Agitation at the homestead

My clothes washer is giving up the ghost. It washes fine, but the spin cycle lasts for about 37 seconds, which doesn’t get all the water out of the clothes. I have to double-spin, using the cycle after the soak option, in order to not put dripping clothes in the dryer.

It’s a fairly bog-standard Kitchen Aid washer, which came with the house when I bought it seven years ago. The previous owners apparently didn’t live here very long, and they certainly didn’t invest in upgrading appliances while they were here, so it’s old. (Evidently the other kitchen appliances were deal-breakers, because after the house had been on the market some months, the owners brought in a bog-standard stainless steel refrigerator, stove and dishwasher to freshen things up a little. The installers hadn’t even bothered to plug in the stove.)

A couple of weeks ago I had a repairman out. He diagnosed the problem as the timer mechanism. And it turns out that the machine is so old that you can’t get parts for it (unless on eBay, which my guy is reluctant to do).

So I’ve been spending way more time than I’d like looking at washers this week. I don’t want or need an all-singing, all-dancing machine. I’m sure as hell not going to connect it to the wi-fi network; I can’t even figure out how to connect my Roomba to it. My guy likes LG, and favors front loaders. I can’t say I rate them much, but I was willing to go with it. Even though about the cheapest one of them you can get is $700 (and that’s allegedly a sale price.)

However, after getting all the way to the Costco website, I read the warning that it’s up to customers to make sure that whatever they purchase fits wherever they want it. So I went back to the laundry cubbyhole in my kitchen and this time measured the depth of the space. Just barely 31”. All front loaders are as close to 31” as makes no difference. Which doesn’t allow for hoses at the back of the machine. (My current washer is 25” deep, with a four-inch space behind it and one-inch gap to the accordion door.)

So I’m back to looking for washers—this time top loaders.

Ugh.