Front-loading Washers Rule the Energy-Efficiency Race, But Affordable Top-loaders are Regaining Lost GroundClothes Call

Whirlpool's front-loading washing machines and dryers have so many bells and whistles that the manufacturer sends an information-packed DVD home with everyone who buys one.

"For someone who might have been out of the market for the past decade, they wouldn't even believe some of the things salespeople will tell them about washers and dryers," says spokeswoman Audrey Reed-Granger. "[Buyers] will say, 'You're pulling my leg.'"

Among Whirlpool's laundry list of luxuries: dryers that can detect how much moisture is in wet clothes and will stop whenever the fabric is dry, and a refresh cycle that can draw out wrinkles and odors from smoke, food, and perfume from dry-cleanable clothes.

Whirlpool's not alone. Nearly every washer and dryer manufacturer offers models that boast endless user-friendly and Mother Nature-approved features. Fisher & Paykel, for example, sells washing machines with up to 19 "lifestyle" cycles, ranging from a "blood stain" cycle to a "soft toy" cycle that determine how hot the water should be and how fast they should spin the clothes.

But the latest whiz-bang washday wonder might be something far more familiar. The top-loading washing machine, it seems, is making a comeback.

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All but washed up by the increasingly popular, energy-efficient front-loading machine—which manufacturers are making in bold colors suitable for showing off in new, main-level laundry rooms—the water-guzzling top-loader in the past few years had taken its place among the ordinary and outdated. Some even predicted its eventual demise as government regulators imposed ever-stricter water- and energy-use limits on washing machines.

That pity party was short-lived. Most manufacturers learned from polling their customers that 70 percent prefer top-loading washing machines either because that's what they're used to or because they don't like bending over to stuff their clothes into a front-loader.

"Occasionally I'll have an older customer who will complain [about bending over]," says Penny Murray, owner of Penny Lane Home Builders in Bozeman, Mont., who always recommends front-loaders to her custom home clients. She pushes matching pedestals, which raise both the washer and dryer to a more comfortable height for loading. "They're not thrilled about it, but they buy them."