today i went to a couple of shops and started pricing front loader washers and dryers. why a front loader over the conventional top loader? a) saves an average of 20 gallons of water per load b) uses 30-40% less energy c) uses less detergent d) looks cool. as i was looking i realized that it is QUITE a bit cheaper to just purchase the top loader. so, i started thinking more about best use for finances than the conviction to have a greener household. does cheaper ultimately mean better? i guess that's our mentality as americans. the less money we spend on something...the more things we can get with our money. why are there so many walmarts? sam's clubs?
so this is the dilemma. the average price of a front loader is from $600-1000+. the dryers were a bit less. top loaders averaged about $350-500+. i also found out that maytag, GE, and LG appliances are made in Korea. whirlpool, frigidaire, and bosch are made in either the US or Germany.
my pick is the bosch. $799 for the washer. $699 for the dryer. energy use: 165 kWh. water usage per year: 4155 gallons. it also has a good track record for durability. the prices are comparable to the frigidaire and whirlpool.
i did go to a scratch & dent appliance shop, but unfortunately they were mostly GE (quality has gone down). and the price wasn't actually as good as i had originally thought.
all in all, my hope is have a greener home. that might mean spending a little more money up front along with realizing that i don't need to buy something that's cheap just so that we can have lots of "stuff". most of it would probably break quickly anyways. i guess we'll see, huh. i better start pinching pennies.
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