Anyone know why top-loaders are not common here??

[GrapefruitMoon]

That's it really, was talking to a friend from NZ recently who claimed to only need to do laundry once a week as her top-loader could wash a huge amount in one go. They seem to be the norm in the US and Australia too so wondered why we have front loaders in UK??

Any views on which is better?

Can't believe I am contributing to this, but here goes... you can get a toploader with a tumble drier on top - Maytag make a lovely one called a 'slimtwin' for the North American apartment/townhouse market. Clever design and super efficient!

We used to live in Canada ... I miss my laundry room more than anything else.

OMG becky me too. My dh is sick of me whinging about it. He's British so he doesn't get why I get annoyed about laundry in the kitchen and things drying on radiators and all the ironing.

I used to have a big laundry room with a washer a drier an ironing board, a big rail to hang stuff from, and a walk in closet for storage as well. And that was in a crappy flat in the US. Now I just have stuff hanging all over the house and baskets of ironing in the living room in my house with the big mortgage.

You can buy American washers and driers over here but who has the room etc.

whenever we scrape the money together for a house i will be insisting on room for a top loader.

i have 3 kids and live in a permanent state of invasion by dirty laundry. we have a mountain in our room and a mountain in the utility and it sends me into a state of manic depression that i can never get on top of it.

any day that's good enough to get some dry outside it's halfway through the day before i even have 1 load done and it will only ever be one set of bedclothes or a few clothes, it'll be practically time to bring it all in again by the time i can get the line full.

I have a huge Admiral top loader from John Lewis.

I really like it. It takes a 10.1kg load, so good for a duvet.

You can select the size of wash you do (from mini to super).

It washes in either 12 or 16 minutes depending on the cycle you choose, so super fast.

It is in my utility room so is out of the way, BUT the thing I would say is - more washing = need for more drying space.

I can chuck tons in there, but then I have to find somewhere to dry it all! There is only so much my clothes airer can take!

(You can buy the equivalent tumble dryer, but I'm not too keen on all that hot air and electricity use).

I've always used top loaders (am in NZ) and they have never ruined clothes. My current one is 14 years old and has never broken. A full load is 8 kgs, but it can also do small loads, handwash etc.

In NZ, laundries are usually in a separate room, in the garage or in a pinch in the bathroom. Ours is behind bifold doors next to the pantry. Tumbledriers are often wall mounted above the washing machine.

Me too pramspotter ... also living in a small house now with a rubbish hotpoint machine in the kitchen - yuk!

The other thing is that in all this 'green efficiency' business, what gets overlooked is that simple mechanism top loaders seem to last much longer than European frontloaders with all their computer chips and digital programmes. My old Admiral machine in Canada was the one that came with the house ... in 1985. It was still working brilliantly when I passed it on to the next person. In the same space of time in the UK my Mum is on her 3rd machine ... all that manufacturing/transporting can't be good for the environment.

I know what you mean Becky. My dad and stepmum moved into their house (USA)in 1985 and the top loader came with the house and is still working great. When I visit I cannot wait to use their washer and drier. It takes a much bigger load of laundry in half the time. Love it.

Sorry haven't read the whole thread but top loaders are much less economical on water user, clothes come out much wetter than with front loaders because spin cycle is not as effiecient and they bugger up your clothes big style (anyone want sleeves down to there knees!).....In fact here in Canada theres a big push by the government to get people to get frontloaders for environmental reasons.

Because we have smaller houses generally and fitted kitchens, so need all the worktop space we can get.
Back in my mother's day, she had top loaders for many years (Front loading automatics were rare and expensive). Many of her friends had twin tubs - also top loaders. Top loaders last far longer, can use any detergent/soap and you can get a much faster spin speed.

btw the new big front loaders you can buy over here fit almost as much as a toploader including a North American King size duvet with no problem

Also all the new washing machines are not built to the same standards as they used to even the top quality toploaders are not made to last more that 10 years....

Because we are an overcrowded small island where space is at a premium.

"in Canada theres a big push by the government to get people to get frontloaders for environmental reasons."

I used to get very cross about that when I lived there - it's all so wrong-headed. Top loaders aren't necessarily more wasteful - mine (even though it was more than 20 years old) could do small loads where the tub was not completely filled with water. They typically have a hot and cold feed, unlike front loaders, so you are using water heated by an efficient gas furnace, rather than heating water inefficiently in the machine using electricity. As someone said further up, you can wash hot and rinse cold, saving more energy. And as you say, the North American frontloading machines are HUGE - with multiple rinses I can't really see how they use less water and they are on for far longer to run a cycle than the 15-20 mins my old toploader took. And there is still my point about manufacture/transport ... but this is my green politics bete noir -I can't see how buying a new thing is ever more energy efficicient than using an existing one (repairing where necessary).

Pepa - Canada need to import Fisher & Pykel top loaders from NZ. They have none of the problems you descibe.

i hate top loaders. but i love my little laundry room that also houses my books and stuff. i find top loaders wear out clothes faster. front loaders are huge here in Canada too though. they are practically the size of the ones at the laundrymatt. i'd like to switch in my worn out old top loader for a shiny red front loader and matching dryer. ooohh ya.

Top loaders are not as good at cleaning as front loaders and are less environmentally friendly. They are also more damaging to the clothes.

And they take up their own footprint (you can't put a counter on top of them). About the only advantage is that they can be bigger than a frontloader, and you can throw in a forgotten piece of laundry without waiting 2 minutes for the door to be unlocked.

When we lived in the US, we had a Maytag frontloaders because they the best machine around, and was recommended by friends who worked in the laundry detergent industry.

On the size issue, our current UK machine has a 7.5kg capacity, which is on par with many top loaders (and it still takes up less space).

Top loaders use more water, even in a short cycle, than front because they keep changing the water - it gets drained out and refilled several times in a cycle.

In a front loader, the clothes soak in the same water for most of the cycle, with just an occasional turn around of the drum. They let the detergent do the work rather than being overly mechanical with the constant tumbling by the heavy agitator and by the use of fresh water.

Lived in Oz for 2 years and had a top loader. It used to eat my clothes up. I hated the thing. Also, never seemed to get things clean.

Much prefer a front loader.

Thumbwitch, they now make toploaders that don't have an agitator. We bought one when we moved here in November and it has yet to chew holes in any clothes.

I love it. I love flinging stuff in after it's started the cycle.

Hmmm, great more detergent .... flowing straight out into Lake Ontario ...

Scienceteacher - I know you are right, but choosing something 'green' isn't straightforward, is it? All washing machines have an environmental cost - frankly unless you are washing by hand, in a river, with no soap, you can't get clothes clean without some environmental impact. Personally, I'd choose using more water and less detergent in an old machine over more electricity and more detergent in a newer machine, on the basis that I worry more about carbon output and chemicals in the water supply than I do about water consumption.

Also, on the point about getting clothes cleaner I found that pretreating stubborn things with a good scrub of bio soap works better than just chucking them in any type of machine.

Anyway, perhaps I should trot on over the ethical living forum instead ... gone off at a bit of a tangent here ...

I think you realistically have to use more detergent in a top loader because it has to do all its business in 30 minutes, and then you are putting more under-used detergent down the drain. With a front loader, it gets to work on the clothes for two hours. The detergent does the work rather than electricity and water.