We knew our washing machine was on its last leg when it started making whining noises during the spin cycle like it was just too much for it’s old motor to handle. Sure enough on Monday it went capoot leaving me with a washer full of water that I had to bail out. COLD water. The repairman said it wasn’t worth the money to fix. I asked him what he recommended and he said, “Don’t get one of those new fangled front loaders that are computerized. Stick with the old fashioned top loaders.” He claimed that the “new fangled” ones are so complicated that repairmen can’t fix them.

So I marched myself over to Lowe’s (they have next day delivery!) determined to pick one and be out in half an hour. I was sure I’d be washing my clothes by the next day. How hard could it be? HA! I mad the mistake of asking questions and before I knew it the sales lady had lured me away from the cheaper old fashioned top loaders with talk of fantastic water savings, energy savings and less drying time. She had a front loader herself and couldn’t stop singing its praises. Luckily I had enough sense to walk away from the beautiful machines and go home to think on it and do some research. After 4 days of researching can I just say, I HATE buying appliances! There are so many gazillions of options out there that it’s overwhelming! And the reviews! Reviews, I’m convinced do not help one bit. Half of them are raving about the product and half of them are raving mad about the product. The front loaders have mold issues and can be hard to repair, top loaders can’t wash as much and are harder on your clothes. I actually read one that said a little girl died in a front loader this month when her little brother shut the door on her and turned the thing on!!!! So being the perfectionist cheapo that I am, I’ve gone back and forth back and forth, cheaper top loader or expensive front loader, old fashioned or new fangled? AHAHAHAHAHGGHGHGH!

Finally last night at about 7:30 I decided to heck with the repairman and mold, I’m going for it! And this morning my beautiful new washer showed up at the house. As the delivery men left I stood looking at all the buttons. Buttons for everything, millions of buttons. Oh Boy, I thought to myself. What have I gotten myself into. And sure enough as I read through the very thick manual I found options for everything. More options. I’m SICK of options. I just want to be able to put in my clothes, dump some soap in, push one button, maybe two and be done. I don’t want to have to put in heavy things first, I don’t want to have to clean the dumb thing once a month with bleach, I don’t want to have to be sure I wash only lights after cleaning the dumb thing once a month and I don’t want to have to remember to lock the keypad so that my children don’t kill each other in this thing! Of course, all this I didn’t find out until the new fangled beast was in my laundry room and the delivery men were driving away. But alas, I chose to ignore the repairman who did probably know what he was talking about after all.

Final verdict: After two loads of laundry I can say this for our nice new washer. It is VERY quiet. So quiet it took me five minutes to figure out that it was really working. It even beeped at me pleasantly to tell me it was done! And my clothes were dry in half the time! Yippee! Hopefully the bells and whistles will eventually win me over and I will grow to love it so much I won’t mind all the upkeep. One thing is for sure. If it breaks down, I know which repairman my pride will not be calling.