Product Review: GE Profile Washer and Dryer

I've been meaning to write this review for a while so what better time that NaBloWriMo, and let me state what will soon be obvious- I bought the product in question at full price. GE has not offered me anything to review their product, and they wouldn't because I absolutely DETEST my washer and dryer. I have the large capacity top loading washer and dryer purchased from Lowe's a few years ago. (Scroll down to the third picture here to see them; I have the same champagne color.)

First of all- why I bought them. I went to Lowe's and chose the largest capacity top loader and matching dryer that I could find. (If I'd had a chance to run a load through them I would NEVER have purchased them, but you don't get to do that in the showroom.) I was looking for large capacity because, with 5 of us, we generate a lot of laundry around my house. I wanted a top loader because of The Youngest, aka The Wild Child. I could just see him pulling open a washing machine full of water and flooding us, or trying to climb in during a game of hide and seek and getting stuck if the door closed on him and sealed shut. The stuff of nightmares. (That still bothers me about the dryer.) It wasn't an unwarranted worry- he's crawled up on the washer and gotten inside. He was old enough that he was able to just stand up and get out, though, so it wasn't a big deal. All of the other large capacity machines at Lowe's were front loaders.

So I get them delivered and get to start using them. The FIRST thing that bothers me is the water will not run with the lid open. I hate that because I can't rinse my detergent cup in the running water and dump the last little bit back in the washing machine, like I was used to doing with my old washer. The second thing I notice is the machine doesn't use a lot of water, which, ecologically speaking, is a good thing. Most of the time it isn't a problem, but every now and then, especially with kids, you get a load that's really dirty and full of chunks of food or yuck or what have you, and you can't make it use extra water, therefore you can't get the chunks out and you don't get a clean load of clothes. I've had to wash loads 2 and 3 times with extra soak and rinse cycles to come close to getting them clean, which doesn't save water at all in the long run. Next, the washer takes FOREVER. They brag, in the instruction manual, that the washer and dryer take about the same amount of time to run through a cycle, thus preventing back ups in the laundry room. HA! That's because they both take FOREVER. It takes an hour or more to wash a load. There is a “quick cycle” that saves a little bit of time; I don’t use it often since I’ve just resigned myself to the hour it takes. Then there’s the spin problem. I’ve had a few times when I’ve washed bedding and the spin cycle doesn’t get the water out. I want to just spin it again but you CAN’T. There isn’t a selection for spin only. Drives me crazy. It’s just too automated. Oh, and the buttons are hard to press, especially for someone with arthritis. You really have to push them to make them activate, and you have to push them about a zillion times to get everything set if you don’t use the same settings every time.

As for the dryer, it’s OK, but the top is slopped so you can’t really put anything on it. If you put things on it anyway, like resting a laundry basket on it while you load the washer, it scratches easily. You can just about breathe on either of them and scratch the finish. The dryer is also supposed to have some fancy detection system to know when the clothes are dry. Doesn’t work. My clothes are damp after the dryer shuts off ALL the time; it is really annoying, since it is a pain in the neck (actually the pain is more in my fingers) to get it to just dry for a few more minutes. Those buttons again; they are as much of a pain as the washer buttons.

As for positives, there is a button you can use to make a personalized setting on the washer, which I like, so that’s one thing. They really are large capacity, which is the reason I bought them. They hold a ton of clothes. They are very fancy and look pretty in my laundry room. (I’d prefer utility over looks, though.) The washer has a clear top so you can see it working, which is cool. The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, loves to grab a step stool and watch the clothes wash every now and then.

In conclusion, I’ve learned that you need to test run a washer and dryer before you buy them, although how you can go about doing that I have no idea. But don’t get a GE Profile washer or dryer; you’ll regret it.