The Bosch Nexxt 700 Series: Finally, a Washer and Dryer We Love
When we moved into our new house last summer, we decided to leave our old stackable washer and dryer as well as our refrigerator with the house as a selling point. It worked. We sold the house to a single guy who then didn’t have to buy his own.
We, however, needed new ones. I did research online and knew I wanted a front-loading washer. We went to all the usual places – Best Buy, Lowes, Home Depot, a building supply store and a mom and pop appliance store. We looked at dozens of different washers and dryers and finally decided on the Bosch Nexxt 700 Series. Some of the others we looked at included the Neptune, Whirlpool Duet, Whirlpool and LG among others.
It seemed much better made than some of the others. Some of the doors seemed loose and like the hinges would break. The doors on the Bosch washer are much more substantial than many of the others we looked at. Now kids aren’t supposed to hang on them or swing on them but kids will do things even if you’re right there and we didn’t want something that would break easily. The salesman at one of the stores practically bounced up and down on this door and it didn’t move much at all.
The front loading Bosch washer uses over 75% less water than a standard top-loading washer and leaves the clothes much dryer, meaning the dryer does less work as well. The first night we ran the washer, we sat in the downstairs living room [we have a walkout basement with a living area and utility room downstairs] and waited. We heard the spin cycle started and went in to check it out through the window. We were not impressed and went back to whatever we were watching wondering if we had made a mistake. About 5 minutes later, we heard it spinning faster and went to check. This time we were very impressed. The laundry was spinning faster than we could have imagined.
The front loader uses either a different detergent [HE detergent] or significantly less of your regular detergent. My sister did a load once with a regular amount of ERA instead of about 1/3 of a cup and we had to wash it about 8 times to get all the suds out. HE detergent tends to be more expensive but your regular detergent will go probably three times farther than it does with your top loader.
The front loader is much more gentle on clothes. Clothes simply last longer because the washing process is much more gentle. In fact, it’s often more gentle than actual hand washing an item. You can’t add an item to the load once you start, but that’s one of the few drawbacks that I’ve found. The door locks when it starts a load, which we like. We have three small kids with one on the way and, even though they’re not supposed to, could easily try to open it when they really shouldn’t. This helps my peace of mind if nothing else.
The washer ‘self-sizes’. I no longer have to decide if this is a ‘medium load’ or a ‘large load’ or any other size. It bases the amount of water and length of cycle based on the weight etc. and automatically adjusts accordingly. The washer also has a delay setting so you can put your laundry and detergent in and delay starting it for up to a full day if you need to. I often put a load in before bed and it’s ready for the dryer when I wake up.
When you take the clothes out of the washer, they are practically dry. This significantly reduces the amount of work your dryer has to do.
That being said, we love the dryer that goes with this washer. It also automatically senses the size of the load so we don’t have to decide that either. There are several time settings, but I often use ‘more dry’. It automatically senses when the clothes are dry.
Our old washer and dryer were not top of the line by any stretch of the imagination. The washer was fairly small and the dryer took forever. No matter what we did to try to fix the problem, it would often take 3 hours or longer to dry a regular sized load of laundry. With the new washer and dryer, I can have about 3 loads of laundry done in that time. The washer takes about 45 minutes for most loads and the dryer is usually dry before the washer is finished. This, however, doesn’t mean that I have to make two trips downstairs. It has a wrinkle block built in. Every few minutes it will tumble for a minute or two to keep the clothes from sitting in one spot for too long and wrinkling.
The front-loading washers tend to be 30% or so more expensive than top-loaders but we felt it was worth it. The washer at Lowes is about $1200 and the dryer is about $900. I can’t tell you exactly what we paid because we got a deal. We took cash to the mom and pop appliance store I mentioned earlier, told them what we wanted and they gave us a deal. The refrigerator we purchased is $2000 at Sears, for a total price of about $4100 before taxes and delivery etc. At the mom and pop store, we paid $3000 with all of that included.
The washer is a Bosch 3.81 Cu. Ft. Nexxtâ�¢ 700 Series Front Load Washer (Color: White) ENERGY STAR�® Model: WFMC6401UC.
The dryer is a Bosch 6.7 Cu. Ft. Nexxt� 700 Series Electric Dryer (Color: White) Model: WTMC6321US
