Washing machines come with two choices — front and top — but if you ask most people, front-loaders win because of the way they treat your clothes, with energy and water savings also coming into play. But what if you could have a top-loader that did what a front-loader could do?
LG might have made that possible, announcing a range of top-loading washing machines that have been designed in a way that makes them similar to front-loaders.
Called the “SmartWashers”, these will be available in two sizes — 7.5 and 9.5 kilograms — and arrive with programs aimed at killing stains and allergies, with options for sports clothing, duvets, towels, and more.
“Having sold more washing machines than any other brand worldwide in 2014 for the seventh consecutive year, at LG we know what consumers want and need from a washing machine,” Lambro Skropidis, General Manager of Marketing at LG Australia. “That’s why with the new LG SmartWashers we’ve focused on providing advanced clothing care without sacrificing convenience.”
So what makes this machine more like a front-loader?
According to LG, it is three specific things, with an on-board heater that sits around 40 to 60 degrees Celsius to deal with allergens, as well as a wide-view glass lid being important to the formula.
But it’s with the omission of a central agitation pole that we see one of the main reasons LG’s new top-loaders are emulating front-loaders, making it possible for your clothes to be tumbled by the barrel and not pushed around by a mechanical rod in the centre of the machine.
That said, while the operation of the machine might be like a front-loader, its star ratings aren’t quite the same, with an LG 10 kilogram front-loader with similar technology grabbing 4 star ratings across energy and water consumption, while the comparative 9.5 kilogram LG top-loader released in this set has a 4 star rating for water and 3 star rating for energy.
Not quite the same, but fairly close.
Outside of the similarities, you’ll also find a six-motion direct drive system for the drum, able to push garments in different ways to change how they’re cleaned, with a swing providing a wash for more delicate fabrics, a rotation motion to remove tangles from clothes, agitating to make work of stains, a rubbing motion to scrub off stains, the “waveforce” motion that changes the water current to deal with dirt and other stains, and finally a compression motion to dissolve detergent.
LG is also including its “Smart Diagnosis” system in the machine, making it possible for the appliance to talk to a smartphone app if anything ever goes wrong, communicating with codes and beeps to tell LG what needs fixing if it ever gets to that point.
Pricing on the LG SmartWashers start at $1149 for the 7.5 kilogram model (WTG7532W), with the 9.5 kilogram variant arriving in white (WTG9532Wh) and stainless steel (WTG9532VH), with these priced at $1399 and $1499 respectively. Availability should be now, found at electronics stores across the country.
Top loading washing machines are evolving into bigger and better machines that also save resources. However, it would be a shame if their cycles and programming options are being modified to resemble those of European front loaders and to prevent consumers from being able to change or intervene in any part of a chosen wash cycle. One of the advantages of (traditional) top loaders is their flexibility and a user’s ability to change settings half way through a wash program. Being able to repeat, fast forward or shorten a certain part of the wash cycle or changing a wash program mid-cycle without the machine draining out the wash water is a significant advantage that traditionally programmed top loaders have over front loaders. Cycle times, too, are important. I find that many of these new machines, that are programmed to automatically sense everything, spend a lot of time sensing when they should be washing, rinsing and spinning in that time. All machines should allow users to override preset cycles and functions at any time; including cycle times, agitation speeds, automatic temperature control, soak functions, water level and spin cycles to allow for total user flexibility. Everybody has their own way of doing laundry and machines should cater to that so that consumers can customize their washes to fit their preferences.