Ev's Answers: LG 1st Impressions

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

LG 1st Impressions

My wife loves to do laundry. It is her stress relief. When we got married she told me to skip the big expensive wedding ring and get her a really good washer. I thought she was kidding at first, however when she told me her story about WHY she likes to do laundry then it made sense. When we got our house we went washer shopping and she picked an LG with all the bells and whistles. At the time the LG was on the higher end of the price scale but not terribly so.
She does multiple loads of laundry almost everyday.
15 years and 12,000+ wash cycles ("turns" in laundromat language) and it is still going!

It was with this expectation of quality that I looked forward to LG coming out with their commercial line of small chassis washers. They have been working on this line for several years and some versions have been out in the market for the last couple of years. Two laundromats I know of at this writing have them in their stores and both owners told me they have no problems with them. I also have several hotel owners and general managers that have them for guest laundry and say they are good as well.
With a crowded market of small chassis washers from Maytag, Huebsch, Speed Queen, Wascomat, and others out there I'm curious to see how the LG will fare.
So far I have been cautiously impressed. Recently an LG rep came out to the WASH Commercial Laundry branch I work at to show us the latest model. Here are some pictures and my random thoughts. I encourage all of you to take a look at these machines and compare to other brands. They are not going to be correct for all situations, but they are are worth looking at.

I like the square design. It makes the washer look bigger.
The door window is large and clear. The plastic around the door has a chrome finish to make it look like metal. I'm curious to see how long that lasts with carts and kids and crates of laundry banging into it.
If it stays shiny and plastic or paint doesn't flake off that is a huge plus making them look more like their stainless steel large chassis cousins in the minds of the customers.

The door latch looks more like an Alliance design while the door strike is different than other brands and looks like the two pieces hook onto each rather than a post system.

Smaller baffles in the tub than other brands.

Tub is 3.5 cu/ft so it is a little bigger than Speed Queen, Huebsch, and Maytag and the same size as the Wascomat. There is another version called the LG Titan that has a 5.0 cu/ft tub.

The tub is also tilted down on an angle like the Maytag Neptune (MAH21) which is a feature I've come to find out a lot of people liked.

The control panel is a little wordy to me.

Bigger buttons and less writing would be better in my opinion.

Two features I love are the soap compartment is on top of the machine just like a Maytag Neptune or a large chassis machine. No drawers to break! No soap to drip on the floor! How many times have I had customers tell me that a machine is leaking water only to find out it is because they left the drawer open when the water is running!

LG is also the only brand I know that uses WORDS to tell the customer where the soap and softener goes. No confusing pictures or diagrams! I know you can't have every language printed on the covers but maybe LG can come up with a customizable option that you can have the option to have other languages on the cover when you order the machines?

Need to clean the soap compartment? The trays come out for easy cleaning!

The top panel is not hinged and comes all the way off. Easy access to all the components above.

Need to drain the tub but don't have a bucket? You can use the drain hose.

Drain screen has too many small holes and the posts to me seem like they will trap stuff in it.

Unit is light enough that two guys can lift it!

If you use chemical injecting or ozone the ports are already built in no need to drill holes in the body panels. Plus clearly labeled hot and cold hook ups.