different things for sure over the years. I mean, I still like— if you give me a piece of fried chicken, I want a chicken breast or, you know, something like that, or a wing. Um, but yeah, like, it's, it's, it's just different. And like, it honestly, like, it's a— I mean, you saw the picture, it almost looks kind of like duck.

Yeah.

Uh, it's very red in color.

Sure.

Um, so it was just a fun hunt. Um, the other thing we had going on, uh, this weekend at the property is, uh, me and my 2 youngest children and my nephew, who were all under the age of 9, uh, assembled and hoisted a 10 by 30 carport.

What?

Yeah. So we needed one for like the ATV and the mower. We just, we don't have enough room in the shop right now. And so we needed some extra space to keep the sun from beating the hell out of our equipment. And, uh, so I was— I found this thing. It was like, I think it was like $160 at Tractor Supply. And I was like, man, this will do the trick in a pinch. And like, you know, when I get the room, when I get the space back, I can take it down. It can be like sort of like a mobile garage because, I mean, like me and the 4 kids and like it wasn't all like daisies and blueberries, but like, no, you know, it took us like 2 and a half

hours to put the thing up.

That's really not bad. It's not. No.

I mean, for the size of it, I mean, you, you could, you could fit a full-size pickup truck underneath it.

Okay.

Um, and, you know, it just gives good cover, good shade. I mean, it could actually kind of be like a field tent if you really need it to be.

Sure.

Like a, like, kind of like a dining hall at campground.

Okay.

Kind of a deal. Um, and for the— I mean, couldn't beat the price.

Okay.

So, and it, it breaks down into like a little— they actually sell like a mobile case that you can buy for it. I think it's like an extra $50. But I mean, it breaks down into like a, like a 5 by 2 case that you can put all the pieces in. So pretty, pretty cool little, little mobile carport you can get there from Tractor Supply. Um, I think then, I mean, like the next closest thing you could get like price-wise was on Amazon. It was like $300. Um, but it has like sides and windows and—

Sure. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

So anyway, interesting. That's what's going on around here. Cool.

Well, uh, we, we've had an interesting night. We're gonna probably talk about that on the next, next episode. Episode. But, um, we've got an interesting one tonight. Um, not necessarily because I wanted to, uh, but I bought a new washer and dryer.

Okay.

So we're going to talk about it tonight and just do a little bit of a discussion about what happened.

quick, why did you buy a washer and dryer?

That's kind of the— okay, so we— when my wife and I got married, uh-huh, uh, we, we had an old washer and dryer and we quickly bought a new one because it was not great. Uh-huh. And we kept that set for a while. The washer went out on it— on us, so we had to buy a new washer, but we just— we didn't keep them the same. We just had a separate They were behind the door. Nobody ever saw them, right?

Right.

So who cares if they were a matching pair or whatever? And so we had a separate washer and dryer, um, and I mean, we just limped along with those things. I mean, I, I had to repair—

Was this the same set that like you guys had the like hot and cold water crossed for like a year?

Yep.

I mean, I have a theory as to what did it in, but—

No, no, no, no, no, you would think, but actually it was, it was kind kind of— it, it was not doing great even whenever we moved it here.

It was just—

it was fine. It did fine. It was just like, it was louder than it should have been. And like, it was— anyway, it was fine, but it, it did the job, and so we just kept it, right?

Right.

Well, then the dryer actually stopped turning off. Like, you could— it— once you turned it on it would stay on forever because the timer went out on it.

Oh, okay.

And so you— I mean, so the little— the thing that actually made the knob move, it stopped working.

Oh.

And so it would— it didn't know when to turn itself off. So we literally were, for probably like a year, man, we were setting a timer every time we started the dryer So that we would know to go turn it off. And if we didn't, it would go on forever, and that would obviously cause a big problem, right?

Right. Yeah. So was it electrical or gas?

It was electric.

Okay.

But anyway, um, so when we moved, we were like, okay, we're gonna just ditch this, buy a new washer and dryer, but we're not gonna do it till we find a place because who knows what's gonna fit, you know, whatever.

Right.

Well, just so happened that the, the people that sold us the house, they were like, hey, we've got this washer and dryer. Do you want us to leave it or do you want us to take it? And we're like, no, leave it. It's actually really nice. It was a Kenmore, uh, front loader. I mean, not front loader, top loader. Um, it was really nice. Um, and, uh, my wife calls me one day and she goes, hey, um, the washer is throwing a code. I was like, what's the code? So she told it to me. I went and looked it up. I was like, ah, crap, it's the motor.

Oh no.

The motor in the washer.

The most expensive.

The most expensive part. Yeah, not, not working. So we called a repair guy first. Uh-huh. So we paid him like $95 something to come out and look at it, and he said, yep, it's Bad motor. And, uh, here's the deal. It's gonna be 2 weeks before I can get a part. It's gonna be $500 for the part. Right. Just for the part. Just for the part. Right.

Now, that's on top of the $95 you paid him to come out and diagnose it.

Well, the $95 fee, it, it, it goes into that price.

Okay.

That $500 was with that already absorbed.

Right.

Okay, so, and he said, and I'm telling you, it'll probably fix the problem, but I cannot guarantee it, right? It could be something else. Um, and I just told my wife, I was like, that's ridiculous. Like, I, I, I understand that the parts are what they are, but I'm not spending $500 on a washing machine that may or may not fix the problem, right?

Right.

So we start doing some looking. I actually called our friend Megan Anderson at Renova Appliances and just said, hey, what can you do? So she started looking at this stuff. And honestly, I mean, one of the problems is I had some requirements. One of my requirements was it had to fit in our laundry room. That's a big requirement. That's—

yeah, it's a reasonable requirement.

I think so. And what we decided was we weren't going to be able to put a front loader in there. It just wasn't going to fit. It was going to stick out. Like, even the, even the smallest front loaders that would, would handle the loads that we would need it to handle.

Um, is that something you guys wanted?

I, I didn't. I— we were kind of like, okay, there's some advantages to the front loader.

Sure.

Uh, but I was torn because we've never had one, right? Um, I also know about the horror stories of, you know, they're gonna smell bad if you leave them closed up, all this kind of stuff.

Yeah.

So I asked her about that and she said, well, believe it or not, like a lot of these companies are, are understanding what was happening with that. And, you know, they were so new, they didn't know what was going on. But now a lot of them have like this, uh, they almost cycle themselves, um, to keep to dry themselves out.

Right.

So that the, that mold that was building up that was causing the smell.

Yeah.

Never actually occurred.

Which seems, I mean, like, I think initially seems silly because you would be like, well, wait a minute. Like, we've had laundromats.

Yeah.

For years.

Yeah. And they're all front loader.

Yep. And the, the dryers are all front loader.

Yep.

Like, what's the deal? Well, the way that you know that a slot is available at a laundromat is the doors open, right? So like the doors were always open on those things when they weren't being used.

Exactly.

And so like they didn't stink.

Nope.

And so what— but like homeowners, like you just don't do laundry all the time. And I mean, I guess unless you got like 7 kids or something, but like, you know, you're gonna shut it and you're gonna shut it and it's gonna be shut for a while. And then you go to open it, if it like sprays you like a skunk.

Yep. Like, what, what's going on, right?

Like, that, that actually happened with ours. And part of it was, I mean, somebody had to tell us, like, look, are you cleaning the filter on a regular basis? I mean, and then it was like, we'll just leave the door open. It's like, well, that doesn't look as nice.

Not only that, it's like super inconvenient because most of our homes, if you leave the door open on the washer or dryer, A, you may not be able to close the closet that it's in, right? Or B, it's like, I got to walk around it wherever it's at. I mean, it's just inconvenient. Laundromats are typically these big wide open spaces, right? And, uh, just not conducive. So—

Plus, if you have kids like me, it becomes a contest of like, which one can we fit in there?

And like, who's gonna get clotheslined next?

Yeah.

You know, it's like, you know, it's a, it's a problem. So anyway, they've, they've really come a long way with these front loaders, and we're like, you know what, that would be nice. The capacity is really nice on them, whatever.

Yeah.

And, um, but ultimately it was gonna at minimum stick out 2 to 3 inches and probably more like 3 to 4 inches into a walkway between our garage and our kitchen, which is a pretty major thoroughfare at our house.

Sure.

And so we're like, that just doesn't— that's not going to work. What about a top loader? And, uh, those were just— those were what was gonna fit, right?

Like, okay, well, was it gonna stick out because of like the, the connections in the back, or—

It's both. So, well, like the, the smallest ones are like 32 inches deep.

Okay.

And the space that we had was like 30 inches deep. Well, then you've gotta, you've gotta actually keep that 4-inch minimum buffer in the back for the hoses and the— yeah, all the, you know, the cords.

People don't take that into account a lot of times.

Yeah, they don't. And so I was like, yeah, it's just not gonna work. So we had her look into some options, and, and here was one of my requirements. I was like, I don't wanna buy this again. Mhmm. For a while. Like, I don't wanna buy it any— I don't wanna spend any amount of money that I'm gonna turn around in, like, 3, 4, or 5 years from now, have to replace it.

Right.

I'm like, well, we actually have some options that are, like, commercial grade. Mhmm. And I'm like, what do you mean by that? Like, I, I know what that means. What does that mean? You know? And she's like, well, it's literally got commercial parts in it, but they sell it as a residential unit. I'm like, well, the Speed Queen does that. That's Speed Queen, right? She's like, well, yes, and we, we sell Speed Queen. It's definitely the top of the line, um, because Speed Queen is typically what you find in laundromats, right? It literally is a commercial product. But what you get with Speed Queen is a very, very basic model. I mean, it is like turning the knob

to whatever setting. It's got the agitator in it, so it's a smaller drum. Um, it's all metal parts, but it's, it's just old school.

It's rock solid.

It's rock solid. Yeah. And they're freaking expensive.

Really?

Yes. Like, they're, they're more typically as much or more than any front loader you'll ever buy. Um, so We're like, okay, well, we don't want to buy that. She's like, but I have this other option that's commercial grade and, uh, it's, it's this much. I was like, okay, well, that's much more reasonable. Well, the problem is it was gonna be like, it didn't have some of the settings we wanted, right? It again was this very, um, you know, there were basically, it had Uh, 3 settings for the dryer, and we need— we were gonna go ahead and change the washer and the dryer, and on the dryer it had 3 heat settings.

Okay.

You can off, so air fluff, medium, and high.

Uh-huh.

Well, I don't know about y'all, but we wear a lot of dry fit stuff, right? My, my children do quite a bit. I do on occasion. And we always dry that stuff on low. And my wife was like, I use that low setting a lot. We need a low setting. If we don't have a low setting, it's not gonna work. And so that, that machine was completely out for us.

Okay.

So I was like, crap, I'm just gonna have to start looking. And so I start looking and frankly, I was like, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna start here and I'm gonna go all day until I find what I want.

Right.

If I even find what I want. So I went to— believe it or not, I went to Lowe's first. Mhm. And I was like, okay, we're gonna start here. I totally expected not to find anything at a big box store that I wanted. And, uh, I did. Yeah, I found what I wanted. I bought it right there.

Right there.

And so the, um, the one place, it was gonna take a week for them to deliver it, and it was gonna charge me to deliver it, which I get. I mean, mean, that's— I get it. They're a small company, and honestly, I would prefer to work with a small company. But Lowe's was next-day delivery for free. And I was like, that's really good.

Well, that, that's, that's really where the big box store can compete against the smaller guy. Absolutely. Like, because they, they will, I've heard this from multiple guys working in, in some of the bigger retail places, is they will, they will actually eat that.

Oh, yeah.

And, and eat it, eat it on purpose because they want to get the— they just want the business.

They want the business. So yeah, and, and let me say this, when I asked Megan about like, um, it was Labor Day, just like, thank goodness, it's like Labor Day sales, right?

Right.

Um, she was like, actually, we don't do sales. I was like, what do you mean? Like, no Labor Day? Everybody does Labor Day. She goes, no, honestly, like, our, our everyday prices are lower than people's, like, sale prices, right? She was right. Like, they were, um, they, they were competing with all— with everything. They just didn't have the specific thing that we needed, right?

They don't have the inventory.

They just did— they just didn't have the inventory. So, um, anyway, I basically— it was, it was a, uh, it was a toss-up for a while. I was, I was going back and forth between a Whirlpool and a Maytag.

Yeah, well, and real quick, I want, I want to back up to something we were just we, we touched on some of these, some of these smaller companies. Honestly, they, they got screwed in, in all the COVID nonsense. Because I would imagine, you know, 3 years ago, a company like that would, would've had plenty of inventory, access to inventory.

Sure.

And shipping costs would've been way lower.

Way lower.

And all these kinds of things. And, and so, like, the only— and, and so you, you, like, you see this with grocery stores now, like, with the curbside. Like, I, I know for a fact that every single grocery store loses money on every curbside order that they take.

Yep.

They just do.

Yeah.

And the only reason they're continuing to do it is because all their other competitors are offering it at the same rate. They have to. And so they can either lose the business or they can try and, and charge money for it.

Right.

And, and it's the same thing with these businesses, like, the, the big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. And, like, I'm not, I'm not saying anything bad against them.

No.

Like, I, I get it. You know, they want to, they want to control the marketplace. Good for them.

Yep.

But, you know, it— what it does is it doesn't allow any, especially now with like supply chain stuff still being screwed up, like smaller companies can't have inventory.

Right.

They just, they just can't because it just won't come.

Nope. It won't.

It still won't come.

No. And, and that's why they were, they were a minimum a week out to deliver anything. That's if they had it in stock. Yeah.

If they could even get it.

If they can even get it. And once if they couldn't get it, then it was, you know, could be 3, 4, or 5 weeks, right?

Right.

And we— I don't know very many families who can go that long without a washer and dryer.

Sure.

Just not, not doable. In fact, in the amount of time we were waiting to figure this out, my wife was doing laundry in the bathtub, like literally washing stuff in the bathtub, because it was like either that or like bring it over to your house, and that's more trouble than it's worth, you know?

Well, so this actually might be worth another Episode. So 2 things. There's actually a really nice laundromat in downtown Montgomery. Um, I've used them a couple times. Okay. Uh, for like, for like horse blankets and different things like that. There's also a local gal, um, that I've heard about called the Laundry Fairy.

Oh, she comes and does it?

Well, she comes and picks it up.

Picks it up and comes and does it and then folds it and brings it back?

Yeah.

I've heard about her.

And like, I've heard her rates are like really reason— like, we need to have her on.

Yeah. So good call. So anyway, anyway, so we, we were kind of going back and forth between this Whirlpool and, and Maytag. Here's what's interesting. The Maytag, they have a new— it's a fairly new line that is— it's called Maytag Commercial. And Craig, it— I, I don't know what brand your mama had growing up. My mama had Maytag. It was top of the line growing up.

I think, I think my mom had Kenmore. Okay.

Yeah. Well, and, and that was a huge competitor too. It was a huge competitor. But Maytag was kind of the top of the line. They do washer and dryers. That's what they do.

Sure.

And, and I know what it looked like. I mean, I can see it in my brain. It was this big white box with the, with the thing on the back, you know, with all the controls.

Right.

And, and it just— there was like 5 controls on it. There wasn't much. And it had the big agitator in it.

You have to like pull the knob out in order to get the water to come.

Yes. Yeah, dude, this is that. Uh-huh. They have it. Okay, it's back. And it is a, is a heavy piece of machinery, and it is, it is one of their more expensive products, um, because it's 100% commercial grade and, um, it's got 10-year warranty on, on on its drum and its motor and all, all of the, all of the things in it. It's really, really well produced. And I was tempted, dude. I was tempted. It had the, the, the low setting on the dryer that we needed. Um, but the— here's the problem, man. Like, it was like a 3, like a 3.5 cubic foot drum.

Mhm.

And I'm looking at that thing going It's gonna take like 7 loads to get all of our stuff washed.

Right.

And I, I'm not trying to make more work for my wife.

Sure.

You know, and, uh, because she does— she does— I do a lot of things around the house. She does laundry. That's just part of how our system works.

The way it's divvied up.

That's the way it works at our house. And, uh, so I'm not trying to make more work for her. And so we just decided, I don't think we can do that. But the next one we looked at also has commercial technology in it. And so it's got, um, again, a 10-year warranty on its, on its drum and the drive motor.

Okay.

And all of the parts are like, uh, you know, the, the drum is stainless steel or the, the basket, whatever you wanna call it. Um, and it's just, it's stuff that's made really well. It's got a 10-year warranty. And I was like, I— the other one, the Whirlpool, it didn't have that, right? And so I was like, man, it's just— there was a really cool feature of that Whirlpool. It has an agitator in it, but you can remove the agitator.

Okay.

And just have the, the bowl, the bowl without the agitator. And so depending on what you're washing, you can either have the convenience of no agitator, or if it's— you need, you know, you have more soiled clothing, you can put the agitator in there. And I'm going, well, dang it, my boy's playing baseball. Like, we're gonna have more soiled clothes here. He's a boy.

Yeah.

Uh, but anyway, this one has no agitator in it. You can actually get it with or without an agitator. I chose to get it without the agitator. So here's what we got. Uh, we got basically— it's called a smart top-load washer with extra power button.

Okay.

5.3 cubic foot, um, uh, size for the washer. And I'll tell you, like, it's, it's got some features that, that I really love on it. One of them is it's got an app with it. It's called smart for a reason. It hooks into your Wi-Fi and you've got an app. So there are extra, extra cycles that you can literally load into the, the washer. So like on, on the knob that you're actually washing everything with, it doesn't have like a, like an active dry fit type of setting on it.

Right.

Well, you go into their, to the app and it's right there and they've got a spe— a special activewear setting and you can literally throw your stuff in and either schedule it, like tell it to come on at a certain day at a certain time.

Right.

Um, or you can just throw it in, go to your couch, and tell it to start whenever you want it to. And then, like, even on my watch, it'll tell me, oh, the dryer's done.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, or the washer's complete. And like, you just know, oh, now it's time for me to go get the stuff. Because I don't know about you, but how many times have you gone, oh, this stuff is wrinkled? Because I forgot to come in, and I heard the buzzer, but I was in the middle of doing something, forgot about it. Like, this thing reminds you, hey, it's done, right?

Right.

So, um, so that, that's really cool. And, um, so it's got a lot of features to it. It's, um, um, got all kinds of, like, sensors on it and all the things that you would really want in the convenience of having a newer, nicer washing machine.

Yeah.

Um, But the price was really good. I mean, in comparison to a, uh, to a front loader, it was like, I think it was like $850. And the, like, all the front loaders are like $1,200 plus.

Yeah.

You know, they're quite a bit more expensive. And, um, so it's really, it's really nice. Like, you can even, like, in the app, like, you can assign people to things. Like, so literally you can, like, have it push a message to your child saying, go start your clothes.

So I guess that assumes that they have, like, a phone or a smart device.

Exactly.

Okay.

Or, or whoever. Like, you could even do it for your spouse. Hey, don't forget to go, right, you know, start this or whatever. But it's even got, like, soil levels in the app. Right. So you can, like, it'll, it'll do something where it's like, you know, this is more soiled or less soiled or whatever, and it will it will wash accordingly, uh, to the soil level, which is really kind of nice. Um, so anyway, it— but it, it fit. It's got a huge— honestly, like 5.3, that's huge. That's a— it's a big, big drum. And, uh, really, it's a, it's a great washer. The dryer, the compatible dryer, the one that goes with it, um, has a lot of really cool features on it too. One of the things it's got, and this is not completely uncommon,

But it's got a, uh, uh, a steam feature. So it'll literally, like, if you need to freshen stuff up, if it's got wrinkles in it.

Yeah.

It's got the steam feature so you can— it'll steam it and redry it without having to do a whole new, like, cycle or whatever. It's got the quick dry cycle. It's got the, um, like, lots of different, um, you know, remote starts, all of the you know, start it from one place, time it. Like, that's the other thing. Like, if you're, if you're needing to throw something in the dryer but you don't want it to start, yeah, you can tell it to start later.

Oh, that's kind of cool.

Uh, which is super nice.

I mean, so I mean, like, could you, could you throw like wet clothes in the dryer, leave your house, pull up the app on your phone and say go ahead and start the dryer?

Yep.

So that, because I know I'm going to be home in like the next 25 minutes.

Yep.

So that, that'll be done when I get home. I can pull them out, fold them, hang up.

Okay. Yep.

That's cool.

It'll— yep, absolutely. Again, you can assign a task like, hey, when it's done, hey, son or daughter or husband, wife, whoever, like, go, go fold it.

Right.

Um, and, and honestly, like, one of the things that I, I— and maybe this is, maybe this is dumb or overrated or whatever, but I've always, like, the last— what I had at one point a dryer that the, the door opened from the bottom, so it's got like a landing.

Okay, I got you.

Right?

Yeah.

Um, but most dryers open with a door from the side, right? And so you, you know, you open it, you got to put the basket under or whatever. Well, it's kind of nice, like you can sit there like in the laundry room and fold your stuff because you literally take like pull a pile out and set it on the, on the door.

Okay.

Because it opens kind of toward you, you know what I mean? And, um, it will— it's— I don't know, like, maybe that's a stupid little thing, but it's kind of a handy feature, you know?

I think I remember dryers being like that when I was a kid, and that you could, like, set the basket on the door.

Yep.

And, like, pull them out and throw in the basket.

Yep. Well, for me, I actually, like, put the basket kind of underneath it so that whenever I'm just raking it out or whatever, if anything falls, it just, you know, falls into the basket or whatever. So, um, I don't know, like, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of opinions out there on front loaders versus top loaders.

Yeah.

Um, and if you go super smart or, you know, old school, whatever, um, I feel like we kind of blended the best of both worlds.

Yeah.

We got the 10-year warranty on, on it. And we've got the smart features that, that are just, I don't know. You don't have to have them, but they're handy to have. Yeah.

And you don't need them in order to use it.

No.

Basically, you don't have to have an app in order to use your washer and dryer.

Yeah. Yeah.

No.

But honestly, like, there's some kinda cool things in there that you can, like, there's even stain guides on the app. Like, got this stain? Here's what you should do to prewash or whatever.

That's cool. Yeah.

Uh, it makes sense. It does, it does. Here, I'll tell you what else is kind of interesting. It's got a feature on it where, where when you— when the lid's open on the washer, there is a, um, there's a water faucet.

Oh.

Like there's a button that you press and water will just come out like a faucet.

Right.

And so you can like do your— like if you have any pre-wash or like rubbing a stain or anything.

Yeah.

You can do that right there and then just drop it into the Like a pre-soak or a pre-rinse.

Yeah.

Yeah. But it just, it's like you can turn it on and off right there. It's just an extra water faucet. It's almost like a pot filler. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I, I've always wanted a pot filler at my house.

Heck yeah.

And I've never had one.

Me either.

And my wife was like, that's dumb. Like, if we build a house, we're not doing— I'm like, are you kidding me?

Like, of course I am.

I, I'm gonna, if I ever build a house, I'm putting a pot filler in there. If I remodel my kitchen, I'm putting a pot filler in there.

Right? It's not hard.

No, it's not hard. You just a pipe over there and you got a pot filler. This is kind of like a pot filler for a, for a washing machine.

Yeah.

So now I will tell you that some of the front loaders we were looking at, they had 2 things that were amazing. One of them was you could load up to like 60 ounces of laundry detergent in it. And bait—

you—

I mean, literally, you just load it up Okay. And then once you select a cycle and it does the whole sensing of how much is in there, what kind of load it is or whatever, it dispenses how much it needs.

That's cool.

Yeah. And so you're not having to, you know, pick the bottle up or whatever.

Yeah. Measure it out and figure it out yourself every time. Yeah.

And then there was another one that it was slightly similar, only it had a pod dispenser.

Oh, so you could pop the pod in there.

You could load like 30 pods into it and it would dispense one. Yeah. Again, that's kind of cool.

It's a pod spitter. Yeah.

I mean, look again, which is what we use in ours.

Like ours. Sure. Like we don't, ours has like a little pullout drawer you're supposed to pour stuff in. Yeah. Um, but we use the pods.

That's what we do too. I mean, we, we could do the same thing.

Yeah.

Uh, but, um, yeah, we use the pods and it's just, I'm like, that's the little dispenser. That's pretty cool.

It's like a grown-up Pez dispenser.

Exactly. Oh my, yeah.

I, I don't know.

Really, really cool. But anyway, don't count the big box stores out if you're looking for a washer and dryer.

Of course not. I mean, especially on, like, Labor Day. I mean, like, right. Yeah. You're probably gonna get a good deal.

We had a good deal. And, you know, I—

So let me, let me ask you this. Is, was the 10-year warranty longer than, like, what you would normally get on those deals now? Yeah.

Because they're normally 1.

What?

Normally, normally on a washer and dryer, it's a 1-year warranty.

Not 2.

Not 2.

1 year?

1. 1.

That's trash.

I know, man. Which just tells me, like, you don't believe in your product. That's what it— that's what it tells me. And it's in— the industry standard these days is 1.

That's crap.

So, I mean, like, okay.

Is it— is it 1 and then you can purchase more?

Oh, yeah.

And—

and honestly, what I did is I still purchased more.

Sure.

Like, I still purchased a— like, a— like, a 5-year extended warranty on it because it was like $200. to do it for both machines, right? With $200, I may not use it, but literally, if—

It's nice to have it if you do.

Yeah, I mean, if a hinge on a door goes bad, like, they'll replace it, right? That's nice. Or if they can't, they'll just bring you a new one. So yeah, I mean, it was worth it to me to go ahead and do the extended warranty. Um, it's like insurance, right?

Yeah.

And, uh, so we decided to do it. But anyway, I— like I said, there's a lot of controversy over, you know, do this or do that. For us, it was, it was really about what fit, right? And honestly, I think I would have bought this machine anyway, right? I mean, it, it looks nice. It's, you know, you can get it in white or like a gray color.

Mhm.

Here's, here's what's interesting. Anytime— and the guy at the, at the store was telling me this— anytime you get anything other than white, it's more expensive. Yeah, white always the cheapest. If you go gray or, you know, they got any color, blues, reds, whatever, more expensive.

Huh.

So like buy like $100 or more to just get a color.

I was actually sitting here like, I know mine are red. Yeah, actually don't know what brand they are. They're either LG or Samsung. Okay. But I like—

which I'll tell you, like everything that I've found, stay away from those 2 brands.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what your experience— like, if you're gonna get a front loader, uh, Electrolux is a really, really good one.

Um, and, uh, GE make a good one.

Yeah, GE is the other one that's, that's decent.

Yeah.

And when it comes to top loaders, um, GE makes a good one. Theirs is actually one of the ones that was, uh, the commercial grade that, uh, Megan was helping me look out.

Yeah.

And then Maytag and Whirlpool. Uh, Maytag owns Whirlpool.

Okay.

Or maybe it's the other way around. I think it's Maytag owns Whirlpool.

Yeah.

Um, but again, I mean, that, that, that removable agitator was so cool, but it's a 1-year warranty, 10-year warranty.

Yeah.

And the Whirlpool was more expensive.

So I, so I will— I mean, for everyone asking, like, why do I— I mean, because, like, I'm sitting here agreeing with you, like, yeah, I'd stay away from LG and Samsung.

Yeah.

Like, Why do I have them? I know better. No, because it's hard to pass up free.

It's very hard. I don't care how much free— how much it costs. Free is always better. It's always better.

So I was like, yeah, I'll give it a whirl.

Yeah. So, yeah, not a whirlpool, but a whirl.

Yeah, I'll give it a whirl. So, and like, whatever brand it is, I need to go in there and look. Honestly, it's, it's been good. Sure. I mean, it hasn't been like— it hasn't like knocked my socks off or anything. Sure. wash the clothes. It does.

Yeah. And so here, here's the thing. Like, you look at it this way. What, what type of washer and dryer has been around for a long time? And LG and Samsung are not those.

Sure.

And they really only came along whenever the front loaders start— started being a thing.

Yeah. And well, like, here's the thing is a lot of people will stick up for those brands. And good for them. But, um, most people have short-term memory.

Yeah, that's so true.

And so, like, yeah, you've had that Samsung for 2 years, right? And, and, like, dude, don't— I'm not, I'm not dissing Samsung. No, like, they make cool looking products. I was in somebody's house today and they had one of those smart refrigerators. Oh yeah, it has like the touchscreen, whatever. Yeah, yeah, super cool. Yeah, I mean, like, they make some Cool stuff.

We actually have a Samsung refrigerator.

Okay.

But I probably wouldn't buy it.

It was it was in the house.

Came with the house. Right.

Yeah. No, I mean, that's exactly what how we ended up with the washer dryer that we have.

Yeah.

And so it's like, like look, yeah, you like it now.

Yep.

But you're gonna be mad when it doesn't last ten years.

Yeah.

And then you have to replace it.

Even even that is important.

Like like let's be honest. Like it's not. They're not that expensive. If you, if you start getting, like, the touchscreen stuff and, like, all the— yeah, it's gonna be expensive. Sure. You're paying for that.

Yep.

But, like, if you just want something that, like, keeps your food cold or washes your clothes, like, they're not that expensive when you replace them every 3 to 5 years.

Right.

They're just not.

No.

And so, like, I don't get— one, I don't get people being upset when it's like, well, it didn't last 10 years.

Right.

But, like, you can pay just a— probably just a little bit more. And that's why people like them is because they're cheaper than everybody else.

Sure. Typically. Yeah.

Now that Samsung refrigerator I was talking about, that was like a $5,000 or $6,000 refrigerator.

Right. It's not a Sub-Zero.

No, it's not a Sub-Zero.

But still.

But, like, when we talked to Chef Colin, man, I mean, it's no big deal for those things to last 20 years.

Exactly. You get what you pay for.

Yeah.

So, but, you know, here's the deal. Like, LG, Samsung. When I, when I say Samsung, what do you think?

TVs.

TVs. When I think— when I say LG, what do you think?

I have no idea, honestly.

I think TVs on that too.

Oh, TVs, really?

Yeah, that's the— about the only thing that I look at and go, yeah, that's worth it.

I mean, I know that they make a lot of other stuff.

I just—

I honestly, I, I have no like memory cue as to go like, oh, that's LG.

Yeah, but probably because I've never bought an LG TV, maybe. But Samsung TVs all the way.

Yeah.

Stick— stay in your lane, bro.

Well, I mean, they like— look, I mean, like, they're, they are making a ding in the everything market.

They are. I mean, phones, it's a brand. TVs, appliances, their brand sells because it's the things that they make really well. They make really well.

Yeah.

And so people that trust their products are like, oh, I'll buy that. Sure, you know, and, and ultimately I think most people walk into these situations and go, what price fits my budget? And that's more important to them than a lot of other things.

I think that's true to an extent. I think nowadays a lot of people are like, which one looks the coolest that fits in my budget? Yeah, okay. They, they really don't— like, I think, I think budget is secondary, not because they, they don't understand their threshold, But they're like, I want something that looks unique.

Yeah.

And, and so I think a lot of these companies have started to cater that and say like, okay, we can make something that looks kind of funky. Um, but, and, and they know that, and they know that they can make it in a price point that fits most people's budgets, but it's not going to be quality.

Sure.

And so it makes sense for them because then they can, they can go back to the R&D department. It's like, hey, what's, what's new and funky and weird that we can come out with in 2 to 3 years? so that we can recycle this.

Right. Yeah. And I would think that— so here's, here's the thing. Some people are gonna listen to this last part of this episode and go, I absolutely love my LG.

Right? Sure.

I love my Samsung.

Yeah.

And there are other people that go, I would never buy that again.

Yep.

And here's why. Megan and I were talking about this. So a Samsung model, the, the very same model from the very same assembly line, in the very same store, you could buy one and the moment later I could buy one and we would have completely different experiences with them.

Right.

And that, that there's some sort of inconsistency there that, that is happening. And I don't know if it's parts. I don't know if it's the, the people putting the parts together.

Yeah.

I don't know what it is.

Well, it's because they're still figuring out how to do it.

I think you're right. And, and so you, you look at these other, some of these other products like a GE, even Kenmore, you know, Maytag, Whirlpool, some of these, they've been around for a long, long time. You just don't get the inconsistencies.

Right.

That you get with these other—

No. They have the processes down.

They do.

Yeah.

So anyway, so that's been our experience. We are really happy so far. I mean, it's been what? We bought it like the week before Labor Day. So it's been a little over a month.

Yeah.

We, we do a lot of laundry at my house. And we've been really happy. It, uh, it does a great job. They're quiet.

That's huge.

It's huge. Uh, they're quiet, they do a good job, and, um, we're happy.

So anyway, stick a fork in this one.

That's right. Well, uh, that'll do it for tonight's episode. So if you, uh, haven't already, go ahead, go like and subscribe to The Homeowner Show and, uh, give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. That would be Absolutely amazing. And, um, yeah, thanks for sticking with us. Do we have any outro music? We do, we do.

I just hadn't hit the button.

Okay.

I was listening to your monologue and I was kind of enjoying it.

I'm sure you were. All right, guys, until next week, we'll see you later.

See ya.