HE Washer: Learning to Love Your High Efficiency Machine

Investing in a high efficiency or HE washer can help you look forward to long-term savings and a reduced carbon footprint. However, the transition from a traditional washing machine requires more than just plugging it into an outlet – some adjustments to your laundry habits are needed to ensure that you get the full benefits of your new appliance.  Otherwise, you might find yourself with dingy clothes, nasty smells, or an overly noisy appliance.

Don’t worry! It’s not as hard as it seems, and AppliancePartsPros.com is here to help you out. Keep reading, and learn how to love your new HE washing machine!

What Is An HE Washing Machine?

Investing in a HE washer is an ideal way to save money and energy while still getting your clothes clean. Not only do they use less water, but they also require less energy to complete each cycle. An added bonus is that your clothes will come out much drier at the end of the cycle, making it easier for them to dry more quickly – further reducing both electricity or gas usage for drying.

To get a better idea of just how an HE washer is different, let’s compare it to a traditional agitator model.

High Efficiency vs Traditional Washers

• HE washers forego an agitator and use a tumbling and spraying system to get your laundry clean. This is potentially easier on your clothing, reducing wear, tear, and stretching.

• HE washers are generally significantly larger than their traditional counterparts, and can hold more laundry as a result. Used correctly, you can wash larger laundry loads than you could in a traditional washer.

• Traditional washers fill their drums nearly to the top with water at the start of a wash cycle. HE washers use between 20% and 66% of that amount, filling halfway at most. This results in a fairly significant savings on your water bill.

• HE washers use much less energy than traditional washers – 20% to 50% less. You’ll likely notice those savings in your electrical bill!

• Most high efficiency models have extensive sensor systems that allow them to adapt the length of a cycle to account for soil levels, suds levels, and dampness. As a result, HE washers tend to take longer to finish a cycle, because they are spending time “thinking.”

• Because they use less water, HE washers need to be cleaned fairly regularly. Many feature a maintenance cycle, which can be run without laundry to clean the interior.

• The type and amount of detergent you use is very important for effectively using an HE washer. Next up, we’ll look into why that is, and set you up with some best practices.

HE Detergent Is Important! Here’s Why…

You’ve probably heard a lot about how using a high efficiency detergent with your HE washer is crucial, but do you know why? To put it simply, it has to do with water levels and suds.

HE detergents do their jobs in low water environments. Traditional detergents, on the other hand, are designed to work best in large volumes of water, like the amounts used in traditional washers. An HE washer, by contrast, likely will not fill up more than halfway — they use 44% to 80% less water than a traditional washer does. Traditional detergents won’t work as well in that little water, failing to clean clothes adequately. To get clothes clean, you’ll need an HE detergent.

Suds aren’t necessarily a good thing! Traditional detergents are usually high sudsing, meaning they produce a lot of bubbles. These bubbles don’t actually play a role in getting your clothes clean, and in HE washers, can actually cause a host of issues:

• Because they clean via tumbling action rather than agitator, HE washers will automatically produce more soap suds from detergent than a traditional washer will, which in mild cases can lead to soapy residue left behind, and in severe instances, cause soap suds to pour out of your appliance.

• If the washer detects an excessive amount of soap suds, it will adjust the cycle to accommodate, resulting in a longer wash time and more water and energy used to clean your clothes.

• Your washer may struggle to get the detergent out of your laundry, leaving itchy or sticky residue on clothes and linens.

• Clothes may come out of the washer looking dingier or even dirty, because the rinse cycle could not wash out the remaining soap suds.

• Soap suds left in the drum will make the washer run and drain less efficiently, necessitating more cleaning.

• Bacteria and mold can grow in soapy deposits left behind when too much detergent or the wrong type of detergent is used, leading to musty odors and mildew growth.

• Soap suds can potentially corrode internal parts, leading to expensive repairs.

With everything from pre-measured detergent pods to dry powdered detergent coming in affordable HE varieties these days, it just makes sense to swap to an HE option to maximize the efficiency and longevity of your HE washer. That isn’t all there is to know about HE detergent. Here are a few more tips.

When you’re buying, be sure to check the label!

You want an HE detergent, not an “HE Compatible” detergent. “HE Compatible” sometimes appears on the label of traditional detergents, which are still formulated to work in high volumes of water and produce a lot of suds. You don’t want to use these in your HE washer.

Use the recommended amount of detergent and laundry additives

The amount of detergent you’ll need to use depends on the size of the laundry load being washed and how soiled it is, rather than the amount of water being used. Consult the label for any detergents or additives, like bleach or fabric softener, you want to use before you add them to your washer. Generally, you’ll need less detergent for small loads or less dirty laundry. More detergent will be necessary for larger loads, more heavily soiled laundry, or if you have hard water.

Use pre-soaking products sparingly

Pre-soaking products are generally intended for use with standard washers and are not made for high efficiency models. Check with your appliance manual before you use pre-soakers, and use them sparingly.

Make sure to add detergents and additives correctly

Consult your appliance’s manual for instructions on where and when to add cleaning products to the washer.

• For some HE washers, you need to add the detergent into the bottom of the drum before you add anything else. For others, there are dispensers for each type of additive.

• Don’t combine wet and dry detergents in the same spot or dispenser, as this can cause clumping.

• If you use fabric softener, make sure you are adding it to the appropriate dispenser. Adding it to the wrong dispenser means it will get added to the wash at the wrong time.

• If you use a water softener, you’ll probably need less. Be sure to consult packaging instructions on this one!

Using Your HE Washer Efficiently

Knowing what type of detergent to use and how to use it should eliminate the most common issues users experience with HE washers, but we’ve still got a bit more advice to share with you before we’re done.

1. HE washers need a regular cleaning schedule

Because they use less water, HE washers aren’t quite as adept at draining out soap scum at the end of a cycle. That build up can reduce efficiency, cause drain clogs, leave your clothes dirty, or lead to bacterial blooms and foul smells. To remedy this, your washer’s tub will need to be cleaned regularly – some manufacturers recommend doing this once a week, and most suggest, at minimum, cleaning your HE washer monthly.

Luckily, you shouldn’t have to do much scrubbing. Make a habit of wiping out the tub of your washer after you’ve moved the laundry to the dryer to prevent build up. For bigger weekly or monthly cleanings, most HE washers come with a maintenance cycle that will handle the bulk of the cleaning for you. Is your washer missing the maintenance cycle? Check out our guide to deep cleaning your washing machine.

2. Three simple steps will ensure your washer dries out properly after a cycle

One of our biggest complaints about HE washers is how quickly they start to smell bad. This is typically caused by a mildew or bacterial bloom that happens when water and soap scum are left behind after a wash. To prevent this, you want to make sure your washer dries properly.

After a cycle has ended, promptly move the clothes to the dryer or a drying rack, wipe the drum out, and leave the door or lid open so that the interior can air dry. These steps are especially important for front-loading washers, which are more prone to becoming smelly. You’ll want to pay special attention to the door gasket on these models. It easily traps water and soap scum, which creates a breeding ground for the sorts of things that make those mildewy smells.

3. You still need to sort your laundry

Clothes should be sorted by fabric type and soil level to ensure all of your laundry is cleaned adequately. This also helps to prevent items tangling up together, a common problem in HE washers.

Dye leaching and color transfer are still potential concerns in HE washers, too, but sorting by color doesn’t really need to be more complicated than separating your deep colors from your lights/whites.

If you want more sorting tips, have a look at our complete guide to laundry day!

4. How you load your washer matters

When loading your HE washer, if it’s top-loading, be sure laundry is evenly dispersed around the wash plate, pushed to the sides. Don’t let it all pile up in the center. This will help to keep the washer from going off balance while it’s running, help to prevent clothes from tangling up, and should also ensure that detergent permeates all clothes.

5. HE washers don’t sound the same as traditional washers

If you’ve been using traditional washers your entire life, the sounds they make become pretty iconic. HE washers will sound a bit different, and many of those new or odd noises are completely normal:

• The spin cycle will likely be louder, because HE washing machines generally spin a lot faster than standard models. Other cycles shouldn’t be too loud, though.

• You may also notice more starts and stops during a cycle. That’s likely the washer’s onboard computer reading sensors and adjusting the cycle.

• If you hear a sloshing noise when the empty drum moves, that’s the balance ring. It’s a fluid-filled plastic ring attached to the top of the tub that helps to keep your washer from going off balance by off-setting weight. It’s supposed to sound like that!

Other than that, HE washers share many of the same warning sounds as traditional washers. Clunking, screeching, grinding, and banging are all signs that something is off. Whether that’s just an off-balance laundry load or a malfunctioning part will require a bit more investigation.

If you’re concerned about odd sounds coming from your washer, whether it’s high efficiency or a standard model, we can probably help you out! We have a number of troubleshooting guides on our blog to help you out.

Wrapping Up

A few simple changes to how you do your laundry can help to make that high efficiency washer live up to its name. We hope this guide has pointed you in the right direction. If you have any questions not answered in this tutorial, why not check out our YouTube channel or get in touch with one of our helpful experts through our main site? Whether you need tips, tutorials, or genuine replacement parts, AppliancePartsPros.com is always on your side.