So today was a day long awaited for, a day dawning bright with enthusiasm and a vision of the wonderful life that would very soon be ours when the renovation was completed: It was the day that I went out to buy the new clothes washer and dryer, because Wagner told me that he would turn the laundry room over to us on Monday.
I had been doing a little bit of research about various washer/dryer models. We're buying new because our old set is 15 years old and on its last legs, especially the dryer, which requires fresh applications of duct tape on the door several times per drying cycle to keep the door from popping open and stopping the drying action. I am *very tired* of duct-taping my dryer closed.
I was leaning toward getting a front-loading washer system, because I liked what I read about their greater water- and energy-efficiency (yea! good for the environment!), their larger load capacities (yea! fewer loads to do!), and being more gentle on clothes (yea! clothes last longer!).
But mostly I wanted one because they came in all sorts of cool colors (turquoise, sea green, silver, cherry red) and were definitely sexier looking than our old Kenmore white box.
Because I was clever enough to know that Jonathan would not willingly shell out the extra money required for a typical front-loading washer (boo! mega-bucks!), just because I liked the color better, I marshalled the other arguments in favor of a front-loader. I then asked him when he wanted to go shopping for one. Jonathan hates shopping with a passion, so he visibly shuddered and told me he would trust me to pick it out on my own.
Heh heh.
"How much extra does a front-loader cost?", he asked. "Er... a couple of hundred, maybe. I don't know. But with the economy so bad I'm sure I can drive a hard bargain." He cast me a suspicious look but hauled out his wallet. And so, armed with a stack of $100 bills, I ventured forth to Pieratt's to see what they had.
At first all went easily. I explained to the salesman the features I was looking for. He showed me a deluxe Electrolux model that possessed an appropriately bright blue hue, not to mention a bunch of other fancy features. Then I looked at the price tag. $1299. Yikes. And that wasn't even counting the pedestal, which was another feature I was determined to have, as I had grown quite weary of bending way over to get my laundry out of the dryer. The pedestal would add another $249. The dryer and its pedestal would be another $1300 or so.
Gulp. My stack of $100 bills wasn't that big. Not to mention I also had to buy a refrigerator for the garage study at the same time.
So I asked the salesman to show me some less expensive units and settled on a Frigidaire set that went for about $800 each, plus pedestal, available in black, which while not as cool as blue or sea green was better than basic white. I was just about to bite the bullet when the salesman asked, "say, where is your dryer located right now? On the left or right?"
"On the left." In fact, when designing the laundry room, Wagner had asked me where I wanted to put the dryer. I said it didn't really matter, but since I was used to throwing the laundry into the dryer on the left, we might as well keep it that way. And so that's how he installed the hookups and dryer vent.
Well, THAT was a multi-hundred dollar mistake on my part. Turns out that it matters a great deal what side the dryer is on. The vast majority of front-loading washers and dryers are manufactured with their door hinges arranged such that the dryer needs to be on the right. Otherwise you have to carry your dripping wet laundry around two open appliance doors to get it transferred.
Oh man. I did NOT want to do that. It turns out that there are only a couple of models where the door hinges can be reversed, and at Pieratt's they only had one: The fancy Electrolux that cost the mega-bucks.
So I asked in a small voice what my other options were. I could go to a top-loading washer, and he showed me a few. But they were all ugly and white, and I really was hoping to reap the environmental benefits of a high-efficiency front-loader.
He then suggested that I could stick with the front-loading system, buy a cheaper pair, but then just switch their locations and stretch the various pipes and vent tubings criss-cross in the back. I didn't like this idea one bit, as it seemed to me that it would add at least two turns to the dryer vent hose, and I knew that bent/kinked dryer vent hoses cause massive problems. He assured me that it could be done as long as I didn't mind moving the unit out from the wall a few inches and had enough clearance.
I set him off to work up some prices and called Wagner. He was also dubious about the criss-crossing idea. He then started speculating about what would be involved in moving the plumbing and/or dryer vent location around, and I could tell right away it would be an expensive nightmare as it involved tearing into drywall and/or flooring. So I told him not to worry about it and that I would either get the expensive set with the reversible hinges or go for a top-loading unit after all.
At this point I was ready to dicker with the sales guy, who looked me in the eye and said that Electroluxes sold on fixed pricing and that they could not budge a penny on the sale. "Not even for the PEDESTAL?" I whimpered. "Nope, I couldn't even sell it to myself for any cheaper," he replied.
I was striking out left and right. I told the sales guy I wasn't ready to make a decision and made a quick visit to Lowe's. There the salesperson confirmed that only a few models allow you to reverse the hinges. They had the same Electrolux model as Pieratt's, at the same price, and he confirmed that they were not allowed to lower the price at all. Shucks.
But he also voiced the opinion that criss-crossing a cheaper set wouldn't be a good idea. He wasn't worried about the dryer vent so much, but he said that he would be concerned that the washer pump wouldn't be able to pump out the drain water efficiently over a longer distance.
So I went home, discouraged. I explained the problem to Jonathan, who said "how much would the reversible-hinge washer cost?"
"About $1200."
"For the pair?"
"Um... no. Just the washer." I wisely decided not to mention the pedestals for the time being.
A silence ensued, which I hurriedly broke by explaining about the good bargain I had at least been able to find on a refrigerator, a close-out floor model for about $500.
And now I've spent the last few hours scouring the web and trying, futilely, to discover whether it really is viable to criss-cross your placement of a washer and dryer, and reading a hundred or so passionately argued debates about front-loading vs. top-loading washers.
After slogging through all that, I'm still liking the front-loading units better. The data are pretty convincing that the extra upfront cost of the front-loaders are recouped after just a couple of years of lower water and electricity bills. I really like the idea of being a good environmental steward and not pumping so much detergent-contaminated waste-water into the ground. But I also don't want to have to worry about dryer lint accumulating in a kinked-up pipe and catching fire and burning my nice new addition down. So.... I guess I'll go for the Electrolux with the reversible hinges after all. They're in stock and can be delivered Monday. I'll finesse the Spousal Acceptance Factor by paying myself for whatever balance the stack of $100 bills can't cover.
And if I'm paying that much, I'll go ahead and pay the extra $$ to get them in blue. ;-)
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