Are Front Load Washers Cost Effective?

Water and Electricity

• Front-loading washers operate not by swirling clothes in water with an agitator, like a top-loading washer does, but by moving clothes to the top of the tub and dropping them into the water below. Front-loading washers need about half the amount of water that top-loading washers need to get clothes clean. The obvious benefit is that you don't need to pay for as much water to clean a load of laundry. A less obvious benefit comes in the amount of electricity you save. Because you don't need to heat as much water, a front-loading washer doesn't need to use as much electricity as a top-loading washer.

Cleaning

• Front-loading washers, in general, get laundry cleaner than traditional top-loading washers do. You also may find that you're able to wash things with less pretreatment and to wash dirtier loads or avoid washing items more than once; this saves water, electricity and soap. Front-loading washers can also handle larger loads on average than top-loading washers and have larger tubs, so you may not need to run the washer as often as you do a top loader. In addition, front-loading washers don't need as much soap as top-loading washers and work best using high-efficiency soaps.

Drying

• During the end of the washing cycle, front-loading washers spin the laundry in their tubs at more than 1,000 rpm in comparison to the typical 600 to 700 rpm of a top-loading washer. The high spin helps remove more water from the wet laundry than a top-loading washer can remove. If you use a dryer to dry your laundry, the dryer doesn't need to operate as long to get the laundry dry, saving you more money in electricity.

Price

• Though front-loading washers do save you a lot of money on water, electricity and soap, the upfront cost is much steeper than that of a top-loading washer. A top-loading washer costs between $300 and $600; a front-loading washer costs between $600 and $1,200. The cost of repairs for a front-loading washer is also much higher than for a top-loading washer. However, if you purchase a quality washer, the benefits can, in time, make the initial cost worthwhile.