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Do you have front loading washing machine on 2nd floor

X

xzhan02

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
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Location
Houston
Thinkin of buying a front loader for the 2nd floor laudry room in our new house. Read online that front loader has to be on concret floor to minimize vibration. Is this true ? If so, will have to use the old set upstairs. Also is front loader noisier or quiter than top loader in general ?
 
xzhan02 said:
Thinkin of buying a front loader for the 2nd floor laudry room in our new house. Read online that front loader has to be on concret floor to minimize vibration. Is this true ? If so, will have to use the old set upstairs. Also is front loader noisier or quiter than top loader in general ?
Click to expand...
Our front loader is much quieter and has much less vibration than our old top-loader.

We bought a model by LG Electronics, which has direct drive. Direct drive minimizes vibration and is quieter than other front load models.
 
xzhan02 said:
Thinkin of buying a front loader for the 2nd floor laudry room in our new house. Read online that front loader has to be on concret floor to minimize vibration. Is this true ? If so, will have to use the old set upstairs. Also is front loader noisier or quiter than top loader in general ?
Click to expand...

That surprises me because they vibrate less than a front loading washer and yes they are much quieter. I love ours which is the Sears HE3 model it could be though that since they hold so many more clothes they could be heavier but then since it uses less water I would think that would even things out. Could all washers of any type recommend a concrete floor?
 
I have a front loading washer on a second floor. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning there could be a problem when we were looking at them. It's much quieter than my top loader was.
 
The prinicipal thing I would be concerned with is leakage from the unit. When we did a remodel of a house, where the laundry was over a finished daylight basement, we included a floor drain in the laundry room. Within one year, we were glad we did.
 
Our front loader is on the first floor, but it's not on concrete -- the floor is raised with crawl space below. I agree with the other posters that the FL vibrates less, and is quieter than, our old TL.

And I would be concerned about second floor leakage regardless of the type of washer installed. The drain sounds like a good idea.
 
Thanks to all. That makes me feel better. I'll check about the drain with builder. Can you give me some brand and model names that you are satisfied with ? I am thinking about the Kenmore HE3. Do you buy the pedestal ？
 
The first Kenmore model we had delivered walked across the floor when it was spinning! Built it up on a solid stand and one day it fell off. I think it could have been a faulty machine. Anyway Sears took it away and gave us a deal on the HE3 with free delivery. I love this one and have had no problems. It is very quiet.

Lynn
 
xzhan02 said:
Thanks to all. That makes me feel better. I'll check about the drain with builder. Can you give me some brand and model names that you are satisfied with ? I am thinking about the Kenmore HE3. Do you buy the pedestal ？
Click to expand...
AS I mentioned before, we ours is from LG Electronics. Our model is WM2077CW.

We bought it from Home Depot - it came with about $300 of rebates, (manufacturer, Home Depot, local water utility water conservation program, local electric utility conservation program). After rebates it cost about the same as a top loader.
 
xzhan02 said:
Thanks to all. That makes me feel better. I'll check about the drain with builder. Can you give me some brand and model names that you are satisfied with ? I am thinking about the Kenmore HE3. Do you buy the pedestal ？
Click to expand...

I didn't buy the pedestal or the expensive matching dryer W/padestal. It would be more stable directly on the floor and it keeps it at the same height as a regular dryer. You have to stoop down a little more just the same as a regular dryer not on a pedestal.
 
My sisters front loader & (dryer) are on the third floor. The builder had laundry drain pans (with drain piping I think to the bathroom system) .

It looks like it has a lip about one or 2 inches all around. I think the pan must rest on the wood based floor. It is a Kenmore Front Loader. Steve probaly knows if there is necessary maint on the drain area? I wonder if some lint might cause problems?
 
KenK said:
My sisters front loader & (dryer) are on the third floor. The builder had laundry drain pans (with drain piping I think to the bathroom system) .

It looks like it has a lip about one or 2 inches all around. I think the pan must rest on the wood based floor. It is a Kenmore Front Loader. Steve probaly knows if there is necessary maint on the drain area? I wonder if some lint might cause problems?
Click to expand...

We never did any maintenance on the drain.

Our contractor had metal pan fabricated that had lips about 2-inches high around the edges. The laundry room was a small recess behind sliding doors off of a hallway. The pan was sized to fit the recess.

The pan had a drain hole near one corner that was connected to a 1-inch diameter PVC pipe that discharged to the ground adjacent to the house foundation. Because this was a gray water discharge and would only happen rarely, we were able to get that discharge approved instead of being required to connect to the sewer sytem. The drain pipe was screened at the outlet to keep our critters, and there was a strainer in the pain to keep large stuff our of the drain pipe.
 
Our laundry area is on the second (actually 3rd if you include basement) floor by design. We installed a copper pan under a fully tiled area that has a drain. Important ** Ideally the drain should discharge directly to the outside not into the rest of your sewer system. As for maintnence, you should pour about a gallon of water down the drain periodically because the water in the trap will evaporate leaving the pipe open to the outside (or to the sewer if tied into it).

We replaced out top loader with a front loader a couple of years ago and yes, do notice some vibration directly below the room, but really no more than before. I would imagine that the only sure-fire way to elimintate all vibration would be to put any washer on a ground level concrete floor.
 
We have a front loader on the second floor -- and it's not the most stable floor due to the fact that the w/d sits right over the stairwell, so it's not the greatest support. I find the front load actually vibrates LESS than the top load. If I have a super heavy load in (tons of towels, etc) than I don't put it on the highest spin cycle (you can adjust this). Otherwise I let it rip.
It took a couple tries to get it balanced "just right" on its legs.
They are MUCH quieter than the top loads. MUCH!!!!!

And yes, we have the pan under the tile floor with a drain....of which we were very glad when the old topload washer had the sensor that stops the water from filling go out. YIKES! That was a lot of water!
 
I have the Kenmore HE3 on the second floor and I do love it. It is much quieter than the top load Kenmore that we had for the last 14 years. You do not hear it AT ALL during the wash cycles when on the 1st or second floor. I actually forget that it is running except for the spin cycle. I did not care for the shaking during the high speed so I just adjust the control to med spin which does just as excellent a job.
We did buy the pedestal and I love the extra height and storage it affords.
We did not place a drainage basin under it. It uses so much less water that I don't think there could be a serious problem with the Kenmore. The water sensor only uses the least amount of water that is necessary to wash. Also we have a hot water heater in that room also that has a basin which makes the floor a lot harder to clean. That basin is made of plastic and has started to leak when rain storms blow the wrong way due to a small crack in the plastic. So if you do place a basin uner it I recommend stainless instead of plastic.
Also I word of caution...if you are placing a laundry tub/sink in this room I suggest that you never walk away for a moment as I did twice and ended up with water in my kitchen on the 1st floor. Was distracted.
Anyway hope you enjoy your new home.
 
Iwant2gonow said:
... It uses so much less water that I don't think there could be a serious problem with the Kenmore. The water sensor only uses the least amount of water that is necessary to wash. ....
Click to expand...
And on the 8th day, God said "This is too boring", and He created Murphy.
 
Pedestal question.....we went back and forth. Couldn't decide whether to get the HIGH pedestal (it would have looked nice and required almost no bending over) or the medium pedestal. We ended up getting none because I sometimes like to take the clothes out of the washer or dryer and throw them up on top, either to wait until the other is done or to fold or whatever. Even the medium/low pedestal would have made that a little too high to be comfortable (I'm 5'5"). Plus, we often will lay a sweater on top of the dryer to airdry. Again, even with the lowest pedestal it was just a little too high. I actually find getting clothes in and out of the front load is EASIER than a top load washer, which I was expecting at all.
 
Thank you all. Unfortunately, I'm still undecided. Set out to buy a bunch of applicances, including the washer. LOVE the look of the LG washer (titanium), also good price. However, the salesperson insists that LG can not be installed on second floor due to high speed spin. So we are still not sure. Luckily we do have downstairs laundry also, so we'll use our old top loader for now, and take our time to decide.

I am surprised to find that I really LOVE the look of all LG applicances, the french door frig, the dishwasher etc. But are they reliable ? Anyone has experience ?
 
xzhan02 said:
Thank you all. Unfortunately, I'm still undecided. Set out to buy a bunch of applicances, including the washer. LOVE the look of the LG washer (titanium), also good price. However, the salesperson insists that LG can not be installed on second floor due to high speed spin. So we are still not sure. Luckily we do have downstairs laundry also, so we'll use our old top loader for now, and take our time to decide.

I am surprised to find that I really LOVE the look of all LG applicances, the french door frig, the dishwasher etc. But are they reliable ? Anyone has experience ?
Click to expand...
We've only had ours for six months now, so I can't speak for the long-term. No problems in the time we've had it.

The LG is a direct drive unit - most others don't have direct drive, and LG right now may in fact be the only one with direct dirve.. That is an inherently more reliable technology. (Direct drive means the motor shaft is directly connected to the drum - there arent't any gears, belts, chains, fluid drives, etc.). If the unit is designed and built properly, it should be at least as reilable as other models.

LG stands for Lucky Group, which is one of the large Korean industrial manufacturing chaebols. It's sort of like the Mitsubishi of Korea.
 
looking to buy a new front load washer

I also like the look, price and technology of the LG. Does anyone have one installed on the 3rd floor?? Why would it be different than installing the Kenmores on the 2nd or 3rd floor? They all have a powerful spin cycle. If balanced correctly, why would LG be different?
 
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snowlady said:
I also like the look, price and technology of the LG. Does anyone have one installed on the 3rd floor?? Why would it be different than installing the Kenmores on the 2nd or 3rd floor? They all have a powerful spin cycle. If balanced correctly, why would LG be different?
Click to expand...

I would think the balance problem would not be with the washer itself, but rather with the imbalance of the clothes in the washer.
 
I've never had a load balancing problem with our LG front-loader - that's a contrast with the top-loading Kenmore it replaced.

I'm not sure what the load balancing mechanism is. I assume its some combination of the washer mechanically distributing some of the load, combined with movable weights that the unit positions to balance the load. I have removed loads from the washer where the load was clearly unevenly distributed in the drum, but the spin cycle was totally smooth.

****

I can't think of a reason why a unit couldn't be installed in an upper floor. The only concern I would have is the same I have for any washer - what happens if there is a spill or overflow? Fifteen years ago we did a remodel that resulted in a washer being installed in an area over a finished daylight basement. We installed a drain pan for the washer to capture any overflow and route it to the ground outside.

I suggest you go to the LG Electronics web site and use the "Contact Us" link to pose your question directly to LG.
 
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