Remember girls, color wash, 30-45C, towels, whites and bedding 60-90C …
Even the ‘laundrynets’ are using cold water machines, although front loaders, I only found one in Sanxia that has hot water front loaders … don’t know if it still operates …
Most people here take their important whites and clothes to a ‘professional’ laundry store … they use heavy duty detergents, but hey they even iron your white shirts …
[quote=“igorveni”]I know that most Taiwanese use cold water machines and they seem to be pretty happy with the result
and so I was hoping you guys could give some input as to what type of machine do you use and do you see any difference between the two.
I always thought you’d have to wash you clothes at a correct temperature, whites with whites etc…
So do most of you use cold water washing machines or hot one 45, 60, 90 degrees and do you see a difference.
The price is certainly different. 
[/quote]I have the Kenmore Elite washer and dryers and highly recommend them. Here’s my setup at home. These are the older H3 washer & dryer models. They can stack like mine or sit side by side. They’re awesome! Want clean clothes in Taiwan? Get a western washer and dryer setup! We bought them about 5 years ago from the Kenmore dealer listed below. The washer also has a water heating element built into the machine in order to keep the hot water temperature consistent. The washer and dryer were about $37,000 NTD each for a grand total of $74,000 for both and came with a one year warranty. This included transportation from Taipei to San-Zhi and installation. When we built our home we specifically had both hot water and cold water lines installed in the location we wanted the washer and also an exhaust outlet for the dryer. When the installation technicians brought them to our home, they already had the necessary threaded taps (just like in America) to install onto the pipes. It’s extremely hard to find the proper threaded taps even at places like BNQ, so I was relieved that they already had them and were prepared to install them when they arrived. No Mickey Mouse water connectors here! I actually had to buy threaded taps from Home Depot in America and brought them back with me so that all of my outside water taps, hoses, and lawn sprinklers could be outfitted with proper threaded screw on connectors instead of just having to buy stupid hose clamps. :loco:
Here’s the information where you can buy them in Taipei.
Sears Kenmore Taipei Showroom
展示中心：
地址：台北市116文山區萬隆街13巷16號
時間：星期一 ~ 星期五 9am~ 5:30pm
tel: (02) 2932-8886
fax: (02) 2933-3586
kenmore.com.tw
service@kenmore.com.tw
Store hours: Mon ~ Sat 9am to 5:30pm
The HE5 models are the newest Kenmore Elite Washers and Dryers
HE5 Washer specifications - U.S. webpage
The Kenmore shop on Xinyi road has closed mate…
Their new address seems to be No.16, Lane 13, Wanlong St, Wunshan District
I was going to buy a western washer/dryer combo but I can get all my clothes washed, ironed and folded with American washers at the local laundry. Once a week I just dump our laundry basket in the car on my way to work and drop them off at the laundry next to my office. They are ready to pick up the same day and the laobanniang splits the towels, baby clothes, whites etc. into separate washes.
Costs me about $180/week which is $8,640/year. So not including the running costs I would have to run a washer/dryer combo for nearly 9 years before I start to see any financial benefit. And the wife and I are pretty happy about never having to do any washing.
I hate laundry and I can’t think of any other way to spend $700/month that brings so much pleasure :discodance: Mmmm freshly ironed. 
So for NT180, she washes and iron your clothes? Waoo, that is pretty cheap.
Nope, it’s NT$60 and that’s about the going rate in Taiwan.
Nope, it’s NT$60 and that’s about the going rate in Taiwan.[/quote]
:s
Nope, it’s NT$60 and that’s about the going rate in Taiwan.[/quote]
Do you mind clarifying this? I really don’t think anyone will do your laundry and iron your clothes for 180NT or 60 NT?
Uhm, well about once a week I drop off a bunch of laundry then collect it washed, dried and ironed in return for $60 per load. She will fit everything into one load if possible but my wife prefers the baby clothes, towels and whites washed separately.
A few years back my washing machine was on the blink so I took some clothes there thinking it was a self service laundry. To my surprise the owner told me to come back in a few hours and everything was freshly washed, dried and ironed in neatly bagged piles. Oh, and she even pairs your socks for you :discodance: I never bothered buying a new machine and used her ever since.
People seem to like her service because she just bought her 4th house, a 110-ping apartment near her shop. Think I’m in the wrong business.
Igor -
In the states, for many years I used warm for permanent press, hot for whites and bed clothing and cold for all else.
I slowly changed to warn and cold…and then eventually settled on cold for about 95% of my laundry.
Here on Taiwan its all cold - all the time for wash temps.
An important factor, as far as I’ve discovered, is finding the right combination of washing powders, softeners and bleach to give you the results you want, i.e. white whites, colorful colors and stains removed.
Sometimes I have to get a brush and scrub with soap some stains before putting them in the machine…That’s just what has to be done.
Gads I sound like an old washer-woman…who I have a great respect for…but them’s the facts.
Cold it is…with appropriate precautions.
Oh, my current washer is in the NT$25-$28 range…It has Neuro Fuzzy Logic or so its says. When/If it conks out…I might upgrade to one of the snazzy fancy machines…maybe.
added:I hang the wash out in the sun.
[quote=“Incubus”][quote=“Lord Lucan”]
The best compromise here seems to be the old Whirlpool made-in-America top-loader that has a hot water input. [/quote]
So how does the hot water input work? Does the hot water come from a hot water tank or is it heated by the same water heater that heats your bathwater? Or do you use Rik’s low-tech approach? I know the European front-loaders heat the water internally by electricity, but that’s not how the Whirlpool works, right?[/quote]
There is a water inlet at the back which I connect to the gas boiler.
I need to find a laundrette for my shirts I think…
We got our General Electric washer and drier 2nd-hand on yahoo auction. $5,000 for the set. The drier was 3 months old (commercial model) but the washing machine is a bit older. My husband’s friend is a plumber and he set up the hot water to run from the hot water cylinder when we were building the house.
In New Zealand we almost always used cold water to wash, and it was important to have the right detergent (for cold water washes).
Anyway, Ilary’s laundry service appeals. One of my old roommates used to use a service like that down near Taida, and the only disadvantage for us was, he didn’t have enough clothes to last 7 days, so the last couple of days before laundry service could get a bit stinky. Do make sure you have enough underwear before commiting to laundry once a week.
I just received a LG direct drive front loader from a friend who is leaving… any advise on getting the most out of it? It washes and dries in the same unit and I think it makes more sense to just dry the clothe in a machine because let’s face it, line drying takes up a ton of space and that is one thing Taiwan is seriously short on, even if electricity is a little expensive.
I really hate the fact that a cycle on front loaders seems to take an eternity…
We’ve got a front loader that also dries. One problem with using the machine as a dryer is that it only dries half the load that it washes, if you see what I mean. So if you want to wash a full load then dry it, you have to remove half the clothes after washing, dry one half, reload the dryer with the other half and dry those. So it takes several hours to wash and dry a full load of washing. But tumble drying your clothes isn’t good for them and uses electricity unnecessarily, so I nearly always line dry and just finish them off in the dryer if the weather is too damp to dry things properly.
I just thought I would dry clothes since there’s a huge difference between the feel of line dried and dryer dried clothe… the line dried clothe feels stiff and abrasive. Also Taiwan is so damp most the time that unless it’s the middle of summer, clothes take forever to line dry. Line drying also uses up a ton of space, not to mention if you dry your clothe on the roof or whatever there’s always a chance of someone stealing them, or stuff like weather events ruining your clothe if you forget. I wear mostly cotton clothing so they don’t get affected so much by tumble drying but I do know perm press and others should be line dried.
