Do any of the US pollsters know the future of Maytag commercial washers - now that the Newton Maytag plant has been shut, will they continue in production? The Neptune and Atlanta machines once marketed here for the domestic market (and a very up-market market at that - they retailed at the equivalent of over $2000 a shot) appear to have been discontinued - though the UK website still shows them. I wonder if they will be replaced with products from the new Whirl-tag line, or will they market machines from the commerical line for domestic use? Otherwise our Maytag choice in the UK is re-branded Askos...which it has to be said are very nice - just have a preference for TLs.

Have any UK readers experience of imported Fisher and Paykel machines - I really like the Aquasmart design and would consider importing one privately (I contacted F&P UK but they have no plans to market washers here), but wonder if I would come seriously unstuck if I needed repairs - anyone out there in the UK got a F&P washer?

I've seen the specification, I always wondered how American machines compared to European ones in terms of energy efficency and cleaning ability (measured with EU standars) and I was happy to see that front loading ones were just as good as the Old World's ones but I was shocked to see that top loading (American laundry line as they called it) got energy class F and cleaning class G... that's the worst possible! I can't believe my eyes!
You can see it in page 5 (42) of the catalog! I'm astonished!!!

so what are Maytag's EU dishwashers like?
Is there a website for them?

The Maytag dishwashers sold in the UK are rebadged Asko's.

Link to the British Maytag website:

The Atlanta was labelled at A for energy, G for efficiency, and C for spin drying, the Neptune B, A, B. While the G is the lowest possible, it is very important to remember that the EU labelling system isn't very straight-forward, and the distance between A and G is not particularly clear. US top-loaders get G efficiency ratings because they use so much water - A rated machines need to use about 10 ltires per kg or less. Both the Atlanta and Neptune machines spin at 1000rom, so I have no idea why they should have different spin ratings. I don't think the EU spin rating is particularly clear - it appears to relate to RPM rather than extraction, surely a precentage of water removed (expressed as that) would be much clearer, as drum size and cycle time influence the result as much as RPM?

Remember also that there is no EU rating for cycle time (what value do we put on that - US TL - 30 mins, EU FL - 2.5 hours...?), or for rinsing...

A while ago I posted a link in another thread regarding cleaning and efficiency comparisons of top and front loaders. The thread was in this section, posted by vivalavatrice and titled 'more water.'

As far as cleaning and rinsing performance goes, there really doesn't seem that much of a difference between both types of washers. The main agency that tests washing machines, here in Oz, rates cleaning/rinse performance in percentage points, on a one to one hundred scale. According to their tests, conducted in 2007 (between 7 front and 11 top loaders), both types of washers scored somewhere between 69 and 85 percent. None of the washing machines, including high-end front loaders, scored anywhere near the 90% mark. Variations in cleaning performance fell within a 16% range, which, in real terms, isn't all that much of a difference. In a final score, that averaged out both wash and rinse performance, it was the top loaders that actually scored highest.

It would likely be the small number of top loaders available for testing in the UK, that determines the narrow outcomes there.

Cheers

Rapunzel

The Neptune and the orbital transmission toploader are discontinued with the closing of the Newton plant last October. I haven't heard if WP will put the Maytag name and a coin slide on their DD toploaders. I have basically been ignoring them in this market.

The larger commercial machines are rebranded Primus. WP intends to keep this line with the Maytag name. Very shortly they will be offering softmount, high speed extract (300+ Gs) commercial washers. Maytag commercial dryers are rebranded ADC.

to David:
The labelling for spinning is for the quantity of water left in the clothes wet/dry weight so some machine spinning at 1400 rpm get "A" mark and some others not, same here but only with 1000 rpm.

About washing time: you're correct (tell me if I'm wrong) but who actually cares if the machine takes that long? Now nearly all the washers come with a timer and they can be set to finish at a given time. Plus almost everybody uses quick wash programmes for everyday stuff and those last well under an hour, some being as short as 20 minutes.

Regarding energy efficicency: the machine isn't rated at how much water it uses per wash, it could be using even 200 litres, the only thing that counts is the raw electricity the appliance employs to wash a load, as an example to get "A" class, it must use less than 0,19Kw per kg of washed laundry.

to Rapunzel:
can you show me that report please? I'm curious. Thank you.

It can be found right here in the 'Deluxe' forum. All you have to do is scroll down.

Cheers

Rapunzel

I am a generous and loving soul. Now all you have to do is click on the thread.

What more could you want?

Cheers

rapunzel

How lovely :) Thank you :D