Or is that "affordable steal"?

{photo from Yale Appliance blog}

Our new washer and dryer are by Frigidaire (not this, but similar).

After consulting my appliance guru and blogging buddy Steve @ Yale Appliance… he assured me this was the most bang for my buck. I wish I could have purchaed them from him. I can't imagine what the delivery would have been like to get those bad boys from Boston to Florida.

So we went to Lowe's, put them in the back of the truck, and we installed them ourselves the very same night.

My husband (an engineer) thoroughly inspected these… meanwhile I was just making sure they had all the settings I might want and making sure the "color was right".  This is the husband's train of thought: "Good strong door hinges? Check. Stainless steel drum? Check. Similar components (on the back and inside of the unit) as other higher-end models? Check. The specs similar to higher end models? Check.

Ours are black… which I was a little concerned about (dryer lint is white… you know?), but the price was really great, and afterall they will be behind closed doors. We purchased them both for less than $1200 – the washer was $518.20 (cheaper than the dryer oddly enough) and the dryer was $598.00.  I wouldn't divulge prices like this (it's not lady-like)… but if you are in the market (like I have been for the last few months)… I know you would want to know the prices.  I shopped around… majorly.  If my husband had to talk to me one more time about the washer and dryer I thought he might pack up and move out, so we finally took the plunge.

I thought I wanted LG, Steve (and my pocketbook- couldn't have even bought the washer for what I paid for both of the Frigidaire units) discouraged it.  A few friends have the LGs and love them, I hope I don't jinx anything for them. Reviews are mixed.  I liked their "adaptable controls" (meaning the dryer (when stacked) can be controlled from the bottom – closer to eye level) since I'm a shorty and I knew mine would be stacked. 

Anyway, we got our new w/d set up and washed our first load – bought the HE detergent and the whole bit, and sat in front of the washer on the floor (like a couple of school age kids glued to the glass at an aquarium or something)… we could not believe our eyes when the water stopped… "is that all the water it's going to use?" "no way they'll be clean!" "do you think its malfunctioning already?"… you should have seen us… we were able to laugh at ourselves when the clothes were done washing…

The clothes were super clean… the capacity is perfect, and they are WAY more quiet than our old top-loaders.

I guess the bottom line is: do your homework.  Ask around.  My twin has the Frigidaire front loaders too… she washes for a family of 4, and has had them for over a year and LOVES them. This helped my decision.

This distracted my decision: friend Taylor bought the Whirlpool Duet Sports… which is what I usually specify for my clients (the regular Duets and the Sports (for smaller locations (closets, extra laundry room)). Read Taylor's review here. I love the Duet… but it wasn't in our price range.

Carl Grooms a strawberry farmer from here in Florida, featured on Sub-Zero’s website.

A few months ago when doing some research on Sub Zero I came across a very interesting article from The New York Times titled "Where We Live: My Sub-Zero is Bigger Than Your Sub-Zero".  The article was featured in March of 2005 but just as well could have been printed today.  It is a great article on kitchen design and the more interesting topic of "kitchen envy".  

Above: More Organic Growers featured on Sub-Zero’s website: top Anne Topham, middle- Brett Bishop, bottom- Diana Murphy.

I see it all the time… people with thousands of dollars of appliances that they don’t know how to use.  It doesn’t bother me too much… but I can imagine if I was one of these Organic Growers (pictured above) I’d sure love to have a Sub Zero to keep the fruits of my labor fresh for my personal use.  Don’t you wonder if Sub-Zero gave them an appliance of their choice as payment for the access?  Hmmm.  Appliances have really become status symbols.  There is no doubt that having a Sub-Zero inside your home is like having a Mercedes in your driveway… and the two usually go hand-in-hand.