After more than 10 years of loyal service – it didn’t break down even once – our washing machine went to laundry heaven today. For the past six months it was becoming ever more noisier during the spin dry cycle, a clear indication that the bearings were near the end of their lives. Today it suddenly threw out most of its water, so this marks ‘the end of the road’ for our loyal Indesit.

So now we’re looking for a new one. Of course, it’ll have to be an energy efficient one, I wouldn’t want to buy a washing machine which uses more energy than the old one. After having spent about an hour on the internet it became clear that it’s not easy to compare the energy consumption of washing machines. Most machines have a energy label, but that’s not very useful to me. Apparently at some point in time the A-label was not good enough any more, because you can now buy A+, A++, A+++ and even A++++ washing machines, but what these labels mean in terms of kiloWatt hours and litres of water seems to be a closely guarded secret.

Sometimes I could find a value for the amount of energy and/or water used for a washing cycle, but because I haven’t been able to find  a single case where the type of washing cycle was specified (short/long, temperature) this information is quite useless. My Plugwise measurements show that for a short cycle on 40 degrees C our current washing machine used, on average, 0,65 kWh. (It varies  between 0,34 en 0,72 kWh throughout the seasons, because the tap water temperature varies.) Anyway, I can’t seem to find a user-friendly overview of washing machines where I can sort on the following properties:

• At least as efficient as our current washing machine, preferably more efficient. 0,65kWh for a short 40-degrees washing cycle.
• Good washing quality. It would make no sense to buy an efficient washing machine if some pieces of clothing would have to be washed again.
• Low water consumption. I don’t know the water consumption of our current machine, but obviously, lower is better.
• Price € 300 – 500. Lower is better but I would be willing to pay more for a low energy/water consumption, good quality and service.
• Spin dryer 1400 rpm

To the readers of this website: would some one happen to know of a washing machine which match these specifications?

Oh, and I am not interested in a hot-fill washing machine. We have no solar hot water system and that means a hot-fill washing machine would only raise our natural gas consumption. That would not be so bad if we didn’t have solar panels, but because they generate a yearly surplus it’s financially unattractive to increase that surplus while at the same time increasing our natural gas consumption. I’m specifically looking for a conventional – but efficient – washing machine.

[Update May 31st]

I ordered a Whirlpool Nevada 1600 today. It’s efficient and should do a good job of cleaning the laundry – for a good price. I would like to thank everybody for thinking with me, it was very useful and I learned a lot.